DNA Testing – A Mixed Bag But Fun Thing to Do in Your Retirement
Category: Family and Retirement
October 2, 2018 — Your Editor’s children gave him a very thoughtful gift for Fathers Day this year – DNA testing from Ancestry.com. This article will explore why genetic testing might be useful, its pros and cons, a list of the various providers of these services, and some comments from a Facebook post on the topic. We also hope that all of you with experience on the subject will chip in on the Comments section, so we can all learn from one another.
Like most every family, mine is interested in and proud of our ethnic heritage. We know from our parents that we are largely Scotch-Irish, have quite a bit of German/Sudetenland, along with a dash of Native American blood. Our relatives from that line were part of the infamous Trail of Tears into Oklahoma. We looked forward to confirmation of all of that heritage.
The test
Common DNA tests cost about $99, but there are many different levels of plans, along with occasional deals. To give the company your genetic makeup you usually put a tiny amount of your saliva into a small vial, or swab your cheek. Then you
Comments on "DNA Testing – A Mixed Bag But Fun Thing to Do in Your Retirement"
LS says:
I used Ancestry a couple of years ago. The initial results were pretty much what I expected based on our family oral tradition. Ancestry gives you possible cousins for you to consider contacting. These are, of course, other people who have had their DNA tested with Ancestry. I did contact some of these by email and the closer cousins were indeed my relatives. Other "fourth cousins" may be distantly related but I had no idea of how we could be related because I had not yet started my family tree on Ancestry.
Ancestry will let you set up an online family tree for free and does provide some documents to review that may pertain to you or your relatives. However most of their content is restricted to paying customers. Even so, they do provide you hints of possible relatives as more information becomes available. As mentioned in the article, you can review the family trees of relatives if you are a paying customer and the other person has made their tree public. This can same a lot of time in doing research.
A couple of weeks ago, Ancestry provided an updated analysis of my DNA profile showing a more refined chart of my heritage. I assume they will continue to refine their data as more and more people get tested.
I find this very interesting because I never knew my grandparents on my father's side and only my grandmother on my mother's side so DNA testing results are filling in a lot of holes of what I know of my relatives and where they came from. Someday, I will set aside about 3 months and join Ancestry as a paid member and do a detailed search of their documents and complete the family tree as far back as I can.
Jean says:
Last year on of the Dr shows on TV sent cheek swabs from identical triplets to DNA companies. The results where quite different for heritage, etc. After seeing that I decided to spend my $ on new shoes.
Holly says:
A Dutch genealogy blogger I follow, sent her DNA to several labs. She shared that 23 & Me was also way off the charts for her background - which she had documented. She recommended Ancestry.
My father sent his in to the National Geographic Geno-graphic project. His came back saying that his DNA "matched" more people in the UK than the Netherlands. For a while we thought that was totally wrong - we knew he wasn't English - until we saw a documentary about UK archeology that said testing on ancient bones they dug up turned out to be Frisian not Norse. Therefore, my father wasn't English but that more English have Frisian heritage that Norse. We had to read the results several times to see the significance.
Out of curiosity, I sent my DNA to Ancestry and was sorely disappointed. They were so very vague. "Western European" didn't tell me anything. Maybe I didn't pay enough for more details. They keep sending me "cousins" but I am not interested in the extended family. I am looking for the deeper roots. They certainly haven't sent me any updates. I have done a lot of research in various databases on line. My father never knew his family beyond his grandparents. It was fun to send him, and his sister, a binder with relatives going back several hundred years. It has been harder to work on my mother's side - more for curiosity than anything else but it IS interesting to know where we came from. Now, if we could figure out the "why." There were a lot of reasons to put your family on a boat and head west.
Lisa says:
About 10 years ago the first DNA test my husband, daughter and I did was through DNAtribes.com. This company does not do genealogy or matches. It looks to see how closely your DNA matches ancient tribes. As DNA knowledge is growing exponentially, I paid a small amount for this company to update my results. I found the results very compelling especially since we were able to compare my husband's and my results with my daughter's which made sense. Also since then my husband and I have tested with Ancestry.com. I've been a member of Ancestry.com for 7 years and had my DNA tested with them probably 5 or 6 years ago. Since then they have updated my results 2 times. Their results do not go into the detail that DNAtribes.com does. So if you are doing genealogy and looking for matches Ancestry is fine. Another company that is competing with Ancestry is MyHeritage.com. I think if I was starting now I would go with MyHeritage.com. Lastly, Ancestry.com allows you to upload your DNA raw results which you can upload to MyHeritage.com, GEDmatch.com, FTDNA.com and perhaps others. Each company uses a different algorithm for assessing ethnicity. I will always show that I am predominately Irish , Scottish, Western European. It is mostly the trace elements and percentages that differ amongst the companies. I hope this helps.
Coelle Baskel says:
My husband and I used 23 and Me after seeing the results from my sister using that company. We were really more interested in the genetic health results from 23 and Me than searching for relatives. The results we got we worth the price of the test. I like the way 23 and Me does the comparisons that you can get between husband/wife and/or siblings. Loved the 'traits' we got and found all of it 'right on'. As far as our ethnic background, it was pretty much what we thought it would be.
What I really liked about 23 and Me is that as they get FDA approval to test more genes for health issues, they do it automatically and notify you even if you had your results done months ago . I wasn't sure that it would be handled that way....that's a plus.
I recommend 23 and Me without hesitation!