Has Anyone Done a DNA Test?

[Christine Lawlor]

Has anyone had a DNA test performed? I've been reading the history of migration and it sounds as though Slovakia was a melting pot before the U.S. My family is from Szepes/Spis/Presov region, however you like to call it. We might have German roots, or not. We might have Polish ancestry, or not. We could even be Rusyn. Anyone wish to share his/her experience?

Christine

[Joan Kolarik]

My father has done an Ancestry DNA test. His mother's side is from the north, around Slovenska Ves and combines both Lutheran and Catholic lines. His father was from Modra, near Bratislava. All Lutheran.

The DNA + a few generations in an existing family tree + the familysearch.org Slovak church records + a lot of intense research have given us the opportunity to expand our tree back several more generations.

Please note that every one of those ingredients is important. Without the family tree (open so others with DNA results can see it), the DNA results are an interesting curiousity... but of little use.

IMHO
Joan

[Julie Michutka]

I’ve tested with all three of the major testing companies—Family Tree DNA, AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and have also uploaded my raw test results to MyHeritage (another testing company) and to GEDmatch (not a testing company, but another place to compare with other testers plus there are some great tools there, plus it's free).

I agree that DNA testing is great for helping extend ancestral lines and for finding more relatives; brick walls in research are busted every day thanks to adding DNA test results to traditional documentary research.

And you’re absolutely right, Joan—without the the pairing with traditional research, DNA test results are an “interesting curiosity.” The paper trail is still necessary, and DNA can point us in new directions and help confirm hypotheses that the paper trail suggests but can’t quite prove on its own.

Congratulations on the success your hard work has brought, Joan!

~ Julie Michutka

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Slovak Spot" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to slovak-spot...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to slova...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/slovak-spot.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[zamagurie]

Hi,

Why yes, not only have I DNA tested family here... but also people actually from the former Spis County villages.  Your question is exactly what I hope to learn from our geographic DNA project with Family Tree DNA.  I am the volunteer group administrator for the Spis County DNA project.  Here is the link to learn more about us.  Until 31 December you can order a FamilyFinder kit that will look at all the branches of your tree for only $49 plus shipping.  This is the lowest price ever!   Take a look at the project website.  I hope you will consider joining us. https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/spis-county-slovakia/about   Sincerely, Karen

[Julie Michutka]

For some reason, when I replied before I had seen only Joan’s post, and not Christine’s earlier post on the topic of DNA testing.

Christine, it sounds like you’re specifically thinking of the ethnicity predictions that the DNA testing companies provide (they also provide lists of people whose chromosomes match yours to greater or lesser extent, and tools for massaging that data and finding more family).

The ethnicity predictors are considered to be accurate to the continent level, and less so as you drill down to specific countries, where political definition of citizenship might or might not overlap with a group identity that we might call “ethnicity.” As you note, people moved and married and reproduced across both political boundaries and socially-defined boundaries. That makes ethnicity predictions fuzzy. Each testing company has its own proprietary algorithms and reference populations (groups of people by which they define each particular “ethnicity”). Each of the testing companies also has a white paper describing its reference populations, although in most cases you will need to dig through the provider's website to find it. This is a new science; it’s growing and changing and there’s exciting work being done, but it’s still new and fuzzy. So, whoever you test with, take your ethnicity results with a huge grain of salt.

That said, ethnicity predictions can be very useful in finding suggestions to unknown ancestral lines. For example, well-known genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger found small segments identified as African and as Native American in his ethnicity results (he was looking at a provider that paints ethnicity in segments over all the chromosomes—probably one of the utilities at GEDmatch, or else at 23andMe). This was a big surprise to him, but he was ultimately able to narrow down where those segments came from and in each case identified and documented a new ancestor who contributed each of those ethnicities. (If I remember right, in the case of the Native American ancestry, he knew that some Euro-American ancestors had spent time working in Central America, but did not realize there had been marriage with a local person.) I’m using DNA test results to try to identify the birth parents of a friend’s mother; the ethnicity results suggest that her ancestry is roughly three-quarters from the British Isles but about one-quarter Scandinavian, and one of her closer DNA matches has a grandmother who immigrated from Norway—you can bet that I’ll be looking at that particular family more closely.

My own “Slovak" ancestry shows up as covering much of Central Europe and into Eastern Europe, along with a large enough percentage of northern Mediterranean ancestry (sometimes shows up as Iberian, sometimes Italian) that I have to give it some credence (and it must be from my dad’s Slovak side, because it doesn’t show up in my mom’s ethnicity results from the same testing company). My brother’s ethnicity shows up similar to mine, but with less German (mom’s maternal side) and less Iberian. Because siblings inherit different scrambles of their parents’ chromosomes, their ethnicity predictions will not always be identical.

Hope this answered some of your question.

