Genetic testing

[30-30]

I have an uncle (by marriage) who was adopted as a baby and has no info on his biological parents. He looks to have heavy Native American, European and perhaps Mexican influence. He doesn't care to know, but my cousins (21 and 16) are interested in his racial background. They paid $100 online for a test kit that can supposedly give you a breakdown of your parents' descent. They mail you the kit, you (my cousins) swab the inside of your cheek and mail it back. They mail you the results in 6-8 weeks.

This sounds kinda sketchy to me. Is this possible? Hope it wasn't a scam.

[cowboy1g5]

Scam.

[El Coyote]

Nah that's about right....are they using Y and Mitochondrial DNA? It uses both parent's DNA to determine.

[Tx625]

You can do it threw ancestry.com, not sure how much but they send you a kit, you do it, and then send it back. Results take like 2 months I think!

[Riceguy]

I know people who have done it; apparently it groups your DNA to regions across the globe with their prevalence there. I'm not exactly sure how far back it goes (meaning where the person came from in terms of ancestral years) but you'll find out.

One funny result of one of the tests was from James Watson, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA, which earned him a nobel prize. Well he made a claim that people descending from Africa weren't as smart as everyone else because they evolved slower, and in turn they have smaller brains and lower intelligence. he got his DNA tested and it turns out he has mostly African DNA. Yep.