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Anyone here done one of those Ancestry DNA tests?


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Old 02-01-2017, 20:52
max_garfield
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Basically you pay £79, they send you a kit which you have to do a saliva swab test thing, send it back and in a few weeks they send you the results.

It tells you what your origins are basically and the percentage. I want to do it. Maybe I am just more than "English" (in fact, aren't we all?! )
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:03
Moany Liza
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Basically you pay £79, they send you a kit which you have to do a saliva swab test thing, send it back and in a few weeks they send you the results.

It tells you what your origins are basically and the percentage. I want to do it. Maybe I am just more than "English" (in fact, aren't we all?! )
You do realise that being English is your nationality - and not necessarily your ethnicity, don't you?
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:06
CBFreak
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I tried but those sites are confusing

Those DNA tests though won't tell how english you are. You'll need to do a genealogy research for that. But it will tell you how much you are Caucasian, Asian, African American you are. It might be able to specify a region such as southern Europe or Eastern European but that's about it.
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:25
Starpuss
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Me! Or rather my husband paid for it as a gift. I've had my mitochonrial DNA done too. It's fascinating.
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:31
striing
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I would like to know mine but I suspect that the test only works for a fairly small pool of people and we'll all end up looking more or less the same (ie I don't believe they have a worldwide databank to test against).
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:46
sodavlac
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I tried but those sites are confusing

Those DNA tests though won't tell how english you are. You'll need to do a genealogy research for that. But it will tell you how much you are Caucasian, Asian, African American you are. It might be able to specify a region such as southern Europe or Eastern European but that's about it.
Yes, I heard they were a bit vague. Considered maybe getting one for my dad but that put me off.

Do they even go into haplogroups/types and the different markers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup
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Old 02-01-2017, 21:50
Starpuss
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I read this before I went ahead

https://www.ancestry.com/dna/en/lega...al/faq#about-3

I just saw they don't do the mitochondrial testing now. This test seems to have superceded it.
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Old 02-01-2017, 22:04
MikeJW
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Yes. My results were surprise-free: mostly UK, some Irish and north west Europe, a little Scandinavian and that was it.

If you have an Ancestry tree, it might get better. It helped me find a branch of the family I wouldn't have discovered otherwise, probably, and it confirmed I was right in another area (the best match they gave me was someone I'd just found myself). BUT the problem is that most of my matches were from people who did the DNA test but don't have a tree, so I can see who might be related, but I've no idea how.
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Old 03-01-2017, 09:42
Doctor_Wibble
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... ie I don't believe they have a worldwide databank to test against.
Don't worry - they are working on it, people are lining up to be added, for just a one-off fee of £79...


Worth remembering DNA matching is based on probabilities and certainties, not 'absolute' or 'exact'.
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Old 03-01-2017, 10:46
Dotheboyshall
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Don't worry - they are working on it, people are lining up to be added, for just a one-off fee of £79...


Worth remembering DNA matching is based on probabilities and certainties, not 'absolute' or 'exact'.
DNA testing only shows where people with your DNA background are living today. It doesn't mean that your ancestors came from that area.
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Old 03-01-2017, 10:53
Doctor_Wibble
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DNA testing only shows where people with your DNA background are living today. It doesn't mean that your ancestors came from that area.
Yes - because that's the limit of what they have in their database, which is expanding one sample and 'tree section' at a time - whether or not connectivity exists is of course another user-contributed part of the data.
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Old 03-01-2017, 12:27
TheEricPollard
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There seemed to be a phase where everyone found out they were a quarter black.
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Old 03-01-2017, 13:44
LauraLS
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I've done the haplogroup test- I'm T2- woop. But I'd like to do the other one. I find it all fascinating.
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Old 03-01-2017, 14:55
SillyBoyBlue
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I tried but those sites are confusing

Those DNA tests though won't tell how english you are. You'll need to do a genealogy research for that. But it will tell you how much you are Caucasian, Asian, African American you are. It might be able to specify a region such as southern Europe or Eastern European but that's about it.
African American isn't an ethnicity, it's a political label.
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Old 03-01-2017, 15:05
St Dabeoc
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turns out I'm a direct descendant of Ug The Hairy Lovely woman apparently
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Old 03-01-2017, 16:06
ricardoylucia
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Had an Ancestry message from someone who did the DNA testing and he is from the United States of America. It turns out he is a distant half-cousin and it is possible he and myself along with my 1st cousin can tie up a few loose ends in our tree..,,so, maybe this DNA in some way or another does work..
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Old 03-01-2017, 20:37
zoepaulpenny
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If u can afford it, go for it.i would go to a big research establishment with proper experienced scientific egg heads. Rather than a comp advertising for your services and are not truly professional , but each to their own
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Old 03-01-2017, 21:04
tenofspades
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turned out my DNA wasn't human. Martian.
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Old 03-01-2017, 21:32
Gordie1
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If u can afford it, go for it.i would go to a big research establishment with proper experienced scientific egg heads. Rather than a comp advertising for your services and are not truly professional , but each to their own
If you were doing the test for genealogy purposes then paying some scientist blokes a fortune to do it would be of no use to you as data protection would prevent them from telling you of other people who have taken a test with them.

The test with ancestry, 23&me etc work well, but the more people who take them, the bigger the database, the more more accurate the matches you get.
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Old 03-01-2017, 23:58
Sifter22
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My Dad did yeah. Went to a very random country too cos of it. Very interesting!
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Old 04-01-2017, 00:28
striing
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Don't worry - they are working on it, people are lining up to be added, for just a one-off fee of £79...
They can come back to me when they've gone through the rest of the list.
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Old 04-01-2017, 03:27
SecretLifeoBees
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I have thought about having it done when they had a recent 'offer'. However, the £20 postage cost put me off big time.
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Old 04-01-2017, 04:28
dee123
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Yep. Mainly French and Irish and a bit of German.
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Old 04-01-2017, 05:51
Pollyusa
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Basically you pay £79, they send you a kit which you have to do a saliva swab test thing, send it back and in a few weeks they send you the results.

It tells you what your origins are basically and the percentage. I want to do it. Maybe I am just more than "English" (in fact, aren't we all?! )
I've tested myself and my mother. The ethnicity profile is not worth your money as it in itself is only a rough estimate.

The value of the DNA testing is the DNA matches. Ancestry or the other major DNA testing company, FamilytreeDNA, provide the profiles of other test takers who share DNA with you ... your relatives. Some of the DNA matches are quite distant, but you will be surprised how many are close relatives.

I have found the family of my adopted great grandfather through DNA testing and my mother and I were the largest match for a brother and sister who had just found out that their father had been adopted way back in 1905. My mother shares a large amount of DNA with this brother and sister ... they are either her half first cousins or her second cousins and were totally unknown to her before DNA testing.

I have also been able to connect several family groups on my Irish family lines through shared DNA matches. You can tell if a DNA match is also matching someone else and often you can identify a group with matching DNA. I have been able to connect 20-30 Irish DNA matches which has helped verify genealogy research and locate new ancestors.
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