Rediscovering Latinidad Season 6 Episode 1 La Caída de 23andme

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Dear listeners, we are excited to have you join us
for another season of rediscovering Latini Dan. We hope you
enjoy this sixth season as we port a tremendous amount
of time, research, and loyalty into our episodes. We also
know that these are unprecedented times, and then many of
our listeners or their family members may be living in
fear and certainly anger about the recent developments with immigration, deportation,

(00:35):
and birthright citizenship. We hold space for all of the
emotions here, and we hope the information we provide you
will help you not only in your journey to discovering
your ancestors, but also leading you to documentation that may
secure your safety. We will list all resources in the
show notes and update them as we uncover more. Now,
we hope you enjoy this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome back everyone, Welcome back, Welcome back.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Did you miss us? I hope you guys enjoyed the break.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I definitely missed you. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
This is season six, episode one, our season premiere, and
we're coming in hot. We're coming in hat this year.
So I would love to introduce our co host. My
name is Brian.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Rose, I'm Edward, I'm Fusto.

Speaker 5 (01:28):
And I'm Jalsa.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
Today we will be discussing the fall of twenty three meters.
We're just gonna go right right in and talk about
in the jugular, right right for the jugular when it
comes to genealogy.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, yeah, I bet some people are regretting that. Huh.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm the only one of these of our co hosts
that did not do twenty three. Me, my procrastinating self
may have actually saved myself this one.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
It's too late now the rest are doomed.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Well, Ances Street can't be too far behind, but with
too many things. But I would like to introduce our
panelists for today's episode. We are very excited to be
joined by Teresa Vega and Ellen Fernandez Saco, and I
love for you both to introduce yourself.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
You can go.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
Ellen.

Speaker 7 (02:16):
I am Ellen Fernando Paco. I'm a genealogist and an
independent scholar. I work a lot on the Puerto Rico
mostly and I focused on that transition between enslavement and emancipation.

Speaker 6 (02:32):
And I am TERRAE Vega. I am a public educator,
family historian, genealogist. I am also half Puerto Rican on
my father's side and on my mother's side. My roots
go back to uh Lenape Hooking, which is right here.

(02:52):
And on that side we uh descend for a monthly
Lenape specifically Ramapo Lenape and also first Africans, first Afro
Dutch and set the colonizers from all over and also
the first enslaved from the island of Madagascar. And I

(03:14):
specifically also work with for the past decade with ccmore
on finding your roots her ft DNA project, the Malagazi
Roots Project.

Speaker 8 (03:26):
Wow, and I'm very glad you brought up Lenape hokn.
Let's start off this season with a land acknowledgment. We
we record this uh this podcast in Lower Manhattan, which
is Hella Stolen Land of the Lenape Indians, your ancestors.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Tip Tip TERREESA, uh so sorry but.

Speaker 8 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah, but but yeah so I I guess let's
let's go around the group and Teresa and Ellen please
chime in twenty three and meter any buyers regrets and
having been part of this database which is going under no.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yees too, I'm going to go ahead and say no, no,
I don't have any buyer's regret. Yeah no. I also
kind of feel like, you know, I know that some
people feel incredibly nervous about their their data being out
there right or someone acquiring their DNA data or the
government getting it. And I'm just like, listen, they draw
blood from us at least once a year, like we're

(04:28):
shedding DNA all day long, so if anybody wanted it,
they really could just get it.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
So I've had that talk with people too, when they say, well,
did this clotures signing up for for this could be
used for medical research, I'm like, okay.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
They they could do that. They did.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
I signed up for that also when I was pregnant
with my daughter, like the prenatal studies in the early development.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
I will not then gets in the system.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
They want me, They're going to find me.

Speaker 6 (04:54):
Yeah, that's true. I'm going to chime in. This is
to race us. We Ellen and I both belonged to
several genealogy groups and know some of the top genetic genealogists.
One is our friend Shannon Christmas. And I want to
point out this, Yes, there was a data breach last year,

(05:16):
but insofar as the finances and the board resignation, uh,
this has been They've been in a final losing position
for years. This is not new information. I believe the
data breach. People were hearing about financial concerns at that time,

(05:39):
but their their drug discovery unit has closed. However, you know,
they had been working with GSK for years. None, none
of that stuff was new. What was new was the
level of the data breach now for people of color
when it comes to these companies. The whole reason why

(06:03):
I started, and I've taken every DNA test out there
is because you know, slavery, dispossession, genocide, you know, has
obscured all our ancestors. Who are they? And I wanted
more information and this was one of the places where
I've had incredible breakthroughs based on DNA. So it's far

(06:25):
too important for me to just throw it out the door.
Most of the people regarding twenty three and me, we're
just laying low. I mean, I advise people to download
if they can still do it, any matches or download
their file, But other than that, it's it's just I
advise people to wait and see at this point.

Speaker 8 (06:47):
Yeah, Teresa, when when we were talking, when when I
was writing a piece for NBC Latino, I had the
joy of talking with Teresa and Ellen, and both of
you brought up using DNA for discoveries, in particular, if
you could tell me the story about your your cousin George,
and how and how you met him and and what

(07:08):
you learned through that.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Okay, I actually did meet him in person here in
the city. His daughter was graduating in med school. George
is from Ghana, and he he popped up on as
a DNA cousin on my dad's side, and we were
looking at all of the cousins we had in common.

