(03-18-2024, 05:51 PM)ancientlight Wrote: That's so interesting all, I love it! I'd love to do DNA ancestory testing, but they keep/sell your DNA data.
How did you do it , which site?
I've been tested at both 23 And Me and at Ancestry. Each of those sites tests for slightly different sets of "SNP's", individual DNA markers. What I did was download the resulting datasets - each having 600,000 to 750,000 SNPs, and then combine both of them into a single file which gave much finer resolution of my DNA. The resulting combined file has about 1,200,000 SNPs, almost twice the resolution of the individual testing service files.
I did the merging of the files into one myself, here at home, on my own computer. I have software that will merge the files - shuffle them together like shuffling two decks of cards together into one - and then put the SNP's in the proper order and throw out any doubles that were tested by both services, and just keep one set of those doubled SNPs, all in a DNA "master file".
I'm not too worried about my data being shared. I mean, what are they gonna do, clone me? Still, I do understand the reluctance of many. A lot of folks worry that their insurance companies will get hold of their DNA and up the rates based on genetic roulette. At both 23 and Me and Ancestry, you can have your DNA test results purged from their systems upon request, after the testing is done and you've gotten your results - they just won't be able to re-evaluate the results in light of new discoveries is all. I've downloaded my raw result files to my local computer so that they don't just vanish, and so that I can work with the data on a local level..
I've also reconstructed my Dear Old Dad's DNA using those files. I used my file and one of my sisters who has been tested to reconstruct about 75% or so of dad's DNA file. I have two other sisters who won't get tested, but if they did I could reconstruct close to 95% of Dad;s DNA file, up from the current 75%.
There is a service at "MyTrueAncestry.com" which will compare your DNA to a few hundred ancient DNA samples from archaeological sites. They do not do actual testing, so folks have to upload their DNA from a testing service to the My True Ancestry site. That site runs the tests once, and then automatically purges the raw DNA file from their system as soon as the runs are completed. That's how I found my deeper ancestry. I used it to find "clumps" of ancient ancestors around Prague, in the Netherlands, in Denmark and a few clumps in the UK from hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's a pretty interesting service, to me.
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