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Dna genealogy kits

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These kits like ancestry.com and other companies.  My wife got me and my two girls them for Christmas.   It would be interesting to see what our makeups are.  My one daughter came back with 3 percent irish/scottish and the other one 0 percent.  But the rest of theirmake ups were pretty much the same.   So anyway.   Ihavent done mine yet.  I really dont feel comfortable giving out dna with my name attached to it.   Has anyone out there heard of these results stockpiling dna for government agencies    Just a little tinfoily.  Should i be worried.  

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I don't believe they are stockpiling them for the government and as of yet, 23andMe and AncestryDNA have refused to hand over data to law enforcement without a warrant. The Golden State Killer was caught when police uploaded the DNA from the case into a website and found distant matches. A genealogist was able to map a family tree and narrow it down. So yea, if you commit a crime and leave DNA, they might be able to figure it out that way but that's about it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/just-beginning-using-dna-genealogy-crack-years-old-cold-cases-n892126

1 minute ago, Displaced Texan said:

You’re prior .mil, you DNA is already in a database. 

Pretty much nothing is sacred at that point. They got DNA, fingerprints, your detailed history if you have a clearance...

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3 minutes ago, Golf battery said:

I wondered about that.  Did they have that technology in early 90’s. Actually boot was dec 1990. 

I went in ‘87 and got out ‘99....I know mine is in the database. 

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I did it on ancestry.com and I know a lot of others who did it.  I'm military '98-present so I have already given them fingerprints, tooth x-rays and enough blood samples for them to clone a squadron of me if they felt like it.  I figure the Feds wouldn't get anything they didn't already have if they got ahold of it.

The results were interesting. It not only shows where your ancestors are from but it's able to show history of their travels.  The info on their site shows how they are able to do that.

I have a copy of a researched family history on my dads side of the family, which is mostly Western European mixed with a little Native and African American.  While Ancestry.com matches the ethnicity and timeline of the migration of my ancestors, its only able to show specific relations laterally to currently living relatives like 3rd, 4th or 5th cousins who also had provided DNA.  After that, you have to hope someone enters family tree info to be able to start tracking back through previous generations.  The option to do that and access to only records through the website is expensive. 

I did it primarily to see a history on my mom side of the family, which is 100% African American.  Her side only has a known history of about 4 generations back.  There was someone who was a freed slave and no history on who his parents were or where they come from.  With this it was easy to see what part of Africa they were from.  What surprised me was  how it was able to show what states they were brought to as slaves and where they migrated to after that.  It was very accurate because it pointed out the exact 2 areas in the country that all my relatives live on my mom's side of the family.

As they collect more DNA on people around the world, they send out notices that they update your results.  The % of your make-up might change a couple % points every once in a while as they get new results and figure you might be more of one thing and a little less of another.      

 

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your dna should never be allowed to be taken without consent imho.

 

that said, these things are not really that accurate imho.  We did it and I know my family lineage as I've seen headstones that date to 1300, know the family history well for both sides and the results were mixed.  You have to understand how the sampling works and how to read the concentric circles they use to pinpoint. 

Just think, how does 2 girls from same family have 1 miss 3% of a heritage when DNA is supposed to be 99.9% accurate?

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1 hour ago, Golf battery said:

Ihavent done mine yet.  I really dont feel comfortable giving out dna with my name attached to it.   Has anyone out there heard of these results stockpiling dna for government agencies    Just a little tinfoily.  Should i be worried.  

http://fortune.com/2019/02/01/genetic-testing-consumer-dna-familytreedna-fbi/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/04/27/ancestry-genealogy-dna-test-privacy-golden-state-killer/557263002/

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3 hours ago, Displaced Texan said:

I went in ‘87 and got out ‘99....I know mine is in the database. 

It was in the late 80s early 90s when they collected DNA samples from the Reserves and National Guard.

2 hours ago, myhatinthering said:

your dna should never be allowed to be taken without consent imho.

 

that said, these things are not really that accurate imho.  We did it and I know my family lineage as I've seen headstones that date to 1300, know the family history well for both sides and the results were mixed.  You have to understand how the sampling works and how to read the concentric circles they use to pinpoint. 

Just think, how does 2 girls from same family have 1 miss 3% of a heritage when DNA is supposed to be 99.9% accurate?

Well when you're in the military and if they say we're taking your DNA sample, they're taking your DNA sample.  You have no option.

I agree that those DNA tests are not that accurate.  Unless you're spending several thousand dollars for it.  That said a 3% error between the two sisters is well within the margin of error.

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Just got coffee at my local deli. Noticed one of the front page articles on today’s NY Times describes how China is using forced DNA testing to persecute the Uigher minority there.  

That aside, I believe there is lot’s of potential for your DNA information to be misused in unforeseen ways. Which is why I will not use these DNA test kits.

I do realize this is yet one more patch of ice, among many, on the slippery downward slope of personal privacy we are one, like it or not (e.g. cellphone tracking, LPRs, facial recognition, social networking, data warehouses & big data analytics, ...).

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8 hours ago, GRIZ said:

It was in the late 80s early 90s when they collected DNA samples from the Reserves and National Guard.

Well when you're in the military and if they say we're taking your DNA sample, they're taking your DNA sample.  You have no option.

I agree that those DNA tests are not that accurate.  Unless you're spending several thousand dollars for it.  That said a 3% error between the two sisters is well within the margin of error.

military is different and I recognize it as such. I am referring more to the recent law that suspects can have dna taken

 

disagree on the 3% margin here however given dna doesn't fall into normal statistical sampling methods.  There is no 95% match in sibling dna, it's either 99.9 or next to zero.  DNA is fascinating, accurate, and does not lie

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I would never do it but two of my bros did. And just as logic would dictate (jokes aside) they came within a few %  points (different testing co's) of the same history. But the interesting part was we were supposedly about 1/2 German  but no, less than 10% lol. Turns out we have about 35% British/Scottish ancestors that no one has ever mentioned of before.

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  I was reading somewhere can’t find the source, but it was something like once they have 5% of the populations DNA profiles they can basically identify everyone, by tracing family tree. So even if you, yourself don’t give up your dna, if enough of your blood line does it doesn’t matter. 

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