About a year ago, my husband and I did a 23andme DNA kit to find out more specifics about our genetic heritage. We paid the extra to get health information as well. The process was very easy. The company sends you a plastic tube. You spit into the tube and send it back via self-addressed pre-stamped packaging. Then in a few weeks, you receive an email invitation to view your results online.
Once you have your results, you can participate in surveys about your health and personality that they will then use to create more genetic information for future users. You can also opt to connect with relatives identified by 23andme and their own spit (not everyone chooses to do this; if they want to remain private, their identity is not revealed). I have nothing to hide, so I chose to do this. With relatives, either known to you or strangers, you can view your DNA results side by side to compare which is interesting. For example, I can view my results next to my husband’s to see that he’s more British than I am or that he’s less prone to move in his sleep than I am or I have a slightly elevated risk for celiac disease and I freckle more easily. Obviously some of these factors are things I don’t need to pay $200 to know.
My 23 and Me DNA results back raised a few questions for me, especially when I compared to my relatives. Alas, my choice of a B.A. rather than a B.S. degree left me lacking in some of the fundamentals. I figured out a couple of them on my own, but I am no Watson or Crick, so I checked in with a couple of friends with better biological chops than I have.
My Initial Observations
A niece and a half-sister are the same, genetically. 23andme guessed that my niece was my half-sister, and thinking about it, that is probably mathematically correct. A niece and a half-sister would both be a 25% DNA overlap. Because my niece is only 3 years younger than me, the system assumed based on our ages that we were half-sisters.
The smaller percentages don’t always match up to your parents. I had two results that were confusing to me. First, I’m 4% Iberian according to my results, but my dad has no Iberian, and my mother only has 0.4% Iberian. Since my DNA comes from both parents (49.9% from my dad, 50% from my mom), how can I be more than 0.8% Iberian? My theories were:
- The test is off (e.g. confidence levels, etc.)
- It’s a mish-mosh of the uncategorized “broadly Southern European” DNA from both parents.
The really really small percentages can be kind of random, maybe due to rounding. I’ve got 0.1% Middle Eastern & North African, but neither of my parents has any.
My hypothesis about the doubling of one parent’s stat in my own seemed confirmed by the Italian percentage. I’m 2.5%, and my mother is 1.2%. So, does this mean I got ALL her Italian genes? It could explain my fantastic Jersey Shore accent.
What I found out from my friends was that 1) yes, there are huge error bars in the confidence levels, and 2)
Me: OK, so reading this, it’s likely that my Iberian result differs so greatly from my parents because theirs is not specified, but just in the broader category of Southern European. The confidence levels are greater when sub-categories are assigned.
Smarter Friend: Yeah, that’s within the range of stochastic variation. I noticed that they occasionally, refine the results as more sensitive tests are developed. On the first report they send my mom had [specific] alleles, then she didn’t (which was a disappointment). What your Neanderthal percentile? In the grand scheme of things that’s the one that matters.
Neanderthal Percentage
First of all, the Neanderthal variants thing was a shocker, like finding out that I was the offspring of hill people. So, I have 282 genetic markers associated with Neanderthal variants, more than 57% of respondents, but it’s less than 4% of my DNA. That’s a lot of numbers. It’s fewer than my husband has. In their testing, I had no Neanderthal variants associated with height, straight hair, back hair (or one can assume straight back hair) or sneezing when I eat dark chocolate. So, I guess that’s a relief.
Looking into it, though, there are actually positives associated with Neanderthal DNA. Some tests show that those with specific Neanderthal DNA variants have superior immune systems. Since Neanderthals mated with humans as recently as 50,000 years ago, it’s theorized that their superior immune systems helped humans weather the harsher weather outside of Africa as they migrated northward.
Skeletons in the Family Closet
I didn’t have any of these, but before you submit your kit, there’s a disclaimer that you might find out things that you didn’t know about your biological relatives, things you may find upsetting like parental infidelity or incest or who knows what. A few friends in an online forum were discussing their results and several had unexpected discoveries like that about siblings, parents or grandparents.
It’s definitely a caution worth considering, especially since a lot of families have done these tests together or bought them for relatives as a gift.
With our focus on families in the church, a lot of Mormons have done these tests.
- If you’ve done a genetic test, were any of your results surprising?
- If you haven’t done a test, do you want to do it? Why or why not?
- Do you think it’s a good gift or is the risk of family trauma too great?
Discuss.
Wheat & Tares 
I did 23&me for free by participating in a lupus dna study so for me it was worth it. I didn’t have any surprises. I thought I was a cystic fibrosis carrier and found out I wasn’t. I liked the health data. My biggest surprise was also 4% Neanderthal- a fact which I just used in family scripture study to explain I believe Adam& Eve story to non-literal even though I have a different opinion than husband & it’s perfectly acceptable to have different opinions on the matter in church.
As far as I know for dna from parents, the father can be 75% African & 25% English and every child they have w a spouse will have a different DNA mix from their dad. One may get exact proportion (34.5%/12.5%) and another could have a different mix up to 50% (25%/25%). I think that explains why you can have siblings of different skin tones. (?) Also the tests are imprecise so who knows.
