Home dna family history test kits

[Skye85]

Apologies for posting in AIBU, posting for traffic and don't know where else to put it
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Can anyone recommend a at home DNA kit to help search your family tree ?

It's a gift for a family member to try help find lost family.

I keep coming across ancestry dna and my heritage but not sure which (of any) is best.

Anyone ever used any and found long lost family?

Really ? Where is this of you don't mind me asking ? Can you stop the dna company from sharing your information ?

It's Australia:

https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2019/march/genetic-testing-and-insurance-in-australia

Do you have to have an Ancestry account to view your results? I signed up for a 14 day free trial which I was planning on cancelling and noticed a reduced price DNA testing offer on the site. I have ordered the test but will Do have have to keep the account if I want the results? I don’t want to have to pay out for a subscription after the 24 day free trial expires. It’s quite a lot on top of the DNA test.

I was looking at doing this for a Xmas present for my sister. Not for relations but to see our family background. Which one would give us most information, do you think?

If I used My Ancestry, do I get access to the results for free forever? Or do I have to pay the subscription to have access?

I'd be grateful for any advice or feedback. I keep reading about the options but I have no idea how to decide which would be best.

You'd get your DNA test results but without an ancestry account you'd not get matches flagging up. So you'd know about you, but not have access and potential to link to people who are related.

I get updates every time someone else with DNA matches pops up. Waiting on someone to get back to me now.

For me, it's been useful as it's proven that my research has been correct so far. There are a few mysteries I have yet to solve, which are annoying as I'd have expected to find something by now. However, there are people showing as DNA matches I haven't yet chased up so I suppose that is my next port of call.

ancestry don’t test for conditions anyway though so not sure what the risk is.

I used Ancestry and uploaded my results to other sites. It led to discovering a half aunt and cousins that had no idea about me. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

All the kits are the same. However Ancestry won't accept uploads from other sites, so I'd always advise testing with Ancestry, extracting the raw data (just long lists of numbers) and then uploading that to other sites.

Agree with others that you will have to keep your account active to see your matches.

DNA testing is a huge and growing trend in genealogy and millions of people are testing. This is nothing to do with finding out about your health, or whether you're predisposed to some illness. It's purely about looking at your long string of data and finding matches in other people's long strings of data, and suggesting how you might be linked together. It's fair enough to have concerns about the testing and not want to do it. But many people are more than happy to go ahead, understanding what they are getting themselves into.

And personally, I wouldn't call £59 plus £10 shipping for the kit plus £10 a month ongoing membership "cheap or free".

Adoption cases can be tricky. There is no guarantee that anyone close will have tested, I know I am from a huge family and nobody's ever done a test so I have few matches. DH has many more. His brother may not wish to have any contact, may have died, emigrated to Australia... all number of scenarios. It's always a good idea to work through the "what ifs". Also, an eternal frustration is that so many matches on Ancestry and other sites never respond to emails.

There are lots of Aussies in the Ancestry database. The Ancestry testing is purely for cousin matching, they are not doing "genetic testing" to see what you might be liable to develop. 23 and Me do offer health testing alongside genealogical testing.

I've just looked at Ancestry's website - it's not particularly clear what technology they use to test your sample (it's probably some kind of next generation sequencing, although it could be array based I suppose). These tests cost significantly more than £59 to perform.

Ancestry is NOT offering whole genome sequencing!

The test is simply looking for matching SNPs, chosen from the genes which are "are carefully selected to capture the majority of common genetic variation in European and other worldwide populations."

www.ancestry.com/cs/dna-help/ethnicity/whitepaper

Ancestry runs its own labs and is probably not making huge money on the test. But they know if you're interested enough to buy a test to find relatives, you're probably going to be interested enough to keep paying the site subscription fees.

But even an array costs a lot more than £59.

I completely understand that this is seen as something fun / interesting to do. I think there's a lot more to it than that though, and I wouldn't ever do it.

I used Ancestry UK for DNA, and through it we found the family/history of my great-grandfather who (allegedly) walked from Liverpool to London to find work - he changed his surname.

DH then used Ancestry UK for DNA as we had got 'stuck' in his family tree where there was absolutely no record of his great-grandfather's birth. We had a suspicion of another name change - and the results confirmed this, GGF changed first and surname, we think to avoid early conscription to war.

So, @FamilyTreeBuilder , I just want to find out where we could from in the world. I'm not that interested in family members - I have enough of those! Do you know which is best for giving me past genetic feedback with possible years, like fleeing the progroms, etc. I heard me and 23 us good and ancestry uk. What would you go for from what you hear and know? Thanks.

With Ancestry you don't have to subscribe to see your matches. You do have to subscribe if you want to see other people's family trees or if you want to search any of their databases for historical records.

No but you do have to subscribe if you want to be able to contact your matches and compare notes, or have your matches contact you.

You are looking for an ethnicity estimate. These are notoriously not great, although are getting better. This is because there is no such thing as "Scottish" DNA for example - my own ethnicity map says Scottish but the big Scottish circle also includes Northern Ireland, England as far south as Yorkshire and the isle of Man.

It can give very broad indications of where your ancestors came from only, and Ancestry is probably best for this as it has the biggest database of British test-takers.

One thing to look at is Y-DNA testing. Only men have a Y chromosome but this doesn't mutate much across the generations in the way other DNA does. This is a more specialist type of testing not offered by Ancestry, the biggest compan offering Y testing is family tree DNA. Y testing can be used to get quite far back in time, but you'll need a brother or dad to take the test for you.

As an adoptive parent, my view is that it should be the adoptee who takes the lead in finding out about their birth family, assuming they know they are adopted. Can you imagine the upset and confusion if your Dad finds his younger sibling and they never knew they were adopted? Or they know they are adopted and have chosen for personal reasons not to explore their biological family. So much is taken away from adopted children and adults, I don't think we should be taking away their choice of whether they want to be 'found'.

Thanks, family. I've no brothers and my dad's dead so that's not going to work. I might have to rethink from what you've said, though. It sounds too general really so I think it might actually end up being a damp squid as a present. Thanks for your time, though. I appreciate it.

Ive spent 20 years working on my family tree. DH bought me the Ancestry kit for Xmas a couple of years ago. I haven't done it yet as I have the fear that one great grandparent not being who I thought could throw loads of it out of the window. I will do it though.

No if you have a DNA test you just use the free account to message DNA matches and they can contact you. You only need to have a paid subscription to message non DNA matches and view trees and records.

Dh did a test and we’ve discovered that his g grandfather- father’s paternal grandfather is wrong. His father has no idea that the man who he knew as his grandfather biologically wasn’t. We’re not sharing that either.

Totally get your point however if my dads brother is on the ancestry database, then he will have done a dna test himself and will know that he is adopted.

Also, as someone in his 50's he should have been told he was adopted .

I agree it would then be his choice to if he wishes to search for family. It could be a possibility that he has already tried, its been many years ago and his biological mum moved to America some time ago so unlikely social work would be able to get in contact with any biological relatives now.