RootsChat.Com
General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: nelwild on Monday 27 November 17 13:42 GMT (UK)
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Hello.
Please can anyone tell me what these DNA tests will reveal,in simple laymans terms.Also,whether the Ancestry test is a good buy as I'm thinking of sending off for it.They are currently doing an offer of £30 off,so its £49 instead of £79.Knowing how much they charge for Birth,Marriage and Death certificates,im wondering whether £79 is an inflated price.The offer ends at midnight tonight.Any advice appreciated.Many thanks.
Nel.
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Have you noticed that does not include shipping costs ::)
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No I hadn't,does it say what the shipping costs are?
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Knowing how much they charge for Birth,Marriage and Death certificates,im wondering whether £79 is an inflated price.
The GRO only charge £9.25 for Birth, Marriage, Death certificates ;D
And you can get a PDF copy of Birth & Death cert's for only £6.
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No I hadn't,does it say what the shipping costs are?
I believe it is £20
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=783279.msg6379369#msg6379369
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Hello.
Please can anyone tell me what these DNA tests will reveal,in simple laymans terms.Also,whether the Ancestry test is a good buy as I'm thinking of sending off for it.They are currently doing an offer of £30 off,so its £49 instead of £79.Knowing how much they charge for Birth,Marriage and Death certificates,im wondering whether £79 is an inflated price.The offer ends at midnight tonight.Any advice appreciated.Many thanks.
Nel.
I'd quite like to read an answer to that as well. e.g. I have a brickwall (well, I have oodles of the bloomin things, but I'm using this one as an example) with my 3x great grandmother Bathsheba Boothroyd in West Yorkshire. If I did a DNA test, would it show up anyone also related to her assuming they've had the test as well, which I would have thought was highly unlikely? Or does it not go back that far in time? Would it help me with other brickwalls even further back i.e. 4th and 5th great grandparents - or would I be wasting my money?
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Ancestry frequently have these offers, so I wouldn't worry about missing the deadline.
I have wanted to do one for a couple of years now but unfortunately because I don't live in the UK/USA I can't buy one. Of course that doesn't stop Ancestry emailing me with offers at least once a week ;)
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Hello.
Please can anyone tell me what these DNA tests will reveal,in simple laymans terms.Also,whether the Ancestry test is a good buy as I'm thinking of sending off for it.They are currently doing an offer of £30 off,so its £49 instead of £79.Knowing how much they charge for Birth,Marriage and Death certificates,im wondering whether £79 is an inflated price.The offer ends at midnight tonight.Any advice appreciated.Many thanks.
Nel.
I'd quite like to read an answer to that as well. e.g. I have a brickwall (well, I have oodles of the bloomin things, but I'm using this one as an example) with my 3x great grandmother Bathsheba Boothroyd in West Yorkshire. If I did a DNA test, would it show up anyone also related to her assuming they've had the test as well, which I would have thought was highly unlikely? Or does it not go back that far in time? Would it help me with other brickwalls even further back i.e. 4th and 5th great grandparents - or would I be wasting my money?
There would be a remote chance it may be of help. Basically autosomal DNA test are sold on the ability to tell you what your ethnic inheritance it. These tests though are only good for 4-5 generations so even matching up a 3 great grandmother may be a problem. They also work by comparing your DNA group to very small samples and can be significantly wrong. Autosomal tests are better for matching relatives but that requires you to have a tree and the person you are testing with too. However some people do not share trees so you do not get to make provable matches.
In short its all a bit of a lottery, you may strike lucky but, in my opinion, you are more likely not to
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Sorry but my experience contradicts yours davidft in that I have found taking an ancestry dna test very satisfying - not that it has broken down any of my brick walls yet.
I have matched up with both 4th cousins and 3rd cousins once removed that I did not know about and we each have separate paper trails corroborating our matches as well as the dna match.
Nothing negative to report although something concerning in that one of my matches was with somebody who did not know their paternity who wanted to find out who her biological father was. I assumed that she just wasn't aware of her father and wanted to find out. My dna match gave her a heads up and that was how it was left.
Just recently I had a further 3 matches with different people who also matched with her (I have access to her results) and without thinking connected with each through Ancestry although we could not find any likely paper trail. I went back to my original contact to follow up as to whether she discovered her paternity and did she know of the match with these other people only to discover that she was conceived as a result of a sperm donor, which she knew about, and had managed to track him down with the help of my dna test. However, these 3 other people (and heaven knows how many others) were also the result of sperm donors and she had no idea whether or not they knew but my having contacted them and not finding a paper trail may have put the cat amongst the pigeons for them now!
