Ancestry.com - apparently I am extremely & blindingly white

[Cypress]

All northern European, which probably explains why I cannot get a tan and tend to blind people when I take off my shirt.

Ancestry.com

66% Eastern European & Russia
18% Baltic States
11% Germanic Europe
5% Scotland, Ireland, or Wales

The Russian DNA was obviously unsurprising.
The Baltic states DNA is likely explained because my paternal relatives come from Belarus, which historically was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, undoubtedly contributing to a mixed brew of Slavs and Balts. Since my maternal side comes from an old Cossack family in southern Russia, I was surprised to not see any Tatar or Central Asian - but either the amount of Tatar DNA is too small to discriminate, or Ancestry.com simply does not have the database to screen for trace amounts of central Asian DNA.
There is a McClintock somewhere in my background, obviously a contribution to the Sottish DNA.


My favorite DNA ancestry stories are actually when Trump-supporters find out they have sub-Saharan African ancestry.

When White Nationalists Get DNA Tests That Reveal African Ancestry

The white-nationalist forum Stormfront hosts discussions on a wide range of topics, from politics to guns to The Lord of the Rings. And of particular and enduring interest: genetic ancestry tests. For white nationalists, DNA tests are a way to prove their racial purity. Of course, their results don’t always come back that way. And how white nationalists try to explain away non-European ancestry is rather illuminating of their beliefs.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/white-nationalists-dna-ancestry/537108/

 

[Aimée]

I have always wanted to do those DNA tests for both my son and me. I glow in the dark, but my son does not.

 

[Cypress]

I have always wanted to do those DNA tests for both my son and me. I glow in the dark, but my son does not.

It's a lot of fun, I would recommend it.
Ancestry.com found a lot of second and third cousins of mine in their database, according to the DNA results - so that was pretty cool.

 

[Aimée]

It's a lot of fun, I would recommend it.
Ancestry.com found a lot of second and third cousins of mine in their database, according to the DNA results - so that was pretty cool.

Thank you! I think it would be a lot of fun, too.

That's so awesome that it was able to find your cousins for you! I am hoping to find different family members, too, when I finally take the tests. I definitely need to do some research, too. There is a town in New Brunswick that bears my maiden name. I would love to find out why. I need to go there, too!

 

[Phantasmal]

All northern European, which probably explains why I cannot get a tan and tend to blind people when I take off my shirt.

Ancestry.com

66% Eastern European & Russia
18% Baltic States
11% Germanic Europe
5% Scotland, Ireland, or Wales

The Russian DNA was obviously unsurprising.
The Baltic states DNA is likely explained because my paternal relatives come from Belarus, which historically was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, undoubtedly contributing to a mixed brew of Slavs and Balts. Since my maternal side comes from an old Cossack family in southern Russia, I was surprised to not see any Tatar or Central Asian - but either the amount of Tatar DNA is too small to discriminate, or Ancestry.com simply does not have the database to screen for trace amounts of central Asian DNA.
There is a McClintock somewhere in my background, obviously a contribution to the Sottish DNA.


My favorite DNA ancestry stories are actually when Trump-supporters find out they have sub-Saharan African ancestry.

It’s fascinating.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

It's a lot of fun, I would recommend it.
Ancestry.com found a lot of second and third cousins of mine in their database, according to the DNA results - so that was pretty cool.

Another cool thing you can do with your raw DNA scores is plug them into Promethease.com's search engine, which will come back with an analysis of your genetic goodies, including health/medical aspects as well as your phenotype (eye color, hair color, etc.). It's only $5. I discovered that I am the lucky recipient of the best version (their words) of the FOX03 gene, both alleles, which codes for a very long life span .... well over 100, they said. Unfortunately, I also have one copy of the dread APOE gene that gives its owner a higher risk of developing Alzheimers dementia. So I'll live a long time but won't remember any of it. lol

Does Ancestry's kit also give you the % of Neanderthal genes you might have?

 

[Phantasmal]

Another cool thing you can do with your raw DNA scores is plug them into Promethease.com's search engine, which will come back with an analysis of your genetic goodies, including health/medical aspects as well as your phenotype (eye color, hair color, etc.). It's only $5. I discovered that I am the lucky recipient of the best version (their words) of the FOX03 gene, both alleles, which codes for a very long life span .... well over 100, they said. Unfortunately, I also have one copy of the dread APOE gene that gives its owner a higher risk of developing Alzheimers dementia. So I'll live a long time but won't remember any of it. lol

Does Ancestry's kit also give you the % of Neanderthal genes you might have?

Thanks! Great info

 

[Jarod]

I'm 80 something percent English.
1% African.

