Half Price DNA tests at Ancestry

[JBee]

With August's Your Family Tree Magazine.

DNA testing has been discussed on our General Discussion forum

[geniedi]

I saw this today too. I would like to be tested, unfortunately even at half price I couldn't do it for now.

[JBee]

There was a thread on the General Discussion forum recently about whether it was a good idea or not.

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thanks JBee

I am becoming more and confused about DNA testing, the more I read about it :( -

For example, if someone knew who his/her own father was, but didn't know who the father's parents were, would there be much point in having the father tested ?

And would it be ethical to have him tested without his knowledge?

Sorry if these issues have been raised before - I am still confused! :o

[Olde Crone Holden]

Muggins

No to both questions!

No point in having a paternity type DNA test unless you have a "suspect" to also test. You would need two living sons of the possible grandfather, which MIGHT tell you if they likely had the same father and could definitely tell you that they didn't.

No, you cannot test someone without their knowledge and consent - this is techinically assault (in England). You would have to forge the consent papers.

OC

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thanks OC - I think that's what I suspected - but asked the question because I wondered what the test could show about the person's ethnicity - there are possibilities that the person I was thinking about might have Carribean or Turkish/Armenian parents.

But as he would never consent to a test, it's all academic.

Thank you

[Olde Crone Holden]

I don't think Ancestry do geographical DNA testing (deep ancestry, this type of test is called) but even if it did, a geographical test will only tell you where your relatives originated, more than 17,000 years ago, which won't be much help to you, lol!

(Oh, they can narrow it down to the last ten generations sometimes, but still not much use)

OC

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thanks OC - so it's back to the drawing board again then! :D

[JBee]

If you could get the dna of a male sibling of the deemed father it could be compared with a male offspring to determine paternity.

It wouldn't work with a female sibling or with a female offspring - well that's what we were told recently.

[Olde Crone Holden]

JBee

No, you really need to test two generations, that is:

The putative father
His (accepted) son - to prove that they are indeed father and son.

Then the man who is trying to determine if the putative father is really his father, who can be tested against either of the first two males.

If you just test the two "sons" and they have different fathers, how do you know who has the correct father?

If they have the same father, how do you know he is the first man?

OC

[JBee]

OCH will pm you