[www.23andme.com] has been a subject of interest on this forum so I thought I would post regarding my own genetic testing. I participated before the FDA shut down the medical side of things. That was my primary reason for doing the testing and I did learn some things.

The genetic side wasn't even a thought for me but has yielded some interesting contacts. My family is white. Very white. We were aware of a dominant scottish background as well as some german/russian. The genetic testing fit our own findings exactly. Then came the interesting part. I apparently have a black cousin. Very black.

We have been exchanging emails and she seems to be a very kind and compassionate woman. Dedicated to her family. I've really enjoyed talking to her. I have to admit I'm extremely curious how we came to be...related.

So 23andme is a pretty interesting experience. I need to take more time to study my results.

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

Probably the same way that Thomas Jefferson's black relatives became relatives.

[www.monticello.org]

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

My wife's results showed a 2nd cousin who has also been tested by 23&me. As most of our relatives are in India, she reached out to the one possibility in the US, and sure enough he was the one.

Pretty interesting results overall. I'm waiting for my analysis.

What a great discovery and a gift to you both, you never know where these connections will lead but at the least you know more about yourself and your past.

Was just discussing this exact thing with my mom, aunt and son over lunch. I have extensive knowledge of my mom's ancestry but almost none on my Dad, so I'm considering that National Geo kit as one starting point. We are also of the Scots Irish variety with some French in there, but my maternal grandmother's grandmother was Cherokee.

[www.amazon.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2014 01:57PM by wolfcry911.

Hey! We're all one big happy family!

Even more impressive, the geneticists concluded that every person on Earth right now can trace his or her lineage back to a single common female ancestor who lived around 200,000 years ago. Because one entire branch of human lineage is of African origin and the other contains African lineage as well, the study's authors concluded Africa is the place where this woman lived. The scientists named this common female ancestor Mitochondrial Eve.

That's an interesting finding. I'm Jewish from Eastern European decent on both parent's sides. My wife's family is Scotch-Irish and German. They are all not Jewish. Her sister's husband is black but claimed some possible Native American ancestry.

My father-in-law's family settled in NW Ohio several generations ago. His ancestors helped found the town he grew up in (they have a historical marker with their names on it). While her family does not claim any Jewish ancestry, the original immigrants were from Germany and had somewhat, Jewish-sounding names.

My sister-in-law is a genetic counselor, so she and her husband did similar testing to 23andme. The results showed that her family evidently does not have any Jewish ancestry (just Germanic first and last names), nor does her husband have any Native American ancestors. It seems that with this testing, their family just got less interesting.

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DavidS
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While her family does not claim any Jewish ancestry, the original immigrants were from Germany and had somewhat, Jewish-sounding names.

Thinking the names were Jewish-sounding could be based on a common misunderstanding. That misunderstanding was caused by laws passed in the early 1800's in various German states that required Jews to adopt Germanic family names. Those laws stayed in effect and spread to rest of Germany after unification in the mid-1800's. Hence for example, sometimes people have assumed I might be Jewish because I have a common German surname that was also adopted by a number of Jewish families back in the 1800's. In fact, most with that name were either Roman Catholic or Lutheran depending on which region of Germany their ancestors emigrated from.

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JoeH

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DavidS
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While her family does not claim any Jewish ancestry, the original immigrants were from Germany and had somewhat, Jewish-sounding names.

Thinking the names were Jewish-sounding could be based on a common misunderstanding. That misunderstanding was caused by laws passed in the early 1800's in various German states that required Jews to adopt Germanic family names. Those laws stayed in effect and spread to rest of Germany after unification in the mid-1800's. Hence for example, sometimes people have assumed I might be Jewish because I have a common German surname that was also adopted by a number of Jewish families back in the 1800's. In fact, most with that name were either Roman Catholic or Lutheran depending on which region of Germany their ancestors emigrated from.

You are very correct and we assume that is the case here - my incorrect assumptions. My boss has the same thing happen to him. People assume he is Jewish b/c of his last name, but he is Roman Catholic.