Ancestry DNA: Would you or wouldn't you?

[puppymommo]

One of my main hobbies is genealogy. I know the birthplace (city or at least country) for all of my ancestors who immigrated. I may not know the year they arrived but usually within a few years. But I have gone about as far as I can go without going back "to the old country". I have thought from time to time about having my ancestry DNA tested, either through Ancestry.com, 23 and Me, National Geographic. There are many more companies. I have a family tree up on Ancestry.com and some of my cousins are on there as well. They are currently running a special of $59, which they claim is the cheapest they have ever done. For me, cost isn't really the prohibitive factor. I have more privacy concerns. Do I really want my complete DNA sequence "out there"? What if it falls into the wrong hands? Like say a health insurance or life insurance company. I'm not really concerned about any future descendants being caught for a crime based on my DNA. What about you? Have you done this? Would you? Why or why not?

 

[Panina]

One of my main hobbies is genealogy. I know the birthplace (city or at least country) for all of my ancestors who immigrated. I may not know the year they arrived but usually within a few years. But I have gone about as far as I can go without going back "to the old country". I have thought from time to time about having my ancestry DNA tested, either through Ancestry.com, 23 and Me, National Geographic. There are many more companies. I have a family tree up on Ancestry.com and some of my cousins are on there as well. They are currently running a special of $59, which they claim is the cheapest they have ever done. For me, cost isn't really the prohibitive factor. I have more privacy concerns. Do I really want my complete DNA sequence "out there"? What if it falls into the wrong hands? Like say a health insurance or life insurance company. I'm not really concerned about any future descendants being caught for a crime based on my DNA. What about you? Have you done this? Would you? Why or why not?

I have many times wanted to take the test but held back for the reasons you stated. Thinking about it now, there is so much that is known about each us that we aren’t aware of. Our privacy is gone.

Years ago for my real estate license I had to get fingerprinted at the police station. I wonder if some of my dna is in the mix. I think if the laws in the future allow insurance companies to use this info then they probably can get it from our next blood test too. I think I will do one of the ancestry dna tests, now which one is the question.

 

[bogey21]

I had genetic testing done a couple of years ago (around age 80) because I wanted to know if my body was harboring any cancer susceptible genes. I had it done at a major hospital that specializes in genetic testing. It wasn't a cheap process as I first had to provide 3 generations worth of dates of birth, dates of death and causes of death before the hospital would go forward with the testing. Based on this data I didn't qualify for Medicare to cover the genetic testing so I had to pay for everything out of pocket. I think all in all I spent about $2,000. The good news is that I came back genetically clean. Am I glad I had it done? Yes! As an aside I suspect that today one doesn't have to jump through all the hoops I had to....

George

 

[bbodb1]

I will never place my DNA in the hands of anyone willingly. There are simply far too many potential misuses that can occur - and none of them are likely to be positive for the consumer.

Someone will likely point to contracts and laws about confidentiality.
I'll reply with a list of all the hacks done in recent years.
Once your data is on a computer, you have lost the ability to control the access to it.

 

[DaveNV]

As a retired Navy veteran, I've had so much blood drawn so many times, I kind of gave up on trying to preserve any shred of privacy on that score. I'm sure I'm in databases everywhere. So yes, I did the DNA test at Ancestry. I wanted to see those skeletons in my genetic closet. My family genealogy shows my roots are in Scotland, Ireland, and England, but I wanted Ancestry to show me some deep African or Asian outliers for this very British Isles caucasian guy.

Well, when the test came back, guess what? Yep, you're right! I'm 96% Scottish, Irish, and English. And the other 4% is from those countries just across the English Channel - France, Belgium, and a smidge of Scandinavia. Not a trace of African, Asian, or American Indian. Nothing but white folks from way, way back. I can't even claim obscure Hawaiian roots, even though I feel so connected to the Islands. To quote one of my favorite lines from the movie "The Descendents," George Clooney's character says to his relative, "We're haole as sh*t."

Oh well, so it goes. <sigh>

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

Now, having said ^^^ that, my daughter has become a major advocate of Ancestry's DNA work. Her genetics are a mess, due to her Mother's side of the house. Through Ancestry, and connecting to others who have had the test done, she has made deep inroads to finding the genealogy of her family tree. Many suspected connections that were unproven on her maternal side have come to the fore, and she has filled in many, many blanks for her various relatives, who all wanted to know. She's sold on it.

Dave

 

[Glynda]

I have had my DNA tested at Ancestry.com and 23andme. If it is a family tree you want to build, Ancestry is the best for that. If you want medical information; that would be 23andme along with uploading your data to promethease.com for a more comprehensive report. You can also upload your Ancestry.com data to Promethese. I see no reason not to test. As others have stated, insurance companies, authorities, thieves, can get my DNA from other sources.

 

[x3 skier]

Never felt the need for DNA testing but have zero concern about DNA records. Nor phone tracking, or internet use or street cameras or anything else that privacy advocates wring their hands about.

I just simply don’t feel the worry about such stuff is worth the energy.

Cheers

 

[vacationhopeful]

I am a 10th generation American on my father's side. Thanks to info from the local historical society and its pubished family tree book. And that the founding date of 'the family Quaker village" was in 1682. The family home was built in 1702 ... which is still owned by my 92yo aunt.

As for my mother, she was a first generation Dutch born in the USA child (or her parents were from Holland as she said). Both of her parents ... one from the northern part and the other from the southern part of Holland.

My parents met and married in Japan as they were both part of the US occupancy force in 1945. Or as I like to say, "My mom met & married my dad in Japan, 1947 coming home with her NJ husband."

 

[Miss Marty]

Ancestry

Basic Information

Order a Test Kit

Activate DNA kit
Your unique activation code is located on
the sample collection tube. The code is a
combination of 15 numbers and letters

Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line.
Replace the funnel with the cap, place in bag.

Submit Sample by Regular Mail

When your results are ready,
you will be contacted by email

Your Test Results will show

DNA Story, Ethnicity Estimates
Shared Ancestor Hints, Matches
DNA Circles - These are people
who are in your family tree

You can compare results with others
who have been tested and are a match.

So many matches have not logged in awhile,
don`t have online family trees & do not reply.

It was a waste of money.

 

[Helaine]

I was interested in getting DNA testing done, but slowed down when I read The DNA results can't be used for life insurance - to determine coverage or rates - but they can be used when you want disability insurance, life insurance Long Term Care etc. - to deny you or to charge you higher rates.

I also read about the lax privacy protections at many of the companies and that they sell your anonymized information to many companies and research establishments. Some researchers have found that they can "decode" the information and find out who 80% of the people are. And the information is in databases to which access is sold, although some are public, so the information could become as commonly available as social security numbers in the future.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realsp...cy-delusions-of-genetic-testing/#5163d7e31bba
"For instance, 23andMe has sold access to its database to at least 13 outside pharmaceutical firms. One buyer, Genentech, ponied up a cool $10 million for the genetic profiles of people suffering from Parkinson's. AncestryDNA, another popular personal genetics company, recently announced a lucrative data-sharing partnership with the biotech company Calico.

Customers are wrong to think their information is safely locked away. It's not; it's getting sold far and wide. Many testing firms that generally don’t sell patient information, such as Ambry and Invitae, give it away to public databases. Such transfers, as privacy consultant Bob Gellman puts it, leave a "big gap in protections." Hacks are inevitable. Easily accessible, public genetic depositories are obvious targets."

 

[Panina]

I was interested in getting DNA testing done, but slowed down when I read The DNA results can't be used for life insurance - to determine coverage or rates - but they can be used when you want disability insurance, life insurance or Long Term Care.

I also read about the lax privacy protections at many of the companies and that they sell your anonymized information to many companies and research establishments. Some researchers have found that they can "decode" the information and find out who 80% of the people are.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realsp...cy-delusions-of-genetic-testing/#5163d7e31bba
"For instance, 23andMe has sold access to its database to at least 13 outside pharmaceutical firms. One buyer, Genentech, ponied up a cool $10 million for the genetic profiles of people suffering from Parkinson's. AncestryDNA, another popular personal genetics company, recently announced a lucrative data-sharing partnership with the biotech company Calico.

Customers are wrong to think their information is safely locked away. It's not; it's getting sold far and wide. Many testing firms that generally don’t sell patient information, such as Ambry and Invitae, give it away to public databases. Such transfers, as privacy consultant Bob Gellman puts it, leave a "big gap in protections." Hacks are inevitable. Easily accessible, public genetic depositories are obvious targets."

I think I am back to no, bummed

 

[Trudyt623]

Funny I read this tonight. This afternoon I went with my 16 year old son to purchase a 23 and me kit so that he can trace our ancestry. I said have at it. I know enough to satisfy me and dad agrees but, if you want to know more okay, but I did not allow him to access the medical portion because I don't want him or my 21 year old daughter agonizing over what may happen or could happen....

Trudy

 

[MULTIZ321]

My Ancestry Test Revealed a Genetic Bombshell
By Eric Spitznagel/ Living/ New York Post/ nypost.com

"When Linda Ketchum of Glendale, Calif., asked her husband for an AncestryDNA kit for Christmas, it was just a lark. She had no family secrets she was trying to uncover, no genealogy mysteries that needed answers. She was just curious.

“My dad was German, and my mother was Scottish-English,” she says. “I thought it’d be fun to learn a little about my genetic ethnicity, to trace how all the pieces came together.” But she ended up getting far more than she bargained for.

When she went on the AncestryDNA site to view her DNA matches, there were no connections between her and her father. Even more unsettling, at least two-thirds of Ketchum’s matches had Hispanic surnames. “At first I didn’t believe it,” she says. “But then I kept re-checking it, and I realized, oh my God, does this mean I’m . . . I’m Hispanic! All these years I thought I was German on my dad’s side, but all of a sudden it was dawning on me that my dad wasn’t my real dad and I had an entirely different ethnicity.”

At 51, half a century into her life, Ketchum’s familial and cultural identity had changed in an instant. “I looked in the mirror, and I didn’t know who I was anymore,” she says. “Every Hispanic person I saw on the street, I thought, ‘Are you my cousin?’ ”

As an only child whose parents were both deceased, she had nobody to turn to for answers. So she kept searching on AncestryDNA. She finally discovered the identity of her biological father, Bill Chavez of New Mexico, who had died when Ketchum was just 17.

“It kind of consumed me,” says the mother of eight. “I still wonder sometimes, would my life have been different if I’d known this earlier? My real father, my actual grandparents, they all spoke fluent Spanish. I can’t even speak a word of it!”

She joined a secret Facebook community called DNA NPE Friends—NPE is short for “Not Parent Expected”— and found not just the support she needed but a reminder that she’s far from alone....."

Linda Ketchum discovered that her father wasn't her real dad -- and she was Hispanic. John Chapple


Richard

 

[klpca]

Not in a million years would I do DNA testing. It's only a matter of time before they use this to set health insurance rates or exclude you altogether. I tend to be weird about what little remaining privacy we have. I'm glad that they caught the Golden State Killer though.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Who says you have to use your real name when you submit your dna to these sites.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cissy]

Ancestry

Basic Information

Order a Test Kit

Activate DNA kit
Your unique activation code is located on
the sample collection tube. The code is a
combination of 15 numbers and letters

Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line.
Replace the funnel with the cap, place in bag.

Submit Sample by Regular Mail

When your results are ready,
you will be contacted by email

Your Test Results will show

DNA Story, Ethnicity Estimates
Shared Ancestor Hints, Matches
DNA Circles - These are people
who are in your family tree

You can compare results with others
who have been tested and are a match.

