My sister got one of those Ancestry test kit. This took a few weeks before she got an answer.

Now a little background on out family
Born in Canada
Mother side of the family
from northern Maine
Great grandmother pure Algonquin Indian squaw
Great grandfather Scottman
Grandfather Canadian french descendant with some Spanish
Grandmother Algonquin and Scots
Father was French Canadian

Fathers side of the Family
All Canadian with  French descendant including major ties to Pepin the Short, Charles Martel, Charlemagne, according to a family tree done in the 70's that my cousin has been updating.
Marcel Martel the actor was my fathers cousin.

Basically my fathers side of the family were hard corp Canadian french.


Sisters results were
My sisters results from were Ancestry DNA shows her ethnicity to be 31% Greek/Italian and 28% Irish.  Looks like ancestors transitioned to the Quebec area back in the 1800s, so they say.

I think they went by names and its a lot of BS. I think she was ripped off. I wonder if they had a BS form with that?


Inside Edition results on DNA Testing. no higher than 50/50

http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/21784-how-reliable-are-home-dna-ancestry-tests-investigation-uses-triplets-to-find-out

De-bunker article

http://www.medicaldaily.com/dna-ancestry-tests-are-meaningless-your-historical-genealogy-search-244586


What do you think?

In before it's an NSA data collection plot?  

Both my parents did that test.  Dads came back as being from eastern Europe, his family has lived in Hungary or Russia (depending on what year and what map) for many many generations, so it was spot on.  Mom is Irish and German and hers came back 75% Nordic and the rest Middle Eastern, not surprising as the Vikings moved onto the European continent and so did the middle westerners a long time ago.  Both seem correct.

I think the results go back too many generations to be of anything other than an interesting tidbit.

I was wondering the other day if it was one of these kits that made Fauxcahonitis think she's a squaw.

The fact that my results mostly fit our family history and that Ancestry listed several of my cousins, labeled correctly as 1st cousin, 2nd cousin, etc... convinced me it's pretty legit.  Not 100% accurate but in the ballpark. 

You fail to understand DNA tests and Ethnic test are two different things. 

The DNA test is designed to determine who you are related to.

The Ethnic test added by Ancestry dot con is a junk science add-on. Replace the "ethnic" countries with continents and add a 10,000 year time frame to move it back into honest science.

So that swarthy tanned skin and dark hair was not an from an indian princess???

Looks like all testing labs are not the same.

Ancestry's ethnicity tests gets criticized as being the most inaccurate of all the testing companies

My niece looks very much Indian. She could ave passed off as an Indian Princes in her late teens.

I think the test was a waste of money.

This.

Note the Inside Edition mentions it and that Ancestry is changing the algorithm to correct the problem.

Like I said. Its BS.

It's mostly legit, as long as you're not reading into it too deeply.   It can really only give you a general overview of populations you're descended from whose genes made it down to you.


And it can't tell you that your great great grandmother was boning the neighbor and that's why your "English" heritage is tainted with French DNA.  Only that someone back when was boning a frog.

Oh, and you are related to Charlemagne.

My FIL's was spot on English descent on both sides next was Indian (India), then about 15% of random results.  My MIL was adopted and we have no clue what she could have been, we all thought Greek or Italian, came back with the results of straight Western European descent.

Maybe they do work.

We are all related to Charlemagne.  Grampa Charley was, ahem, prolific.

Meh, I trust it if only because it made Oprah cry; she was so convinced she was descended from some Zulu queen but it turned out she was just some other squat West African munt taken slave by RoPers like 99% of the rest of the blacks in America...BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

For me I think it's legit,  it says I'm 100% northwest European, and according to my genealogy every side of my family has been in Virginia since the 1680s.  They where all welsh, northern English or Scottish.

Unless you're worried about some really bad genetic predisposition for cancer, heart disease, or whatever, they're not really good for anything except posting the results on Facebook.

@sneadhearn

The results for who you are related to are real. The ethnicity breakdown is misunderstood and so for what people try to use it for it is BS.  Fun conversation subject.

Not true. They can be used by historians to find bloodlines and fill in information about people or families.

I know I was asked to take one by a historian with the NPS.

I sent in my 23 and me sample a few weeks ago.  Waiting...............

Taking a test to look for genetic predispositions isn't a bad thing. Angelina Jolie's case of having the sweater puppies removed to prevent dieing early from breast cancer attracted a lot of attention to the BRCA1 & 2 genes. But she lost 3 female relatives to breast cancer and 3 to ovarian cancer. She had reason to be concerned. (Moment of silence for lost sweater puppies.)

23andMe's focus is on genetic health and they are back to doing (limited) reports on the samples in their database, and what people self-report by taking survey's.

Taking a test at any of the three big testing outfits means you can also use your results to get a readback on possible genetic issues with an outfit called Promothease. They'll look at your genetic code and compare you results against published research into genetics. (I think it costs $5.) Now, it's not the same as having a genetic counselor, but it can point out some 'red-flag' issues.

As always, don't rely on a $5 test to make a life changing decision. Test says you have an elevated chance of heart attack - think about your diet, or seeing a cardiologist. BRCA 1 comes back with the bad tag, and you've lost relatives to breast cancer - I wouldn't do an Angelina, but I might talk to a doctor or two.

Ethnicity is a different kettle of fish. Mostly.
There are genetic illness that can be passed along. Tay-Sach. Huntington's Chorea. Sickle cell anemia. Many, many more.

But if you're 99% European on paper and you're positive for sickle-cell - that's a danged unlikely combination, with out there being some Non Paternal Event somewhere along the line.

But at the top of those results - it says "ESTIMATES". Meaning, it could be wrong!
I'm 99.8% European, according to one of those tests. But the .2% Middle Eastern makes me wonder just what happened, way back when.

Dude, she is NOT my sister!

OP, on the plus side, your whole lineage are now mormons...

Yeah they are full of crap, guy I worked with was 100% African, as in he was born in a tribe and adopting/ immigration came here when he was 2.

His:

12% African
17% Irish
30ish% Western Indian

Other misc bullshit.