120
submitted 2 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

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.

all 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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.works 5 points 2 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.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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.

[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

The Guardian - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for The Guardian:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/18/rise-in-dna-tests-used-to-claim-citizenship-of-other-countries-brexit-eu
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

[-] Five@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 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.

this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
120 points (100.0% liked)

World News

38969 readers
2635 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS