DNA testing is it worth it

[DarrenO]

This maybe a continual topic, a quick glance only shows links or subject matters about specific DNA results. So onward with my question...

Per my subject matter, what are the advantages of having my DNA tested, would it be as with normal genealogy you are reliant on people researching a different branch of the same tree to find the links to get any benefit in terms of finding connections.

Do the results refer to a particular period in history, my paternal line through std genealogy goes back to Carlow around 1800 and suggests a Viking O'Rourke connection travelling up thru Wexford as opposed to the Leitrim/Offaly O'Rourke's.

For a more pressing genealogy issue we've managed to go back to the 1850s only for my maternal Adamson's, would a test discover the origin of this line as we don't know anything about them prior to an 1854 marriage and it's not an Irish name but presumably an Anglicisation of MacAdam so Scottish/English connection.

Does it success also depend on which DNA test you use, i.e. if more people have used Ancestry's test would that be the one to select.

Thanks in advance for any response to my concerns/questions and possible justification of spending more money on the past instead of the future.

Regards
Darren

[pharmaT]

The ethnicity estimates are just that estimates although I did find it interesting.  Also the DNA you've inherited will only account for a small proportion of your ancestors, no way of knowing which ones before testing.  This is because although we inherit 50% of our DNA from each parent it is a completely random 50% so it is unlikely that we inherit 25% from each gradparent and so on back through the generations.

Success in braking down brick walls will depend partly on what you've inherited as above and who else has been tested as this will help determine who you match with.  I have found a few new distant cousins thanks to DNA testing.  I haven't personally got any further back but I have helped one distant cousin with his.

Finally whichever company you go with you can upload your results onto Gedmatch which will allow you to find matches with people who've tested with other companies.

[barryd]

I am not sure that DNA testing would do me much good. I have direct ancestry born (in alphabetical order) England, Ireland, (one female named Murphy), Scottish, and probably Welsh, Price born Ireland but probably of Welsh ancestry.

[hurworth]

If your parents and aunts or uncles are happy to help I'd start with them before myself.

You probably are reliant on people researching a different branch of the same tree to find links.  That is exactly how it worked for one branch in our tree, and we have now traced back to the mutual ancestor who was born a decade or two before 1800.

I do think it is a useful tool to use in addition to the paper trail. 

Most people are liquorice allsorts (mongrels) with ancestors from all over the place.

[Kweecopl]

I'm working through some of the same issues. With autosomal testing.
1. I chose FTDNA company. It looks more exacting, maybe better analysis tools. Easier to contact (for free) related testers. But, Ancestry has a bigger database of testers - maybe 1m+ compared to 1/2m  and requires a paid subscription from time to time.
Both company results transferrable to Gedmatch for more analysis tools to work with.
2. DNA variation between siblings (and therefore some difference in related testers). Out of about 800 related testers, I had no surname hits with my surname, but my brother had 2 with one being 8th strongest. Am now keen to have a sister test.
 
Informed comment on this thread would be greatly appreciated. (I have yet to work on Gedmatch).
Thanks.

P.S. MyHeritage have just commenced autosomal testing (with same company as FTDNA) and are also accepting results from other companies to further analyse. Uploading results is free at the moment. I guess they want to quickly build their database.

[Kimbrey]

Both companies {Ancestry & FTDNA} databases are very USA orientated but hopefully this will get wider as more of people outside the US test.

If you have already tested with FTDNA they are currently running a "sale"  and you might find it useful to check their site.

Kim

[DevonCruwys]

Darren

DNA testing relies on getting matches with other people in the DNA databases. You hope that you will get matches that will confirm existing relationships or will help you to break through brickwalls. The databases all have different compositions so it all depends on what you're looking for.

Autosomal DNA testing (offered by both Family Tree DNA and AncestryDNA) is best used for finding matches within the last five or six generations.

Y-DNA testing (offered by Family Tree DNA) will give you matches on your surname line. Y-DNA testing can be used for recent genealogy but will also give you haplogroup assignment that will give you information about your deep ancestry.

You might want to have a read of some of the beginners' guides in the ISOGG Wiki to help you to understand what you might expect from the tests:

http://isogg.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guides_to_genetic_genealogy

[RedRinglets]

DNA testing gives fascinating information. However, some get greater benefit than others. Some connect with close relatives and learn more together. Most of my matches are distant cousins. We've had interesting chats, but no luck finding our common ancestors. My husband had great matches with his results. Lucky! For each of us, it is nice to learn your haplogroups. For men, they have the benefit of being able to do surname studies connected with their paternal haplogroup through their Y chromosome. We tested with 23andme. We've uploaded to GEDmatch to compare to a broad group of people who have tested with other companies. We've also uploaded our raw data to sites like Genetic Genie, Livewello, and Promethease to learn more about our health. It's all very interesting ... however, I really wish that I would find some relatives who could help me get through brick walls in paper trail research (especially Irish).

[RobertCasey]

There are two major approaches to genetic genealogy testing:

1) atDNA (autosomal) testing. This is a very economical test (around $100) that can find matches for all of your ancestral lines which is a huge advantage. It is an excellent test if you have a lot of recent brick walls (after 1800), recent adoptions where genealogical records are very challenging to break through brick walls or if you interested in finding matches to add to your growing family history.

However, the early entry price can be misleading as those who really get into this testing, test their closer relatives to determine which atDNA segments belong to which ancestor. So many atDNA testers end testing several times. Another disadvantage is that the atDNA is recombinational DNA where 50 % of your DNA is inherited from each parent. By the time you reach the early 1800s, many of your segments are so small that can no longer reliably detect some of your ancestors, so if you have brick walls in the 1700s, YDNA may be a better option.

2) YDNA has a tremendous promise that will eventually be able to assign mutations to all of male ancestors on our pedigree charts. We are only five or ten years away from this type of discovery. There are already a few that have actually assigned a unique combination of YDNA mutations to specific individuals on their pedigree chart. If you have two or three brick walls that are your main interest - YDNA testing is the way to go. I now have two YSNP branches that are only for my particular line of Caseys and several YSTR branches below these YSNPs that chart my Casey cousins. I have the genealogical challenge of having 50 known male adults living in western South Carolina in 1800 where traditional genealogical records have failed to connect to date.

The downside to YDNA testing, you really can only afford the cost AND time to research two lines maybe three or four. YDNA testing is much more expensive but yields more information for breaking through your brick walls. I was the first to order the Next Generation Sequencing test under R-L226 which has Dal Cais origins. I ordered the YElite 1.0 test from Full Genomes Corporation 18 months before FTDNA delivered their results of their first Big Y test. This test was $1,400 at the time, but this test was the first test that later revealed seven branches under L226. The most recent two branches are for my particular Dal Cais Casey line.

But the progress of expanding L226 from only the L226 YSNP two years to 44 branches has been costly. A whopping $36,000 on sixty Big Y tests and five Full Genomes tests. Another $10,000 has been spent on L226 SNP packs and another $3,000 on individual YSNP tests. This is only YSNP testing costs and YSTR testing another $200,000 on top of that.

But look what this aggressive testing has yielded:

1) 44 branches under L226 (second largest Irish haplogroup), 520 testers at 67 marker tests where around 40 surname clusters have been identified (including six different O'Brien clusters and three different Casey clusters).
2) We are now able to chart 80 % of the 520 testers under L226 with accuracy between 60 and 95 % with an average around 75 %. That is over 410 testers that we now know how these various lines are connected from a YSNP branch that estimated to be 2,500 years old. Before the L226 SNP pack, our charting was only 40 %, but this robust test includes 40 of the known 44 branches and more than doubled the amount of YSNP data at 20 % the cost of Big Y tests. By the end of this year, charting will be at 90 % and average accuracy will increase by five or ten percent as well.

All we really need is much larger sample sizes (more testers) to be able to connect all the Dal Cais (who are L226) via a chart down surname clusters of related testers. We only have around 40 surname clusters (closely related groups that are dominated by one surname). But there are 200 surnames to sort out.

Obviously, I am a strong advocate for DNA testing - specially the extremely bright future of YDNA testing. Here is the latest genetic descendant chart for L226:

http://www.rcasey.net/DNA/R_L226/Haplotrees/L226_Home.pdf