AncestrybyDNA or Ancestry.com DNA tests and are they useful/worth it

[YoYoAurora]

I looked up the two tests I took, Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com and they both say it is an autosomal test.

Then you have results from both sides of your family: maternal and paternal. When you look at your matches, you should have some from both sides assuming at least one cousin from each side has taken the test.

 

[DisneyPhans]

OP, you should edit the title to remove any confusion about what test you are talking about.

Done. I'm interested in BOTH and whether these types of tests are useful or worth it. The ancestry.com is only $20-$30 more and I'd also grab that if I am interested in my results.

 

[Southernmiss]

I've done the ancestry.com DNA test for myself and dh. It has confirmed my genealogy research for both my maternal and paternal lines and dh's as well.and has been fascinating to see how DNA can confirm stories. Love genealogy and learning how we are connected to each other and events in the world.

 

[themommy]

My mother, some cousins, my husband and I have all done ancestrydna.com tests. We absolutely love it! I had always thought both sides of my family came from Germany. Boy did I learn different. I did not figure in all of the ones that sprout off of all of the trees. I found out I am 19% Irish...I guess that explains all of the freckles and the red tint in my hair! hehe

 

[Gary M]

My results from Ancestry DNA Ethnicity is: Africa 2% (North Africa 2%) Europe98% (Europe West 29%, Ireland 27%, Scandinavia 22%, Great Britain 10%, Italy/Greece 6%, Iberian Peninsula 4%).

I was surprised that it didn't say I was part Native American. My great-grandmother was suppose to be Cherokee Indian according to my mother and her siblings. I have seen pictures of her with my great-grandfather and she sure looked like a Native American.

 

[holden]

We did Ancestry.com for both our our kids. We know nothing about their heritage because they are adopted and we don't have much info from their birth parents. The results were very interesting and the kids enjoyed knowing about their heritage too. We knew our younger DD was multi-racial, and the 24% African on her test results confirmed it.

We also got it for our parents for Christmas. The biggest surprise was that my mom is !00% from Ireland. Not one little bit of anything else. She knew her family was from there, but the 100% was a surprise!

 

[lisaviolet]

Just a heads up.

Your background might not be/is not your your DNA. So you can't always expect your paper trail to match your DNA. Ie. My mother's parents were both born in Ireland, and traced back in Ireland - many generations. So one would assume she is a very high percentage Irish given her background. She and her family know no other ancestry.

However, she is only 60% Irish - from two Irish born parents, and grandparents, great grandparents etc..... (some backgrounds are very mixed but native Irish are not and tend to average around 98% Irish, whereas Great Britain is more along the lines of averaging 60% for native of that ancestry.).

She carried a good percentage of other areas that would have influenced their travel over centuries. Scandinavian - besides Viking travel - we suspect her Irish father traces back to Norway or Denmark way back. Because of the heritage of his last name.


Also, you can have a situation where you do not grab certain ancestry DNA from one parent, even though they clearly have it. It really is a crapshoot. Google it.

But one sibling can carry what you didn't get through your parents. One tester was sad about her lack of native ancestry that she had been told for generations. She then tested her four siblings. Three had none, like her. One carried 19%. That's how it works. It's very interesting.


Plus, remember there are secret adoptions, affairs and sexual assaults in throughout history - unfortunately. That all affects our findings.

There have been many stories of *surprises*. I read about a man that accused AncestryDNA of erroneous practices.. He picked up a ton of Italian ancestry and knew he had none in his family. Later his elderly mother admitted his father was not his father, that an Italian family friend was his father.

I can't imagine if you find secrets right away. A la your real sibling or mother or father has already, by coincidence, completed the same test. They will come up on your dna match.

_________________________________________________________________

Google LLCoolJ's finds on the PBS show. Secrets no one knew. Including his own mother. Not ancestry per se, but through DNA findings.

 

[wenrob]

My results from Ancestry DNA Ethnicity is: Africa 2% (North Africa 2%) Europe98% (Europe West 29%, Ireland 27%, Scandinavia 22%, Great Britain 10%, Italy/Greece 6%, Iberian Peninsula 4%).

I was surprised that it didn't say I was part Native American. My great-grandmother was suppose to be Cherokee Indian according to my mother and her siblings. I have seen pictures of her with my great-grandfather and she sure looked like a Native American.

I think we unconsciously pick out the characteristics of things when they are given to us. My stepmother introduces me as her daughter and we get told how much we look and act alike even though we are not related by blood at at all. My stepbrother gets told how much he looks like my dad and his son and mine are always told people can tell they're related when biologically they're not.

I had a friend who's dad always claimed to be half Native American and it turns out he is actually African American. My DH's grandmother is supposedly half Native American and when you look at her you can "see" it in her as well as her children but there is no documentation of this. I would not be surprised at all if she were African American or another ethnicity.

I'm one who doesn't really care one way or another. If you're from Southern Utah, we're probably related, lol. I have cousins coming out of my ears, I don't need more. Seriously though, there are big dead ends on both our fathers sides and we're okay with that.

 

[Disneefun]

No. Just no. I don't trust any company to protect my information and not use it or release it in ways that I did not intend.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438960
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438960
Google ancestry privacy concerns if you want to freak out. Everything from targeted advertising, to racial profiling, to turning you down for insurance based on your DNA are all valid concerns, in addition to the legal implications.

 

[hoosll]

I have been keeping my tree on ancestry for over 10 years so I decided to do the DNA spit test (not swabs). So far it has identified 435+ second/third/fourth cousins and double that for fifth thru eighth cousins. It got my ethnic background correctly. It identified my first and second cousins that I knew were on ancestry and DNA tested. I am very happy with the quality of the results I received.

