Has anyone ever taken an "ancestry" test?

... Like "23 & Me" or "Ancestry.com" or those other tests that supposedly tell your DNA origins?

Would you want to?

I'm very curious, but I sure as hell wouldn't feel right about the "slavers" side of my ancestry. Note that I didn't say "white side" or "euro side"... I wouldn't care about that.

I would just feel funny however when the "euro" part of my ancestry is pointed out (if it's there) because I'd know that it comes from a slaver... I guess it's kinda like knowing you're the child of a rape.

I know that a lot of black people have "massa's" dna floating around in their ancestry, but if you take a DNA test, it becomes more real... Plus, I have a sneaking suspicion that the results aren't very precise... So I probably won't take one (even though, as they say, most of humanity has both lots of slaves & slavers in their backgrounds).

...On the other hand, I'd enjoy being able to tell my kid & the rest of the family the results... Supposedly they can tell what region and even country your ancestors are from... Plus -- I just might not have any "massa" in there: I'm not very light... My body is damn near hairless ... I've always been a very lean mesomorph... So there's very little indication... lol

Anyhoo, has anyone here ever taken one? Guys? Ladies? Can anyone relate to how I'm conflicted about it? Am I a racist? lol

 

Yes, I have known about those tests too, am really curious myself, but, they are kind of expensive, and I may need that money or money better served finding out about my health, like if I have the breast cancer gene, I even e-mailed 23 and Me about that, they do not do that at this time. Still I am curious, have heard people get surprising results, you may have thought you were one thing all this time, but have other DNA all together. Don't know if mine would be any surprise or not, and the money is spent. I am not sure how useful knowing this is to justify the price for me, maybe some day, not totally ruling it out, maybe curiosity will get the better of me.

Another part I am a little uncomfortable with is the DNA is in their lab, as I last understood it, they keep it indefinitely, unless you choose to have it destroyed after you get your results. Having my DNA floating around in a lab is a little unsettling, could someone do something bad with it? like a futuristic high tech bio identity theft? although they state that they keep good security on it.

In your case, I don't think you are racist, just have to ask yourself, if you would feel any different about yourself if you find that slaver DNA? if so, or of it would hurt you, maybe it is better not knowing, or on the other hand, it could be an opportunity to learn history right from your own body. I recall a Peter Tosh song called African, in it he states "no matter where you come from you are an African," he decided he was an African in his soul, even though he technically did not know or have access to this sort of thing. The DNA is only one part of you, and I think it can make one place their esteem on something not as solid if they start to define themselves just by their "ancestry " DNA, because it is something that cannot be changed, but your deeds can be. It is interesting to learn where one is from, but it is just that, your ancestry DNA, it is not your soul, intelligence, etc. That is the potential pitfall I see of them. Hope that makes sense.

Some smaller less known companies may offer these tests too, but some are scams, and I have read that some of them are scams and can exploit feelings about ethnicities and race, with inaccurate results, or for money, and cause emotional harm to some about how they feel about themselves. There have been also scandals and scams of people looking for Native American blood to try to cash in on a tribe that has grown rich from casino gambling, so it can be controversial as well, but if we stick with the better known top companies it should be good.

Well, I went on a little tangent soapbox, but I hope I made some sense.

 

My mother did both the tests mentioned. I think part of your surprise (OP) is that it doesn't give you as much specific information as you are thinking/concerned about. I mean sure it may show there is some Euro blood in your background, but does that mean that your long past relative was a slave owner?

A friend of mine also had it done and I asked her to send me her results (she's a ww) here's what she said:
"REGION APPROXIMATE AMOUNT Asia < 1% Trace Regions < 1% Europe 98% Scandinavia 27% Europe West 24% Ireland 22% Great Britain 16% Europe East 7% Trace Regions 2% West Asia < 1% Trace Regions < 1% Show all regions The Asia was explained to me by my genetic counselor through my doctor that the 1% Asian is most likely American Indian."

I think she had one done through one of the ancestry places too that showed different results. I remember having a conversation about at one point with her where I was telling her my mom was surprised/shocked to see there was quite a bit of Mediterranean in her results and she said she had found that in her's too (clearly by what I copied from her today, that wasn't the case in the latest test....this one was the one she had done with the cancer genetic tests)

I once watched something where a woman was shocked she had African blood and was going on about being black. I guess she didn't realize that there are white people in Africa too?

 

The DNA Ancestry tests from The Maury Show's YouTube channel are pretty interesting: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMauryShowOfficial/search?query=DNA+Truth

 

Interesting math there.

 

Thanks for the detailed response, missshyness. A good read. I hadn't thought about the fact that they keep your DNA & data on file... Not sure why I should be paranoid about that, but I am...

 

Thank you,
Yeah they do, but I think you can opt to have them destroy or remove it from their database, would have to look into that yourself.

 

You should be paranoid, law enforcement agencies have been combing through ancestry.com's DNA database. There have already been cases where a relative was questioned in connection to or accused of a crime because their ancestry.com DNA was a close match to the DNA evidence in the case. They don't need a court order to get DNA data from ancestry.com so I would be wary of that, on top of the fact that their family tree matches can be quite hit or miss in the first place.