Author Topic: Which company should I use?  (Read 1231 times)

Offline SuzyWoo

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Which company should I use?
« on: Wednesday 29 November 17 11:49 GMT (UK) »
Hi,

I have come up against a brick wall (don't we all) and was wondering whether a DNA test was worth a go.

I cannot find the identity of my Gt Grandfather.  Could a DNA test possibly show any decendents from his siblings or decendents from his parents siblings.

I am hoping that by find matches and going backwards there will be tree matches.

I would be grateful for any advice as I do not know much about DNA testing.

Also, what service would be the best/most useful one.

Many Thanks

Sue
 :)

Offline davidft

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 29 November 17 14:58 GMT (UK) »
Yes DNA testing could help IF related members of his family have also tested. That is the big snag with DNA testing in that only a very small number of people test so making a match can either happen straight away or take many, many  years. For a relatively small fee you can do the family finder or autosomal test. This test tests across all your lines back to about 5 generations for accuracy (can go further sometimes if you are lucky). What you want is a company that also allows people to add trees to their sites. The two biggest are Ancestry and ftDNA.com. There are others if you do not like them for some reason. If you do test with any company I would consider uploading the results to a sharing site like Gedmatch.com (free) which shares the results of many people who test with different companies thereby stretching the reach of your test that bit further.

Good luck.
James Stott c1775-1850. James was born in Yorkshire but where? He was a stonemason and married Elizabeth Archer (nee Nicholson) in 1794 at Ripon. They lived thereafter in Masham. If anyone has any suggestions or leads as to his birthplace I would be interested to know. I have searched for it for years without success. Thank you.

Offline SuzyWoo

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #2 on: Friday 01 December 17 10:39 GMT (UK) »
Thankyou davidft for your reply.  I think I will go ahead with one of these tests, curiosity and all that.

Do you know whether you have to be a subscriber to Ancestry to see any results that may come up as matches in the future.

Many Thanks

Sue

Offline davidft

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #3 on: Friday 01 December 17 13:49 GMT (UK) »
Thankyou davidft for your reply.  I think I will go ahead with one of these tests, curiosity and all that.

Do you know whether you have to be a subscriber to Ancestry to see any results that may come up as matches in the future.

Many Thanks

Sue

Funnily enough a similar question was asked the other day and is answered at reply #11 in this thread

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=782986.msg6381369#msg6381369

(basically you would be OK, but see the other post for fuller details).
James Stott c1775-1850. James was born in Yorkshire but where? He was a stonemason and married Elizabeth Archer (nee Nicholson) in 1794 at Ripon. They lived thereafter in Masham. If anyone has any suggestions or leads as to his birthplace I would be interested to know. I have searched for it for years without success. Thank you.


Offline sugarfizzle

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #4 on: Friday 01 December 17 16:39 GMT (UK) »

Sue, With or without a paper trail it should be relatively easy to find a second cousin match.  Any likely matches could be identified by process of elimination. As davidft says, it will entirely depend upon whether they have been tested or not.

Most of your matches will be a lot more distantly related, 4th to 6th cousins perhaps, or 5th to 8th cousins.  Without a paper trail you will probably have great difficulty finding where you connect.

But you should still get a lot out of it with the rest of your family, and you might strike lucky, you've got nothing to lose.

The two biggest companies are ancestryDNA and 23andMe, neither of which will accept uploads from other companies. But ftDNA and myheritageDNA will accept uploads from other companies.
So, test with one or both of the first ones, upload to the other two and gedmatch.

Good luck, have persuaded my husband to be tested with ancestry's latest offer after great success with my own test.

Regards Margaret

STEER, mainly Surrey, Kent; PINNOCKS/HAINES, Gosport, Hants; BARKER, mainly Broadwater, Sussex; Gosport, Hampshire; LAVERSUCH, Micheldever, Hampshire; WESTALL, London, Reading, Berks; HYDE, Croydon, Surrey; BRIGDEN, Hadlow, Kent and London; TUTHILL/STEPHENS, London
WILKINSON, Leeds, Yorkshire and Liverpool; WILLIAMSON, Liverpool; BEARE, Yeovil, Somerset; ALLEN, Kent and London; GORST, Liverpool; HOYLE, mainly Leeds, Yorkshire

Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.go

Offline Eric Hatfield

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 20 January 18 03:50 GMT (UK) »
I'll just add my thoughts. It is true that Ancestry has the largest database, I think followed by (in order) 23andme, Family Tree DNA and My Heritage. But you also have to consider where the people testing live and where your ancestors lived.

When I first tested mid 2015, Ancestry was only just beginning to test in Australia where I live, and so estimates were that although their database was bigger, FTDNA had more Australian testers, and probably more UK testers where my family came from.

And this proved to be the case for me. I later also tested with Ancestry, and while it is hard to compare number of matches because they use different criteria, I currently have 104 4th cousin or closer with Ancestry, and 210 4th cousins or closer with FTDNA. If I compare the number of cM in common, those 4th cousin or better in Ancestry have 20 cM minimum in common, whereas the FTDNA are 24 cM minimum.

So it seems that with FTDNA I have more and better matches even though their database is smaller overall. And more matches means more possibilities. But for someone in the US, Ancestry will probably give more matches.

A couple of other thoughts. FTDNA has some good analysis tools if you are inclined to do that analysis, whereas Ancestry has more and larger family trees to compare to (though many new testers don't have trees yet). Finally, if you ever wanted to test Y-DNA or mtDNA, FTDNA is the place to go and the same sample can do all three.

All in all, I am very glad I tested first with FTDNA as I got some very good matches there, but it turned out that my most crucial match was on Ancestry. So you have choices to make! I wish you well.

Offline sugarfizzle

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 31 January 18 06:33 GMT (UK) »
Eric, Don't forget that you can upload your ancestry results to ftDNA, but not the other way round. You would have had similar results if you had tested at ancestryDNA first, then uploaded to ftDNA.

An experiment could be to upload your ancestry raw data to ftDNA under a different name, to see if the results are exactly the same, broadly similar, or totally off the mark.

I would not suggest leaving this duplicate on any site, would be very confusing to other testers.

Margaret
STEER, mainly Surrey, Kent; PINNOCKS/HAINES, Gosport, Hants; BARKER, mainly Broadwater, Sussex; Gosport, Hampshire; LAVERSUCH, Micheldever, Hampshire; WESTALL, London, Reading, Berks; HYDE, Croydon, Surrey; BRIGDEN, Hadlow, Kent and London; TUTHILL/STEPHENS, London
WILKINSON, Leeds, Yorkshire and Liverpool; WILLIAMSON, Liverpool; BEARE, Yeovil, Somerset; ALLEN, Kent and London; GORST, Liverpool; HOYLE, mainly Leeds, Yorkshire

Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.go

Offline Eric Hatfield

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Re: Which company should I use?
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 01 February 18 04:50 GMT (UK) »
Hi Margaret, thanks for your thoughts. I pretty much agree with you.

In my case, Ancestry wasn't offering tests in Australia at the time, so FTDNA was my only or best choice. But even now, I gather the Ancestry test, when transferred to FTDNA, isn't as comprehensive as the FTDNA test, so matches will be a little better with FTDNA's own test - so I am told. If money is an issue, then what you say is definitely the best.

I have actually uploaded both results to Gedmatch to compare, and results are much the same. However perhaps the Ancestry result might differ a little more when converted to the FTDNA database. It might be a good idea to check that, just as you suggest.