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DNA Testing, what are your experiences?

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Kat7272

Kat7272

master brummie
I am just wondering what experience anyone has of the DNA testing that is offered on the genealogy sites?

I have not undertaken the test myself and I do not know of anyone that has.

Any info would be appreciated, thank you.:):):)
 
I managed to persuade my 90+ aunt, last of her generation, to do a test with LivingDNA. I chose them because they seemed to have good reviews. The test was easy enough to do, just a mouth swab and post it back. I'm not sure that the reports told us much, basically that geographically her ancestors hadn't moved much. We didn't get any links to anyone with similar DNA. I got the impression that the service was being developed with new features to come. Presumably the detailed analysis will at some point be able to be used by other services and we have at least captured her DNA for posterity.
A word of caution. Someone apparently related to a second-cousin of mine got in touch with me via information on my family tree website so I put him in touch with my cousin and over the years they exchanged a lot of information. Eventually he produced a book, at some expense, detailing his family tree, sending over from the USA several copies (expensive postage!). He then decided to take a DNA test. Oh dear! Turned out that his mum had met the proverbial milkman and that all of his siblings were really half-siblings and that he wasn't descended from anyone in his expensive book.
 
Hi Kat, I did a test with Ancestry DNA and it compares well with what I know of my family tree from my own research. I was also sent a lot of matches with 'cousins' from all over the place. No great surprises except for a bit of Swedish and Finnish which I didn't know about. I think they send you updates too.
 
A word of warning concerning DNA testing and personal data.

If you or anyone else is thinking of getting your DNA tested, ensure you inform the company that you do not wish to share your personal data. Heath insurance companies are willing to pay for this information.

Quite often they will share it as the default position unless you make sure you tell them not to.
 
More information added to a well known Ancestry site (based in the USA) as far as I see. I would not bother with it personally.
I can go back to the early eighteenth century (1707) on both sides of my family, but have never pursued it further. Origins were farmers in eastern England and western Europe it seems. I suppose most people lived in rural areas until the canal and railway eras. I guess outside the areas served, approximately, by the Inner Circle bus route, would have been fairly rural before the expansion of the city in the early 20th. Century. I am the only one born in Warwickshire. As far as relatives are concerned the only ones I know are my direct family. I haven't the faintest idea where any of the others are - and I guess there are an awful lot of them. :D Farming communities in the past did spread out; if there were any sons it would have been only the eldest who could inherit the farm - which might be owned or rented - and the others would have to buy or rent another farm somewhere else, or choose to find work in a town or city. The daughters of course usually got married which also meant a move, of varying distances. Due to rural hardships many failed with their farms and graduated to the expanding cities for work. Birmingham is a great place for discovering ancestors from far afield it seems.
 
I did it, my daughter sent me it as a gift, https://www.23andme.com/en-gb/

I figured that their questionnaire prior to testing gave them enough information to list my ancestry without even doing the actual test , I did it anyway.

Sure enough the result didn't tell me much more than I told them, I do however keep getting reminders from them telling me of new links to 3rd of 4th cousins 'maybe' several generations removed.

Just got this today.
Ashampoo_Snap_2019.11.16_09h02m16s_001_.png
 
My wife had a kit as a present from the girls. She has "dined out" on the news that she is descended from a Viking warrior princess all this year.
 
I think my ancestry would go back as far as King Alfred, I`m always burning my cakes. I`m sure i read somewhere that if we went back far enough we would all be related to royalty. I hope not, i`ve no fancy to wear a crown!
 
MWS said:
Henry I maybe, he was the king with the b*stards, Edward I was devoted to his wife
Click to expand...

Straying a little but wasn't Edward I the one who erected all the crosses where his wife's funeral cortege rested on the way to Westminster? Banbury, Charing etc.

Back to topic - I got the DNA test on special offer and did it for fun really. Don't drink, don't smoke and wanted to do it. I actually don't think I mind if they share my results with health companies especially if they find a cure for RA which has spoiled a great deal of my life.
 
And here they are...

Geddington.jpg Hardingstone.jpg

And on the topic - haven't done one but I'm tempted by the findmypast one where you can have your Y chromosone and mitochondrial dna done. As my paternal line is unfortunately my least traced line it's the only way I'll be able to go further I think.
 
MWS, I get a bit confused but I know that if I'd got my brother to do the test then there would have been more information. Is this the mitochondrial one?
 
No, that's Y chromosone, passed down from father to son unchanged. Miitochondrial is passed down by the mother to her children unchanged.

So yes, to trace your father's line you would need a male relative. Most tests don't do Y or mitochondrial just autosomal.
 
Post 12 should have probably have been Edward IV, but there are various other claims:-
1. 25% are descended from the Plantaganets
2. Everyone is descended from Charlemagne
3. 100,000 are descended from Edward III
Personally I can only go back to 1625 in Darlaston or circa 1816 in South Worcestershire - and still doing menial jobs! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
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this thread was only started yesterday and already it has seriously gone off topic and is not helping the member who started this thread with her question and who only wanted constructive advise..thread will be locked for the removal of off topic post later on today and then re opened

thank you
 
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I think you are correct there Bob. DNA testing has uncovered a lot of childeren who do not have the biological father they thought they had.
 
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