(07:33):
So when I reached out to him, he had no clue.
His background is Fante and the Fante ethnic group were
one of the folks who were enslaving people. He had
no clue that some of his Fante ancestors were themselves enslaved.

(07:54):
And the masters that we had in common work throughout
the Caribbean. I'm talking Haiti, dr I'm talking Cuba, it
was Brazil, it was Trinidad, Mexico, straight across the board.
And so when I reached out to him, he now
lives in Toronto.

Speaker 8 (08:13):
He was shocked.

Speaker 6 (08:15):
And so you know, when he finally went to his
daughter's graduation, I met him in person and we were talking.
But he's one of several cousins. I also have two
cousins who are eway from Beninogo and that particular area
Ghana Jeria, Beninitoga was all, you know, part of a

(08:36):
larger territory. And so you know, DNA provides us, especially
you know, linking us to DNA cousins, that we actually
have a concrete ethnic group that we can trace our
ancestry back. So that was an awesome experience, and that's

(08:57):
happened several times.

Speaker 8 (08:59):
And right there's and that's where there's absolutely no records
which could help you. So that's yeah, that's that's that's
really amazing.

Speaker 6 (09:09):
Sometimes. I mean, when you know people reach out to
me and it's not it's anybody. I That's one of
the reasons why if a person who has unknown parentage
or an adoptee reaches out to me, I willingly share
that information, whatever information I have if I can make
some sort of connection, just to guide them how we

(09:31):
could be related. But yeah, everybody has a right and
to know where they come from.

Speaker 8 (09:37):
Yeah, I wonder Terres and Ellen, maybe if you could
go over the basics you talk about DNA matches. If
you're finding all these people that you match with, how
do you know where in your family they come from
let's let's say you don't recognize names.

Speaker 6 (09:54):
Ellen, do you want to go and you want.

Speaker 7 (09:56):
It's well, Teresay is way more EXPERI that are much
for the documents person. So the with the DNA, it's
really looking at your matches and the percentages that are the.

Speaker 6 (10:09):
Coolest to.

Speaker 7 (10:12):
It also airs match, it's you're national who you're connected to.
I had a situation a couple of years ago where
I found out that my great grandmother, for example, had
a child in nineteen fourteen. I had no idea, but
it descended turned up on my DNA and then I
was able to go back and check the documentation and

(10:35):
figure out what, you know, what was the situation and
how that came to be. So it's really the higher percentages.
When you get a lot of matches on ancestry, for example,
if it's going to be fourth generation or for more,
it's it's really difficult, especially with the level of indogamy
that we have with in Puerto Rico, with a lot

(10:57):
of intermarriage, and it makes it real difficult. And then
if you're looking for enplaved ancestors, which people are are
making more of a concerted effort, then you have to
take everything, every source of information available because everything's kind
of fragmented in the documents, and then with the DNA,
depending on how far back you're trying to you're trying

(11:19):
to match, so you can dial into certain certain ethnicities.
But some people do have this idea of thinking that, oh,
if they just match up the Africans, they're gonna they're
going to find that ancestor, without realizing the tremendous history
of intermixture that's involved there and in the Caribbean and

(11:39):
on on on the Eastern seaboard wherever people were dragged to.
So you can't underestimate what kind of interconnections there might
be as a little further than just DNA matches. But
I mean, that's kind of some of what I've been
thinking about.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
Yeah, I'm going to chime in here. I would say
one of the first things that people should do before
they even get their results back is you need to
flesh out your tree as much as you can because
the majority of your matches are going to be in
the fourth to eighth cousin. And then if you're a
member of an endogamous group like Ashkenazi, Jews, Puerto Ricans, etc. Again,

(12:21):
Ellen is correct. Because of endogamy, your matches are going
to look like they're closer than they really are. So
one of the things that people should do when they
get their lift is go over all your matches. I
have like third cousin matches who are probably my seven dozens.

(12:43):
But what you want to do is if you don't
know how you're connected, the first thing you're going to
do is document all your common surnames, and by doing
that you're able to then go surname to buy surname,
and then look at where these people are located where
they I call. What I do is follow the DNA trails,

(13:06):
even if there's no paper source, and it's very difficult
if I can find out this surname is located in
this place, look at my matches trees that they even
have a tree, and try to figure out did this
person have these people or this surname in the same

(13:26):
places that as my ancestors were. So you're basically sort
of having to triangulate where these people are coming from.
And then I look. Of course, I recommend people pay
the extra ten dollars to do approachables and see all
the people you have in common together, and that's another way,

(13:47):
and then of course you're going to be looking at origins.
Who is sharing what ethnicities and go from there.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Could you just clear up for us what the term
endogamy means.

Speaker 6 (13:59):
Please cousin marriage. So in Puerto Rico, what up into Ellen?
You know better? Up into the early nineteen is a
late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, you had first cousin marriages.
For example, I had to enlist Ellen to helpfully.

Speaker 7 (14:14):
Even more than that, my tree.

