7
submitted 4 days ago by drbollocks to c/genealogy@lemmy.world

people move around a lot. plus, i heard a lot of french people have taken ancestry dna tests and have gotten most of it in england and northwestern europe. i’ve also heard that in france, most dna testing like this is illegal.

top 4 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 5 points 4 days ago

"According to the French bioethics law, DNA testing is only allowed for medical, scientific or judicial purposes. The main concern is that paternity tests and medical DNA tests shouldn’t be done without supervision. But the ban also extends to genealogical DNA tests."

https://www.myfrenchroots.com/dna-testing-in-france/

From my own experience, my wife has several lines that I know originated in France (either directly or through early Quebec settlers) from verified records and nothing shows up in her Ancestry results. Also, the ethnicity reports in general might as well be labeled for "entertainment purposes only" - they are not consistent from revision to revision, and are often flat out wrong when matched against hundreds of years of documentation. Theoretically they might get better over time, but I manage four DNA results including my own and the ethnicity results are never accurate.

[-] Pacrat173@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

It’s always a possibility. I’m not sure about privacy laws in France compared to other places but as their in the EU it’s likely more strict than compared to Britain, however this is the first I’ve heard of DNA testing of any type being illegal anywhere

[-] Microw@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

I definitely have heard people say "dna testing is illegal in France" before and never questioned it. Probably the actual law is different? Maybe the dna testing companies are banned from the french market or something like that?

[-] drbollocks 1 points 4 days ago

it said third-party dna testing, im not sure 🤔

this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
7 points (100.0% liked)

Genealogy

221 readers
23 users here now

(archived description) (Lemmy's community for those interested in learning more about their genealogy.-)

Welcome to c/Genealogy@Lemmy.world officially under new management since March 27th 2024

For all your Genealogy needs all on Lemmy. Here we Help with research Give software suggestions Talk about Genealogy And more!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS