Have you ever done a DNA test?

I did a DNA test with AncestryDNA (Ancestry.com) and my results were a little interesting. It estimated my ethnicity in two vague time periods, hundreds of years ago and thousands of years ago.

In the "thousands of years ago" period, my ethnicity was 94% European, 2% South Central African, 2% East Asian, 1% Native American, and less than 1% Pacific Islander. The non-European regions were called "Low Confidence Regions", so it means I may or may not have ethnicity from those regions.

The European portion was broken down to 80% Scandinavian (mainly Norwegian), 6% Europe West (I'm assuming that's my French ancestry), 5% British, and two Low Confidence Regions: 2% Irish and 1% Finnish.

The African, East Asian, and Native American regions weren't specific with what ethnic groups/tribe(s) I might be descended from, likely because of low percentages.

Under the "hundreds of years ago" period, it just emphasized my Norwegian background and said it's where my family likely lived a few hundred years ago. It heavily emphasized central and eastern Norway as to where they might have lived.

I clicked on "Eastern Norwegians" and got a list of common last names in the area. I was born with the last name "Pederson" and found it interesting to see that particular spelling listed along with the much more common "Peterson". My mom changed her former surname, Schwantes, back to her maiden name, Reopelle, a few years ago. I also had my surname changed to Reopelle because I never knew my biological father's side of the family since mom divorced him when I was two, so I've only been close to my mom's side.

I read on the site that genetic inheritance is random and two siblings can have different percentages of ethnic backgrounds despite having the same parents, which I didn't know before.

Apparently as more people take the test and the science improves, it may change your ethnicity estimates. I'd say it was pretty accurate with my Scandinavian ancestry. My mom told me I was three-quarters (75%) Scandinavian; she was only 5% off, LOL.

Have you done a test like this before? If so, were you surprised by your results?

I have not but it sounds interesting. I think if I were to do a DNA test though, it would be in hopes that it would tell me I'm adopted :p

Hi korvus! :D

How are you my friend? :)

Doing pretty good. I graduated college, had an interview yesterday, and I take my boards exam next week.

How about you?

Awww, I thought this was about those genes tests to check your predisposition to some diseases etc.

Nah, I haven't had a test like the one you describe.

Where do we get one done ? And does it cost us $$ ?

@LexLas: You can order it online for $99 plus shipping (per kit). Once you get the kit, you spit into a tube and mail it back. Takes about two months to get your results. High demand plus the lab work is why it takes long.

You order directly off the site and the kit comes with directions.

I know 23andme has a test like that.

um nope. It could get mixed up, and they will say i'm from some other planet or something.

Nope.

Yeah, I spend a good 1/3 of my life thinking I might fall somewhere on the spectrum, a DNA test would prove or disprove that, right? Once and for all?

Yeah, I'm interested in doing that. I'll wait until I'm back in Canada. I'm not paying the shipping fees in Australia, f* that.

Yeah, i want to try it. Sounds like it may be pretty fun.

No, but I want to have the heritage one done, but not sure whether I want to go through Ancestry, or a university lab. I'm really eager to know my actual heritage beyond what I already know (back 6 generations). I've gone back on Wikitree (through very vague connections) and have traced a line back to Charles Martel, one of the real life Merovingians from the era of Charlemagne. I doubt it's a true connection, but I need to know.

Nah. I already know I'm a mutt. ;)

I thought this was going to be about some baby mama drama. I was getting my popcorn ready.

No, I have thought about it but all I know for sure is that I may have some native heritage from my dad's side of the family.

No. Don't see much of a reason since I know that I'm a mutt. I know I have some Cherokee, African, Irish, and a pinch of European blood. Probably others there but again, I'm not all that interested in finding out...

sounds interesting

never done it

My heritage pretty much comes from Puerto Rico but however, some of our heritage was lost due to my ancestors migrating to the U.S but I would like to try this AncestryDNA one day. Sounds pretty interesting what you describe.

I would be interested in doing it. I assume it will be Scandinavian for the first few generations. More than that I got no idea.

Yes, here's where I'm from:

All I knew going in was that I'm half black on my mom's side and half white on my dad's (probably Irish since I have some reddish hair). My results were a little surprising in that the African portion only accounted for about a third instead of half, but as my wife pointed out that makes sense for someone who's half African American because most are not purely African (note the difference between Djimon Hounsou and say... Will Smith). As for the rest, I was all over the map (literally).

On the Africa side I've got Benin/Togo, Cameroon/Congo, Ivory Coast/Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Central Africa. The next big chunk was Western Europe and Ireland. Then I had small percentages of East and South Asia, Scandinavia, Italy/Greece, European Jewish, Polynesia, Middle East, and Caucasus. Just about the only thing I didn't have at least a little bit of was Native American, which was a little surprising considering that's frequently intermingled with African American.

-Byshop

Well, it seems if you go back far enough, most of us will have an ancestor or eighty from different parts of the world. Thanks for sharing. :)

I've seen the results from others who have done the same test. Most don't get quite as much variety as I did (my wife jokes that I got more money's worth than most). My wife is German/Irish and we're waiting to see her result.

-Byshop

I was just talking to a co-worker who got her results in today, and it turns out she has Spanish in her. She thought she was mostly Irish. I'm wondering about the accuracy of all this. I'm pretty sure I'm mostly European. Maybe I'll take it just for the hell of it.

I'm going to try a different service just to see how closely they match up. Lower percentages are now labelled as (low confidence) in AncestryDNA whereas they weren't before.

-Byshop

My mother has tired it and it revealed she was like 46 native american (mayan) and the other half being European descent. Like partial Asian and African, some middle eastern blood as well.

LOL. My wife just got her results back. 99% European.

-Byshop

I've only done them to prove/disprove people were related to me. The ethnicity were in the tests, but we weren't really paying attention to THAT. It was more like: "Thank God we're related/not related" kind of thing.

One guy thought he was my dad, and I had to prove my sister was my twin.

My brother did that so no need. It's a bit general.

I thought about it. I know Im half asian and half white.. but it would be interesting to see what the test results would say.