Ancestry DNA test

[nelwild]

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.

[rosie99]

Have you noticed that does not include shipping costs 

[nelwild]

No I hadn't,does it say what the shipping costs are?

[KGarrad]

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
And you can get a PDF copy of Birth & Death cert's for only £6.

[rosie99]

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

[jillruss]

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?

[C-A]

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 

[davidft]

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

[Pheno]

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