Speaker 6 (14:18):
Yeah, I have a great a great grandmother who married
her uncle who was a Catholic priest that no one
talks about and tries to pass off biological kids as
someone else. But that's another story. But I have so
many sounds, like the children of one brother married the

(14:40):
children of another sister, of f a sibling. It just
goes on and on. So whereas if you're non endogamous,
you can look at your matches and you know there's
one set of grandparents, let's say great grandparents that you're
getting your DNA from. However, when you look in at
Barika people, you could be sharing, you know, you can

(15:06):
be sharing with this person, but the DNA's coming from
like eight people or six people, you know. So it's
it's a lot of cousin marriages and and a lot
of my ancestors, I always say, were mountain people, whether
Ramapo or the mountains of northwest Puerto Rico or the
mountains of Yalgo. Uh. You know, you're you're in places

(15:29):
that are very closed off. They're not like your big
city soldes. It's even more so.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, it's a lot they're essentially.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
Right. But if right, but if people are looking, let's
say for the African ancestors, you you might have a
DNA match who puts Africa or or puts Senegal that
where there there is an oral history and there are receipts.
One of my first cousins, Carmen Reed, when she first
met me, her whole line, you know, was from Senegal

(16:05):
on her father's line, and they knew exactly who the
person was.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (16:09):
So so yeah, so you know, it just it just
you know, I tend to do that when I when
I get a new match, is I will put in
you know, I had the Malagazi Madagascar, or I'll put
in France, or I'll put in I could put in
Puerto Rico or Cube or Spain or any one of
these things, or gimme and see who pops ups just

(16:33):
if because you although you may not know a particular match,
someone else may have a person from that country. And
then you look and you see, yeah, it's tedious.

Speaker 8 (16:46):
Tedious, but the things that you find are really rewarding.
You brought up Malagasi. Can you explain briefly, like how
how you learned about this and then how you became involved?

Speaker 6 (16:56):
Well, exactly twenty three and may question the first test
I ever took, so let me back up was twenty
three meters twenty thirteen and two thousand and seven or so.
I met my third cousin on ancestry. We share the
same set of second great grandparents, but she's a matrilineal

(17:18):
descendant of our third great grandmother, And so I already
knew because I knew my maternal line, my own great
grand maternal great grandmother. Her mother was Irish, so I
already knew, though I look like this, my maternal line
is Irish. But her results came back m twenty three

(17:38):
and we were like, what is that? And then when
we found it was only found in Madagascar. Will So
that's how my DNA triol started. And I happened to
be at a conference, a genealogy conference that was featuring
Cecy Moore in twenty fourteen here in the city, and

(17:58):
she was talking about out the episode with Benjamin Jealous
and ben A Fleck when he didn't want anyone to
know that he defended from enslavers. She had mentioned that
what got cut from the cutting room floor was that
Benjamin Jealous's maternal line was Malagazi, and she said she

(18:19):
had never heard of Madagascar the slave trade from Maryland.
And then of course I raised my hand and said, hey,
my folks were from here. It was also in New York,
and so she asked me right away, but yeah, it was.
We did the twenty three and me and that's where
it came out on all of our tests. Actually, Ellen

(18:40):
and I were talking about this because Ancestry just did
a new update to their admixture and it's funny how
each test it pops up differently, so we were comparing that.
But across the board, it's clear every from Maritime to

(19:03):
Philippines to South Bantu to Cameroon, Congo, like everything starts
popping up. Huh. But yeah, and.

Speaker 8 (19:13):
That's that's that's a great point about the maternal line,
like twenty three and ME does give you if if
if you're mail and you're taking the test, you get
your white chromosome line and you get your maternal line.
I've had some success with snooping around with matches and
I pieced together like my dad's maternal line was indigenous,

(19:34):
which I shouldn't be surprised by, but still to get
the confirmation and it's like, oh wow.

Speaker 6 (19:38):
Right, right and once and once. Once you do that,
I'm going to advise you on twenty three in May,
once you find out your Happla group like we did that,
you know, on twenty three and me. We immediately went
to ft DNA and tested both empty. I've had people
test empty DNA and y DNA because ft DNA is

(20:02):
the only company that will give you your empty or
why DNA cousins as DNA cousins. So when we went
and people don't realize that because there are other companies
out there who purport to give certificates, and there are
several I'm not naming anyone, but it's not based on science.

(20:25):
If you want to find out if it's a legitimate person,
you need to go to ft DNA because you will
get your DNA cousins who are related to you on
a maternal or paternal line. So when I started this
in twenty third, I forget when we did. It was
right after twenty thirteen. We only I made a concert,

(20:49):
concert effort to figure out how am I related to
all of these people who are also m twenty three,
I was able to connect two fifth cousins who never
knew about each other. And that's how we've and up
and who are we related to? But Rose Fortune, the
most famous Black loyalists. You know, there's a postage stamp,

(21:12):
a monument in Nova Scotia. We're direct descendants. And I
am coming out with a book on this. But you're
able to see. You know, if you keep at it
and keep analyzing your your mt DNA or your why
DNA cousins matches, you would be able to add to it.

(21:33):
So once you find out and you're further interested, I
highly recommend that ft DNA test. It's you know, yeah,
I had a project, but it's the only one that
will give you those cousins, and that's what you're looking for.
Should you want to pursue further finding out where your
paternal or maternal line comes from Wow, you didn't think

(21:56):
about that digit. Yeah, there, you need to go there.
You know, it's yeh.

