Has anyone done DNA Ancestry testing?

[Hassled]

My brother and I were saying about how we'd love to get this done - we are a bit of an ethnical mish-mash, both of our parents are dead and there are a lot of questions we didn't ask. This is the sort of thing I mean and yes, I realise it is scarily expensive but it's occurred to me only one of us actually needs to get it done - it can be our combined birthday/Christmas presents to each other for the foreseable future.
So any advice? Words of caution? Are there a lot of dodgy DNA charlatans out there eager to rob me? Thanks in advance.

No idea, but it sounds like a fantastic plan!

Research is the key .. and I hope someone knowledgeable happens upon this thread.

So keep bumping.

.

For a more productive bump, what's the ethnical mish-mash? How much do you know so far?

Mostly European (a right mixture - Welsh, Cornish and Portuguese on my mother's side, we think) - but an American paternal grandmother with both German Jewish and Native American blood. And then my paternal grandfather was Scots, 4th generation born in Japan - ostensibly all white ex-pats but there's just something in the look of some of the family that makes me think otherwise - DS2 and I have distinctly oriental eyes, and this was just something that was never referred to when my parents were alive. So maybe all the product of my over-active imagination but I would like to know!

I don't blame you for wanting to spend your hard-earned in this way, especially as you and your brother are on your own.

Oriental eyes are not a trick of nature .. it would be hugely interesting to find out which part of the Orient a part of you both hails from, and from which tribe of the Native Americans you might hail from!!

All power to your arm, I say! Go for it. Money can buy such a lot of crap, but to pass on your mixed heritage to your children would be a huge thing to do.

Once you've something tangible, I would start a new thread. People are very interested in this sort of thing, and you'll get a lot of helpful advice, (and magical twists), if you keep us all engaged.

Many thanks for responding - am off to bed but with renewed enthusiasm .
Re tribes - Montana, if that helps at all

Can you not find any research projects that are working on DNA population profiling sort of thingies? I'm sure there are some and it'd be a darn sight cheaper (ie probably free and probably more accurate).

I'd like my mitochondrial DNA tested because my mother's adopted and it would be nice to have some indication of where that half of our family comes from, even if it is at the 'ten per cent of the world's population...' level.

I've made a note.

I've always been mad obsessed with American tribes, despite being Anglo-Saxon for a good thousand years!

Edam! I guess you haven't had any luck yet, tracing your mum's side of things?