Has anyone done a Ancestry DNA test??

[loopylass13]

Has anyone done a Ancestry DNA test?? How did it go? Did you get any answers in terms of relatives? Whether close and distant etc. Please tell me your experiences.

I am debating whether to do a test myself. One question - wondering if females can only trace the mother line and if males can only trace the father line, or whether the test links to all family no matter the gender?

Thank you x

I imagined when I read the thread title this would be about origins - such as whether you have Viking blood etc.

I certainly would not want to partake in any such testing.

I am likely to have Viking ancestry, however.

Donut - there is a drop down menu above match list, you can more easily access ‘regions’ & clicking on it will show which are from E Midlands too. In your case I don’t think this tool will be helpful. It can be, if you had an unknown Scottish father (if mother rooted in different place), for example, all those in the Scottish group would likely point to him.

In your case testing your mother would give a much better read on how these top matches connect. That helps me every time. Some relationships can be outliers but testing her would be hugely helpful.

Kingfordrun the drop down menu only gives me Northern England and the midlands or East Midlands.

As you can see my ancestors were a really exciting, well travelled bunch

Lol - click on each group. Which category/categories does too match/matches fall into? Who else do they match? Do the other mutual matches share ancestors on your known tree?

If you think the match is maternal, could your maternal grandfather have fathered a child out of wedlock? Could your maternal grandmother had a child to another man? How old were they? Could a first cousin once removed fit? Do you know for sure who your 1c1r are? Do you know for certain they have not tested? One man contacted me excited about an unknown unresponsive first cousin. Turns out he knew him all along but he’d forgotten he’d tested!

What about half great Aunt or niece? Can you take these off table? (Do you have any half brothers or sisters br the way)?

Testing your Mum would likely will tell you more. If yours is an outlying match is this a full niece or nephew for her? Is this a full Aunt for your mother? The DNA share will tell you more. The DNA Defectives is useful, accurate and an absolute bible for this work. Look at average share of cm for each category.

Top match/matches not too.

@KingfordRun, thanks for your input on this thread. And thanks in advance if you can help with my thoughts below.
You asked: how many cm shared re: these matches?

Known 1stC-2xRemoved Person has 203 matches with DD (10 segments).
Mystery Person2 has 587 matches (26 segments). (Known & Mystery persons don't match with each other).

I doubt Person2 is child of my grandmother's sister; that would make Person2 a 1stC-2xR too, but 587 >> 203. I found this calculator which gives idea of likely relationships (see pic).

Person2, Most plausible candidate relationships with DD are...
half-uncle, or
half-first cousin or
a half-first cousin once removed

Some other very low probability relationships are possible, I guess, including half-great uncle.

Person2 could be a known relative who used a bizarre pseudonym. I can 90% correctly figure out the rel. from Person2's year of birth, if they ever reply (impatient stamping feet).

According to that calculator my match must be my 1st Half cousin as I don't have any full cousins so it can't be a cousin once removed as the other matches would be too old realistically to have taken the test. It could be a half aunt or uncle but the results are low for late so I doubt it.

Plus the name is very not 70+ year old people

yeold that is almost exactly the same as my match.

Things would be a lot easier were it your DD.

That calculator is BRILLIANT

thank you for posting it!!

My mother doesn't know who her Father is, so I think my match is his Granddaughter. My mother won't test. We are NC and she is very bitter about her parents.

let's hope all our mystery people get in touch to resolve their mysteries :).

~4 yrs ago, A scandal came out about my uncle's infidelities. tbh within our family, discovery of a long lost child/cousin would be pretty tame compared to the known sexual misdemeanors; hopefully wouldn't be too upsetting for mystery person to find out (too) if that's the case.

KingfordRun, can you help me with a question? Are trees only visible on ancestry.com if you have a paid ongoing subscription? I have a GED file I could upload to ancestry.com, but I'm worried about who 'owns' it after upload, and how many people can see it, too (I want more people to see it, not fewer viewers).

I wonder if I should put the tree on a more publicly available server, and direct people to that public place instead.

Any more exciting developments anywhere? Also wondering if anyone here has known Swiss ancestry and if so how have ancestry.com assigned it?

I have definite Swiss ancestry (3G-grandfather). it seems to be assigned under "Germanic peoples". He had a very German language name as did his mother/siblings, so the description is reasonable.

No reply on ancestry.com from my mystery person2. Some ppl never read their emails.

So naturally I stalked him.. he has a name like John Smithchy, which is just unusual enough to be likely I found him & only him, esp. given I found only one, & his address is a mere 70 minute drive from my most relevant family members. I may have found his birth date, recent phone numbers, current & recent addresses, property tax paid, hobbies & interests, names of 2 likely children (one most likely from wife's previous marriage), his wife's FBk page & some email addresses of their contacts. Yup, all in public domain.

71yo, married. I wonder if I'll get replies. Hopefully still alive.

Thanks, that would make sense - if my mum’s paternal grandparents were Swiss (Swiss American, a few generations in) that could go some way to accounting for her being mostly ‘Germanic Europe’? I like it when everything points in the same direction.

Impressive detective work! I do hope you hear something soon 🙏🏼

I would never do an Ancestry DNA test.

I've uploaded my ancestry dna results to my heritage (free but then about £35 to access results) and got some differences so I think they are to be taken with a pinch of salt.
My heritage picked up about 4% Ashekanzi Jew and 9% Italian which wasn't mentioned on ancestry.
Its also given me a massive English percentage where ancestry tended far more towards Irish/Scottish.
I'm still nowhere near the 50% expected iberian though, 20% according to ancestry and 30% according to my heritage. Which begs questions I don't really want to ask or wouldn't benefit living relations. So I'll keep schtum.

No . I won't bother. Dad did a family tree. We are rather boring. Some Scottish and Irish roots but think that is as exotic as it gets!

cough if you create an account with familysearch you can then use that to create a free account with ancestry.

FWIW I'm about to do my ancestry DNA kit and I'm hoping to find some sort if relations on my mum's side. We do t k ow who my g2grandfather was so that will be a good mystery to solve.

I'm more worried about answers for the mystery on my dad's side however. Not sure if hed want to know answers, but I do.

N/C for info. My daughter was born using donor sperm and has been curious about her donor. She also has mental and physical health problems which I've often wondered about. Has anyone tried to trace their donor like this?

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-online-dna-tests/?fbclid=IwAR0AUGan0FFVzF4PI0NUkUquTbR_QzqX5ivWBAtyRiS_LgeJt4hM39AYPh8

I don't care what the fuck the privacy concerns are. I've just spent the last week with my 47 year old DH as we (and our two kids) met his totally unknown biological father and his lovely wife for the very first time. It's completed him. It may not all be happy stories, but this particular one was was perfect for us. DH's new siblings have been so welcoming too. Only wish it could have happened decades sooner...