Speaker 8 (22:05):
To slightly change topic. That's cool with everyone.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
I know.

Speaker 8 (22:09):
There've been concerns like, uh, the the Golden State killer
was was was a great example of he had so
many distant relatives who had tested that they could narrow
down his DNA based off of, you know, triangulating a
bunch of distant relations How does this group feel in

(22:30):
general that you know, even even if let's say you're
not particularly tested, although most of us are, so that's
easy to find us. But you know through through distant
relatives who've tested, they could they could find you, They
could find your relatives.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
How do we feel about that? I mean, I just
hope none of my relatives have committed serious crimes.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
That's on them.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
I'm not a criminal.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
That's how I feel.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
I'm like, you're I'm sorry, Like you're serial killer, you
love DNA, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
And as we say in Spanish and Dominican Spanish, leave
it there that one day, you know, something happens. But yeah, no,
I think that that was something that I was.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
Well, well, my thing is this, we need to advocate
for stronger privacy laws.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Right, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
If if you know you have to remember you have
you can have as many DNA tests as you want. Uh.
Some of these DNA tests will even create a phenotype,
you know, of who the person is. However, the police
still have to use traditional methods. Okay, if they want

(23:45):
your DNA, they will follow you, they will take a
cup and test it. You know, when you also think
about privacy concerns. As my friend Shannon Christmas points out,
you can Google and get a lot of information on people.
So what people think is private if I can look

(24:07):
on Google and I can figure out and information without
having to go to DNA. A lot of people already
are doing that now, and it's going to be become
more apparent with the use of AI everywhere.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
It's interesting that you bring up the cup that they
could take because that's pretty much exactly what happened with
the Go Go Beach killer. The one for listeners who
are unaware, there was a serial killer on Long Island
for about twelve to fourteen years and bodies were buried
on the beach there. Most of them were sex workers,
and just in the last year, I believe they finally

(24:45):
figured out who the Go Go Beach killer is. I mean,
he's not on trial yet. He just keeps getting charges
added because they keep linking him to more victims. But
the way they found him was they had been watching
him for a while and between the results of a
twenty three and meter test and his DNA on a
pizza box outside of his company's.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
New York City office. That's a pizza box.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh my gosh, they.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Got them to find it. They got them. So it
there is that.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
There was an episode and this isn't directly related to
true crime, but there. Have you guys ever seen the show,
the series, the anthology series American Horror Story, of course, yes.
So there was a season that began. I didn't get
to finish it, but it was called Apocalypse, and.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Oh my god, it is the best season.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
That's the best one.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, I'm sorry because I liked.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
I liked cults. I liked Cult was one of my favorites.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
But Apocalypse started off strong and in the beginning. This
doesn't really give away too much because I'm not going
to give away that much more about that season, but
the way they were able to get that batch of
people underground was their DNA test, these consumer DNA tests like,
oh you have the specific traits you going to be
saved from this apocalypse, were going underground, say by to

(26:03):
your family they're about to die. Yeah, so that's.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
What happened there.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
So like they I mean, they made it a little
CAMPI and you know, tongue in cheek about it, but
you know, and their exaggerating fears that people have about
how your.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
DNA is going to be accused.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
But you know this has already been a concern and
we're already seeing that with other cases.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
So I just wanted to jump on that.

Speaker 6 (26:26):
Well well, you know it's not too far fetch. But
then again, your DNA is everywhere. I mean, what's the
difference between a DNA test and someone hacking into a hospital?

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Right? How many?

Speaker 3 (26:41):
How many times? In general?

Speaker 4 (26:42):
Though, how many times have people been able to prove
paternity by grabbing DNA tests? This is I mean, yes,
we have a direct to consumer like genetic and hereditary
DNA test, but this whole getting DNA and proving a
link to somebody biologically.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Is not new. This is not a new concept. This
has been happening.

Speaker 8 (27:02):
To jump in with my visual arts background to talk
about a dystopian art project. That there's this artist, Heather
Dewey Hagborg. She's a quote information artist and biohacker, and
she has this famous project Stranger Visions. And while she
was living in Brooklyn, she would collect discarded items, hair, cigarettes,

(27:22):
chewing gum, and she would do DNA testing and I
guess based off of the the traits that popped up
through these DNA samples, she would create portraits of people
just based off of what they discarded as trash. Oh,
that's kind of scary but beautiful at the same time.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
I would want to see some of those Me too,
me too.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, did you Well? This was a rumor a few
years back, and so I don't know if it's true,
but apparently like Madonna has this like sterbilization clean up crew,
so that after she's like occupied a certain room, they
go in there and just like clean it up to
make sure that none of her DNA is left behind.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
I don't think she's the only one.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
I think that's so this is a thing. I mean,
I looked it up and I was just like, I
haven't found like a reputable source for it, But.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
I think I don't.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
When I heard that I was like, oh, she does
that too, because I heard it somewhere else. She's not
the first. I'm not saying it's not weird ship, but
I am saying she's.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Not the first.

Speaker 8 (28:19):
These people just bring like you u V rape blasters
and just don't I'm going to be on.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
The Diddy comment I was going to make.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
But I was circling around that.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
I don't know, someone needed their crow.