 

[Jack]

I have always wanted to do those DNA tests for both my son and me. I glow in the dark, but my son does not.

I took the Test. And then they give you all kinds of 'hints' that corroborate any Family History that was handed down. Once you go back 8 or 9 generations, you have ALL KINDS of Ancestors.
(I have many from Scarboro (Scarborough), Maine. Along with Boston from the 1600s)

 

[Cypress]

Another cool thing you can do with your raw DNA scores is plug them into Promethease.com's search engine, which will come back with an analysis of your genetic goodies, including health/medical aspects as well as your phenotype (eye color, hair color, etc.). It's only $5. I discovered that I am the lucky recipient of the best version (their words) of the FOX03 gene, both alleles, which codes for a very long life span .... well over 100, they said. Unfortunately, I also have one copy of the dread APOE gene that gives its owner a higher risk of developing Alzheimers dementia. So I'll live a long time but won't remember any of it. lol

Does Ancestry's kit also give you the % of Neanderthal genes you might have?

Thanks for the intel!

I haven't really reviewed everything they sent me - it is on my to-do list!

I don't know if they have Neanderthal DNA results, I will have to look because that is super cool. I feel like I may be a little more evolutionarily primitive than your average human, so I think I need to be screened for Homo Erectus dna!!

 

[Aimée]

I took the Test. And then they give you all kinds of 'hints' that corroborate any Family History that was handed down. Once you go back 8 or 9 generations, you have ALL KINDS of Ancestors.
(I have many from Scarboro (Scarborough), Maine. Along with Boston from the 1600s)

That's so cool! When my sister started our family tree, she found some ancestors on Mum's side who were from around Boston. On Pa's side, one set of great-grandparents were from up around St. Anne de Beaupré and the other set was from New Brunswick.

 

[Jack]

That's so cool! When my sister started our family tree, she found some ancestors on Mum's side who were from around Boston. On Pa's side, one set of great-grandparents were from up around St. Anne de Beaupré and the other set was from New Brunswick.

It's kind of interesting how the lineage winds through time and history. One guy was a Merchant on Congress St. in Boston, another guy was a Doctor in Portland.
Do you know where the Saco Valley is? Got lots of New Englanders there. Lots of 'religious' names: Phineas, Sarah, Isaac, Josiah, Hannah, Amos, Abigail, ... and they all had like 10 kids.

 

[Aimée]

It's kind of interesting how the lineage winds through time and history. One guy was a Merchant on Congress St. in Boston, another guy was a Doctor in Portland.
Do you know where the Saco Valley is? Got lots of New Englanders there. Lots of 'religious' names: Phineas, Sarah, Isaac, Josiah, Hannah, Amos, Abigail, ... and they all had like 10 kids.

Yes, that's in Western Maine near the New Hampshire border. It's in the foothills and mountains. Gorgeous area. LOL! That's a LOT of kids each!

 

[Cypress]

Thank you! I think it would be a lot of fun, too.

That's so awesome that it was able to find your cousins for you! I am hoping to find different family members, too, when I finally take the tests. I definitely need to do some research, too. There is a town in New Brunswick that bears my maiden name. I would love to find out why. I need to go there, too!

You would find it very rewarding to learn more about your ancestors. It seems to me that all of us, all humans, are drawn to know about our past. On that tangent, cousin sent me this quote.

“From which innermost depths of the soul arises the irrepressible urge to connect past and present, the insistent desire to discover ancestors and find their resting places? Why do we thirst to know our heritage? Why does my soul want to look back?” 
- O. Sedelnikov-Verbitsky

My family can trace our direct lineage back through 13 generations to a gentleman named Pavel who lived 500 years ago. The only reason we can do that, is the family was minor Russian hereditary nobility - not meaning that they were part of the royal bloodline, but they were an old, land-owning family of minor nobles who traced roots went back to Rus Principalities of Medieval times. And consequently, there are property records and legal records in the national archives in Saint Petersburg that document five centuries of family history.

Wrapping up, I wish you good fortune and lots of fun in your genealogical endeavors!

 

[Mott the Hoople]

All northern European, which probably explains why I cannot get a tan and tend to blind people when I take off my shirt.

Ancestry.com

66% Eastern European & Russia
18% Baltic States
11% Germanic Europe
5% Scotland, Ireland, or Wales

The Russian DNA was obviously unsurprising.
The Baltic states DNA is likely explained because my paternal relatives come from Belarus, which historically was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, undoubtedly contributing to a mixed brew of Slavs and Balts. Since my maternal side comes from an old Cossack family in southern Russia, I was surprised to not see any Tatar or Central Asian - but either the amount of Tatar DNA is too small to discriminate, or Ancestry.com simply does not have the database to screen for trace amounts of central Asian DNA.
There is a McClintock somewhere in my background, obviously a contribution to the Sottish DNA.