 

[ZachnElli]

My dad did his recently and my DH is awaiting his results. The surprise on my dad's results were 12% Irish and 20% Scandinavian. We didn't know we had any of that in us at all. I've said for years on St Patrick's day that I didn't have a lick of Irish in me, but I have to stop saying that now, lol! I was disappointed that we still don't know if we are German or French. The majority came back Western European, so yes, German or French, but still not which one. My dad's grandfather ran away as a teen and refuse to speak of anything about where he came from or who his parents were, so still stumped there.
My DH's results should say German, Irish and Native American, but we shall see! He checks the website everyday and it says it's in the lab, so anytime now. Oh, in doing ancestry.com my DH did find an uncle he didn't know about. Turns out his grandfather ran off and got married at 16 but her family tracked them down and had the marriage annulled but not before they got busy and his uncle was born 9 months later. Turned out that DH'S dad and siblings knew, but refused to acknowledge him. Very sad, but my DH has befriended him and even has lunch with him from time to time. He's in his 80's and never married and no kids.

 

[Southernmiss]

No. Just no. I don't trust any company to protect my information and not use it or release it in ways that I did not intend.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438960
Google ancestry privacy concerns if you want to freak out. Everything from targeted advertising, to racial profiling, to turning you down for insurance based on your DNA are all valid concerns, in addition to the legal implications.

Eh. I don't put a lot of worry in these concerns. My information is already out there and has been breached through activity with Target, TJ Maxx and the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It can be accessed and used regardless of if I've had my DNA tested. They'll get it one way or the other. I remember when the PIN was first introduced with ATM cards and people freaked. With technology today, you take the good with the bad.

 

[Feralpeg]

My daughter did it. She has since connected with a relative (on my mother's side of the family) we didn't know existed. After receiving the connection from Ancestry, I was able to trace back to this person. We are now friends on Facebook. Just the other day, she received notice of another connection to a man in California. I haven't traced that one yet.

While there were no big surprises as to our background, it is still fun.

 

[lisaviolet]

If you're Asian, South Asian or a Middle Eastern background, I would not do the test at this time. The results will be extremely generalized, unless you're truly interested to see if you carry another region of the world.

For example the three findings for a native Asian or South Asian background are Asia Central, Asia East and Asia South. Can you imagine spending the money, being intrigued and getting that comprehensive result?

________________________________________________

And because some borders were non-existent and malleable, you are not given specifics. For example here are my findings ---

• Ireland 34%
• Great Britain 31%
• Europe West 23%
• Scandinavia 10%
• Finland/Northwest Russia 1%
• Italy/Greece less than 1%

That 23% could be a myriad of countries.

They give you explanations of the regions but there are a lot overlapping areas between them as well. For example parts of what we now know as Denmark are contained in both Scandinavia and Europe West.

I found the areas that they deemed 0%, but some of my DNA samples picked up sometimes as much as 4%, the most interesting. It could be an error of course but I did my mom's at the same time and she picked up the same areas.

 

[DisneyPhans]

If you're Asian, South Asian or a Middle Eastern background, I would not do the test at this time.

Well that's disappointing... I can see it now: "Congratulations, you are: Asian. Have a nice day!"

But at least a 0-4% finding of something is a valuable clue.. even if that 0-4% in my case was middle-eastern or south-asian. At least I know not to be disappointed, based on this information you mentioned. It will probably just make me want to do the maternal/paternal search for deeper clues. Somewhere, and I'm sure of this, somebody with a big nose got into my gene pool... it ain't any of the Asians I've seen, and I've seen a lot of Asians.

 

[lisaviolet]

Well that's disappointing... I can see it now: "Congratulations, you are: Asian. Have a nice day!"

I know, can you imagine? Money well spent.

I don't want to scare you off, and they are making improvements over time as more people add samples, but it's best to have an idea of how generalized it can be.

 

[tarheel618]

No. Just no. I don't trust any company to protect my information and not use it or release it in ways that I did not intend.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438960
Google ancestry privacy concerns if you want to freak out. Everything from targeted advertising, to racial profiling, to turning you down for insurance based on your DNA are all valid concerns, in addition to the legal implications.

That was my thought too. Why would I want to volunteer my DNA to be placed in a database

 

[here757]

Ur DNA is probably already in a data base... Ever given blood? U can't say without a doubt it wasn't processed. Ur doctors make a diagnosis it goes in your medical records.. Insurance companies can and do use that info to see what pre existing conditions u may have. Both health and life insurance companies can see these files..
Ur rate is charged according to what they may or may not find..
But I don't think any companies care if I am 40% Irish.. They can't sell me cabbage. Cuz I hate it. Can't offend me being racist cuz I don't relate to it.. Just something to think about

 

[MrsDuck]

My parents, DH, and I have all done it. I LOVE it.

We had a pretty good idea of our heritage so we mostly had confirmation but there were some surprises!

 

[aprilgail]

I did ancestry dna and 23 and me dna- I was adopted- found my birthmom but still trying to nail down that one piece of info that would lead me to my birth father- I know his last name so you would think it would be easy from there but since he immigrated here from Greece its not as easy s tracking someone down that was born here. I have found one distant cousin this week on there that has a family tree with the last name of someone on there the same as the last name I am looking for- I messaged the person and am waiting to hear back from them! I didn't do the tests to find out "what" I am- I don't really care---I am still trying to figure out WHO I am - I still need that missing 50%!!