How Accurate is Genetic Testing 23 and Me?

[jdb in AZ]

Long Story Short -- a guy in his 40's thinks he's my long-lost nephew because he and my great-nephew, and a cousin are connected through genetic testing 23 and me.

Are the results as accurate as the testing that law enforcement uses? The wanna-be nephew suspects my father is the biological link, basically accusing my late father of doing the deed. Which means dad would've cheated on my mom. This is causing quite a rift in the family -- some members can't believe he cheated, while others -- specifically my sister who believes any conspiracy theory that comes down the pike -- are quite convinced the guy is a rellie.

 

[LuvOrlando]

It is very accurate, https://www.23andme.com/law-enforcement-guide/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dna-f...catch-suspected-golden-state-killer-1.4637726

Just because someone was a good person doesn't mean that there wasn't a separation of some kind no-one knows about and back then people didn't talk about these things so it might not have been cheating.

There are two sides to it. I know someone who was the product of a pre marriage tryst. The mom told her the father died in a war. When it came out dad wasn't dead in her 40s she was super excited. Bio father rejected her like she was garbage to save the "family" who didn't know about her so she never had a chance to know the giant family she is actually related to so thats awful, maybe siblings would have liked her. It really was tragic because this person did nothing wrong at all but was shamed. This person is also family, it's just so sad to me.

Hope your family can make peace with it. Secrets can be hurtful

 

[NYCgrrl]

Before my Mom died she was tested by 23 and me. We anticipated the usual melange of cultures but there was a heck of a lot more of one then anticipated. Sent the family genealogists off in another direction that made sense but was not expected.

 

[tetera]

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[Moliphino]

Just because the DNA results are accurate doesn’t necessarily mean that the connection that this person has somehow figured is the common bond is correct….

Yeah, he's definitely related but he could be wrong about precisely how. 23andMe gives you a % of DNA match and their guess of what the relationship is based on that % and the rest of your family tree. The relationship 23andMe gives is not always correct, but the DNA % match is.

 

[disneychrista]

Wouldn't that make him your half brother, not your nephew? Or are you saying that he is the son of your half sibling?

 

[tvguy]

Just because the DNA results are accurate doesn’t necessarily mean that the connection that this person has somehow figured is the common bond is correct….

I would guess the accuracy rate is better than 50-50. A lot better.
My mom had 3 siblings. In the past few months a name popped on as a relative on my Ancestry DNA test, AND on on the Ancestry DNA tests of three of my cousins, each a child of a different one of my mom's siblings. The paper trail leads to a small town which our parent's paternal Uncle lived.
But so far, our family has not found out anything about who the father was of an older half sibling our parents had. Lots of records have been found, birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate with one thing in common. The space for Father's Name is blank. We will never know.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Wouldn't that make him your half brother, not your nephew? Or are you saying that he is the son of your half sibling?

Son of a so-called half sibling. My dad was over 1000 miles away doing a medical internship when the uh mis-conception happened back in his home town. There must be another explanation but I'm not seeing it. yet.

 

[Buzz Rules]

Son of a so-called half sibling. My dad was over 1000 miles away doing a medical internship when the uh mis-conception happened back in his home town. There must be another explanation but I'm not seeing it. yet.

Contact 23 and me experts for a further explanation on if any other explanation could be possible according to the results.

 

[Karin1984]

I haven't used 23andme, but have used another similar service, myheritage.
That one is accurate enough to link an uncle and second cousin to me. Two people I know, and know how we are related.
And, I did the test twice (different accounts), because I was curious about accuracy. The test came back and matched me with myself, identifying me as my own twin sister.

The more distant the connection, the more options there are how you are connected.

So, if you want clarity, best thing you can do is do a test yourself (or your sister) and see how you are connected yourself with this person.

You might not want to, because of the rift in the family it might cause. But the rift is already there, with half the people believing and the other half not believing it. This story will stay in the family.
Testing more family members will probably help solve the mystery. And then you can make a plan how to move forward. Not knowing the answer makes it harder.

If you are related, that doesn't mean you have to build a relationship with this man or invite him to every family BBQ.

 

[CamillaF]

I got a new 50 year old cousin from 23andme. Her family is fantastic and it has been a blessing to have her in our lives. There were 6 bothers and when she showed the photo of her mom, my uncle said "she was the crazy one." My cousin always wanted a big family and ended up with 64 cousins. Ask them for a DNA test with you to see if you match. Some people just want to understand their medical history and/or see what the other side of there family are like. You can take the test and meet them. Decide then if they are a positive in your life or not. You never know a nephew could come from a long lost sibling....... or a known sibling having an unknown kid. What ever happened your nephew was not involved.

