DNA ancestry...opinions

[Privateandconfidentialplease]

There are a few on the market but are they any good. Is the information accurate or bs.
I would like to do one but they are expensive so I was curious as to know how useful/good they were.

Depends on why you want it. I was looking for long lost relatives of my mum's and i found them on ancestry, although it took a while. My sister used myheritage but their data base is much smaller so she had no luck in the same time frame. The dna bit was very accurate imo, but i don't think the actual website is great. They don't actually find anything for you, they basically just share other members info with you, i found they just kept sending me hints about info i already had, so after my free period i didn't bother signing up again. There is 25% off at the moment btw.

I have done it. It's quite interesting. You get a list of people you are related to ( if they are on ancestry) and you can see how they fit into your family tree. It's also interesting to see how many people you are related to who have emigrated. In our case we found out that we are not who we think we are. Our family name was adopted a few generations ago.

Ancestry.com is the most commonly used kit. I am quite involved in genealogy and have tested and it has broken down a lot of walls for me and corroborated the research I had already done. Just be warned, it has the potential to throw up something that may be long buried - as the saying goes "people lie but DNA doesn't" so if you test be mindful of that.

@Feduppluckingmychinhairs

Ancestry.com is the most commonly used kit. I am quite involved in genealogy and have tested and it has broken down a lot of walls for me and corroborated the research I had already done. Just be warned, it has the potential to throw up something that may be long buried - as the saying goes "people lie but DNA doesn't" so if you test be mindful of that.

I use ancestry and the above poster is not wrong.

So far we have found out my nans dad is not her dad and my grandad isn’t related to half of his sister so it appears they share the same dad but have different mothers.

We have also found out a family member gave up a child for adoption (the child
That was adopted contacted my mother after they come up as a match)

From a genealogy perspective: Ancestry has the biggest database of tests, so you'll get lots of matches with people you are related to. You can also download you DNA results from Ancestry and upload them to other sites such as My heritage. However, you can't upload tests from other sites to Ancestry, so it makes more sense to test with Ancestry and then move your data to other sites to get all the matches you can. If you're not serious on genealogy then you'll find your test results quite interesting but not especially useful for anything.

The ethnicity results are subject to change as the databases are updated (a simplified explanation) and you can't really learn anything very concrete from them. Perhaps there is something specific in your genetic heritage you're interested in finding out more about it might give you some pointers.

If you're more interested in DNA from a health perspective you probably want to look at 23andMe. I don't know much about that aspect but can't advise; however, like at Ancestry you can't upload tests from other providers there.

I saw a Zoom presentation on this very subject last week.
Apparently, the ethnicity bit is quite unreliable and near meaningless. The presenter talked about Ancestry only testing autosomal DNA and this meaning limitations on how wide the net can be cast. Also, you're reliant on the size of your chosen provider's database. I would imagine most people get very uninteresting results.
I'm researching my family history and am still humming and haaing about whether to do a test. I have a lot of security concerns that I just can't get over yet.

I’ve been trying to buy an Ancestry DNA kit for most of this week and each time I get past bank details and address etc it says there’s a problem and hasn’t worked so good luck if you do decide to go with Ancestry. 😤

Thankyou for taking the time to reply.

Another one who's had the experience of it throwing up family relationships that weren't known about - although in our case we suspected something might come up, but the other party had no idea. I believe you can opt out of that bit though and just get the info on the areas where your ancestors come from. In certain cases this can be very specific and correct (it told my mum that one of her grandparents came from a particular region of Ireland, and that turned out to be true) but in most cases I think doesn't produce anything so interesting or precise.

It's helped us to prove who my Grandad's father is as he never knew his father and his parents weren't married. Ancestry DNA has proved that the lodger with the surname that my grandad had as his middle name was his father as we're related to a load of his relatives.

The ethnicity estimates are a bit more hit and miss but it's interesting but not to be taken too seriously.

Pretty much agree with what everyone else has said about Ancestry having the biggest database.

One thing to bear in mind though is that the relationships between two people who have taken tests can only be suggested. They will provide the number of shared centimorgans and likely relationships but you still have to do the leg work. This is especially the case if you have half relationships.

Is a 550 cM match a half first cousin? Or a first cousin once removed? Or a half aunt/uncle? Or a half great niece/nephew? Could be any.

You don't need to be an expert in DNA but knowing your way around this tool is essential:

dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

I've got an Ancestry DNA kit to do.. but I'm a bit nervous. I feel there are some secrets in my dads family.