Ancestry DNA analysis

[Rogar]

I have gotten caught up in a few of the PBS "Finding your Roots" program. In it they appear to use a DNA analysis tool that is from ancestry.com to determine the regions of the world when a persons ancestry originated. I checked it out and it costs $99. They send you a kit and you return a swab sample which they test and return results in a few weeks. You get a pretty cool world map showing the locations and relative percentages of you ancestors origins. You apparently also get a list of any relatives who might be related to you, even though they might be third or fourth cousins. They of course have to be in their DNA database. And they say it is secure and private. http://dna.ancestry.com/

Anyone done this or considered it? My family lines are well traced on one side, but mostly a mystery on the other. I don't know that I'm interested in finding remote relatives, but it would be interested to find the countries or regions in my heritage, though I'm not so sure it's worth $99.

[Dhiana]

You get a list of people who might be related to you? How is that secure and private? Is it an opt in policy to share your roots?

Just curious.

[iris lilies]

You get a list of people who might be related to you? How is that secure and private? Is it an opt in policy to share your roots?

Just curious.

yes. Most people want to hook up with relatives. Oh, not in that way! haha.

[Rogar]

You get a list of people who might be related to you? How is that secure and private? Is it an opt in policy to share your roots?

Just curious.

The way I get it, you can choose to be anonymous and any contact goes through Ancestry.com. Sort of like Craig's list maybe. I don't know if there is an option not to participate in this at all. I haven't figured it all out for sure yet, but privacy would be an issue.

[Tammy]

I did the same thing at 23andme.com last year. I liked both the ancestry and the health related data.

[JaneV2.0]

I did it. You get the most out of it if you have your family tree downloaded to Ancestry.com. The test confirmed that the family rumor of Native Americans in the mix was pure fantasy and strongly suggested that the rumor that our first American ancestor was adopted were probably true. I'd love to have my SO's done--I suspect his antecedents fled Spain ahead of the inquisition and he may have either Moorish or Jewish roots Two of his surnames turn up on the Conversos (converts) list, and one of them was a victim of Torquemada. But he has no interest in joining Ancestry. Does anyone know if any of the other DNA services might work better for him?

[iris lily]

Roger, we had this done some years ago in the hopes of identifying the village or region in Scotland from where our immigrant ancestor came. No luck so far. I can't remember which service we used. It was more than $99 but perhaps prices have come down. The service we used had a tiered cost for multiple genetic markers. The further you had them identify into the string, the more it cost.

We've been sent names of people who might be matches but we've not found the long lost cousins we hoped to find. It's fun though, no regrets. We split the cost among a few people and used my uncles cheek swab.

[lessisbest]

I took the $99 DNA test (LOTS of spit into a test tube) from Ancestry.com because I was curious if I had ancestors from Mongolia. Some of my Germanic ancestors look Mongolian, but there wasn't any definitive Asian line. These were my results.
57% Scandinavian
23% Eastern European
18% Central Europe
2% Unknown (but I've traced that to Scotch/Irish ancestors)

[rodeosweetheart]

I did it, Rogar. It was awesome--my results were:
64 British Isles (which covered Wales, England, and Scotland)
19% Irish
16% Western Europe (a great grandfather who was German)
1% Scandanavian

They will send you matches from others who have taken test and identify level of cousinship, if you want--you can opt out of that, and they show only what members want public on their family trees.

The cool thing was it worked--I showed up as 3rd cousin to my cousin Doug, the family genealogist, and to some other cousins that I did not know I had--Atmores and other Roger Williams descendants. So it was absolutely on the mark, matching me to people I already knew that I should be related to, because of our New England genealogies, which are in books of New England history, and not just on Ancestry. So extremely cool and extremely accurate, in my experience!

Very much worth the money. It is hard to spit that much, though.

[awakenedsoul]

It sounds cool. I'd like to do it. It would be a nice gift, too. My dad is the man who has everything...he would be very interested in this. He's always talking about his great grandfathers and what they did. It's fun to hear the family history.