Speaker 8 (28:37):
Oh my god, right, imagine what's on all those lotion bottles.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Oh god, the baby, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 6 (28:52):
It's a brand new world. But I just still it happens.
We'll see. But I guess the takeaway is everybody who's
and ferned should be advocated for stronger privacy laws. That
I can't even say that because yeah, not everybody should
have access to DNA all the time, right.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
I would like to add, just for a background for
our listeners, maybe some who haven't been following the news
with twenty three and Me, But twenty three and Me
was started actually by the wife of a Google founder.
I don't know if they're still married, but she was,
and if I'm not mistaken, and this was a private
company and it just went so big that In twenty
twenty one, they went public and I think they were

(29:37):
valued at about two billion dollars, and it went like
they did not have a business plan to they did
not have the same sort of business plan or basically
the the they didn't have a good enough rabbit hole
that ancestry has that I can explain in a second.
But you buy the test once they tried to test out,

(29:59):
paying a small subse description to get like traits sent
to you, like, oh, you're an analysis of your traits,
but nobody was really buying it. The company. I think
they laid off forty percent of their workforce and the
company may now be valued about two hundred million, and
the board of directors all resigned around this founder's business

(30:21):
plan to take this private and whatever else she had planned.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
So they're trying they're trying to five back the company. Yeah,
you know, after it became public, you know. So that's
why it's a waiting say you.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
Know so, And the reason that twenty three meters was
able to be a little bit more six and I'm sorry,
the reverse ancestry is able to be a little bit
more successful if you're comparing just at the same level
of DNA testing is that Ancestry DNA will link to
your matches, but you also can link matches and then
go down the ravage holo trees. My understanding to mind

(30:55):
you I am the one co host here that has
not done twenty.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Three and me.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
But my understand is there is no records to be
associated with with current You have to take.

Speaker 6 (31:04):
That elsewhere and right. And the other thing is a
lot of people weren't uploading their family trees to twenty
three and A, whereas Ancestry was a you know, a
genealogy site before it got into DNA. So if it's
I always advise as the first test to do ancestry

(31:26):
and then if you want it. The two top tests
are at well, I don't know because I would say
the top test are Ancestry twenty three and me. My
heritage is up there as well, but and then ft DNA.
But I recommend ft DNA primarily for the MT and
the Y DNA tests. Yeah, they're there their family Finder.

(31:50):
You can upload that for free, I still believe, But
that's not as specific as ancestry and twenty three and
may both and Acestry in twenty three and me have
very excellent ad mixture breakdowns compared to all the rest.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
So we're going to see what ends up happening with
this business, and we'll keep our listeners updated on how
this business continues.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
I did.

Speaker 8 (32:16):
I did find a statistic between twenty three and me,
ancestry DNA and my heritage. That's the genetic data of
almost fifty million people worldwide.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
It's not that much.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
Well, a lot of countries have it banned, like I
think dan Tastic in France's banned for instance, so wele sing.
I think there are like a few countries that don't
have access to that.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
My knee jerk reaction would be they're being deprived.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
But you know why, you know what if you really
take a second and step back some of that. I
don't know the details of ancestry DNA. I'm sorry twenty
three and me's health background. However, when I was studying
psychology and college, one of the things they did tell
us is you have to be extremely ethical in how
you deliver health information people, because if you deliver certain

(33:02):
things to people that don't have the proper resources to
process whatever they're hearing about their health results, then that's
extremely irresponsible. Like you would not tell someone over the phone.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
You have als.

Speaker 6 (33:15):
You would have to when you're online and you do
the health and you do the health component, which I've done,
they give you all the warnings in writing, and again
they're you know, you you before they even give it
to you, they'll suggest that you you know, if you're cool,
you could go forward if not see a doctor whatever

(33:38):
there are you know, uh, trigger warnings if you call
them that before that, right, and if you're and then
or they'll say, follow up with your medical professional. And
then people have to remember though, because one thing that
I found out with mine, depending on your ad mixture,

(33:59):
like it will say, if you're mixed race, let's say,
their traits and results may not really apply to you,
because again their traits would be on people who are
one hundred percent of something really something that you it's

(34:20):
something that you have to be aware of. For example,
you would take my aunt, she actually came down with
one of the traits he met, a chromatosis. And everybody
had said, oh, well, you know your African descent, it
really doesn't matter, blah blah blah blah, and then come
to find out she came down with it. And this

(34:43):
is the health professional. But she's thirty two percent Irish.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
You know, And I'm sorry, what's what's what's that condition?

Speaker 6 (34:52):
You have a lot of iron in your blood?

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Got it?

Speaker 6 (34:54):
So she literally has to go in and get bled out.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Wow, you know.

Speaker 6 (35:00):
Yeah, So there's certain things that you have, like if
you have high risk for breast cancer, of course it
will show show up. But just be aware that some
doctors may not I should have said of reverse, some
doctors may not know and may discount what comes up
because of what you look like.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yes, actually, I'm going to go ahead and tell my
story here. And I think I've told this story before,
back with Puerto.

