where to start??

[ali607]

Also, no one has mentioned this yet but is there an issue because I am female but trying to search my paternal line?

[sugarfizzle]

Alison, Autosomal DNA is passed down from parents, grandparents, etc. etc.to both male and female children in equal measure.

General consensus as already mentioned is that ethnicity results inaccurate. Family stories may also be incorrect - your great grandfather could have been Joe Bloggs from Essex rather than Boris Romanikov from Russia. If he was Boris, there again it would depend upon how many Russian people descended from him have had DNA testing.

Helpful reading - any ISOGG article about the subject and Lost Cousins newsletters. Have you read the link that diplodocus gave for ISOGG?

You say you are tending against Ancestry - your choice, but they have the biggest database of all the companies. You can always upload results elsewhere.
 
Regards Margaret

[Gadget]

I was  about to give the link that diplodicus  gave, when I see you've posted, Margaret. To reinforce what you've said:

https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA

[ali607]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all of your advice.

I am a little curious about 23 and me - has anyone got any first hand advice on matches or the size of the database and how useful it is for Europe?

Thanks for the link:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA

I watched the video and it shows an example from ftDNA's results - I thought this seemed a very clear way to display results. Is Ancestry and other companies displayed like this ??

I just don't want to pay for Ancestry - for both me and mum - and then find out that the only results are in the USA...that's my fear with Ancestry.

Thanks

ALison