DNA ancestry testing - which is the best service to use?

[kwick]

I am very interested in finding out where I came from So for example what % of me comes from UK or elsewhere. Do you lovely people have any recommendations for the best DNA testing service I can use? I am not that bothered about establishing a family tree - more understanding my genetic make-up.
Many thanks in advance!!!

If you are predominantly British then the best one is Living DNA. Apparently good at pinpointing which bit of the UK you are from.

Otherwise they are all much of a muchness because their actual purpose is to match you with people who share your DNA, rather than be accurately predicting where you are from.

Ive done the ancestry one. Read the wording very carefully. It doesnt tell you where your ancestors come from. It says that your dna make up matched xx% of people in xx country that they have collected data from. Its not the same as your ancestry being 80% spanish.

Its great for novelty value but its expensive for what it is.

Thank you @Ewanwhosearmy!
I am allegedly 50% English and 50% Spanish  perhaps I should see if there is a Spanish service I can use...

Thanks @ReinettePompadour! The Ancestry one is the dearer option I think!

Has anyone used Geno 2.0 Ancient DNA testing - I think it's a National Geographic business?

It's important to understand what part of your DNA is being tested.

There are three main types of test:

MtDNA
This tests your mitochondrial DNA which you inherit from your mother. This test is available for men and women, it tests your maternal line.

Y-DNA
This test is only available for men and tests the Y chromasome which is passed down from father to son.

Both mtDNA and Y-DNA don't change significantly from generation to generation.

Familyfinder/Ancestry DNA/MyHeritage DNA

This type of test has become very popular. It's available for men and women.

It tests your autosomal DNA which you inherit in equal parts from your parents. Each time this DNA is passed on it's recombined - mixed up a bit.

As you go back each generation the amount of Number of ancestors you inherit this DNA from grows exponentially.

Partners: 50% & 50%
Grandparents: 25% & 25% & 25% &. 25%
Great grandparents 12.5% & 12.5% & 12.5% &. 12.5% 12.5% & 12.5% & 12.5% &. 12.5%.

And so on.

This type of DNA is only really useful for going back about 4 generations.

Each company you test with compares your dna against their own database, so it's worth c

Sorry accidentally pressed post.

Should read Parents 25% % 25%.

And last bit should be: worth considering whether you can download your data and upload it to other sites in order to get more matches.

AncestryDNA has the largest database

I used ancestry.com

Ds was interested so used ancestry.

He is mixed but they rely on their database of users. It was not specific on his Asian side and not pretty specific on uk.

Oddly it was more specific on his Italian side as he shared lots in common with a huge group of Italians in NYC!

I did the Ancestry.com one and was so disappointed - the advert makes it look like there will be really specific results but its so broad - so tells you a percentage of a continent but not actual countries.

I felt it was a waste of money -but maybe other companies are better?

Whichever one you go with check their privacy policy carefully. Ancestry reserves the right to sell your genetic data to whoever they want...insurance companies, pharma companies etc.

I have just got my Heritage results back this morning and it is quite confusing. Is it normal to wonder whether they have got me mixed up with someone else?

What's confusing, Nambi?

23&me is the most scientific. I have been with them for 6 years and so have my sons, dad and husband. They are always updating their research. I sent some of my late dad’s results to his brother, who is with ancestry.com, and he said it was way more than he ever got from ancestry. It’s more expensive, but worth it.

Charolais - have just looked up 23&me and their test only does the paternal line:

“Women can only trace their paternal haplogroup by connecting to a male relative - such as a father, brother, or paternal male cousin. This is because the paternal haplogroup is traced through the Y chromosome, which women do not inherit.”

ariadne No, 23andme does both maternal and paternal haplogroups. The text you pasted warns that women can only get the maternal (mitochondrial) line because they lack a y-chromosome. Men will get both maternal and paternal lines.

23andme actually go a bit further than most by doing whole-chromosome analysis rather than just mitochondrial and y-chromosome - more detail here www.23andme.com/en-gb/ancestry-composition-guide/ Haven't had it done but am thinking about it.

I got my son the one from Ancestry, and its interesting, but a complete rip off for what you get. Its basically just told him what percentage of DNA comes from which part of the world, but its quite non specific - ie 27% western europe, which could be france, germany, luxembourg or azerbajan , and 20% scandinavian, 20% UK

That sort of thing.

He was hoping to get a lot more info than that and was quite disappointed, and if you want to do the family tree thing with it, or look into it further, you have to pay a very expensive annual subscription fee

My stepdad did 123 and me and i think that might have been more in depth, such as how much neanderthal dna he had etc

There was an interesting discussion on radio 4 the other day. It basically debunked these tests. Its a bit of fun, but not to be taken seriously, from the sound of things.

23&me have dire customer service. They also hold samples in the Netherlands until there are sufficient numbers to send on to the US so there is a big delay between you posting and them starting work on it.

My sister and I have been thinking about doing a DNA test. We’re not so interested in Dads side but our maternal grandmothers side as there was a lot of uprooting during WW2, and all the records were destroyed in Eastern Europe (she was born in 1933). Her parents were divorced and our great grandmother was very fuzzy on the truth, so we’d like any leads on finding any connections with that fourth level of the family. I’ve looked at ancestry but am wary of my details and cells being sold on for medical research (like Henrietta Lack).
Any recommendations?

There was an interesting discussion on radio 4 the other day. It basically debunked these tests. Its a bit of fun, but not to be taken seriously, from the sound of things.

I didn't hear the R4 discussion but I agree it's not to be taken too seriously! It's basically statistical models of the most probable origin for segments of DNA, based in samples of people from those populations,so everything is probabilistic rather than definite. Something like "we are 70% sure that most of your DNA is British, a small amount is Scandinavian, and a small amount is Southern European (but we're 95% sure it's all European)"... but different companies might package it in more certain terms.

I think debunking is fair if companies have been claiming they reveal the certain origins of your ancestry (which is untrue). But these tests can be very informative (and fun!) when you accept the results as probabilities: they're most likely right but they might be wrong.

Sorry, geek - I got it the wrong way round

I have done the Ancestry one and am so pleased! I am adopted and have found a second cousin and lots of third cousins. Building my family tree has meant that I’m nearly certain who my mother is and hope to identify my father’s family through finding no links to my mothers. I am in touch with blood relatives for the first time ever!

With ancestry it’s so very vague. Ds was hoping to hone in more on his Asian side. My df did ancestry and ds and df came up as possible first cousins.