Ancestry testing

[dustydrawers]

Has anyone done it? I’ve looked at 23andme and ancestry uk. But wondering which is better. Thanks

I can't say which might be better, but have used the ancestry test and been very happy with it. Has helped me to find potential relatives and has also helped to verify some aspects of my tree too.

Well it depends what you are testing for.

23 and Me started as a health-related genetic testing company which will tell you if you have the gene putting you at a higher risk of certain conditions. The genealogy cousin-finding aspect is an add-on.

Ancestry is purely genealogy and won't tell you anything about health conditions. They have a much bigger database than 23 and Me so you are more likely to find people who are matched to you as relatives. I would always advise Ancestry for a UK based tester who is interested in their family history.

Once you do one you can upload your raw DNA to the other sites. You'll see DNA matches but have to join you explore.
Personal experience is that Ancestry gave me the most and closest DNA matches .

It’s to find genetic history for ds, my side is mainly uk, but his dads side is mainly eastern europe

sounds like ancestry is the way to go, thanks for the replies

I’ve never had my results for Ancestry .sent them off 3 months ago for both me and my daughter, never had them back

I used ancestry. I found out I am the most boring person on the planet but it put me in touch with a cousin of my dad's

Bought two DNA kits for birthday gifts for relatives. Was surprised that the results were quite basic and if you wanted more information you had to pay again. Saying that, although I think it's a bit of a rip off, I'm curious, so will be buying a kit for myself.

I can't remember which one I used but I am not too sure of my results. The relatives that showed us for me, I wasn't too sure were correct.

Ancestry has a huge database, especially for UK/US users. I have found it amazing and found out a huge amount from it.

This is one of the big misconceptions with Ancestry - that the testing will tell you definitively how you are related. All it can do is tell you how many centimorgans of DNA you have in common with the other test taker, it's up to you to do the rest.

@Gifgaf what do you mean when you say you weren't sure they were correct? I have never heard of any errors in Ancestry and my results are most certainly correct (even though some were unexpected).

@Misthios the ethnicity results also help figure out connections though.

I pay the yearly subscription and I don't believe it is a "rip off" at all, I am amazed at how much information you can glean, with a bit of work and research. Ancestry isn't just the DNA results, you know, it is a vast database of documents, information and family trees which other people have created (the family trees are not all 100% accuate in every case of course, but they are a great starting point for researching your own tree). I have learned a huge amount about my relatives, both past and present.

Some of the people were showing as my 1st cousins & when I showed my dad, he could not recognise 1 person. I am also from Eastern Europe and believe we may have had a name change many decades ago. My results also showed me as mainly Greek which I am the opposite of as far as I am aware. I do want to buy another and get my brothers and sisters to try as well just to see what results we get.

I just checked and I had purchased the ' My heritage' one.

You may not know about those people, but they are your cousins! And unexpected ethnicity results occur for obvious reasons, when you do a DNA test you do need to be prepared for unexpected information. I thought I was purely English, Scottish and Germanic, in that order. Turned out very much not to have been the case, again, for "obvious" reasons. (Same for my DH, a supposedly totally "white" South African who is of course nothing of the sort).

My Heritage is another company, they are based in Israel and have a different database. I always take ethnicity estimates with a huge pinch of salt, they are at best a broad indication. My "ethnicity" on MyHeritage is different, and less accurate as per researched genealogy, than on Ancestry.

I also did My Heritage (copied my DNA (GED) over to them). It was definitely less accurate according to my (extensively researched and cross-checked with mutiple relatives) genealogy.

@Gifgaf when you get your siblings to do the test, do give some thought to how you will feel/cope if it throws up unexpected cans of worms.

It's also less pricey than the others which makes.me think may not have been too accurate. Which one from Ancestry or 23andMe would you recommend ?

Ancestry for sure, and buy the yearly subscription, it is so worth it

The only reason I took the test is because many centuries ago my country had taken in A LOT of Jews at the time of the Holocaust and to maintain safety they would have changed identity to belong to my country and of course.over the years they would have multiplied through marriages and births. I was curious what would show up as you just never know. When I mainly showed as Greek I wasn't sure how to feel tbh.

What does the yearly subscription do ?

Always ancestry for 2 reasons:

1. biggest database of test-takers = more matches.
2. you can take your raw DNA results from Ancestry and upload to MyHeritage, GEDMatch but not the other way around.

Not centuries**