Speaker 6 (35:24):
Ricans and stickle self in Puerto.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Rico, back in my early twenties, I started losing my
hearing in my right ear, and I really didn't know
what was going on. So I went to the doctor
and got it checked out. So I guess I should
say my paternal grandmother did start going deaf progressively, and
then after her last pregnancy, I think she had like

(35:48):
twelve kids, she was completely completely deaf. So I went
to an end because I thought maybe something else was
going on, and so he asks me where I'm from,
and so I tell him, you know, I'm from the
Dominican Republic. I was just like, yeah, I'm mostly black.
And so when I you know, he has me run

(36:11):
the test a CT scan, brings me back into the office,
and before he starts telling me, you know again what
he thinks I have, he goes, where did you say
your family is from?

Speaker 8 (36:20):
Again?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
And I was just like, why does this man keep
asking me this question? And so, you know, he tells me,
I think that this is the condition that you have,
and the condition is called autosclerosis, and you know he's
describing that. Essentially, what happens is that one or all
of the smallest bones in your body, which are in
your ear that helped to transmit sound, start to calcify

(36:43):
and so they stop moving and so stop conducting the
sound into your ear or into your I guess cochlea
that then, you know, transmits it to your brain. And so,
you know, as he was telling me this, I was,
you know, I was kind of like, oh, okay, well,
you know, my grandma other actually started going deaf. And
so she's not completely deaf, right like you have. You

(37:04):
could scream into her ear and she would hear. And
so yeah, so then I, you know, I just go home.
I didn't really understand, but I go home and I
googled it, of course, because I was just like, all right,
what is this thing that he says that I have?
And one of the first articles that I found literally
said something to the effect of like autosclerosis most prevalent
and pregnant white women. And so I literally was just like, oh,

(37:26):
this is why he was looking at me sideways and
so yeah, so I was just like, oh, gosh, yeah,
there you go. So actually that's one of the reasons
why I wanted to do the twenty three and me.
I actually like imagined before before conducting in a DNA
test that would be like, you know, ninety nine percent
or something like that African heritage and then you know,

(37:47):
only to find out that there's a little bit more
mixture in there, right, and so yeah, So even though
the condition wasn't wasn't diagnosed by a DNA test, I
think that it really sort of helped me to push
me to learn a little bit more about my family
heritage and my family background.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
I will say a side step on twenty three and me,
I have done ancestry and they do have a health
version like, yeah, upgrade, you can do. I haven't done
it yet specifically because I have to go out of
my way to get that test. You actually can't get
it delivered to New York, so I would have to
send it to my friends in Delaware, who then would

(38:29):
have to repackage it and send it to me.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Can I do it? Yeah, but I'm like, I'm not
in a rush.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
A little bit more about that, but I haven't heard
about that.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
I tried to order it. I tried to order it,
and they were like, can't deliver it to your area.
Like you said, we're not delivering it to these states
I think, including Rhode Island and like New York and
two other states. They won't deliver the kid. And I'm
not saying it's the regular DNA test. I think it's
specifically the health one, Okay, and yeah, because I mean
I got my ancestry DNAT in New York that came fast.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
But I think it's the health ones.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
So there must be something where they're worried about health
access to consumer tests unregulated in New York. I don't know,
but yeah, if I wanted to get that test.

Speaker 6 (39:09):
You can't. You can't. You can't just cross and go
into Jersey.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I could.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
I mean, I might be able, but then I have
to but again I would have to have it delivered
to someone in Jersey and then pick it up from
their house.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Or have the mill.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
But they've discontinued it. Apparently I just looked it up.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
They discontinued it, maybe because it was from what I
heard from people.

Speaker 6 (39:28):
Who didn't wasn't getting I mean, it wasn't. That wasn't
the money maker. And I don't think that the DNA
test is going to be a money maker.

Speaker 7 (39:38):
They're still selling it and you go on the website.

Speaker 6 (39:40):
It's I know, but there are companies are trying to
hustle ancestries now selling selling.

Speaker 7 (39:49):
Test for dogs.

Speaker 6 (39:50):
Also Oh yeah, yeah, they.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Have pet DNA Yep, they do.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
That's fascinating. Okay, yeah, okay, so you.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Can also find it one siblings.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (40:00):
And that's one of the issues with the companies is
that you have a model and then you have to
keep expanding because it's capitalized. It's more and more and more,
either it gets bigger or you have more products all.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, and it does feel like ancestry has put increasingly
behind you. Yes, yeah, that was just because I think
part of that.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
You know, you can't get your through lines anymore ancestry
with that upgrade. If you, I think they're rolling out
this thing where if you even have a free account,
but you've made a tree, you want to keep that tree,
you got to pay like five bucks a month.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
It's something like that.

Speaker 6 (40:37):
It hasn't coming up with the new pro tools and
that's going to be more money.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
Yeah, I will eventually upgrade to all this. It's just
that hasn't hit me yet. There's just a few things
that I can't get without the subscription. But that that
being said, today, actually I logged in this morning and
one thing I hadn't noticed before was that if you could,
they asked you to put in either put in the

(41:02):
email address of somebody who's going to handle this in
case you pass away, so your data is a loss.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Oh that is Oh wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
That is I was like that, who just thought of that?
Give them a price because that is amazing, Like, because
I think I don't know me being whatever, I'm the
genealogist of my family, and I know somebody is going
to care. Yeah, maybe no one I know right now
who cares, But somebody will and kild somebody just hold
us for the one person who make care later.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
That would great two or three generations down the line.
I'm totally with you on that one. Actually, that's actually
that's one of the things that really worries me because
I'm just kind of like, how do I store this
data right for posterity? Do we upload it to a
cloud and just let everybody know right, like this is
what it is?

Speaker 6 (41:47):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (41:48):
You know, the easiest that I've been able to think
about is like put it all in a book, right,
and like print out a few and distribute them amongst
the family. But again, right, it's paper, and how long
is that going to last? And especially if I send
this down to the Caribbean, paper falls apart after a
couple ofs.

Speaker 7 (42:07):
I mean, let me.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
Ask you, guys, who who have you been to your
home countries? Are you still able to access this information
over there? Because I know sometimes there's blockages, like in China,
you can't get to certain websites, you can't get to
certain databases, so like I don't know, like what do
you mean what like IP addresses? Like can you like
if you were to be in the Dominican Republic, can
you log in over there.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Oh yeah, they blocked.

Speaker 5 (42:30):
They blocked into ancestry from Panama.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
I have not from Malsavador. That's why I can't verify.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
I have cousins in Columbia who have added to my
family search tree from there. Okay, so I know, very cool,
you have access to it in other regions.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Yeah, now that you're saying that, I do have a
cousin who lives in the Manic Republic who conducted some
research into his his family background and I think it
was on ancestry that he was able to find his grandfather.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Who's paying gotcha.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Yeah, No, I was just curious about that tree because
I can connect with cousins who have ancestry. But I
you know, the countries can block weird things, especially depending
on the kind of government they have at the time.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
I was going to say, right, because it's in like
Coola doesn't have complete records like family search or ancestry
because they just haven't allowed it.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
And we will discuss more of that episode.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yes, we're going to talk all about Cuban records.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
We're heavy on Cuba this year.

Speaker 8 (43:23):
Guys, did I say and Ellen, do you have any
thoughts about bringing this information into the future.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
I think it's just going to be this. I don't
know what the future will bring. I just hope that
it is just something that's going to be weaponized against people,
although I don't You can see elements of that happening
with women, but I'm not sure. I don't think it
would change that much.

Speaker 6 (43:51):
Which no, I'm just waiting to see the next two
years because my biggest fear is, uh, let's say Elon
Musk becomes the Pleckor of the future. You know, it
is the same the same issue I have that Ellen
just stated, you know, yeah, yeah, So I'm keeping hope alive.

Speaker 7 (44:17):
I mean, they say it's twenty three and me data
is anonymised, so if they got it, it's not really
that you can have a one to one identity. There's
more hacked with identity that's happening than there are with
the DNA.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
That are up in court.

Speaker 7 (44:33):
But for the future, I'm not sure. But the return
of eugenic thought is a real serious concern in the
Surtry and it's going to be something that we have
to push back on because we went through this one
hundred years ago almost to the date, and we certainly
don't need people with replacement theories or certain retrograde ideas

(44:55):
about the hierarchy of the humans to circulate that stuff again,
and there is there is a lot of that going around. Surprisingly.
I really thought a couple of years ago that this
was kind of dying down when I was doing some
research on eugenics. And also to see like it's almost
like somebody puts barbecue fuel on it and the flame
came up. So I don't know, that's that's that's concerning.

(45:19):
So but it goes back to privacy laws, and it
goes back to advocating these you know, that that these
structures be put up for us.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
I mean even the people who or, as I say,
one of the scientists who discovered the structure, well, I
should say, or who helped discover the structure of DNA,
Whats his name? I think it was Kase Watson, right,
Francis Quick, Yes, yeah, Francis Quick of Watson and Kirk,
but I think it's Quick right that. No, No, Watson,
Watson became the diehard racist. Okay, that's okay.

Speaker 8 (45:52):
Franklin, everyone forgot her, But yeah, James Watson is the jerk.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
I actually went went to England I actually went to
the bar where they meet. They announced the discovery of DNA. Wow, yeah,
and they love talking about that there.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Did you have a point? I did not appened, although
apparently Krick wasn't that much better because he advocated a
form of positive eugenics and which wealthy parents would be
encouraged to have more children. This is according to Wikipedia,
so I can't necessarily confirm this information.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
Sometimes I have to wonder. I mean, that is a
whole separate conversation, but sometimes I wonder, depending on who
is delivering the eugenics message, like what they must have
Spence arounded by. And the reason I say that is
because Helen Keller was also a known eugenicist. So it's
also I'm not saying any of that's okay.

Speaker 6 (46:50):
Killer, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (46:51):
Saying any of that's okay. But can you imagine what
she must have been inundated with?

Speaker 8 (46:54):
That?

Speaker 3 (46:55):
She must have believed that, which.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Is impressive because how did she get into now just
oh she was she was a big reader. Yes, I
get it, we get it, we get it.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
So that being said, I think I'm not saying that
for Watson and Kirkus, this is the first time I'm
hearing that, But when I think of that, I'm like, okay,
But at the.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Time that was just so normal.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
Even our freaking old president Woodrow Wilson racist, you jealousist,
like you know.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
This was an act.