So many matches have not logged in awhile,
don`t have online family trees & do not reply.

It was a waste of money.

I agree. My results came back 67% Eastern European. I already knew that. That's a pretty broad result. I was looking for more detail, and didn't get it.

 

[Talent312]

I sent my DNA to Ancestry.com.
It came back 20% Norwegian - 80% Butter.
-- Comic Louie Anderson

I told this joke to my doc and he was not amused.
"You do need to improve your diet."

.

 

[presley]

I only thought about doing it because i have a brother who did it and I wanted to see if our results came out the same. I decided not to do it because he contacts people who are a match. I just don't care about meeting people like that and I don't need long lost relatives contacting me. I barely have enough time for my own inner circle as it is. I don't need more people.

 

[taterhed]

Please please don't think this is political. It's not. It's merely sociology and human-nature related....

1. I find it very.....insightful....that a grown woman with all her thoughts, habits and mores etc... suddenly finds out that she's been checking the wrong box all these years...... I'm not being disrespectful and callous....but it just goes to show you: much of what we feel, think and believe is only skin deep. It's the old nature vs nurture. Obviously this varies person to person etc.... but I think it's a fascinating view on racial bias, self-awareness and stereotypes....well, you know the rest.

2. Everyone here knows, or should know, that health-care as a whole is moving to electronic medical records. Running a DNA test might certainly pole-vault your cloud-based information ahead 20 years or so, but do you really think you're avoiding the risk of having your data compromised by not buying a DNA test? Heck, swap names if it makes you feel safer, but really? Anyone or anything can be hacked, speared, phished or exploited if the dice land on the right square.

3. I know everyone hates big pharma. It's like hating GMO crops and non-organic milk. It's got to be bad, right? My opinion: if they sell/give/steal my data--preferably anonymously--and find a cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Cancer or tomfoolery..... I'm all for it. Bring-on those new pills to extend my quality/time of life another five years. Hope it gives my kids an extra 20.

I think I'll do this. Heck, all my data has been given to the Chinese years ago.... (ok, maybe not Chinese....fill in your favorite 'villain' country instead)

For the full-deal ancestry, medical etc... online (not in the hospital) what's the best solution, company or product? I appreciate your advice......

Oh yea, I was adopted from the Humane Society, so I'll be interested to know and what my Dam and Sire were....

 

[Glynda]

Ancestry

So many matches have not logged in awhile,
don`t have online family trees & do not reply.

It was a waste of money.

Given that I was adopted, I've found it to be a great help.

 

[bbodb1]

FWIW: Giving a false name doesn't really offer much protection given that you have to somehow pay for these tests. Rest assured your payment method is linked to your test....you are never anonymous with these companies....

 

[Panina]

Who says you have to use your real name when you submit your dna to these sites.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Everything is link

FWIW: Giving a false name doesn't really offer much protection given that you have to somehow pay for these tests. Rest assured your payment method is linked to your test....you are never anonymous with these companies....

You have to go through a bit to hide your identity and then I am sure I missed something.

Use a public computer.
Set up an email address under a different alias identity.
Buy a Visa gift card with cash to pay test company for additional services.
Buy the test at a store with cash.

As I write this I am saying REALLY?

 

[theo]

I have no particular interest in ancestry.com or the like. I know plenty enough about my ancestry already, thanks.

That said, it occurs to me that since I have been a Red Cross blood donor many times over the years, I have to assume that the "DNA privacy" ship sailed for me long ago (and presumably for you, if you have ever donated blood).

I'm not in any way suggesting nefarious intent on the part of the Red Cross. I am merely noting that material for "running" my DNA has been provided many times over already and will be provided again in the future, privacy or "ancestry curiosity" notwithstanding.

 

[bluehende]

FWIW: Giving a false name doesn't really offer much protection given that you have to somehow pay for these tests. Rest assured your payment method is linked to your test....you are never anonymous with these companies....

Mine was a gift from our kids. Payment means little as it is not linked definitely to who is taking the test.