23andMe DNA Test Results Are Here!!

[SmrtLilCookie]

That’s so cool you got your results! I did a test about a year ago as well. I won’t go into specifics, but I thought my own results were really fascinating.

1) I’m mixed race, and both halves of my family are — as far as we know — fairly genetically homogenous. That is, there hasn’t been a lot of immigration/emigration for many generations (my parents are both first-generation immigrants). When I took the test, it came back almost exactly 50/50 for each region my parents are from. Like, weirdly exact!! So know at least my parents are sure I’m their kid lol...

2) I did a pretty thorough genealogy investigation into one side of my family before I got my 23andMe results, and decided to compare my two datasets. Not only did the DNA test correctly identify my heritage broadly, but it also narrowed down which exact regions of my parent’s home country the ancestral DNA may have come from. And this all lined up with what I found prior through independent research.

I know DNA has it’s limitations and everything must be taken with a block of salt (I did my entire university degree in biology and studied avian genetics), but these results were wicked interesting

 

[toadsworthy]

It is probably too last to post this, but I'll say it anyways. The cold hard truth is, you cannot know your ancestry based on these tests. Even though these tests might appear to be very accurate, you cannot trust a lot of them, specially when you're not of predominant European descent.

When your parent's DNA combine to create your genetic material, only certain aspects of each parent are represented in your DNA, so a lot of your parent's DNA is discarded when your own combination of DNA is created. What this means is that DNA tests don't represent all of your ancestry, only the part that you inherited. This is why, for example, when siblings take these tests they get different results, even though they should get the same because they have the same ancestors. So yeah, these tests are not that trustworthy.

I have also heard of people getting different results, different percentages from the same company... so don't get me wrong, I still cast a major side eye at 23andMe and lots of direct to consumer genetic tests. This reputation as I said in an earlier post gives the reputable genetic testing I facilitate a bad reputation...

For your second paragraph you are like semi-right. You have 46 chromsomes, 23 pairs - 23 from mom and 23 from dad. So you and your siblings have the same SOURCE of DNA technically. However you may get your mom's first Chromosome #1 and then you sibling gets your mom's second Chromosome #1. That then runs down the line of all 23 pairs, as well as in your autosomes (chromosome pairs 1-22) maybe you got your Chromosome from your mom when your sibling got theirs from your dad. Add on top of this you can get recombination of a parent's chromosome to inherit a sort of "hybrid" chromsome thats made up of pieces of both of your dad's (or mom's) chromosomes. Thats why you could get different results amongst siblings.

What 23andMe does is look at your whole genome and look at the novel changes across it. Think of this as little flags across all your DNA. They then compare your pattern of flags to what we expect of people of German descent, or Nigerian descent, or Japanese descent. They take your percentage of these flags and then spit out 20% German, 40% Nigerian, and 40% Japanese or etc. just on a bigger scale.

Again, I went to school for genetic counseling, so I learned all about genetics and talk about it on a daily basis!

 

[Lavamaize]

As much as I would love to do this someday, I just don't necessarily feel comfortable/trust a private company to have my DNA. Even though you sign a waiver/contract saying they won't sell/do anything with your DNA, does not necessarily mean they won't. Sometimes when money/greed/or being desperate gets into the way, people will do things they normally wont. In addition its not like they would tell you anyway in the contract if at some point they decide to use it in unethical, immoral or bad ways. In the end as long as the person or government does not find out the company is not going to get in trouble.

I know this is pure speculation with no facts behind it, but in my opinion there is always the possibility something could happen.

 

[sarosephie]

Not my story but a friend's.
my friend is swedish and when I say swedish she is a hundred percent blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin.
She goes into the website and sends a sample of her DNA stuff.
a couple weeks later she actually gets her test back and it turns out she's 100% Congolese.
She looks like her parents and says "I got a wrong test or you have some explaining to do."
It turns out she got sent the wrong DNA test. So basically they said to return it. She gets hers back and turns out she's 100% Nordic.

 

[Lavamaize]

I wanted to link this article because it helps picture some of the concerns/speculations I have above.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/16/5-biggest-risks-of-sharing-dna-with-consumer-genetic-testing-companies.html

 

[Neb]

I took a test several months ago and got this:

The 0.1% not shown in this picture is Anatolian (which is western Turkey now). While the testing methods are far from perfect, these results are pretty accurate. The majority of my ancestors were German and Swiss immigrants who moved to Pennsylvania from 1840-1868. Unfortunately I can’t say much about the UK section since I’m not in contact with anyone on that side of my family. Maybe someday I’ll find out.

 

[frogslime]

Ooh, genetic tests are so fun! I did an Ancestry one, and these were my results:

Tbh I really was surprised to see Senegal on there! It is a very small amount, though, so it could be off. I checked and it seems to come from my Mom's side (also 1%). On a side note, I got a lot of her genes.

 

[Uffe]

I think it would be cool to do one of these things. Going off my family tree, I'm Belgian, German, Irish, and French.

 

[KrazyKarp]

I keep meaning to do this, I have the test I just gotta do it! Maybe soon.

 

[ting1984]

23andMe and AncestryDNA are both quite accurate from my experience; I've done both, and have had multiple family members take them. No issues. Results from both sites line up well with paper trail. I'm about 40-45% German (maternal) and 40-45% English (paternal) ancestry, along with 5-10% Scandinavian (primarily Norwegian, again with paper trail on Mother's side). Slight traces of Irish/Eastern/Southern European make up the rest of the percentages.