Speaker 7 (47:21):
It go back to slavery, and that's where that idea
comes from. The whole people is using violence. You're going
to have to come up with some kind of theory
to justify it. And that's that's where it goes back to.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
And it feels like every once in a while it
rears his ugly head, right because yes, like in racism
and then one star wind you know, figured.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Out, oh my god, natural selection.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Natural selection, thank you very much. You know, people then
started applying it to social society and then called the
social Darwinism, right, and the survival of the of the fittest,
when really it's if you actually read the book and yes,
I know, Edward, and I definitely did. I think you
did right back in Columbia. I got Columbia. It's actually

(48:07):
a survivor, a survival of the most adaptable. So the
organism or people who can change or who can rather
adapt to the changing environment are the ones that will
actually end up end up surviving and passing on their genes.
But but yeah, so it just kind of seems like it.
I don't know. I think it's an interesting conversation and

(48:29):
maybe that's a topic for another episode. Actually, yeah, because
yeah a lot. Yeah, because it's just fascinating.

Speaker 6 (48:42):
We're families were victims of that in different capacities here
in the state.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah, no, absolutely right, and there's like a history of
especially Latino people in particular, I think Puerto Ricans.

Speaker 7 (48:53):
Right, being of women were sterilized. Well.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
Also, if we're going to do a eugenics episode, anybody
participating is naming names historically?

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Oh yeah, we're naming names. Laundry.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
Okay, that's that's my condition for any future episode.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
You're naming names.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Don't let certain presidents or whatever get through the wayside
or certain movements we may agree with now, but the.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Founders not so much. You know what I mean, just
say name them. So that's all I have, Edward, do
you have any things?

Speaker 2 (49:34):
I'm good? This This conversation was spicy.

Speaker 6 (49:37):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
We knew it would be, though, but we knew it
would be because and how else would we open up
this season. It's February, It's so you know, it was
a Black History month this month, and we're just going
to go in strong, like you know what we're we
are basically I consider us the crazy uncle that comes
to Thanksgiving saying, you know, they're all watching us right now,

(49:58):
right all this right, Like we're not going to start
off songs. We're not going to start off soft like
how's everything going, how's your job? We're going to say
the government is already watching it.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yes, they know where you are. Databases of DNA all around,
Oh my goodness. So yeah, y'all, please google your names
and if your information comes up there, it's hidden somewhere
in the websites, but you are actually allowed to request
your information to be taken down. So I've gone through

(50:30):
and done that, and I do that every every few months.

Speaker 8 (50:33):
Yeah, that's that's huge. The the the right to be forgotten.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
It's it's huge, Yes, especially yes, especially in this world,
especially when information is just you know, spilling here and there,
because apparently we didn't realize when the Internet was first
invented that we probably should have put some guardrails and
security on.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
It even before.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Like the Yellow Pages, you could find anyone their address,
their phone number, like where everyone lives at. For you,
I could find you.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Back in the day, it wasn't it wasn't weird.

Speaker 5 (51:01):
Back then, no one thought it was strange that if
you find anyone anywhere.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
Everyone got a Yellow Book at their house. And let's
say like, okay, let's say you wanted you you knew
someone from class or something, and you you wanted it
to you just went into the book and you found
like the last name, and you're like taking guesses if
it's if it's a similar last name, You're like, okay,
eighteen Smith's right now, is not figure.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I think the walking Yeah, I think the scariest part
for me, though, is the ability of these websites to
then sort of like relate your information to other people
who have you know, so like, yeah, so I have
definitely found websites with my name and my address, and
then they're like, and he may be related to this
person who is my sister, this person who is my brother,

(51:46):
this person who is my cousin or uncle, and I'm
just like whoaa, who whoa. I don't feel too comfortable
about this. This is no, this is not okay. So yeah,
that would be it for me. So let's pick up
this conversation from undisclosed location.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
Shows Soteressa and Ellen. Do you have any notes for
listeners or where they could reach you if they'd like
to discuss this further, or any information you'd like us
to include in the show notes.

Speaker 7 (52:17):
I have a website. I have a website Latina Latino
Genealogy and Beyond dot com.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Nice people can.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
Contact me through there. I'm on Facebook. I'm pretty much
all over and I do have articles on eugenics as well.
People are looking for that.

Speaker 6 (52:35):
Some of those, yes, and they can find me on
my blog, which is radiant Roots for Record Branches dot com.
I post all of my articles from there. You can
reach me at our bb Genealogy at gmail dot com.

(52:55):
On Blue Sky and I'm on ig you can reach
me there and I fill all the tea on my blog.
Sometimes I'm getting ready to do an epic end of
the year xpose, So stay tuned.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Amazing, awesome, All right, So we just have housekeeping right
onto housekeeping.

Speaker 5 (53:18):
If you love our podcast, Rediscovering Latini DoD, please hit
follow or subscribe. It is different from downloading, and please
leave us a five star rating and review. For more
family history tips, visit rediscovering Latini dot dot com to
learn how to join our Patreon and gain access to
our exclusive lessons and bonus interviews. You can also send
us an email at rediscovering Latini, do at gmail dot com,

(53:38):
or call or text us at six four six four
seven zero nine eight two four, and follow us on
social media at rediscovering Latini dot on Facebook and Instagram,
at redisc Latini dot on Blue Sky and x and
ther rediscovering Latini dot on Reddit. Join us next week
as we discuss the novel.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
So lease join us next week.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
I'm exciting. Thank you everyone, Bye bye, bye bye

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