Best DNA test to connect with unknown relatives

[Bellasorella1]

My family history is very scant and I know some DNA tests out there have an option to get in touch with other people you are found to be related to. Which is the best in this respect?

Possibly a silly question but is there only one DNA database they all link into?

Just giving this a little boost.

I think ancestry has the largest database than others

We used Ancestry and found several unknown relatives. But be warned, it is not always like on ‘Long Lost Families’.

Ancestry has the biggest database. From there you can also put it on others like my heritage

There are several types of DNA tests and the one you're looking for is an autosomal DNA test (AtDNA) This looks at the genetic material you got from both parents. The alternatives are MtDNA which just looks at what came from your mother, and Y DNA which can only be taken by men and follows the male line.

Ancestry is probably the largest database, and good "Thru-Lines" software for helping you work out where your matches fit in. It really is a matter of chance though, I have several matches on one branch of my tree as lots of distant cousins on that side have independently tested, nothing on other branches.

Once you have your results you can download the raw data of numbers in a .zip file. Once you have that, you can upload the data to other sites like GedMatch or MyLiving DNA or My Heritage to see if there are other matches. It all depends on which companies other people have used.

Remember though that some of your matches will be very distant indeed. Many of mine are very distant - in the order of 4th to 6th cousin which means your common ancestor is 4 to 6 generations back, so your great great great great grandparents.

Also, you need to have done your family tree to be able to work out where matches fit.