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My spouse and I did these tests and the results have changed a fair amount over the years. Where initially there were some surprising, albeit trace, amounts of

My spouse and I did these tests and the results have changed a fair amount over the years. Where initially there were some surprising, albeit trace, amounts of DNA detected from certain ethnic groups, the results have now normalized down to what I would expect given my family history. If I had not checked in since my initial results I very well may have considered my ancestry to be something it's not. However, I increasingly question why I should care about my ancestry and what it says about me. I'm generations removed from those who arrived from foreign countries. I know less about what it means to be some of the ethnicities in my blood than those those that I'm not. I feel greater fellowship with others based on common interests than I do race. Next census I'll probably write in "American" or "Human", since these stats just seem to be used to advantage or disadvantage people based on group identity, regardless of their actual individual situation.

foxhop 5y ago
It matters at least for your choices of diet which regulates your health. I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database. That said, My family of origin did too and had a similar experience. It's all a scam there are YouTube videos of identical twins taking tests from the major players. The data science was flawed because there is no science or regulations. All these startups are winging it, it seems.
- daveFNbuck 5y ago
  If we don't have the data science to even know what peoples' distant ancestry is, how do you know it matters for choice of diet?
  - bqmjjx0kac 5y ago
    Maybe your ancestry per se is not so important, but your genotypes can reveal predisposition towards vitamin deficiencies. For example, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801754/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801754/ > Overall, the data analyzed suggests that ethnic-specific associations are involved in the genetic determination of vitamin B12 concentrations. Disclaimer: I am a biology dilettante
    - relax88 5y ago
      Considering most of the population doesn’t eat very healthy and rates of B12 deficiency are only ~6% I can’t imagine it would make much difference what your genetics are. Especially since many cases of deficiency will be the result of medical problems.
- tdfx 5y ago
  > I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database Use a fake name.
  - seoaeu 5y ago
    You do realize that a sample of your DNA could be traced back to you pretty easily, right? If a sibling or close relative was in the database it wouldn't take much to de-anonymize you
    - hyperbovine 5y ago
      If a sibling is in the database, it is almost immaterial whether or not you directly participate.
JPKab 5y ago
I agree 100% with your sentiment about not caring about who your ancestors are. I had a larger than expected percentage of African and native American ancestry but I'm not foolish enough to think it has any impact on who I am or my cultural biases. We've all seen those moments where an American goes to a country like Ireland and tries to awkwardly connect with them on a cultural level. It's silly and embarrassing because they are dramatically less Irish than a person with zero Irish ancestry who was raised there by immigrant parents. Not unlike the fact that an African American person has vastly more in common with an American of European ancestry than they do with any person in Africa that shares their genetics.
- tjs8rj 5y ago
  I feel more sad about those awkward moments than embarrassment. White Americans don’t really have a cultural heritage, or at least no common conception of it. They’re just left adrift, the “neutral option”, born as a blank slate with no suggestions as to the kind of person they can or should be. On paper that sounds freeing, but the fact that they awkwardly try to make that cultural connection - likely well aware of the awkwardness - suggests that they’re aware of some deeper experience they’re missing out on. Humans weren’t meant to be burdened with (re)inventing their entire cultural identity in their lifetime. Most people just get born into it. I can’t think of any other group than White Americans (perhaps White Canadians + White Australians to a lesser extent) who are left to do that.
  - pjc50 5y ago
    > White Americans don’t really have a cultural heritage, or at least no common conception of it They absolutely do, they just want to avoid thinking about it.
    - throwjd764glug 5y ago
      You mean inventing the ECMO machine currently saving lives from COVID? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygenation#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygen... Or inventing the transistor? Walking on the Moon? Fighting a bloody war to end slavery on their lands, and another war to stop the Barbary states from enslaving Americans and Europeans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War Pioneering powered flight? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers Inventing MRI, PET scans, and discovering the double helix structure of DNA? Building the societies and education systems that enabled those discoveries? Or do you mean just the bad stuff?
tomrod 5y ago
Mine was normal except for one trace. That trace has remained, whereas the expected populations have been whittled to one area -- which is not where my family heritage is from on either side. I have my doubts that the improved locations @ 23andMe are actually improvements.
MattGaiser 5y ago
> However, I increasingly question why I should care about my ancestry and what it says about me. I don’t personally care, but scholarships care, the government cares, boards care, universities care, employers care, etc and I otherwise look white but am really only half, so the few times I have been asked about it, the tests have been quite valuable.
- v0x 5y ago
  Have you had to provide the results from a DNA test to any of those groups? I've never been asked to "prove" what I've self-reported, even though I do not look anything like what I am checking off as my ethnicity.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    I haven't ever been challenged for proof, but typically provide it if anyone even questions it. Nobody demanded proof, but they questioned it, so I volunteered. One came from a recruiter with a diversity quota who mostly cared that I would be consistent and the other was for a scholarship for people with Jamaican background.
Aerroon 5y ago
>since these stats just seem to be used to advantage This is the problem though. If you can get into a better college, get a scholarship or get a better job because of it, then wouldn't you take advantage of this? I think a lot of people would.
- cwalv 5y ago
  I think they're saying that it's hard to see why it matters or is interesting intrinsically (i.e., if you didn't get any advantage by claiming some heritage, why else do you care?). Personally, I still find it interesting, but I agree that it is basically just a curiousity and has no bearing in my "identity" at this point.
oxymoran 5y ago
Exactly. We are all the resulting mutts of hundreds of thousands of years of breeding. “Race” is just the result of where your ancestors most recently lived.

