Omg I May Be Anastasia

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

DNA rest results revealed some surprises. Gave me plot bunnies.

60% British.
15% French
15% German

3% Spanish
3% Finnish
3% Persian

Finnish is really Russian non-Slav. Finland was Russia a century ago.

Persian is a surprise. I was thinking African.

 

[TxRad]

And we all know what the missing 1% is.

 

[ThatsTheGuy]

The Grand Dutchess of Russia? Man oh man, this takes me back to those history books I read so much as a child.

 

[NotWise]

One of my daughters had a DNA test done. It said that she (and hence her mother and I) are something like 95% 'Northwest European,' meaning British and Irish. Most of the rest was French and/or German. That's totally consistent with family tradition.

We also gave her a high proportion of Neandertal genes -- like in the 70th percentile among people tested by that service. While "Northwest European' was not a surprise, the Neandertal component was more interesting.

 

[ruddygore]

DNA rest results revealed some surprises. Gave me plot bunnies.

60% British.
15% French
15% German

3% Spanish
3% Finnish
3% Persian

Finnish is really Russian non-Slav. Finland was Russia a century ago.

Persian is a surprise. I was thinking African.

I know a couple of Finns. I dare you to tell them to their faces that they are actually Russian.

 

[TxRad]

I know a couple of Finns. I dare you to tell them to their faces that they are actually Russian.

Wait while I get the popcorn ready.

 

[Weird Harold]

60% British.
15% French
15% German

Sounds about right for one of Victoria's (great?) grandchildren. Maybe a little light on the German, though.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I know a couple of Finns. I dare you to tell them to their faces that they are actually Russian.

And don't challenge them to a foot-race either, you'll end up behind by at least one Lapp...

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I ordered a DNA test from a 2nd company, for comparison. Plenty of genealogy is nonsense, and it appears a couple oF ancestors lied about their real nativity. Said they were American Indian but weren't. No Indian DNA.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Just for the record, human genetic diversity doesn't vary by country; genes in the past knew nothing of present-day political boundaries. Nor did they know of yet undeveloped ethnic variation. These "ancestry" tests are all based on probabilities, not on actual realities. The companies are still trying to gather enough data to be precise, but it won't really happen, save for some gene alleles of very limited distribution. And don't forget that humans share DNA with their primate cousins and beyond. The companies could just as well tell you what percentage chimpanzee or gorilla you are (and we all have ABO genes these are shared with the Great Apes, and the Rh factor? - it's named after the Rhesus monkeys, were it was first isolated).

These "tests" serve only to emphasize differences and encourage racism. We are not our genes, we are who we are in developing as individuals within communities. If you've been wearing lederhosen, don't trade them in for a kilt because of your "DNA test;" you may lose a lot of who you really are if you do.

 

[SimonDoom]

Just for the record, human genetic diversity doesn't vary by country; genes in the past knew nothing of present-day political boundaries. Nor did they know of yet undeveloped ethnic variation. These "ancestry" tests are all based on probabilities, not on actual realities. The companies are still trying to gather enough data to be precise, but it won't really happen, save for some gene alleles of very limited distribution. And don't forget that humans share DNA with their primate cousins and beyond. The companies could just as well tell you what percentage chimpanzee or gorilla you are (and we all have ABO genes these are shared with the Great Apes, and the Rh factor? - it's named after the Rhesus monkeys, were it was first isolated).

These "tests" serve only to emphasize differences and encourage racism. We are not our genes, we are who we are in developing as individuals within communities. If you've been wearing lederhosen, don't trade them in for a kilt because of your "DNA test;" you may lose a lot of who you really are if you do.

Actually, I think the opposite is likely to be true -- that these tests in the long run will undermine and diminish racism, because what they tell us is that the clear separation of people into discrete races is a fiction, that in fact we are all blends of different backgrounds from different places. Ultimately, we're all Africans.

I don't think it's inherently racist to want to know one's peculiar ancestry. It's an impulse many, maybe most, have. I haven't done this yet but I'd like to just out of curiosity.

One can celebrate one's differences from others without necessarily disparaging others. I think we should be cautious about accusations of racism without better proof. I see no proof that these tests have yet caused any harm, or that they are likely to.

I don't think you are right about tests telling us what percentage chimpanzee we are, because we are not descended from chimpanzees. Chimps and humans have a common ancestor, so presumably we all have exactly the same percentage of DNA from that common ancestor, unless mutations in some populations have created noticeable differences in the frequency of that common DNA.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

While I agree that one can celebrate one's ancestry without disparaging others, I still find that a system of statistically identifying one's ancestry on the basis of poorly-interpreted and often scanty data leads to a false sense of biological identity. Virtually all of human genetic variants are found in every area of the world; they differ only in frequency. As far as the chimp/ gorilla analogy goes, yes, they are our cousins. And so are the individuals whose genetic data is being used to "identify" which country your genes come from. You are no more descended from a random German than you are from a chimpanzee, and the "Ancestry" analytic approach would serve just as well for your connection to a chimpanzee from Gombé as for a German from Bavaria.

There isn't any substantial proof of racism directly associated with the testing, but there is data indicating an increase in people asking for "Ancestry" information from potential mating partners in an attempt to mate only with someone of similar "genetic background." The notion, however, that we can use this to identify membership in a purportedly biological group is inherently racist. Human biological variation has long been known not be be categorical, but complex, with very only a handful of our thousands of genes being specific to any one population of humans.

 

[Cirnhoj]

OMG I may be Anastasia

Well said, Tio Narratore.