 

[_19disnA]

A relative got one of those test kits as a joke at Christmas. They sent it in and got several pages of what I would describe as 'boiler plate' information and a lot of 28% of this or 47% of that. Only a very small amount of information was specific to him. The whole thing seemed more like a scam than anything else. Perhaps your experience was different. I would personally would never use those things and think it is safer to treat your DNA much like your SS# and never send it around to some random company. You have NO idea what they actually do with your information regardless of what they might say.

The idea of matching to a single specific other person would depend on how large of a database they have. Law enforcement organizations have private networks of DNA from individuals and would seem to be more relevant to that sort of individual matching.

 

[tony67]

I'd always be a bit iffy on trusting there services.

How did they even get in touch with you - don't you have to agree to it? I guess in the end only one family member has to. That is specifically to not cause these sort of family issues. I'm pretty sure I've heard stores of this type of thing and they are not all that accurate.

We had a similar situation where a niece showed up out of nowhere.
Well not nowhere, one of our family members is very involved in this type of stuff for religious reasons and reached out to her.

Anyway - for some reason we got saddled with meeting this person - and I was a bit concerned it was going to be a scam or looking for money. Funny thing is they thought the exact same thing.

We were lucky and it turned out really well, but it does not look like this one will from what you are saying.
If you are going to take it further (or they force it) it in anyway I'd recommend getting a professional one done, not 23 and me or whatever.

 

[tony67]

A relative got one of those test kits as a joke at Christmas. They sent it in and got several pages of what I would describe as 'boiler plate' information and a lot of 28% of this or 47% of that. Only a very small amount of information was specific to him. The whole thing seemed more like a scam than anything else. Perhaps your experience was different. I would personally would never use those things and think it is safer to treat your DNA much like your SS# and never send it around to some random company. You have NO idea what they actually do with your information regardless of what they might say.

The idea of matching to a single specific other person would depend on how large of a database they have. Law enforcement organizations have private networks of DNA from individuals and would seem to be more relevant to that sort of individual matching.

Yeah - also those numbers change over time as they get more data...its more statistics than fact for the most part.
There are plenty of documentaries about this, I saw one where two twins got different results.
You can also adjust the % of accuracy I believe and get different results.

Yes they can tell you are of European decent, but they cant tell what village in what country you are from - for that its based on results of others and statics as I understand it.

 

[Ursula J]

Please consider hiring a professional genealogist. They are amazingly skilled at getting to the bottom of this, using both DNA and a variety of historical sources way beyond what Ancestry gives us. At the very least, it will give you complete facts. The emotional fallout is harder, but start with the truth.

 

[mjkacmom]

Our family has done 23 and me and ancestry.com, so far the immediate family is very accurate. Besides that, just a bunch of 3rd - 5th cousins, mostly from Scotland and Ireland. We always though we were 1/4 German from my dad’s dad, but apparently not, and I don’t get any relatives from Germany.

 

[DisneyOma]

Long Story Short -- a guy in his 40's thinks he's my long-lost nephew because he and my great-nephew, and a cousin are connected through genetic testing 23 and me.

Are the results as accurate as the testing that law enforcement uses? The wanna-be nephew suspects my father is the biological link, basically accusing my late father of doing the deed. Which means dad would've cheated on my mom. This is causing quite a rift in the family -- some members can't believe he cheated, while others -- specifically my sister who believes any conspiracy theory that comes down the pike -- are quite convinced the guy is a rellie.

It's possible the link isn't as direct as a nephew would be - it could be a cousin with very similar DNA. I have a first cousin once removed with a higher ratio of shared DNA with me than a first cousin from a different branch of the family tree. It just depends on how the chromosomes distribute during meiosis and which sperm and egg come together during fertilization.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

The DNA matching is 100% accurate. If someone comes up as a relative, you definitely share DNA and are related. The only way it is disproven is if someone lies about who the spit belongs to (as in getting someone else to spit and claiming it was yours). The advantage to doing a more formal test through the courts is showing your ID. However, those tests are only good for accuracy in parent/child relationships. It's very hard to definitively determine if people are related through half sibling, full aunt/uncle, 1st cousin, etc. as the amount of shared DNA is similar. You would need more people in the family to test and that's why Ancestry/ 23andMe are so accurate in determining the DNA relationship. It is up to you (or search angels) to figure out the exact relationship, there are many possibilites for each range of shared DNA.

The ethnicity estimate is much more variable and changes because of the statistics in their database.

 

[_19disnA]

The DNA matching is 100% accurate.

But they can only match to those in their database. If some long/lost relative hasn't also submitted their DNA, they clearly they can't be identified as a match.

 

[kdonnel]

One of my wife’s aunt had a daughter she knew about but most of the family did not know about reappear because one of her other children did a 23 and me test.

It was not pretty.

The aunt was not receptive to meeting her daughter that she had given up at birth nearly 60 years ago.

The other siblings were not receptive as they assumed this supposed half sister was lying.

It is about 5 years ago now and about half the extended family now have a relationship with this woman and half see her as the devil.