[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA at 23andMe

[Earl.Schultz]

I will try to answer some of the questions I've received.  I have personally
used their services last year and I have also use Sorenson/Genetree for my
y-DNA and mt-DNA.  Otto Schienke is another user but I do not know of anyone
else.  23andMe sequences about 500,000 SNPs on all 23 chromosomes and the
mt-DNA.  Males will receive their maternal and paternal haplogroups; females
their maternal haplogroup.  That information includes a history of the
haplogroup so that you have some idea of where your ancestors spent their
time in the last 100,000 years after leaving Africa.  In addition, they have
a Relative Finder service which will identify people with a high percentage
match on the 500K SNPs and provides that they may be a 3rd or 4th cousin or
more.  I have 236 potential cousins of which Otto was one of the highest
matches but I now have many who are higher.  You can invite these people to
share genomes which you can then compare with another click of the mouse.
For example the highest percentage match I have is about 76.5% with a woman
from Poland.  That means that 76.5% of the SNPs tested are identical.  I
have yet to find someone that we can prove a relationship on paper.  Most
people are likely to be 4th or 5th cousins or more which means the
connection is somewhere around the great-great-great-great-grandparents and
while you may know who that is you may not have all the families descended
from that person...you won't necessary know which of the 4ggrandparents it
is.

Is it worth doing?  In my opinion, just the haplogroup information is worth
the cost.  If more people from Dobriner Land participate then I will have
closer matches than I have currently found.  The value of DNA comes from
more participants so if everyone waits until it is more valuable then it
will never be valuable.

With regard to the medical benefits, you also receive on the website a list
of whether you are at higher, lower or normal risk of certain diseases, etc.
This is interesting but having a higher risk doesn't mean that you will get
the disease.  I think if I was at higher risk of say Type II diabetes then
it may encourage me to alter my lifestyle.  Personally, I am at 3X higher
risk of Exfoliation Glaucoma and I mentioned this to my opthamologist who
thanked me for that and said that she would monitor me for that.  Other than
arthritis, I'm at normal risk for most serious things.  This is also worth
sharing with your family so that others can be on guard.

I've always said that if we could get a high percentage of SGGEE members to
do this then we would have a much more valuable database to aid our
genealogical research.  When it is just the general public in the database
then there is not a lot of benefit for anyone, except for the haplogroup and
medical information.

Earl

-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Burke [mailto:mackzie at earthlink.net] 
Sent: September 24, 2011 1:04 PM
To: 'Earl.Schultz'; ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Subject: RE: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA at 23andMe

Earl and Fellow SGGEE Members:

How many of you have personally used this company for DNA testing?  Were you
satisfied with the results? If you found out that you are at a higher risk
for certain diseases, did you then consult with your physician?

Additionally, have any of you who have a connection to the Lublin area have
had this done?

Beth Burke
Verona, WI
Researching:  Zellmer, Glor, Hammermeister, Friedrich, Lieske/Liske,
Pinkowski....

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of
Earl.Schultz
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 11:57 PM
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA at 23andMe

I want to let everyone know that www.23andMe.com is having a sale on DNA
autosomal testing for $99 plus $9/mo. for 1 year.  This goes beyond the
y-DNA and mt-DNA and is a much better test especially for females who cannot
do the y-DNA test themselves.  The autosomal test looks at all ancestral
lines and not just paternal and maternal.

I especially want to encourage anyone from Dobriner Land (Torun to
Rypin/Lipno) to take this test so that we can get a number of people from
this area to compare to.

This test also provides information on your risks for certain diseases which
can be quite interesting.

Earl


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