~ Julie Michutka
j...@pathbridge.net

[curtb]

Christine,

The important thing to remember is that there are four different kinds of DNA tests generally available.  Which kind are you contemplating?.  Best to do a little reading about them before your decision. You seem to be interested in the so called ethnicity tests. These are probably the least satisfactory.  They are entirely dependent on the data base of the testing company, most of which are fragmentary.  They are usually accurate at the continental level but certainly not at the distinction level of Polish or Rusyn. The Ancestry.com ethnicity test is somewhat joked about in that almost everyone turns out to be 25% Scandinavian.  They are inexpensive, but haven't updated their target data to make it more accurate.

Curtb

On Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at 12:11:53 AM UTC-6, Christine Lawlor wrote:

[Julie Michutka]

On Dec 13, 2017, at 1:16 PM, curtb <curt...@comcast.net> wrote:

The Ancestry.com ethnicity test is somewhat joked about in that almost everyone turns out to be 25% Scandinavian.  T

Uh oh, I forgot about that!

[Regina Haring]

Not me....I am 96% eastern European...which is what I would have anticipated.  I agree it covers a very broad geographical area.

Regina Rabatin Haring

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Slovak Spot" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to slovak-spot+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Michael Mojher]

              I did my first DNA test with the National Geographic Project several years ago. I have since upgrade my marker tests to 64 markers and a male side test.

              Since both sides of the family has their roots in Slovakia I was not expecting any surprises. There weren’t any. The most useful information was from the first DNA test. It gave me my Haplotree, Rlblb2. Which happens to be the biggest group found in Europe. My first “DNA relative” the test found was a man whose roots were all in France. After some investigation we were able determine that our shared relative was back some 5000 years. Talk about a distant relative.

              The other tests gave the percentage break down. No surprise once again, Central European. For us the hope is that DNA would be able give us some very specific details about our heritage. As others has written, the results of DNA tests are only able to give a general region(s). I had read that there is hope that some time in the future DNA tests can become very specific. We are a long way off from that.

              What the DNA test are good for are determining if a person is a relative of some nature. My wife is adopted. She decided to take a DNA test. After research we learned that she should take as many DNA tests as possible. The reason is that each testing company have their database of tested individuals. My wife seems to have a good DNA match with a possible nephew. The companies have not shared their DNA databases. Individuals can choose to do so at a website like My Heritage. By taking several different company’s tests you have a better chance to find a relative. I was happy to find that a niece who took a DNA test was listed as my closest relative. The next closest was a teenage boy that I could not determine how we were related. Two other hits were on the same level. Once again the particular connection could not be made.

              Before taking a DNA test you need to be aware just what they are able to reveal to you. If it is your ethnic makeup you are going to be able to know it in general terms. If you are hoping to find relatives, then be prepared to take DNA tests with as many companies as you can afford. It would be nice if the companies would create an all encompassing database. The number of people taking a DNA test is growing. Genetics Digest has a good article on the subject and names the best test –

http://geneticsdigest.com/best_ancestry_genealogy_dna_test/index.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAvMPRBRBIEiwABuO6qQwtxJ6ZEPsjTNzHj89RZEFhsJFLflfEoGLkYViHo6_iG4woaNm-JxoChI4QAvD_BwE

 

 

 

 

From: slova...@googlegroups.com [mailto:slova...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Regina Haring
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2017 1:19 PM
To: slova...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Slovak Spot] Re: Has Anyone Done a DNA Test?

 

Not me....I am 96% eastern European...which is what I would have anticipated.  I agree it covers a very broad geographical area.

Regina Rabatin Haring

On Dec 13, 2017 4:07 PM, "Julie Michutka" <jmic...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

On Dec 13, 2017, at 1:16 PM, curtb <curt...@comcast.net> wrote:

 

The Ancestry.com ethnicity test is somewhat joked about in that almost everyone turns out to be 25% Scandinavian.  T

 

Uh oh, I forgot about that!

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Slovak Spot" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to slovak-spot...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to slova...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/slovak-spot.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Slovak Spot" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to slovak-spot...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to slova...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/slovak-spot.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

---

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

[Christine Lawlor]

Thank you everyone for all the comments and input. Posting the question here was the first step before reading any particular company's website. 1) I am curious/skeptical about a test pinpointing a region rather than the continental level. I see now that as these tests and databases progress, that may happen. 2) I am thinking of others as much as for myself. I am fortunate that my family has/had reunions every 5 years so I know 200+ of my closest Slovak relatives. Going through the baptismal records of the Slovak Church records via Family Search, I have seen a fair number of illegitimate issue, or rather, births with only one named parent. I was thinking those descendants might be looking for extended family. 3) The glass half full/half empty; comparing medical histories of longevity (or illness). The number of people living past 90 is growing and I think that is a good thing.

On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 1:11 AM, Christine Lawlor <celaw...@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anyone had a DNA test performed? I've been reading the history of migration and it sounds as though Slovakia was a melting pot before the U.S. My family is from Szepes/Spis/Presov region, however you like to call it. We might have German roots, or not. We might have Polish ancestry, or not. We could even be Rusyn. Anyone wish to share his/her experience?

Christine

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Slovak Spot" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to slovak-spot+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Christine Lawlor]

Reason #4 for curiosity about DNA tests. Going through the church records, there seem to be a good number of twins! If the factors explaining the instance of twins could be identified, that would be good. 

Christine