Many people want to uncover their ancestry, but – driven by Brexit – others also hope to regain access to the EU

Some do it to explore their ancestral heritage or an unknown part of their identity. Others are hoping to find parents, siblings and new relatives.

More than 40 million people worldwide are thought to have tested their DNA ancestry via companies such as Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage since the first genetic genealogy test was offered to the public in 2000.

Now, people are using their test results in a new way – to apply for citizenship in other countries, DNA experts say.

Prof Turi King, director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at Bath University, said: “The more people take tests and the more people find out their ancestry and who their biological parents are, the more they can use that evidence to get citizenship of a particular country.”

King, who also presents the BBC show DNA Family Secrets, thinks ancestry DNA testing will become an easy and more widespread way for some Britons to gain dual citizenship in the future. “This will only grow,” she said.

    • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      The same would go for the US. The amount of native Americans is rather small. There’s a lot going wrong in Israel right now, but not being able to sell your genetic information to for-profit companies is quite low on that list imo.

    • Billy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      19·
      3 months ago

      They outlawed private DNA testing. As the article you linked to points out and explains.

      This law was designed to protect the privacy and dignity of individuals and their families from the misuse of genetic information. According to this law, it is illegal to use a direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing kit in Israel, unless you have a court order or a special permission from the Ministry of Health.

      The law does not apply to all types of genetic testing

      Another possibility is to use a DNA testing service that is authorized by the Israeli Ministry of Health

      And there’s plenty of research that shows all Jews share a common genetic lineage to other groups in the middle east like Syrians and Lebanese.
      One example: Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes

        • Billy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          8·
          3 months ago

          Considering your previous post and now this, it is clear your posts are in bad faith.
          I’ll answer for the sake of others reading these comments.

          First of all, Ashkenazi Jewish women aren’t all Jewish women. Most Jews in Israel aren’t Ashkenazi.
          Either way, the study you linked to is the only study out of several that has met criticism from several geneticists and researchers.
          There are several other studies that show mt-DNA of middle eastern origin.
          They are all referred to in this Wikipedia page under “Maternal line”.

          Second, we’re talking about ethnicity here, not religion. Jews are also an ethnic group. Y-DNA is very relevant.

          • _NoName_@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Second, we’re talking about ethnicity here, not religion. Jews are also an ethnic group. Y-DNA is very relevant.

            Ethnicity is not what was being talked about just now; You were talking about DNA lineage.

            Ethnicity deals with cultural self-identity, which includes religion and does not deal at all with DNA relation.

            My understanding, though, is that Jewish culture actually has a long history of genealogy via family tree mapping long before DNA testing was available. That does have some ethnic connection as a cultural tradition.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          3 months ago

          We don’t need a DNA test to prove it either. The vast majority of Israelis immigrated to the brand-new state of Israel in the 20th century. Their own records surely show this.

  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    3 months ago

    As an adopted person, I did 23andme and a couple others over a decade ago. With a lot of online resources and good advice and friendly DNA cousins (some of whom I’m still in contact with), I was able to triangulate my birth family. Assuming that rumors of a surprise cousin in Texas didn’t actually cause all the relatives who’ve tested since to do so, it would be way easier to track it down today than it was then, when 3rd-cousin-ish was as good as I had available.

    I might be eligible for a couple of passports from the paternal side (interesting family story), but it would require actually getting my obviously alcoholic and possibly mentally ill bio-father to acknowledge me and that he was never located to sign over any rights in the 70s. I’ve already got one dysfunctional dad, and while I’m very firmly convinced that 99.9% of adoptees should be allowed to who their birth family is, beyond that we have to deal with the same shit everybody else does, including people who want no-contact, so my motivation to follow this up has been limited.

    I was able to find enough straightforward records to help my wife and kiddo get Luxembourg citizenship. I did the research, and an immigration firm retained by her employer did the actual paperwork. I should be able to tag along with them if the shit hits the fan here in the States, which is nice. :-)

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      I may fall under the same criteria for Luxembourgish citizenship, all male lineage back to Luxembourg. How was the process, and how long did it take? I’m considering going through LACS for the paperwork.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        Like I said, I didn’t do the actual paperwork, but it seemed intentionally thorough, maybe even verging on onerous, but not like they were trying to trick you. We did have to find every single birth or death or marriage certificate along the way, eventually landing on an actual Luxembourgish record matching the name and timeframe pretty closely, and because it was through a female line, she had to physically go to Luxembourg (she has trips to Amsterdam from time to time, so it wasn’t too bad). The whole process took a few months IIRC, and involved lots of emails, letters, and checks to various counties in Minnesota and North Dakota.

    • Five@slrpnk.netEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      The guy who runs this site, Dave Van Zandt has no idea what he’s doing. Media Bias Fact Check puts The Guardian and Breitbart in the same (Factual Reporting: MIXED) category of credibility. Apparently this is because they both have articles where the facts are contested. This ignores the difference in size of the two news sources’ publication rate, the number of articles contested, and the seriousness and type of errors.

      Lemmy.World loses credibility every day this bot continues to operate.