Who do you think you are?

[JaneV2.0]

The new season of this excellent genealogy series starts Tuesday, July 23 at 9 on TLC.

[Lainey]

Should be interesting. Related to that, does anyone know the efficacy of the DNA genealogy tests that are advertised? Supposedly they can break down your entire ethnicity - e.g., you're 25% French, 15% Italian, etc.

[iris lily]

Should be interesting. Related to that, does anyone know the efficacy of the DNA genealogy tests that are advertised? Supposedly they can break down your entire ethnicity - e.g., you're 25% French, 15% Italian, etc.

I would guess that's it's accurate.

We had the test done on my father's side of the family hoping to match up with Scottish ancestors to figure out where our immigrant ancestor came from, he is a mystery. We've not had good matches, but have had some discussions with people that have some of our markers.

[AnneM]

Should be interesting. Related to that, does anyone know the efficacy of the DNA genealogy tests that are advertised? Supposedly they can break down your entire ethnicity - e.g., you're 25% French, 15% Italian, etc.

I have heard an ad for "23 and me" on satellite radio. I could never quite figure out what the ad was for, unless it was for pointing out genetic mutations or something. Is this the advertising you're referring to?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Just a mountainview company that's wants all your (biological) data, what could possibly go wrong ...

Basically they do DNA testing for ancestry and disease susceptibility for $100, but I've raised the concern before on how private it would be kept ....

[JaneV2.0]

I'm too old to worry about what somebody might do with my DNA, so I sent mine off to Ancestry.com. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was Scandinavian. Also, it appears my long-ago ancestor was adopted, so I'm not really a "member of the family."

23 and Me is legitimate; it was used on some genealogy program that escapes me*. I haven't signed up because I don't want to know what diseases I'm subject to...

ETA: *Finding Your Roots, PBS

[iris lily]

The new season of this excellent genealogy series starts Tuesday, July 23 at 9 on TLC.
DH and I really really enjoyed this show when it was on network. It would be our Friday night ritual to have dinner in front of the tv watching this. The show is scouting our public library in town as a possible sight for an upcoming show.

[Spartana]

I'm too old to worry about what somebody might do with my DNA, so I sent mine off to Ancestry.com. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was Scandinavian. Also, it appears my long-ago ancestor was adopted, so I'm not really a "member of the family."

23 and Me is legitimate; it was used on some genealogy program that escapes me*. I haven't signed up because I don't want to know what diseases I'm subject to...

ETA: *Finding Your Roots, PBS Ja? Velkommen to da club. OK that's probably not right but my grandparents were Swedish immigrants (Larsons of course like everyone else) and my Mom was a German immigrant so Know somewhat my heritage but find it all very fascinating.

[Merski]

I love this show as well. I wish there was a lottery so an ordinary (read "not rich") person could get the same valuable resources thrown at them. I've done genealogy on all of my roots -Polish, Irish and Swedish and want to go to all 3 countries just to walk the roads etc. My niece died recently and I ask her out loud to find out where one line of my family is from in Ireland. I figure someday one of the ancient ancestors will give me a clue!

[JaneV2.0]

It's back! Check your local listings--Wednesday July 23 on TLC. Good stuff.

[Tussiemussies]

Love this show when I used to watch TV. Nice wholesome, truly interesting show.....

[Tammy]

I did the 23 and me thing and enjoyed it. I did it for the health info but the ethnicity parts are interesting too. I'm 4% Neanderthal. I'm not worried about the privacy. I love science too much to worry about those possibilities. Haven't regretted it yet but time will tell ...

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea the "23 and me" connections go deeper than Mountain View (that was just hmm, isn't it interesting?). The CEO of 23 and me is Anne Wojcicki. She was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin (no longer together). Her sister is CEO of YouTube (owned by Google of course) and a former executive at Google. And we're talking upper management positions here, not just someone is connected to some nobody working somewhere.

So the links between 23 and me and Google are deep (close enough that it may as well be a subsidiary perhaps). The links between Google and the government are also deep (Prism but also see: https://www.wikileaks.org/Op-ed-Google-and-the-NSA-Who-s.html) So yea the data probably goes to some intelligence agency. But maybe everything ends up there anyway. There's not 7 degrees of separation but more like 2 all down the line right up to the state department ("3 hops" and the NSA says your a terrorist to be spied on, but heaven forbid we the people think in terms of these "hops" when analyzing the powers that be). There's also a not many hops Facebook connection with "23 and me" (found this out with the Randy Zuckerberg photo thing) but I can't for the life of me find it ... so facebook connection to 23 and me but not sure what.