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Probably not. There seems to be a few "drive by" posters in this topic (people who have never posted in the genealogy section before, post once or twice, and never again). I love when people drop by just to tell us how uninformed we are even though they've never posted here before and we literally spend every day talking about these topics. Oh yeah, but the 1 or 2 articles they read makes them an expert, for sure.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing" --Alexander Pope.
How much to push back against misinformation online is something many of us struggle with daily.
I didn't know that. Hadn't thought to look into her background
Quote:
Originally Posted by PA2UK
Yeah, it's possible - Joanna Gaines and her sisters are half Korean, but one of them doesn't really look it, she could easily pass for Caucasian if you didn't know her background. Once you know, you can see it, but I've definitely seen actually 100% Caucasians who have similar eye shape. Interestingly, the other sister looks like she could be fully Korean, and of course Joanna looks like the combo she is, in my opinion, anyway.
Years ago, when the show (HGTV's Fixer Upper for those who may not know who we're referring to) had not yet gained the prominence that was to come, I remember looking at Joanna and thinking two things. One, was that she looked a lot like a good friend of mine from high school. Two, the shape of her eyes caught my attention. I kept thinking that maybe she was an Uzbek (Uzbekistan is a country in central Asia) background but probably had been adopted as a baby and raised by American Caucasian parents. The reason why I thought Uzbek was because a few years earlier when I was in college, I'd done research on Uzbekistan for a paper I had to do. IMO, she'd fit right in with many of the people I'd seen pictures of.
I had my DNA done by Ancestry, and I've also uploaded the raw data from them to two other sites and the results are very credible. The DNA results showing the countries of my ancestors exactly matches the places that the people in my family tree (great, great grandparents and further back) emigrated from, verified by government documents, such as census data and citizenship applications, marriage licenses, etc . It's very accurate. The accuracy continues to improve as they obtain more, and more DNA data from countries where the had a smaller data set. The more data they have to compare to, the more accurate it will be.
It also enabled me to discover my 2 younger half-siblings whom I didn't know even existed. Far from a horoscope.
Am I understanding you correctly in that your cousin, who is mixed, was raised as a 100% Caucasian but actually from the union of an Anglo-American mother and a Japanese father? I find it hard to believe that one couldn't look at your cousin, even his classmates when he was a child, and clearly see that that he was NOT the product of two Caucasian parents. Surely, it was reflected to some extent in the cousin's physical appearance/phenotype? Undoubtedly, your aunt and uncle had privately made peace with each other regarding the circumstances surrounding the conception of your cousin.
I know several "half-Asians" (one parent Chinese, Japanese, or East-Asian, and one parent Caucasian) who don't look distinguishable from "full" Caucasians. I've actually been surprised upon meeting their parents. Not all genes are expressed in a recognizable way.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing" --Alexander Pope.
How much to push back against misinformation online is something many of us struggle with daily.
There is not much to struggle, IMO. You present the truth once against misinformation and outright lies online, and then let time prove you right. Lies will always collapse on their own weight. Whether you get recognition for saying the truth is something else, but people will notice even if they don't say anything. That's more important than recognition.
Several companies now claim that for as little as $100 and a swab of the inner cheek, they can reveal a person's family tree and ancestral homeland.
But more than a dozen scientists from various backgrounds say such "recreational genetics" or "vanity tests" have significant scientific limitations and rely on misconceptions about race and genetics.
"If a test-taker is just interested in finding out where there are some people in the world that share the same DNA as them, then these tests can certainly tell them that," said Deborah Bolnick of the University of Texas in Austin. "But they're not going to tell you every place or every group in the world where people share your DNA. Nor will they necessarily be able to tell you exactly where your ancestors lived or [what race or social group] they identified with.
So since it cost $100 dollars to get a DNA test to trace where my ancestral homeland is, and its just as credible if I pay the same amount to go to Astrology Horoscope Consultation determine my fate.
