DNA testing?!

[polly88]

Not sure where to post this. Does anyone know anything about DNA testing for genealogy purposes? After listening to the Today programme this morning, it seems very tempting!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Unless you have money to burn, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole!

What are you hoping to find out by DNA testing and how will that further your family history research?

OC

[Heather Positive Thinker]

ancestry offer it at a discount.

[polly88]

James Naughtie on Today found when his ancestors moved to his bit of Scotland. I was hoping that it could pinpoint where my lot come from in Ireland! Maybe I am being unrealistic. It did sound interesting though.

[polly88]

Heather - I saw it on Ancestry, and it says it links you to cousins on Ancestry who have also had it done. Still seems expensive though.

[Olde Crone Holden]

The WHICH magazine did a report on genealogical DNA testing and concluded that it was about as accurate as the daily astrology readings in a newspaper!

Unfortunately, the major testing companies do not always agree on the geography of their findings and you will get a different result depending on which company you use.

My own mt-DNA is Scottish and according to one site, this particular and distinctive mt-DNA is found only in a remote fishing village in Iceland, from whence it went to Scotland (presumably on a fishing boat, lol) "some time in the last 1800 years". Well gosh, isn't THAT a helpful thing to know!

OC

[grumpy]

OC,
And no doubt you will be access the BDM's for that period. I agree it is a fanciful waste of time and particularly money, also of course you have to have
the cooperation of 3rd parties to be able to tie in anything.

[kylejustin]

i think if u wanted to do it go with the national geographic ones, the genome project? they tell you deeper knowledge of the dna, ie when it came from africa, where it is most common etc

[Olde Crone Holden]

kylejustin

But how does it help your family history research to know that your deep ancestry is out of Africa?! As Africa is (currently) considered the cradle of the world, then we ALL came out of Africa anyway! The major testing companies cannot agree on where certain genes "originated", which to my mind, shows up a huge flaw in the reasoning to start with. Remember, these companies can only work with what they've got and so far they haven't got a lot, just a relatively few random samples from here and there, which may not be any reflection of who was there ten thousand years ago.

OC

[kylejustin]

i think your correct there oc, but the ng i think, has actual samples from ancient dna. i think its more where the haplogroup comes into it. those are usually quite accurate in where currently people who match that haplotype are form. the idea i think is to find people with the same or similar results and compare the written historical records for a link.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I hope this link works:

http://www.which.co.uk/about-which/press/press-releases/product-press-releases/which-computing-magazine/2008/06/genetically-defective-testing/

OC

[Anne in Carlisle]

Just a word in favour of one particualr type of DNA testing. The male y-choromosome test for a one name study.

Our One name society has had about 25 results from people who have had a test with AT LEAST 37 markers (any less is useless). We have found our surname grouped, as we would expect on genealogical research already done, into particualr areas .... hardly any point in doing the test one might say. However the results have also shown three members that they are connected to a group, although in a way not yet found by paper research ... in these cases they were at a 18C brick wall and now they can look more closely at the area indicated for migration of their ancestors.

In another group the DNA test showed that they did NOT belong to the surname but did match each other. The DNA result caused us to look much more closely at the parish records and find a number of illegitimate births with a named putative father. Further research has found this father's will where he names all the children!!! RESULT!

Anne

[Olde Crone Holden]

Anne

Yes, I agree with what you say, but that is a specific example of DNA testing being used intelligently and within the bounds of what it definitely CAN prove or disprove, rather than some woffly rubbish about yoiur ancestors coming from Peru 20,000 years ago.

I have seen similar one name studies. The DNA testing is bolstering the paper trail already laid down and ironing out a few wrinkles and uncertainties. It isn't making grandiose claims that your ancestors cam from Ulan Bator 10,000 years ago! (And even if they did, that's only ONE ancestor....what about the hundreds of thousands of other ancestors you have who are equally important to your genetic makeup).

OC

[Anne in Carlisle]

Totally agree, OC. What's the point of looking 10,000 years ago when you can't get back past 1800!!

Anne

[Olde Crone Holden]

kylejustin

I've looked at the National Geographic test site and it makes me a little uneasy.

It appears to have a genuine scientific research purpose. In that case, why are volunteers being asked to PAY to hand over information which will benefit the testers far more than it can ever benefit the donors.

Also, I don't understand how I can "give an anonymous sample" yet receive the results of that anonymous sample!

OC

[kylejustin]

haha true oc, where it comes down to paying for the test, well it costs money to run dna. i havnt done the test, but i think the results would be interesting. but i think for this case, the person should try anne's idea of the testing. i mean it makes sense to test if you have an idea of where to look biologically than where the paper trail doesnt.

[polly88]

OC - did Which really say that? They were talking about it so seriously on Radio 4 and appeared to give it credibility. I can see that if there is only a comparatively small number of people who have been tested then it not so useful. And I really am not particularly interested about where my ancestors 2000 years ago emerged from, because, as you say, we are all from the same place!!

I think I will bide my time and watch with some interest how the various DNA projects progress.

Thanks for your interest.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Polly

Yes, if you click on the link I gave in post #11, you will see what WHICH thought.

OC

[Guy]

DNA cannot prove the descent of one person from another.

It can prove that a person cannot be descended from another, but that is not the same thing.

There are many claims made about DNA few of which have been proven. The main problem being only a tiny proportion of the world's population has been tested. The results have been extrapolated and modelled to make an assumption based on a theory.

Until the majority of the world's population has been tested few of the claims can be verified.
It could be that some of the markers thought to be unique are in fact duplicated many times but the duplicates have not been available in the tiny sample used to extrapolate the results.

At present it should only be used as a clue to further research.
Cheers
Guy

[Uncle John]

Given the huge size of the population (the statistical meaning), DNA testing is doing what my former boss warned against, "generalising from a sample of one".