General Chat

oooo Who Shelli? Spill the beans. :-p

well i know someone who was interviewed for this :-P

Julia I think current geographical tests can tell you where your GENES came from, but not where your ancestors came from! Obviously, if you got a result that gave you 50% caribbean and 50% west african, then you would know where your parents genes came from - but you probably knew that already anyway. But when the tests break down to 2% caribbean, 3% west african, 5% lapland etc - it is really all rather meaningless. The current thinking by scientists is that all human life originated in the bowl of Africa. As the human race spread out slowly (20k per generation apparently) and settled in further places, the DNA markers can be tracked - one DNA change went in one direction, another went in a different direction. DNA changes are used to map the spread of the human race, but they cannot tell us WHEN these changes took place - a bit like having a family tree with no dates on it. OC

Thanks. That's really interesting. So, if I have understood correctly you cannot currently tell from a DNA test where your ancestors came from just where they most likely came from?

Julia How accurate the tests are depends on what you are trying to find out! The so-called geographical DNA tests, can tell you where your father came from, or where your mother came from. But, and a big but - neither parent may ever have lived there! The Y chromosome is handed down from father to son and rarely changes. The geographical test finds the largest geographical cluster of that Y chromosome - let us say it is in Spain. That doesn't tell you anything really, other than a male ancestor was PROBABLY part of that group at some point. It doesn't tell you where the Spanish group came from originally, or when. I watched a recent programme about a baby who was found, embedded in a concrete block. DNA tests 'proved conclusively' who the mother was, because the mitochondria was identical. She was arrested and charged with murder. Fortunately for her, she was able to prove not only was she living in Australia at the time of this child's death, but her known pregnancies meant she could not possibly be the mother of this child. In fact, police now believe that the child was the child of her mother - who of course, has identical mitochondria, as do the mother's sisters and other female family members - and so do quite a few other local women. The case remains unsolved. As I said - it depends what you want to prove! OC

How accurate are the DNA tests? I heard a documentary on radio 4 a while back and they proved that some data was incorrect. As I understand it the science is in its infancy. In the documentary they said in the future such tests will be able to pinpoint where in Europe you might be from and will be much more specific. This sounds fascinating to me.

Joe But what if the relevant Page family changed their name to Bloggs? OC

DNA tests - http://www.dna-bioscience*co*uk/ cost £159. I heard somewhere recently that GB has the largest databank of DNA tests in the World !! I know that the Page family stemming from the States are trying to get all Page folk done as they are looking for one descendant in about the 1930s who could be very very rich and own great chunks of London !!

I'm in agreement with Old Crone....it is doubtful any of us are pure 100% anything. Not long ago I read a book called Bloody Foreigners, which covers this exact subject, very interesting. As for me, my mother's parents were both Lithuanian immigrants so I dont need to look back too far to know I'm not a 100% pure English. Karen x

Think it was me. I want it done. Looks good. 1% Martian, 1% Venecian 1% Inuit Eskimo 1% Ancient Aztec 1% Sea Creature 95% NORFOLK DUMPLING!

O.C, (see my reply below) funny enough you were also mentioned last night, I said that you knew all about this DNA, well quite a lot, and on previous threads where you have 'talked' about it, it was very interesting...I did try to find some of the threads on tips earlier, but with no luck, could you maybe?....they made very interesting reading.....thanks....Lilly

The point being, there is no such thing as a 'British Race', genetically speaking. We are a country which has been invaded over and over again since time immemorial, and if you go back far enough,Britain did not have a native population, but was probably peopled by races which walked across the (now) English Channel, who in their turn, had drifted from Africa. In fact there are very few races in the world that are 100% pure - I only know of the forest people of Papua New Guinea, who have a genetic makeup which does not correspond in some way to any other. OC

The programme is on at 8pm. It got me thinking about it when I saw wdytya with colin jackson. Then I saw the persons thread on the tips board today, got me thinking again. Anyway, searched some previous threads and found a website for the one colin jackson apparently used. Had a look tonight and emailed them and it costs about 220 US Dollars. But in the email they said you dont get percentages of where you're from, they only tell you which is the main one. ??? Didn't colin jackson get a 'breakdown' with percentages, which I thought was good. Anyway, will watch this programme on monday!!! Jane

I had an interesting conversation last night with my 18 year daughter about this, we would love to have a DNA done, but I think they cost about £400.. I said to my daughter that we would be 100% British I suspected, (only going on my tree which I can on, one line get back to the 1200's ) but daughter said no!!!!! how can you say that!..'granddad had a 'Roman nose' so we must have come from Rome at some point', as all the photos I have received from peeps I have made from contacts on here, also had the same nose and shape face.......so, I said we must be British/Italian then lol....'.well,' daughter said....'no one is 100% British, if you go far enough back'......point made I guess...lol....Lilly

Are any of us.....I must be 40% Irish...

I know Im not 100% British, I dont need a testlol:-))

wdytya did a test for somebody didnt they? Wasnt it Colin Jackson? Next day somebody on here posted that they wanted it done. Never did see what the outcome of that was.

it looks brill Paul, I wonder how much it costs to have it done, Caz xxx

I read abit online about it. Carol Thatcher is 23% East Asian. :-s Amazing really huh?

It is on C4 on Monday ,not sure if it is 8 or 9pm. Will prove none of us are 100% British Win