It also says I have 11 close family relatives (up to 2nd cousins) but it is off on quite a few on how close m/category they are. I think that DNA split thing would explain that too – there will be ranges that overlap for each category and they’re just guessing in those instances.
I liked that my dna suggests I’d prefer salty over sweet snacks in the traits reports. They nailed that one.
I haven’t done it. I’m satisfied with things as I know them. If there are any skeletons, I prefer for them to remain hidden.
I keep thinking about it. My wife’s family had a number of people take it.
TM[unreliable]I
I am a DNA ancestry sceptic. A nephew is reported as only 5% Scandinavian, when his father’s documented ancestry is 50% Danish and those Danish great-grandparents were descendants of Danes for many generations.
I am not the only DNA Ancestry sceptic:
http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/21784-how-reliable-are-home-dna-ancestry-tests-investigation-uses-triplets-to-find-out
“Erin Maynard was 59 percent, Mandy was 66 percent and Melissa was 70 percent. The tests also showed that Mandy had six percent Scandinavian ancestry but her identical sisters showed none.”
https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/dna-fact-or-science-fiction/
http://www.medicaldaily.com/dna-ancestry-tests-are-meaningless-your-historical-genealogy-search-244586
Of course, the advertising for such DNA tests doesn’t disclose the nature or scope of the unreliability.
A couple of comments – I was adopted as a small child and when I was an adult I found my birth parents, ostensibly for health history reasons but also out of curiosity. A wise person told me that you never know what you will find when seeking birth parents. I found that to be absolutely true because some of the things I found out about my birth parents I couldn’t have made up. I think that’s probably true to some extent when finding one’s DNA origins. For me it was sort of like investigating LDS history. It’s sometimes difficult but I have a more true picture of reality.
A woman in my ward recently had her DNA analyzed by some company of this sort. She is in her 60s but back in her 20s she had a daughter out of wedlock and relinquished the child to adoption and wanted no contact. After getting the DNA results apparently somehow the child she relinquished made a connection to her birth mom. It sounds like the DNA company publishes the results online to relatives and the birth daughter was able to see the DNA results of her birth mother (the woman in my ward) and was able to reach out to her and say “hey I’m your daughter want to meet?” It had an ok ending but it caused this friend of mine significant heartache and pain for several months while she relived past mistakes and had to decide whether to continue to avoid meeting her relinquished daughter. As a side note, this raises interesting legal questions…
I was surprised to find west African DNA and Native American DNA, both showing up about the late 1600s/early 1700s.
I have to admit to a certain distrust in this stuff I developed as a kid, and which has never left me. When I was in 9th grade biology, we were taught about dominant and recessive genes, about how we would get one gene from each parent. We were told that being able to roll one’s tongue was a dominant trait, and only those with two recessive genes wouldn’t be able to. We were then sent home to find out who in our families could and could not roll their tongues. It turned out that neither of my parents could roll their tongues and that I and my 3 siblings could. From what I was taught, that shouldn’t have been possible. When I told biology teacher, he told me we must have been adopted. I was a little shocked, because although I might have been adopted, and the sibling after me, I was around and aware when the last two were born and it would have taken quite an elaborate charade for them to have been adopted. I promptly decided biology was a squishy science and stuck to math and physics.
I guess what I’m saying is that when genetics gets “dumbed down”, like it undoubtedly does by these consumer companies, I’m afraid it’s going to tell you 2 or 3 things that are true and which you can verify, followed by something that’s total crap but unverifiable, and you’re going to believe it because of the 2 or 3 things which were true.
I did a 23andme test a couple of years ago, and got some pretty shocking results. It connected me to a biological half brother I never knew I had, which opened up a host of disturbing possibilities. Then, after what was probably the most difficult conversation ever with my parents, I found out that I was conceived by artificial insemination with anonymous donor sperm (my father had male infertility issues), and also found out my sister was conceived the same way, and is actually my biological half sister. The half brother, I found out, was also conceived this way, and he and I just happened to come from the same donor. In any case, my father is not really my biological father. My parents told me about their years-long struggle with childlessness (including my mother being mocked and shamed by her peers in relief society), and that at the time IVF was still unproven and prohibitively expensive, and adoption was also not an affordable option for them. As there was still a lot of social stigma connected to artificial insemination back then, they kept it a secret, even from their own parents and siblings. They had no plans to tell me about it, but they also didn’t foresee advances in DNA testing technology. Learning these things ruptured my relationship with my parents in ways that will probably never completely heal. The relationship is just different now. It’s like swallowing the red pill; once you know certain things, you can’t un-know them. I think back to those times growing up when I fought with my parents, then went to my room in sadness wondering if I was adopted, or if they weren’t my real parents–as it turns out, I was half right.
On the plus side, I got to know a new blood relative, which is has been a positive experience. He helped me get through the shock of learning this information, as he had done it himself a few years earlier. It turns out he and I grew up in neighboring towns in California and went to rival high schools. In an amusing twist, he grew up Catholic, but converted to the LDS church in his late teens (mostly for a girl), went on a mission, got “Dear-Johned” then left the church shortly after his return. Nonetheless, he warmly welcomed me into his family. It’s also good to know in case one of us needs a kidney someday.