foxhop 5y ago

It matters at least for your choices of diet which regulates your health. I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database. That said, My family of origin did too and had a similar experience. It's all a scam there are YouTube videos of identical twins taking tests from the major players. The data science was flawed because there is no science or regulations. All these startups are winging it, it seems.

daveFNbuck 5y ago
If we don't have the data science to even know what peoples' distant ancestry is, how do you know it matters for choice of diet?
- bqmjjx0kac 5y ago
  Maybe your ancestry per se is not so important, but your genotypes can reveal predisposition towards vitamin deficiencies. For example, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801754/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801754/ > Overall, the data analyzed suggests that ethnic-specific associations are involved in the genetic determination of vitamin B12 concentrations. Disclaimer: I am a biology dilettante
  - relax88 5y ago
    Considering most of the population doesn’t eat very healthy and rates of B12 deficiency are only ~6% I can’t imagine it would make much difference what your genetics are. Especially since many cases of deficiency will be the result of medical problems.
tdfx 5y ago
> I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database Use a fake name.
- seoaeu 5y ago
  You do realize that a sample of your DNA could be traced back to you pretty easily, right? If a sibling or close relative was in the database it wouldn't take much to de-anonymize you
  - hyperbovine 5y ago
    If a sibling is in the database, it is almost immaterial whether or not you directly participate.

JPKab 5y ago

I agree 100% with your sentiment about not caring about who your ancestors are. I had a larger than expected percentage of African and native American ancestry but I'm not foolish enough to think it has any impact on who I am or my cultural biases. We've all seen those moments where an American goes to a country like Ireland and tries to awkwardly connect with them on a cultural level. It's silly and embarrassing because they are dramatically less Irish than a person with zero Irish ancestry who was raised there by immigrant parents. Not unlike the fact that an African American person has vastly more in common with an American of European ancestry than they do with any person in Africa that shares their genetics.

tjs8rj 5y ago
I feel more sad about those awkward moments than embarrassment. White Americans don’t really have a cultural heritage, or at least no common conception of it. They’re just left adrift, the “neutral option”, born as a blank slate with no suggestions as to the kind of person they can or should be. On paper that sounds freeing, but the fact that they awkwardly try to make that cultural connection - likely well aware of the awkwardness - suggests that they’re aware of some deeper experience they’re missing out on. Humans weren’t meant to be burdened with (re)inventing their entire cultural identity in their lifetime. Most people just get born into it. I can’t think of any other group than White Americans (perhaps White Canadians + White Australians to a lesser extent) who are left to do that.
- pjc50 5y ago
  > White Americans don’t really have a cultural heritage, or at least no common conception of it They absolutely do, they just want to avoid thinking about it.
  - throwjd764glug 5y ago
    You mean inventing the ECMO machine currently saving lives from COVID? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygenation#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygen... Or inventing the transistor? Walking on the Moon? Fighting a bloody war to end slavery on their lands, and another war to stop the Barbary states from enslaving Americans and Europeans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War Pioneering powered flight? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers Inventing MRI, PET scans, and discovering the double helix structure of DNA? Building the societies and education systems that enabled those discoveries? Or do you mean just the bad stuff?

tomrod 5y ago

Mine was normal except for one trace. That trace has remained, whereas the expected populations have been whittled to one area -- which is not where my family heritage is from on either side. I have my doubts that the improved locations @ 23andMe are actually improvements.

MattGaiser 5y ago

> However, I increasingly question why I should care about my ancestry and what it says about me. I don’t personally care, but scholarships care, the government cares, boards care, universities care, employers care, etc and I otherwise look white but am really only half, so the few times I have been asked about it, the tests have been quite valuable.

v0x 5y ago
Have you had to provide the results from a DNA test to any of those groups? I've never been asked to "prove" what I've self-reported, even though I do not look anything like what I am checking off as my ethnicity.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  I haven't ever been challenged for proof, but typically provide it if anyone even questions it. Nobody demanded proof, but they questioned it, so I volunteered. One came from a recruiter with a diversity quota who mostly cared that I would be consistent and the other was for a scholarship for people with Jamaican background.

Aerroon 5y ago

>since these stats just seem to be used to advantage This is the problem though. If you can get into a better college, get a scholarship or get a better job because of it, then wouldn't you take advantage of this? I think a lot of people would.

cwalv 5y ago
I think they're saying that it's hard to see why it matters or is interesting intrinsically (i.e., if you didn't get any advantage by claiming some heritage, why else do you care?). Personally, I still find it interesting, but I agree that it is basically just a curiousity and has no bearing in my "identity" at this point.

oxymoran 5y ago

Exactly. We are all the resulting mutts of hundreds of thousands of years of breeding. “Race” is just the result of where your ancestors most recently lived.