Ancestry testing

[dustydrawers]

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

What company would be best for tracing German relatives ?

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/so-you-want-to-test-your-dna

@Startingagainandagain you don't have to use your real name on the Ancestry site, I don't. You also don't have to make your tree public unless you want to. You can make it private but the people are visible in searches, totally private and unsearchable, or public, whatever you like, and can change it any time. If it is private you can chose to send it to specific people if you want to without making it public.

@deeahgwitch In Ancestry I have been able to get back to 1747 in my tree of my German ancestors. And have had some matches who are German and living in Germany whom I have contacted.

Ancestry is reasonably ok, you may also want to have a look at Matricula

https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/

which contains church registers (mostly books of birth, marriage and death) from various European countries (currently Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia).

They hold a lot of records that Ancestry don't have

Or have a look here:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Germany_Online_Genealogy_Records

I have found that MyHeritage provides a lot more DNA matches from Europe than Ancestry.

For example, on Ancestry, people that I am a DNA match with who have a connection with Germany are typically living in the USA and have some German ancestors.

On MyHeritage in contrast, there are 338 DNA matches who currently live in Germany. 165 on my father's side and 173 on my mother's side.

Most of them are between 4th and 8th cousins according to the site.

I find this absolutely crazy as my family have very much stayed in the UK - except for a number that emigrated to the USA, Canada, Australia and NZ over the centuries.

Perhaps some of them also emigrated to Germany back in the 1700s (or immigrated from Germany - not that "Germany" existed back then but you know what I mean)?

Be aware that the country origins / results from Ancestry etc may be skewed as some countries don't allow DNA testing, eg France.

"Also, you don't have to sign up for an annual subscription, you can do it for just 3 months or even one month at a time."

I did a free trial once, but there was no way of saving the family tree I'd created so it was all lost.

You can download a family tree from Ancestry in a file format called GEDCOM.

A GEDCOM file has the suffix ".ged" (just like a Word document has the suffix ".docx").

From Ancestry you can export the file to your computer. From there you can import the file into any software that you use on your computer or to any other free to use website that you choose.

Then don't.

You can put a username that isn't your name.

Just don't use an alternative which uses something obvious either. And put your privacy options high.

If someone contacts you and you have used a pseudonym they will not know who you are and you do not have to reply unless you want to.

I use several of these sites.I would recommend Ancestry as a starting point. They have the largest database and the subscriptions provide access to a lot of records. Also you cannot upload dna from other companies to their website but you can use Ancestry’s on My Heritage, Living DNA etc.

Ancestry’s Pro Tools are a game changer.

My Heritage is good for some European countries (for me Netherlands).

Find my past has the best UK records also newspapers and some British Indian and Australian records.

23 and me is good for health info but useless for ancestors in my experience. Also note that you can upload dna data to Promethease and also get health data for a small fee.

Also a UK one Living DNA. Quite a small database though.

Family Tree DNA have X and Y tests but their trees are moving to My Heritage.

FREE genealogy this is the uk one /the original is usa
https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-kingdom/

not dna , info//// found my grams ellis records from sicily she was 3 yrs old

I agree on Ancestry Pro tools, they are amazing, I have discovered so much, both in general terms and about specific people and about relationships.

@Zeeze and @theDudesmummy

Are Pro Tools really that good? I saw that the price is £7.99 per month which seems a lot to pay on top.

Is it something like the triangulation tool on MyHeritage which shows which matches you share which common parts of DNA with each other?

That's interesting. I'll try to log back in. I don't know which email address I used though...

@Gwenhwyfar good luck! Just reported my prev. post as potentially identity-confirming, so if it disappears, that will be why (trying to be more careful about that stuff)

So about 10 years ago we heard in a heated argument with parents that my dad could potentially have another daughter (back when he was 21 now 63- there were no DNA test equipment and her mother was quite.... loose.... so no one actually knew who the father was) anyways, my brother went on ancestry and then found out we have another sister and found her!! It was great in the long run as everyone is now getting on great. Do the test x

I managed to get back in and saw a message sent by someone asking for info in 2017. Oops.
Now to find out how to export my tree.
I guess I'm going to get sucked into this though and get another free trial.

I plan to do this, when the children grow up and I have time to do the family tree/ go down a rabbit hole. Also when my dad has passed. He allegedly has a half sibling, but when people have tried to tell him this, he's thought it rubbish and hasn't wanted to entertain it.

Some of it is extremely accurate, BUT I know of someone who was given two different "readings" (on the same sample) three months apart.
I'm not sure how things could change so dramatically

I think I was slightly less than that but yes it's really useful. If you click on a match there is a page which lists all the shared matches you have with them and what estimated relationship and cM value you are to them and what their estimated relationship and cM value is to the shared match.

This means you can see that Dorothy Jones is Fred Smith's aunt. If Dorothy Jones doesn't have a tree but Fred Smith does, it gives you a good idea where Dorothy Jones might fit in.

So any matches you get through thrulines (or your own research) and have placed into your tree you can then work through and see how they fit with your shared matches.

I've managed to get a good hundred or so matches into my parents / DHs family trees just from using this.

It's helped me identify most of the close matches my Dad and DH have. I've got a fair way with my Mum's too but still struggling with the Irish side. I have worked out a couple of family names my Mum MUST be directly related to, I just can't definitely prove the link, which is frustrating.

But it's not cheap. I think you have to be at that stage of wanting to take it to the next level and match up either a specific person or want to work out all your matches. If you are just doing it casually it's not worth it.

I believe there's a big ancestry update imminent - which does change some of the % estimates of your origins (rumour is it's next month). So your origin profile can and does change occasionally when they do an update. Your DNA hasn't changed but their interpretation has. I believe they are adding a specific Cornwall area origin in this upcoming update and they are separating Sweden/Denmark and refining German origins. This is done as they gain more data and have better information about shared DNA. (The same is true of other DNA sites).

It depends on where you are from but I have heard of this for certain regions when they do an update. Some areas are less accurate for data than others.

I've used 23andme for health and ancestry. Interesting but not that much info. I have a belief of what my heritage is and none of it came up. It doesn't look at what your ancestry is but where people with your dna live (or something like that) - surprise, surprise, they all live in the UK and Ireland.

I wasn't a fan so used ancestry for my mum.

Worth nothing both companies had to send replacements. Mine was lost and hers was unable to be decoded.

I bought a kit for my DD and then when she was reported to have 1% Nigerian both me and DH did one to find out whose side it wad on! You guessed it, our results came back with nil Nigerian.
Was fun, but we didn't really find out anything we didn't already know. Now regularly get emails to say they've found my 4th or 5th cousin.....