So a note of caution here - and heaven knows how one would describe that kind of relationship.
But I would say have a go at a test - you never know what you might find.
Pheno
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Autosomal tests are better for matching relatives but that requires you to have a tree and the person you are testing with too. However some people do not share trees so you do not get to make provable matches.
It doesn't really require you or other people to have a tree. I don't know how it works if you don't have an Ancestry account, but I do and I was able to send messages to people whether or not they had a tree. People may not respond to messages, but most of the people I have contacted have been responsive. Depending on the situation, you might even be able to figure out who people are based on their screen name.
You can also use your raw DNA data from Ancestry to transfer to gedmatch.com, which is a free site that gets users from Ancestry and other DNA testing sites and shows you DNA matches. The matches on there show an e-mail address, so again you may be able to figure out who they are from that.
I am an adoptee, and DNA testing gave me half of my history that I almost certainly never would have gotten otherwise.
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Pheno - if you found taking the test helpful then I am happy for you. Yes it can be successful for some but not for a lot of others and I was just trying to stop some people getting their hopes up.
Shelleyesq - probably best if you don't read my posts to stop any disagreement.
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Ancestry's special offer tempted me - just for the hell of it really. It might help me find my absent maternal great grandfather but I'm not holding up much hope. I've done all the searching I can and grt grandmother never told ::) Also interested in my results generally.
If you don't do it, how will you know if it's any good or not :D
Package arrived yesterday.
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Ancestry DNA has just helped me break down a huge brickwall..been looking for my GG Grandfather for over 20 years.
Pre DNA testing I kept going back and back to this family in my searches but I needed more to prove before I could claim them as mine. Now with DNA, a copy of a Will and proving that the information on these tree's is incorrect I'm now trying to tell 14 tree owners that they have claimed my John and that my John didn't marry the lady they all have him married to.
I think 2 of that 14 may link to me..but they have "all" just copied each others work..WHY OH WHY!
Why are people not doing their own research?? ::)
Yonks
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Hi :) I have been able through DNA to link up with 1xfirst cousin and 2x2nd cousins, exchange of photo's and branches of our families who settle in USA and Australia. it helps if your DNA site has them as a guest and they let you on there site, I found this very helpful in comparing the same person results on each site. all the best Bruce
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My autosomal DNA testing has brought up many matches, about 100 closish matches, 4th to 6th cousins, up to 5G grandparents. Many thousands of more remote cousins, 5th to 8th cousins, up to 7G grandparents.
I have broken down 2 brick walls for myself, and 2 for other cousins. I have been able to confirm my paper trail is correct by matching with lots more. About half my confirmed matches are from the first group, half from the second group.
I think I would confirm a match positively with many more if people had a tree, a public tree, a tree with more than a few people in, or responded to messages.
As more and more people get tested, obviously the more matches will show up, I'm expecting a lot more round about Christmas time or a bit later, after ancestry's latest offer. Also persuaded husband to get tested.
I agree with davidft that a lot of tests appear to be sold on the ethnicity aspect, DNA owners with little or no interest in family history. If all the people who have somewhat dubious trees on Ancestry had DNA testing, there might be some changes to those trees!
Regards Margaret
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I last week purchased 2 DNA kits from Ancestry @ £49 each plus postage for 1 @ £20 and the second @ £10.
I have activated my sample but cannot do the one for my wife. We both use the same account for our family trees. Do I have to get a separate account for my wife, any help in solving this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Len
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Len, Ancestry changed their policy Inthe summer. Each person has to have their own ancestry account and theoretically manage their own DNA.
You will have to set up an account in her name, but she can give you her permission to manage her DNA results.
Margaret
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As a bit of an ignoramus on the matter of DNA testing, can I just confirm that, should I do an Ancestry test, I will discover my ethnicity (can they differentiate between English/Scots/Irish?) and hopefully get some 'matches' to contact. What I don't want, thank you very much, is to know that I'm 95% likely to perish from some horrendous disease/condition before my next birthday!!
I'm assuming the latter is another test completely. Am I correct?
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I think 23andMe do medical DNA testing.
Ancestry will estimate your ethnicity and provide matches. Don't know how well it differentiates between English, Scottish and Irish.
Margaret
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Thanks for putting my mind at rest, Margaret.
I'd pretty much made my mind up to do an Ancestry test in the New Year but then, last night in bed, I suddenly thought about the medical aspect of it. I really don't want to know anything like that...
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Thank you Margaret for trhe info on ancestry account.
Regards
len