General Chat

Which site would you choose/have chosen to do this. Id you have done the test did it give you any assistance in tracing family members or was it a lot of 'eye wash'?

Appreciate some comments please as I am considering doing the test.
Phyll

Will look in later today

I did 23andMe, very happy with it .

Lost Cousins suggests 23andMe with Ancestry to cover more bases.

Have confirmed several branches of my tree and unearthed a discretion by one of my gt uncles as I have a French 2nd cousin - looks like WW1 era.

When you get your results you can download your raw data and transfer it to other sites to increase the number of relation connections.

Some people complain that their ancestry is being adjusted - I recently had my Scandinavian part altered to not including Finland. This is because it's an new evolving science with lots of results being sorted through to get narrower areas therefore more precise. The ancestry part can alter from different sites, usually the percentages are different. Take these as rough ideas, I'm sure it'll be sorted in time when they get enough DNA analysed.

You have to be patient as you are reliant on who has had their DNA analysed to find relatives. Mostly Americans but UK numbers going up all the time.

Wait for special offers.

As I've written a while ago, I used Ancestry and it is a company that updates as new methods become available. Mine has been updated and pinpointed more accurately once. At the time of the update, I asked my brother (a genetics researcher for many years before he lectured) and he confirmed that the latest results will be right as new methods will be the most accurate.

I only opened an account without paying, simply to get the results. I put down my own shortened name and the names my parents used - not their full ones - and no other details as I wanted to be sure that nothing could be gleaned from details I had entered.

I had a lot of hits - some from second and third cousins I'd already met.

Phyll, I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting several of them, all of them are lovely sociable people so if you get the chance to meet, I'd recommend doing so.

Good luck. :-D

I used Ancestry and am pleased with it.

Get up dates every 2 weeks and have found quite a few cousins

I did mine through ancestry and it did link me with others who I have already been in contact with

One result was remarkable and I contacted the person to find the connection

So in 1852 my grt by umpteen grandfather through my mums matermal side married a widow who had children by her first marriage

One of their children was my grans ancestor

So the contact confirmed the marriage and then revealed they were descended from one of her children from the first marriage

So dna does work

I did mine with Ancestry and got some good results, I copied the data over to my heritage and very different % and not much in the way of good contacts. I then did a fresh test with Livingdna. They almost grade your % by county which was interesting.

Oh cousin living in France was very disappointed with MH - my brother in law also tested with M H and now we know who the grandad was! I had worked out the family but not the culprit - but a descendant of the same man had also tested with MH - he also lived abroad.
Don,t forget you can,t transfer data into Ancestry - only out of it.

By county, nl1, that's good.

Ancestry named South, Midlands and North as far as my English dna is concerned but no specific counties and no counties or areas with my Welsh, Scottish or Irish dna. I had 2% Norway and 2% Sweden but no mention of which areas there.

Apart from several hits that I knew were right, I have a lot more that I still have to pin down to a branch. Perhaps knowing a county could help do this.

Hi JoyLouise
It's a mix of county and tv regions. So I start with Southern (but this is really mostly Channel Islands), bit of Midlands, Eire, Anglia, etc

But it doesn't explain why everyone seems to give me Norfolk (?????) and leaves out Worcestershire.

It also gives me a chunk of Scandi and Iberia.

My Ancestry Ethniticy map changed hugely, putting me ONLY into Central & Southern England.

I too have had my DNA tested through Ancestry. My Mother was from Prince Edward Island a Canadian Province and I knew very little about her Ancestors before her Parents who were both Canadian, her Father having Irish Ancestry and her Mother French Ancestry. My DNA threw up a lot on the Acadian Immigration and in particular named Monaghan in Ireland as a place of interest. I have since found out that Monaghan was a place where one set of Irish Ancestors had emigrated from in the 1820s. Without my DNA pointing me in the right direction I doubt that I would have found this.

My first cousin, on my Mother's side, also has recently had her DNA tested on Ancestry and she immediately came up as my first cousin

The Test also threw up another first cousin that I was not aware of who was convinced that she was from my Father's side, however she has also turned up on the first cousin's test mentioned above so I think she may have some questions to ask, hopefully there is still someone around to answer them!

I do have a Tree linked to my DNA Test on Ancestry but none of the above was on it, including my first cousin.

My top ethnicity percentage is 45% Scottish/Irish.... now I would never have thought that..LOL

And there's me with a Scottish accent told my DNA
is mostly English :-D

We both did Ancestry DNA tests and they have been good in unblocking some brick walls and tracing some rellies.

However, can someone explain this? Before Ancestry 'refined' and adjusted results my OH's DNA showed a small amount of Greek ancestry and we expected this as he has a peculiarity with his blood typical of areas with Mosquitos as it is protection against Malaria that evolved. After Ancestry refining his results his test shows only British Isles and North west europe now, which his blood proves isn't correct now. :-S

Thank you all so much for your interesting & informative replies. I hope to put it all to good use.
Phyll

:-D :-D :-D@ Emma