I had the test/trace done a couple of years ago. It matched my researched genealogy very closely. If those tests were just a random thing, the closely matching results I got back would be nearly statistically impossible. Maybe it was just "easier" in my case, since I'm about half Nordic/Norwegian, but still, I don't see how it could have been that accurate if it were just a total guess. The other percentages matched very closely too, which there is no way to get from my last name.
DNA testing has identifed close relatives and that is effective, but it is much harder to identify relatives that are distant and DNA testing on what race a person is is just as credible as looking through a horoscope.
How does one look through a horoscope? And you are simply wrong. The genes don’t lie. I do agree that the test cannot capture a complete picture of your heritage, but what it captures is accurate. And, with greater adoption of genetic testing worldwide, the accuracy should only improve over time.
Several companies now claim that for as little as $100 and a swab of the inner cheek, they can reveal a person's family tree and ancestral homeland.
But more than a dozen scientists from various backgrounds say such "recreational genetics" or "vanity tests" have significant scientific limitations and rely on misconceptions about race and genetics.
"If a test-taker is just interested in finding out where there are some people in the world that share the same DNA as them, then these tests can certainly tell them that," said Deborah Bolnick of the University of Texas in Austin. "But they're not going to tell you every place or every group in the world where people share your DNA. Nor will they necessarily be able to tell you exactly where your ancestors lived or [what race or social group] they identified with.
So since it cost $100 dollars to get a DNA test to trace where my ancestral homeland is, and its just as credible if I pay the same amount to go to Astrology Horoscope Consultation determine my fate.
Pseudoscience - a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method
You must not understand how this works. The scientific methods used by these companies are used by scientists who study populations. DTC's just at the individual level. This may help you. https://kids.frontiersin.org/article...rym.2019.00118
Article Points:
"Tell you every place or every group." Because DTC's use modern day populations. They don't have samples from every group or past groups so you will get the next best fit or closest population. These are statistics of groups you share similarity. While this is your "genetic ancestry" is not a full view of your family tree. If you had a French ancestry 5 to 10 generations ago, may not be inherited SNP's. Your estimates are how you match to sample groups not on how much of that "group" you actually are.
"Nor will they necessarily be able to tell you exactly where your ancestors lived or [what race or social group." Boundaries change. While someone may have been born in one region, boarders change and people move.
I think who procured this article, cherry picked. While databases can vary based on samples and algorithms, estimates are estimates on how you compare with recent ancestry of the sample groups. Could there be some error? Sure. For most people are pretty much in the ballpark especially [as stated by others] on a continental level pretty on point. Others have full accuracy sub-regional. Parsing out sub-regional for many can be blurry, overlap between East Asian and Native American, Irish and English and some other groups.....you can get a global view of your ancestry from "recent" populations.
Many scientists don't agree with the notion of race, however, they use these SNP's and plots to study groups on a broad level, just not on the individual level. These scientist being discussed in that article are using some of the same databases to study populations (such as the HGDP) the DTC's are using (also their home grown).
Your claim of pseudo science is incorrect in this case. It cannot be false science when science uses the same methods to procure statistical data.
Last edited by AppalachianGumbo; 12-03-2020 at 11:31 AM..
For me, DNA test results has helped me as a genealogist to look in different areas in the world for the in- formation I need to work through brick walls. There is not such thing as being 100% one race. The history of the world shows how populations moved around due to wars, persecution, famine, and so on especially in Europe both western and eastern. French Hugenots and Palantines fled to England for example. Scots and Irish plantations (mass resettlement) by order of the King. Scandinavian blood throughout Europe because of conquests and occupation by Vikings. Dutch blood in Africa and India because of the Dutch West Indies and Dutch East Indies ocean exploring and trade. Spanish conquerors of South and North America and East Africa. Mongol invasions of Asia and Europe. Ottoman Empire spreading their territory around the Middle East and Europe and Northern Africa. The examples are endless.\
Go back to your genealogy website from time to time to check your DNA results over again. As technology gets better the more specific the racial results will be.
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I didn't know that. Hadn't thought to look into her background
