Re: £200-a-time ancestral test kits are a rip off, say experts


"Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mailman.436.1210585205.4679.genbrit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John Cartmell <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

reports that the Deputy Editor sent off her DNA to three different
firms
and got back three quite different sets of results. You are quite
wrong to
talk about a "typical load of crap from the Daily Mail" when the
actual
survey appeared in a quite different - and supposedly respectable -
genealogical publication.

Whether the publication is respectable or not is not at issue. What
the experiment shows is that the so-called DNA testers are not.

Personally, I have long thought that DNA testing is far from being
the
Holy Grail of genealogy that some claim it to be. I blame its
popularity on
Prof Bryan Sykes of Oxford Ancestors, or whatever it's called, the
man
who wrote a ridiculous book claiming we are all descended from seven
women to whom he gave "earth mother" names like Racquel and Ursula.
In my book he is what we in the media used to call a "rentaquote",
giving
the press whatever they want to hear in order to get more funding
for his
project.

Then will the media do us all a favour and stop renting quotes from
this clown. Will they also do me the favour of publishing the
demolition of Sykes stqatements they have given too much publicity to.


I am not remotely interested in learning that I may have a common
ancestor with a caveman found in the Cheddar George or down a
pothole
in Yorkshire or that my earliest ancestors came from Outer Mongolia
or
Timbucktoo (or was it Chipping Sodbury?). I am interested only in
what I
can prove by real evidence, which means documentary evidence. And
even that can be dodgy sometimes, so how anyone can place much
credence in DNA testing when the science is barely even in its
infancy is
beyond me.

Its a pretty old infant! And its done a lot of growing up. The problem
is not what it can and cannot do today or what it might or might not
do tomorrow. The problem is, as always, con artists and suckers. The
con artists bend the truth and claim more than can be done. The
suckers believe the crap they want to hear, and part with their money.
Every part of science which impacts directly on the public has the
same problem. The cure is to get rid of the con artists and the
suckers. A little can be done about some of the con artists, but
nothing can be done about the constant supply of suckers.

than knowing that I may be
descended from some nameless African 5,000 years ago or whatever!
This may be anthropology but it is most definitely not genealogy.

Writing as an anthropologist, I couldn't agree more. Dealing with
movements of populations just aint ever going to be the same subject
as dealing with the ancestry of individuals.

Don


.

Relevant Pages

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    ... sent off her DNA to three different firms and got back three quite ... Holy Grail of genealogy that some claim it to be. ... Prof Bryan Sykes of Oxford Ancestors, or whatever it's called, the man ... His book is misleading - and you have been quite badly mislead as you badly ...
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  • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:_=A3200-a-time_ancestral_test_kits_are_a_rip_off, _say_experts?=
    ... That's a typical load of crap from the Daily Mail. ... reports that the Deputy Editor sent off her DNA to three different firms ... Prof Bryan Sykes of Oxford Ancestors, or whatever it's called, the man ... This may be anthropology but it is most definitely not genealogy. ...
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