Ancestry DNA test - disappointing result

[lesleyhannah]

I decided it was time to pass my family history research onto relatives and persuaded one of my sons to take the ancestry dna test. I've been an ancestry subscriber for many years, son is not. The results have just come back - he emailed me to say they consist only of a map showing shaded areas - these shaded areas cover the UK, Ireland and most of western Europe.
And that is it! No report or explanation. Well, we already knew our ancestors were probably all from this area, so didn't need to pay all that money to be told they probably were.

Is this lack of information due to son not being a subscriber? There is no suggestion that they will be connecting his dna with other people's results.

Or has my son just missed some valuable information, or failed to click onto a vital link? Any help from others who have used the test would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[rsel]

I don't know about being a non-subscriber what you get, but as a subscriber the map is clickable and I also have a table next to it with percentage information. Clicking on either of these then gives some historical information on that 'region' and migration patterns for it.  You wont get any reports on the actual DNA itself if that's what you were thinking you would see though.

If you are still a subscriber, you should be able to get him to share the results with you, and you may even be able to link him to you tree to start getting the matches to other users.

Richard

[shellyesq]

I'm a subscriber, and I do have a list of matches.  I also did my husband's DNA under my account and have an option to view his matches.

One thing that your son can do is make an account at gedmatch.com, which is free.  He can download his raw data from Ancestry (an explanation of how to do so is here - http://www.dnaadoption.com/uploads/DNAadoption/DNAadoption_files/To_Download_Raw_Data.pdf  the explanation for Ancestry is towards the bottom) and upload it to gedmatch.  That will give him possible DNA matches, and it has a few little tools like one that predicts your eye color and one that indicates if your parents are related.  The matches aren't as user-friendly as on Ancestry, where people often connect their trees and you can more easily see where the connection is. 

[lesleyhannah]

I'm a subscriber, and I do have a list of matches.  I also did my husband's DNA under my account and have an option to view his matches.

Thanks to you all for your replies. I will contact ancestry and see if I can view my son's matches. I'm disappointed that the results don't reveal anything new. The 3 areas - Ireland, UK and west Europe all overlap significantly so tell us nothing we couldn't have guessed (and are so vague that the guesses remain just that - guesses!). I'm hoping if there are some matches they will be able to at least point us along a different path. Thanks again - I'd be interested to know how others got on with these tests.

[shellyesq]

I don't know if this is available to non-subscribers, but my results give a green button that says See Full Ethnicity Estimate.  After clicking on that, it gives a list with percentages of each ethnicity.  Mine also gives Trace Regions, which are other smaller amounts that aren't represented by the circles on the map. 

[josh jones]

Try this facebook page.  There is a lot of info you are missing and these people will help explain it to you: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestryUKDNA/   DNA help for genealogy(UK)-GEDmatch-ftDNA-AncestryDNA-23andME

[diplodicus]

I have persuaded my two children to "spit in the tube". My son decided to link his result separately so I now see it as a "match". However my daughter's test (still in the lab) is attached to my tree and hopefully this will prove more useful.

My own results, linked to my tree have connected me to several unknown 4th to 6th cousins where we are able to establish a link. The other two thousand  possilbe matches remain for me to consider.

I have found it worthwhile. The DNA portion of the site is not particularly friendly but there are some useful videos on the dot.com site that helped me expand my analysis of my results.

I have absolutely no connection to Ancestry!!!

[josh jones]

I had my 90 year old mother tested, myself and my brother, my husband.  Not for ethnicity and personally I'm not sure of the point in that, we all come from one area and its about how quickly our tribe arrived where we are, via what route.  Anyway, I've had great fun with the results but you need to get your 32 ancestors or near to them as you can (I have brick walls, illegitimate births etc) but it certainly helps if you want to get matches.  Forget surnames for the most part, look for locations.  If you're UK and getting lots of US matches check onto ancestry worldwide and get their most recent descendent's ancestor to the 1940, 1930, 1910, 1900 census, look for who was born in England, follow that line back to the UK.  Check their death certificates in the US, lots of times they give the parents names.  Pick them up in the UK and keep going back to you collide with the same ancestor.  Got to think outside the box and be creative in your searches.

[lesleyhannah]

It does seem the problem is my son is not a subscriber as we don't seem to have any matches. Thanks to the replies I've received here I have now emailed ancestry asking whether any matches can be added to my tree as I'm a long-term subscriber (son is shown as editor to my tree). When I get a response from them I'll post it here in the hope it will help others. At the moment it's a big disappointment