DNA Sequencing Megathread! Neanderthals, Denisovans and other ancient DNA!

[Valmy]

I exchanged DNA with a chick I work with (not the same one I mentioned earlier).

[crazy canuck]

I exchanged DNA with a chick I work with

An HR professional should know better than that.


*Runs for Cover*

[Caliga]

Although she is hot, yes, we didn't exchange DNA in that manner.

[garbon]

Not DNA based but I recently got a chance to look at a xeroxed copy of a book that my great great great grandfather's son wrote that has photographs of some of my more distant relatives in the past as well as basic names and dates for my relatives up to my maternal grandmother. Apparently it was a published book and there's even a copy at NYPL and the Library of Congress. Alongside it is a diagram done by same relative that traces through his mother*'s side roots back to William Bradford of Plymouth fame.

*or my great great great grandmother

[Caliga]

There's some society you can join if you have proven Mayflower ancestors.

[garbon]

What a bizarre organization.

[derspiess]

I had my mother do a DNA test also and the results just came back.  She is nearly 50% Scandinavian.

Also, there is this guy in my hometown who is an annoying old curmudgeonly nerd who my parents can't stand.  It turns out he is her third cousin.   She will not be pleased to find this out.

I have yet to have one done, but my dad's brother (who has been tracing our family history for decades) had one that came back with a bit more Scandinavian than we would have thought-- like 20-25% IIRC. 

I need to have one done.  Which test gives you the most bang for the buck, and guarantees 0% Irish?

[Josquius]

I really am curious to get it done. But just can't bring myself to blow 120 on it when it'll be a fraction of that in a few years.
Plus that you are their main product ala Google et al, yet you're paying them for you giving them your data.


I wonder. Why did you get your mother to do it?
I thought the results were able to show your paternal and maternal line.

[Caliga]

The Ancestry test is notorious for overestimating Scandinavian ancestry.  I guess maybe their test pool for 'Scandinavia' was too generic or something.  I know some of my English ancestry comes from areas settled by Scandinavians, so I was expecting that result (and all of my English ancestry is on my mother's side, so her much higher result than mine also makes sense).

The chick I mentioned earlier had her DNA tested by 23andme, and they apparently give you specific national breakdowns (she got 17% German, for example), which Ancestry doesn't always do.... my German ancestry was reported as 'Western European'.  Having said that, I've read articles stating that it's really impossible to distinguish Germans from Frenchies (at least those living outside of Provence, Languedoc, Brittany, etc.) at this point, so apparently Ancestry is in the right here in not trying to do that.

In regards to 'most bang for the buck', I think 23andme is still twice as expensive than Ancestry DNA, so it's hard to argue that Ancestry isn't the one for you if you're concerned about cost effectiveness.  However, the 23andme analysis is still somewhat more thorough.  For an example of that, there's another site called GEDMatch that will accept raw data uploads from both 23andme and Ancestry DNA, and then perform additional analysis on it.  It has a nifty tool that can look at raw data and predict someone's eye color.  For me, the result was way off in that it predicted I should have green eyes, which I don't.  For Heather, it predicted her eye color (very pale blue) exactly... because the 23andme data set with regard to eye color is more complete.  Both services only sample and record some of your DNA, but 23andme takes a larger sample.

[Caliga]

I really am curious to get it done. But just can't bring myself to blow 120 on it when it'll be a fraction of that in a few years.
Plus that you are their main product ala Google et al, yet you're paying them for you giving them your data.

You make a good point.  The cost of this has been coming down steadily as more services pop up, and will probably drop more still.

I wonder. Why did you get your mother to do it?
I thought the results were able to show your paternal and maternal line.

No, the results cannot distinguish what portion of your DNA came from your mother vs. your father.

However, because I got my mom to do it, I can look at matches for both of us and tell how I am related to people, maternally vs. paternally.

Also, even though my dad refused to take it (he's a bit of a paranoid nut), because I have my mother's DNA, I was able to use a tool on GEDMatch to reconstruct half of his DNA by process of elimination, which I can then use to find paternal-side relative matches. 

[jimmy olsen]

I really am curious to get it done. But just can't bring myself to blow 120 on it when it'll be a fraction of that in a few years.
Plus that you are their main product ala Google et al, yet you're paying them for you giving them your data.

You make a good point.  The cost of this has been coming down steadily as more services pop up, and will probably drop more still.

I wonder. Why did you get your mother to do it?
I thought the results were able to show your paternal and maternal line.

No, the results cannot distinguish what portion of your DNA came from your mother vs. your father.

They could, it would just cost a lot more.

[Caliga]

 

[jimmy olsen]

I seem to recall reading scientifc papers of ancient genomes where they can tell which parental line certain genes came from, whether that was more specific outside parental line a and b outside the sex chromosomes, I can't recall.

[Josquius]

I do remember reading about a woman who got tested on 23 and me and she was pissed off they couldn't tell her anything about her Y line.
Guess I took this to mean they have further details about parental and maternal lines, though of course there's more on each side than the pure x and pure y line.

[Caliga]

I seem to recall reading scientifc papers of ancient genomes where they can tell which parental line certain genes came from, whether that was more specific outside parental line a and b outside the sex chromosomes, I can't recall.

If you get certain types of test they can tell you your haplogroup but that's not the same as telling you which genes came from which parent.