Another advantage of the genetic test is that it gave me access to medical information that I would not otherwise have, especially since half of my genetic/medical history is unknown. And I no longer have to worry about inheriting my father’s less desirable traits (baldness, nearsightedness, heart disease).
Overall, I think the decision to do the DNA test was net positive, and worth the heartache. The truth hurts sometimes, but in the long term it can be validating and even cathartic.
After having this experience, it forever changed the way I view genealogy/family history in the church. Every time a church leader admonishes us to “research your family history”, I say quietly to myself “be careful what you ask for”. I don’t think most of us realize how messy and complicated family history really is, beyond the sterile, neatly ordered pedigree charts and temple ordinance cards.
I finally sent off an AncestryDNA kit, but I’m figuring the results will be more of a gee whiz thing. I’d love to solve some family history brick walls, but they are so far back, it’s unlikely my DNA test will be of any help (by the time you go back about 10 generations, you’re only carrying DNA from a very small percentage of your ancestors). Still, I’m curious. It was interesting to see the ethnicity percentage differences between my mom and her full-blood sibling.
Since I work a lot in family history, I get to hear a bunch of feel-good stories, especially with adopted kids finding their biological family members. I haven’t personally encountered surprises like non-paternity, though I’ve heard it’s a higher risk than people suppose. I hear stories online, though.
It’s interesting how much a DNA test can change your entire perception of yourself and your outlook. It was a DNA test showing 100% European ancestry that convinced that Wife with a Purpose the “melting pot” reputation of America was a myth, and heavily contributed to her white culture/alt-right shift. (She’d been expecting her Native American ancestry to show up, because she had done quite a bit of genealogy on it. She just happened to not get any of those genes.) We tend to put a lot of stock in these DNA tests and ethnicity profiles. Probably a little too much stock in them.
Toad: “It sounds like the DNA company publishes the results online to relatives and the birth daughter was able to see the DNA results” On 23andme at least, it’s only shared after you say you want to share it to connect with relatives. So if someone doesn’t want their illegitimate offspring to see their stuff, hey, easy peasy, just click NO. I doubt there’s a legal issue since people are opting in.
I wonder what it was that I wrote that attracted down votes? The original posting asked, “If you haven’t done a test, do you want to do it? Why or why not?”I gave an honest and legitimate answer. If you did a down vote, please tell me how I offended you.
This post gets me thinking about the biological/health benefits of family reunions. Interacting with extended family is essentially a non-scientific sampling to the same end: identifying potential health issues, as well as recurring traits.
Though I generally support genetic research, I’ve never felt a desire to do one of these tests. Being in my 40s, cognizant of what older relatives are dealing with, I just don’t find the test attractive. Negotiating the here and now of aging is enough for me. Granted, it isn’t all about disease forecasting, but… the pessimistic side of me says, no thanks.
As for gifting, this strikes me as being comparable to giving someone a pet as a gift. Which is to say, don’t. I wouldn’t spring this on someone. The exception would be if a loved one has voiced a specific interest. I could see making a preliminary offer to buy it as a gift, which the intended recipient has a chance to mull over before accepting. But it definitely doesn’t strike me as an appropriate surprise gift.
ji – trolls or fat fingers? You even got a thumbs down for asking why you got thumbs down. Gotta love the internet!
mtDNA H5 checking in. I find dna tests a lot of fun. I’ve been tested at 23&me, familytree DNA, Ancestry and Living DNA. Uploaded to GEDMatch, which has a way cool Archaic DNA matches tool, and Promethease. I even got a dna test for my dog.
Living DNA was a kick cuz they break down Great Britain into 21 regions, and surprisingly matched up (for the most part kinda) with the paper trail. But then they said I was 2% Mordovia which makes me think they’re idiots.
When I first got tested at 23&me, it reported me around 2 and a half% Finnish, so I had my Dad tested and he was around 5%. I thought that’s enough to find someone, so I went over to family search and nada. So I compared various distant cousins, and determined it had to be from this one line. So went back to familysearch, and a couple days before my cousin had added some stuff on this line and there it was, Finland. So I’m a believer.
My understanding is that DNA tests reveal where people with your similar DNA are living TODAY. If your ancestors originated in England but then the whole population moved to India your results would show your DNA match to be in India.
I highly recommend a podcast “The Human Story of Our Genes” on NPR station WNYC .
I’m curious as to how thorough the health report is. I’m not sure I would want to know I have conditions for which there is no cure. But I am curious as to where I got an inheritable anemia from–my mother or my father? I understand too since my father had no male children–some of his genetic line died with him.
I was intrigued to realize that the amount of DNA you get from a grandparent can range up to 50% and down to very little.
It is generally 25% each but specifically not necessarily. I’ve two daughters who looked almost identical. One burns easily, the other never needs sunscreen.
Oh, JL, with phones there are a lot of fat thing downvotes that were meant to be upvotes.
I downvoted Stephen’s comment because I don’t agree with his supposition. 😉