The mention of recent testing makes me curious: how do the DNA tests know what they purport to know about your ancestors? Do they look for specific markers, and then assign it to a location based on how frequently those markers are found among the population in that area?
The other question I have is which particular brand or version of this test is a good one.
I'm curious about it because it became the rage among some members of my husband's family, but they were making claims that forced my face into the lopsided squint. Example (names changed to protect the innocent): one person was excited to discover that she was 50% Norwegian, despite being able to trace most of her family members back to specific towns in Germany. So either we have a bonus daddy somewhere, or relatives traveled at some point down from Norway to Germany, or this person's family indeed hails from Germany and just happens to have a DNA marker that is also prevalent in Norway but exists to a lesser extent among Germans? To resolve this question we then examine this person's child's test results: a very tiny percentage Norway; 75%++ German. So either the child was mostly constituted by DNA from the other parent, or something is off somewhere? Again, this leads to curiosity about which company's test is more accurate.
The other thing I've witnessed, and names will be changed again to protect the guilty, is people developing a marked preference for living relatives who physically resemble them. It's fun to find relatives, to note similarities, sure, but relationships are not based on genes, nor should they be. It would be weird and wrong if I somehow devalued my relationships with my closest cousins (who look about 0.0026% like me, but we grew up together spending much time close) in favor of new people because they looked more like me. Yet I have seen people do this. To be honest it enrages me a bit. I have a lot of performative, meaningless ranting but very little actual rage. This by contrast is something that makes me angry for real. It has in turn damaged my relationship with people who act this way because it seems reprehensible to me. So this is a worry I have ... what if these things happen to me or someone else and it turns out poorly? I don't think I would act that way but it's the principle. I wonder if people have experienced this in a more positive way or have mitigated these issues effectively? Let me know.
DNA Test
Re: DNA Test
Here’s the info for the one I’ve done, with some FAQ at the bottom: https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna/ancestry ... ate-update
They periodically update it, so my ethnicity mix has changed a bit since I first took it. And as my mom and her siblings take the test, it’s interesting to see how different kids from the same parents can be.
They periodically update it, so my ethnicity mix has changed a bit since I first took it. And as my mom and her siblings take the test, it’s interesting to see how different kids from the same parents can be.