re: Apparently consumer DNA testing kits are complete BS

Look, conspiracy theories aside, all I can tell you is that Ancestry.com's testing correctly found that my parents, my sister, my daughter and me were all related in the correct manner. The test samples were all sent in separately, at different times, from different parts of the country. It also found the relation of me to a number of distant cousins who had also tested, which I was able to confirm by communicating with some of them and knowing exactly how we are related from the family tree I have built.

One particular example is that it correctly found a 3rd/4th cousin relationship to someone who is the grandson of my half-great uncle. He is a 2nd cousin, but the DNA test correctly found a more distant relation because his grandfather was my grandmother's half brother and not a full brother. I had never met them and they live on the other side of the country. It was cool to connect with some of these people.

The test also detected my genetic ancestry correctly from regions that I know are correct such as Ireland, Sicily, etc.

If that is not good enough for you, I don't know what to tell you. It performed exactly as intended for me.

My mom's first cousin had a kid that was given up for adoption at birth. The kid found me on ancestry.com and found out that my mom's cousin was his dad.

My two siblings and I got the kits as a random Xmas gift last year. Sent them in from different parts of the country at different times and it still linked us. Maybe some people get bad results but it certainly isn’t some big sham

Sadly, I’ve seen nothing height related in my results. I’m a fluke. My likely never-born children probably would be 4’ tall.

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Sadly, I’ve seen nothing height related in my results. I’m a fluke. My likely never-born children probably would be 4’ tall.

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My sister is right at 6' tall. Her husband is an MD and is about 2" or 3" shorter than her. They have three sons and, of course, he gets teased about being short, especially when he's around me and my brothers.

Somebody at a party said she hoped their sons took after our family rather than my brother in law's family because it was better for men to be tall. My BIL said he wasn't worried about the future height of his sons because their parents were American and they were not being raised in poverty. He quoted a study that said since 1960 something like 98% of American male children grew up to be at least as tall as their mother.

His oldest is 16 and is already 6' tall. The middle son is 14 and about 5'-9". His youngest is a fricking midget, but you ought to see that little bastard on the soccer pitch. He's only 11, so he may still have a growth spurt ahead of him.

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missing that you may be 1/16th Native American isn't all that crazy.

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D- on your arithmetic - if my great-grandmother is Choctaw, I should be one-eighth, or 12.5%. That's significant enough to be included.

They helped me to get Minority Business Entity and Women Business Entity status for my company. I am not complaining.