Anyone done the Ancestry dna test?

[Clawdy]

Been considering it for ages, and now there's a special offer on for Mothers Day. Was wondering how detailed it is, do they just say Europe, or do they go into details about England, Ireland etc? Would be intrigued to know how much Irish ancestry I have.

I think it can really supplement your family tree. Like others have said it matches you with quite a few 4th to 6th cousins and beyond, closer relatives less so in my case. You can message them to get get further info. I chatted with the granddaughter of my great uncle and gave her some old photos of her grandad who she had never met, she gave info about what her granddad ended up doing along with other closish relatives. Tbh she was the exception, very few of the others bothered answering my enquiries.
As an ethnicity thing, it pinpointed my origins to some very specific
areas of Yorkshire which backed up my research. I have a small percentage of German, Swedish and Norwegian ‘dna’ which I presumed was due to my family origins in an area with a strong Viking influence. Funnily enough it matched me closely with a lady in Norway who has no known connection with the uk which was intriguing ! I also learnt that a distant relative emigrated to Canada just before the First World War which explained the large number of US/Canadian relatives. Go ahead and do it if you are interested in your family tree, as far as ethnicity thing it’s a novelty and may well not tell you much that you don’t already know !

@Clawdy

Interesting that they update it - was that Ancestry?

Yes, Ancestry. The percentages can swing around wildly between updates. It's had me as everything from 25% Irish, to 87% Finnish. It's now settled at a more correct 0% Irish and 50% Finnish (I think they started taking a lot more notice of what people your DNA were connecting to, than just looking at your genes, in the last year or so).

A friend's husband did it and was contacted by a man claiming to be his son. A few pertinent questions proved this to be true. He was the product of a ONS. It was long before he met my friend but still caused a bit of upset. They haven't met and as far as I know have no plans to. They are on different continents.

Really interesting stories on here. I've always wanted to find out if a family story is true - that my great- grandfather was an Orthodox Jew who left his family to be with my great-grandma who was Irish. Nobody was ever prepared to discuss it, because they never married. Hopefully I may find out now!

I've been researching my family tree for 40 years and have a very large data set on Ancestry for my own and my wife's families. We have both done DNA tests and have found these incredibly helpful in validating our existing research, finding lots of new living relatives, and increasing the breadth and depth of our research. The ethnicity testing has been spot on for both of us, and pinpointed very specific areas of Ireland for me and Belgium for my wife, which I found very impressive.
If you do get a test, can I urge you to create at least a small family tree on Ancestry? There is little more aggrevating than seeing a close DNA match that does not have an associated family tree, however small it might be.

Oldandcobwebby I'll try and do that. Is it easy to set up?

@Oldandcobwebby absolutely agree. The family tree bit and links with closish relatives is the most interesting aspect !

It’s not difficult to set up. Although many of the records will require an ancestry subscription so if you want to do any research you will be limited without that. Some of the records might answer many of your questions without dna.

I’ve done the test and for me as someone with definite Jewish ancestry it wasn’t great. My understanding is that for much of the testing it generates geographic based results dependent on the dna of people living in those places now. For example it may say you are 30% Italian as that portion of your dna is matching current residents of Italy.

As a Jew I got x percentage Ashkenazi Jewish, and it explains the Pale of Settlement region but as those areas are no longer populated by many Jews it isn’t possible to go into further detail.

@Clawdy you can upload your dna results to Gedmatch afterwards which has a search bit specifically for jewish people.

Thank you for all the help on here, I feel more confident about the whole thing now.

DH did it- he's adopted and it has given him a few answers. It was spot on region wise.
@Clawdy You should go for it.
@IsolaPribby Yes we're watching DNA Family Secrets in BBC2
It was extraordinary the triplets were living where their unknown father's family were from in Northern Ireland despite being born in Liverpool and thinking they had no ties to the area other than their English adoptive parents emigrated there.
Their mother had it very tough. Three babies, a single mother and then to die when they were only 2. The poor wee boys. Heartbreaking. I hope they had and are living happy lives.

Thanks, LadyEloise, have gone for it! Posted sample off and guess it will be several weeks till results. Glad your DH got some answers.