OT Ancestry.com OT

GrillSgt

For some reason the 23.... thread has been pinned to the bottom even though there were fresh posts yesterday. So I decided to restart it because it seemed that there was a lot interest in the original thread. 

The wife’s came in today. She is from the maritime province of Prince Edward Island Canada. Up until 30 years ago PEI was quite Euro white except for a fair size colony of Lebanese. The island was originally settled by the French (Acadian) who were largely chased to Louisiana (Cajun). Chased by the Scots and later settled by Irish. Her DNA showed the she was 68% Scot-Irish, 31% French and 1% Native. It also showed that her DNA was present in the Acadian exodus. Pretty spot on. 

GrillSgt

So I’m going to take a guess at mine. Paternal grandfather Prussian which will probably show as German. Paternal grandmother Irish. Both were 1880ish immigrants. Maternal grandfather was British but mid 1700s so I’m guessing quite a mix. Maternal grandmother no idea but I always suspected some African heritage. 

Gulfcoastguy

Eventually I will try another service but I want to have more time to explore this one.

gdenby

While I do have some info on Ancestry that were included into a family tree by a very distant cousin, I haven't been so interested in DNA tests. History interests me, genetics not so much. "Your tests indicate that you are .005% Neanderthal, and .001% Denisovan." Aw, crap, now my health insurance will go up 'cause they know I'm already part extinct.

Fred19Flintstone

Fred19Flintstone

berndcrisp

An extremely racsist neighbor who has a confederate flag tattoo on the back of head had his ancestry dna done. He is 18% African descent.

milesvdustin

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahagagagaha

Teefus

I have a lifelong friend whose mother was adopted. She recently did the DNA thing and was alerted that she had a number of matches. Those folks were alerted too, and reached out to her as the family lore was that a child had been given up for adoption way back when (she's about 80 now). It turns out that by blood she's the niece of one of the founders of the Grand Olde Opry. She has a whole bunch of long lost family in Tennessee. A meet and greet is scheduled for this summer.

GrillSgt

Ancestry.com on sale for $59

JohnEggGio

GrillSgt said:

Ancestry.com on sale for $59

Was just gonna post this - glad I looked first.  

https://www.ancestry.com/dna/?o_xid=87469&o_lid=87469&o_sch=External+Paid+Media 

GATraveller

Guess it should come as no surprise that the government is already accessing these databases.  

GrillSgt

Link? 

GATraveller

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

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/golden-state-killer-suspect-s-capture-sparks-dna-site-privacy-n869661

http://fortune.com/2018/04/27/golden-state-killer-dna-genealogy/

https://www.livescience.com/62421-golden-state-killer-dna-genealogy.html

SemolinaPilchard

It amazes me that people are paying to put Alexa type listening devices in their homes and paying to put themselves in a govt. DNA database. The crime database thing is fine with me, like Sammy Davis, Jr. used to sing "don't do the crime if you can't do the time," but you know these databases will be hacked, and how are you going to get health insurance when they know you're likely to get a disease in the future. As time goes on I can imagine the accuracy of predicting future diseases will be spot on.

GrillSgt

You realize the government can access your phone calls, texts, emails, medical records, financial records, etc. They need a search warrant same as for their access to your dna. Looks like it had a very positive result in this case. 

GrillSgt

It wouldn’t make any difference under the ACA. 

SemolinaPilchard

@GrillSgt First of all, why hand it to them on a silver platter, and, as I said, I have no problem at all if people want to jump into a DNA criminal database, although it does amaze me. Second of all, would you like to talk about the potential for health and life insurance companies to know what diseases that you are likely to have, which was my main point?

TEXASBGE2018

We were having this debate at work today. I agree with GrillSgt in that if the Govt wants your info they can get it, and lets be honest if they really want it they don't even need a warrant. They will just take it. Its a free country so if someone wants to put their info in a database openly that's their business. I for one would never feel the need to know whether I am 17% African or 98% Western European. I have a small family, there are only about 20 of us in the entire world. If I really need to know if I have a risk of Alzheimer's or something I can make a phone call or email to my cousins or family members. Personally, if I'm at risk of that stuff there isn't much I can do about it really anyways. Everyone dies eventually.

SemolinaPilchard

GrillSgt said:

It wouldn’t make any difference under the ACA. 

You are sure that the ACA will always be in place?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I'm not as worried about the Gub'ment although only because they are going to get it one way or the other if they really want to. This information will leak, or be sold to people like Cambridge Analytica where horrible people will have information way more sensitive than your credit card number. This is insane to me. Wouldn't do it if I got paid. 

GATraveller

But the government only uses information for the powers of good.....amirite!?!

HeavyG

GrillSgt said:

You realize the government can access your phone calls, texts, emails, medical records, financial records, etc. They need a search warrant same as for their access to your dna. Looks like it had a very positive result in this case. 

Both Ancestry and 23andMe say they only release DNA info when provided with a court order. Fair enough.

In the GSK case (according to one of the links @GATraveller provided) the DNA profile was from a different source and voluntarily/publically provided:

"In the case of the Golden State Killer, lead investigator Paul Holes said his team used GEDmatch, a Florida-based website that pools raw genetic profiles that people share publicly, The Mercury News reports."

If people choose to make their DNA info public can't really knock government authorities for utilizing that resource.

DMW

Both of the major DNA collection companies already sell DNA info to pharma companies for research purposes, anonymized supposedly. 

JohnEggGio

Just saying, if identifying my dna as being from a 3rd cousin of a serial killer helps identify and apprehend the bastard, I think I’m ok with that.

GrillSgt

It’s obviously not simply black or white. However, when you say that the govt. is accessing the dna database without the caveat that they need a warrant it makes one think that someone’s tin hat is slightly askew. 

I do do worry about my devices knowing where I am all the time. I have freely given up that privacy in exchange for the convenience it brings to me. My choice but if that isn’t your choice I’m not going to chide you for it. 

TEXASBGE2018

GrillSgt said:

It’s obviously not simply black or white. However, when you say that the govt. is accessing the dna database without the caveat that they need a warrant it makes one think that someone’s tin hat is slightly askew. 

I do do worry about my devices knowing where I am all the time. I have freely given up that privacy in exchange for the convenience it brings to me. My choice but if that isn’t your choice I’m not going to chide you for it. 

Its not Tinfoil Hat stuff, If the government needs information on you bad enough, they have ways of gaining that information legally or not. The NSA and other Agencies have people sitting in rooms, dozens of people and all they do is look at social media information and analyze google search queries all day. Heck, I read something about a former I believe it was Facebook engineer that was saying something about how facebook has hundreds of low level software engineers that all they do all day,every day is look at naked pictures that people have taken that they think are deleted from their phones. They do it for the purposes of analyzing peoples sexual habits to fine tune their apps. It was part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

TEXASBGE2018

If they are doing that, what do you think the best computer hackers in the world that work for the NSA and CIA and FBI are doing? My point is just that if they want to do it, they could do it without blinking an eye. They wouldn't care about legality because they would be able to hack someone without them ever even knowing. Know using the information gained to prosecute someone would be a whole other thing.

GrillSgt

Geez. I didn’t say it was tinfoil hat. 

lkapigian

Massage Parlors in my town collect DNA all the time, thinking they might work for the government as well?

Gulfcoastguy

Actually, they could just monitor people's Facebook pages. That would tell them the health of most of their relatives, where they like to go, if they drink or smoke, if they play hazardous sports etc. Google even knows what you are going to do before you do it.