My favorite DNA ancestry stories are actually when Trump-supporters find out they have sub-Saharan African ancestry.

Well if it makes you feel better Ancestry.com DNA test isn’t exactly well known for its accuracy.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Another cool thing you can do with your raw DNA scores is plug them into Promethease.com's search engine, which will come back with an analysis of your genetic goodies, including health/medical aspects as well as your phenotype (eye color, hair color, etc.). It's only $5. I discovered that I am the lucky recipient of the best version (their words) of the FOX03 gene, both alleles, which codes for a very long life span .... well over 100, they said. Unfortunately, I also have one copy of the dread APOE gene that gives its owner a higher risk of developing Alzheimers dementia. So I'll live a long time but won't remember any of it. lol

Does Ancestry's kit also give you the % of Neanderthal genes you might have?

My recommendation is unless you have a serious health issue I’d recommend not ever having a DNA test done. The privacy issue are serious and having a DNA test can become part of your public record that can provide serious private information about yourself that really wouldn’t want others to have.

 

[Cypress]

Well if it makes you feel better Ancestry.com DNA test isn’t exactly well known for its accuracy.

This industry is all private companies, with proprietary methods and interpretive algorithms, not subject to public scientific peer review - so we have to assume a certain level of uncertainty about the results. The interpretive side of it strikes me as being the most subject to uncertainty.

That said, my so did a lot of research on this, and 23andMe was the DNA service reputed to be most useful for obtaining health-related information, while AncestryDNA is purported to be better for genealogical information and tracing family history. That was what I was most interested in.

The DNA results I got back comported very well with the oral and written tradition of our family history - for which we have very good documentation going back 500 years. So that gave me some measure of confidence in the genetic result. I mainly was interested to see if any Tatar-Mongol-Central Asian heritage popped up, given my connection to Russian Cossacks. But it doesn't bother me that none showed up - for one thing, the connection between Cossascks, tatars and central Asians is tenuous at best. The family legend I always heard is that if you scratch a Cossack, you'll find a tatar. But realistically, I don't think anyone can really say definitively that the Cossacks have any tangible genetic connection to the Mongol's Golden Horde and the tatars. At least in a measurable way that shows up in off-the-shelf genetic testing.

 

[The Anonymous]

All northern European, which probably explains why I cannot get a tan and tend to blind people when I take off my shirt.

Ancestry.com

66% Eastern European & Russia
18% Baltic States
11% Germanic Europe
5% Scotland, Ireland, or Wales

The Russian DNA was obviously unsurprising.
The Baltic states DNA is likely explained because my paternal relatives come from Belarus, which historically was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, undoubtedly contributing to a mixed brew of Slavs and Balts. Since my maternal side comes from an old Cossack family in southern Russia, I was surprised to not see any Tatar or Central Asian - but either the amount of Tatar DNA is too small to discriminate, or Ancestry.com simply does not have the database to screen for trace amounts of central Asian DNA.
There is a McClintock somewhere in my background, obviously a contribution to the Sottish DNA.


My favorite DNA ancestry stories are actually when Trump-supporters find out they have sub-Saharan African ancestry.

We could have told you this, and saved you the trip to Ancestry.com

 

[Jack]

Yes, that's in Western Maine near the New Hampshire border. It's in the foothills and mountains. Gorgeous area. LOL! That's a LOT of kids each!

Thanks. I had never heard of it or knew where it was. Thanks for the description.

 

[Cypress]

When NeoNazi Trump Supporters Find Out They're Jewish

Neo-Nazis are taking genetic tests and are deeply upset by the results
They are challenging the veracity of DNA results and trying to discredit the tests as a Jewish conspiracy

White supremacists in the US are taking genetic tests to prove their racial identity but are being left bitterly disappointed to learn their genes are not as pure as they presumed.

A new study from the University of California examined years’ worth of posts on Stormfront, a neo-Nazi forum which is the internet’s first major racial hate site, to decipher how members responded to their spit-in-a-cup genetic test results.

White nationalists were up in arms to discover they were not 100 per cent white European and instead had African, Jewish or Asian genes.

The study found white supremacists would express their indignation at the DNA test results by challenging their veracity and claiming to have a better grip on their genealogy than a scientific test. Some reacted by engaging in racist tirades or arguing the tests were a Jewish conspiracy.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ethnic-african-jewish-asian-dna-a7899746.html