Torpar Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Has anyone else every taken one of these test or similar to discover your ethnic make up? Were there any big surprises? Do you and your father now have some awkward questions to ask your mother?? I recently took mine and for the most part wasn't too surprised, roughly 60% British/Scottish 30% Europe West/German (my grandmother is German) but I also discovered 6% Europe East and less than 1% Scandinavian. I would guess a lot of Scottish people have some kind of distant Scandinavian roots but no one seems to be able to figure out where the Europe East comes from. Or they aren't telling anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 The most interesting thing about these sites is that they were used to catch the (alleged) Golden State Killer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crawford Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 2 minutes ago, ICTChris said: The most interesting thing about these sites is that they were used to catch the (alleged) Golden State Killer. Did he answer yes to the "are you the golden state killer" question? I nearly fell for that one too.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Just now, Crawford said: Did he answer yes to the "are you the golden state killer" question? I nearly fell for that one too.... Much like the "are you a terrorist" question in the US visa application. They identified very distant relatives of his and worked their way through the family tree until they caught him. It was from another site but it's very interesting in terms of solving cold cases where DNA is present but there's no match in any existing databases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forfinn Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 There's some pretty serious data protection implications when it comes to these DNA testing companies, and not just for serial killers. I'd love to know about my genetic make-up, but not sure I'll be taking the leap any time soon! https://gizmodo.com/what-dna-testing-companies-terrifying-privacy-policies-1819158337 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 6 minutes ago, Forfinn said: There's some pretty serious data protection implications when it comes to these DNA testing companies, and not just for serial killers. I'd love to know about my genetic make-up, but not sure I'll be taking the leap any time soon! https://gizmodo.com/what-dna-testing-companies-terrifying-privacy-policies-1819158337 That's worrying and not at all surprising. My idiot sister got my Mum and Dad tested with 23andMe and we stopped reading after it said we would all die from Alzheimer's, around the same time as my Dad was in the end stages. Hopefully she didn't give out info about me or the rest of the family, you could end up hammered trying to get a mortgage or life insurance with some potential genetic timebomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PWL Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 I did my family tree a few years ago on Ancestry so they sent me a discount code for a DNA kit. Was still £50 and the results were.....well dissapointing. I'd hoped for something more exotic. My grandfather was from Nottingham and I'd traced some ancestors back to Antrim myself so nothing earth shattering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venti Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 My DNA is a mess probably. Dad is Scottish, Mum was German, Grandfathers were Welsh & German & Grandmothers were Liverpudlian and Irish. Could play for a good few countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crawford Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 32 minutes ago, ICTChris said: Much like the "are you a terrorist" question in the US visa application. They identified very distant relatives of his and worked their way through the family tree until they caught him. It was from another site but it's very interesting in terms of solving cold cases where DNA is present but there's no match in any existing databases. It is also a very clever way of attaining people's genetic profile without raising suspicion. I imagine the number of cases this data has and or will help solve will be much higher than reported on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Torpar said: Has anyone else every taken one of these test or similar to discover your ethnic make up? Were there any big surprises? Do you and your father now have some awkward questions to ask your mother?? I recently took mine and for the most part wasn't too surprised, roughly 60% British/Scottish 30% Europe West/German (my grandmother is German) but I also discovered 6% Europe East and less than 1% Scandinavian. I would guess a lot of Scottish people have some kind of distant Scandinavian roots but no one seems to be able to figure out where the Europe East comes from. Or they aren't telling anyway. Scotland has been trading with the Baltic Countries and Poland for centuries although given the German background maybe some chap called Stanislav was playing Rodger der Lodger back in the old country with a fraulein hence the East European bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supermik Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 My ancestry traces back to Adam and Eve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shotgun Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Stinky Bone said: I am certain that a few years ago there was a documentary about Ancestry.com, stating that it was owned by the Church of Latter day Saints a.k.a. the Mormons. The information that people were using in their search for their ancestors was held on a huge database and this information was used by the Mormons to baptise dead relatives by proxy. It was pretty weird. I have searched for a link but unfortunately cannot find one. This is true, yes. The Mormon Church has for many years, kept a large database which anyone (for a fee) could use to help trace their family tree. (The British Government used to offer a similar service via Somerset House.) Ancestry.com is the online version of the LDS' database and while it won't have a complete record for everyone, it's often enough to get people started. As users fill in their own blanks, that new information is uploaded to the main database and could be cross-referenced to other people's records, thus making the whole thing more effective. Which all sounds fair enough until you get into the creepy-as-f**k baptism of dead people without the knowledge or consent of their descendants. Particularly controversial has been their habit of baptising victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Anne Frank and Adolf Hitler among many others. This has been going on since long before Ancestry.com though. "In 2008, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors announced that, since church members had repeatedly violated previous agreements, it would no longer negotiate with the church to try to prevent vicarious baptism. Speaking on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor who reported on the Nuremberg Trials, speaking as the honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, called on the LDS Church to "implement a mechanism to undo what [they] have done", and declared that the LDS Church had repeatedly violated their agreements, and that talks with Mormon leaders were now ended. Jewish groups, he said, would now turn to the court of public opinion for justice.[69] Michel called the practice a revision of history that plays into the hands of Holocaust deniers, stating: "They tell me, that my parents' Jewishness has not been altered but ... 100 years from now, how will they be able to guarantee that my mother and father of blessed memory who lived as Jews and were slaughtered by Hitler for no other reason than they were Jews, will someday not be identified as Mormon victims of the Holocaust?"[69]" Copy-a-pasta'd from... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_for_the_dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shotgun Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Euro-mongrel here. Pedigree Scots until all 4 grandparents but then things get decidedly murky. Nornirish, French and Italian to my knowledge and who knows what the heck else beyond that. Like most Scots there's almost certainly some English and Scandinavian in the soup. Realistically, most of northern Europe has probably contributed at least a little bit to the wonder that is me. Mrs Shotgun's (American) family had always believed that her grandmother was Swiss. Until the old lass popped off and they found her birth certificate showing her to be Polish. Ukrainian on the other side but as both biological grandfathers were MIA from an early stage in the process, nothing is known about either of them. But anyway. Them foreigners, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.A.F.C Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Scottish, Irish and Italian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chlamydia Kid Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Got my daughter it at Christmas and she did it. Found out hers was all just Scotland and Ulster, 13% Iberian as well- that was as exotic as it got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 7 minutes ago, The Chlamydia Kid said: Got my daughter it at Christmas and she did it. Found out hers was all just Scotland and Ulster, 13% Iberian as well- that was as exotic as it got. Clever, means she was unlikely to find any embarrassing family secrets in the known past, unless one of her grand or great parents had a Spanish milkman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 21 minutes ago, The Chlamydia Kid said: Got my daughter it at Christmas and she did it. Found out hers was all just Scotland and Ulster, 13% Iberian as well- that was as exotic as it got. No great granny from Prussia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer (Raconteur) Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 24 minutes ago, The Chlamydia Kid said: Got my daughter it at Christmas and she did it. Found out hers was all just Scotland and Ulster, 13% Iberian as well- that was as exotic as it got. Quite an elaborate ruse just to prove she was yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppino Impastato Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 4 hours ago, Slenderman said: My DNA is a mess probably. Dad is Scottish, Mum was German, Grandfathers were Welsh & German & Grandmothers were Liverpudlian and Irish. Could play for a good few countries. If you weren't shite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venti Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Would you play for Scotland, if you could play for another country? Theoretically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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