Ancestry DNA

[Firefly]

Has any member of PL had their DNA analysed by Ancestry?

Mine is in the last stages of analysis, and I'm interested to see the results. If you have had yours done, were you surprised by the results?

Jackie

[WHL]

My wife had it done, only surprise was it showed her having a bit of French blood, the other surprise is she has had unknown cousins contacting her

[Dominic]

How? I would have assumed that the results were private.

[Firefly]

Dominic

You can elect to have your DNA attached to you, on your family tree, on Ancestry if you wish.

Still waiting for my results.

[WHL]

How? I would have assumed that the results were private.

They ask you for your permission if you would like people you are related to, if its OK for them to contact you.
You can agree or refuse

[DavidatLWH]

How? I would have assumed that the results were private.

Watch episode 1 of "After the Flood"!

[wantoosoon]

There's the issue of these companies handing over your genetic information to law enforcement agencies and other third parties around the world without your permission. You might not mind, but your relatives (including distant ones that you don't even know exist) may. Even if you're happy with the current privacy standards of the service, these companies are mostly American and the law there may change.

Also, the information provided isn't necessarily meaningful. It just indicates a relationship to other modern-day populations that have taken the test. It doesn't tell you where your ancestors came from or anything about your race, which isn't a scientifically meaningful concept anyway. So if it shows a link to France, it could be a population of British people living in France, or another group that's recently migrated. You're far more likely to get hits from places where people take a lot of tests. If the genetic-testing service isn't available in a place, you won't get any hits from there.

Personally, I would never willingly give my genetic information to anyone. It's going to become more and more important in fields like insurance, medical diagnosis and treatment, and law enforcement, so sharing it could have unforeseen consequences down the line, both for you and your relatives.

[Firefly]

Interesting, personally, at my age, I don't really care about finding long lost relatives, if they find me, so be it.

DNA can help with health conditions, which may well be terminal if not diagnosed early, so markers in the DNA, can help in that respect, breast cancer for example.

The other thing is 'law enforcement', just how can DNA point to problems there?

Whether we like it or not, DNA is here to stay, and I expect in the not too distant future, all babies will have their DNA profile done at birth.

[WHL]

My opinion every baby born and every person living in the UK or here should have their DNA on record, think how this could help fight crime, missing people etc etc , you might say this sounds like Big brother, but already they have face recognition cameras, they can listen in when you use your phone, etc etc etc

[Firefly]

WHL

Not often, (very rarely) do we agree, but here we do.

Not only those born here, but a stipulation of being granted residency of the UK also.

[Devil]

Was it Harry Belafonte who sang a song about "my father is my father but my father don't know"? What you are suggesting is that your father would know! I could foresee all sorts of trouble if it became generalised. You could hear the crackling of broken marriages.

[Chaddy]

Has anyone got a claim to fame of their ancestry.My four times great uncle was non other than Captain Matthew Web.He was the first man to swim the English channel.Anyone old enough to remember Captain Web boxes of matches

[Firefly]

Devil, commit the crime, do the time! A lesson in there somewhere.

Chaddy

Yes I remember the matches.

[Firefly]

So the results are in,

73% England Northwest
23% Scottish
4% Welsh

Nothing unexpected there, except for 'Additional Communities were Delaware and Chesapeake Bay Settlers' was. Then seeing all the people who share some of your DNA is amazing.