Genetic Ethnicity

This is an excellent starter kit for anyone interested in learning more about or understanding their ethnic roots. We tend to think we're British or Afro/Caribbean, American or European or whatever. The truth is often surprising. DNA testing for ethnicity is still relatively young, but the database is growing and having taken this test, I'm both surprised, impressed and convinced by the results. My roots are diverse. There was no way that could have been known by Ancestry as I'm not a member. The test is easy; you provide a saliva sample in a tube, seal it and send it. Postage prepaid. Sit back and wait for results. Mine took 5 weeks, with a couple of progress updates. The readout is informed and comprehensive. A pie chart ethnicity breakdown with detailed region specific analysis and an illustrated history. Possible socio/economic influences which are likely to have affected movement of people. In my case, the overwhelming Scottish DNA profile was unexpected, but with the explanation of the story provided by Ancestry, it makes sense. Also some interesting genetic connections to Andeans and native Americans which were a surprise. The results also identify possible people matches; Ancestry members to whom there's a direct connection. I've contacted a couple on my list and unearthed some family detail which is new to me. This is a basic test. There are other mitochondrial kits for the maternal line, specifically and another for the paternal side. But they're more expensive. The Ancestry DNA ethnicity test is an excellent introduction to who you really are. I'm convinced the results are accurate and relevant, impressed with the detail provided and there's loads of ways to add more info without actually subscribing to Ancestry. This is more than fun, it's a building block for a bigger story. Excellent value

Brilliant, the delivery was fantastic with it arriving the very next day. We ordered this 6 weeks before Christmas and I received the results via email on Christmas Day morning. I'm not sure if that was deliberate however it was a nice touch all the same. I was born in Kent moving to East Sussex when I was only two weeks old - I moved to the West Midlands in 2010, yet the DNA test was able to pick up on this. It told me exactly where the English side of my family originated (Central Southern England; Greater London) I had previously bought one for my husband and it showed the English side of him being from the Midlands - we weren't expecting that level of detail, we thought it would just say England! I was able to find out about my Welsh, Germanic and Swedish and Norwegian Viking ancestry (I had no idea, it made a nice topic during the Christmas Day telephone call to my mum!) and my husband's results had also been updated by the time mine arrived, in addition to his British and Italian ancestry, he has also gained some Norwegian Viking DNA! Maybe that explains his "manly" beard??? I was also shocked that I only had less than 1% of Scottish and Irish ancestry, it must be accurate as being British, you'd imagine I'd have a lot more than that, obviously not regarding my family! I'm really impressed with the results and ease of use. An awesome Christmas present and cheaper from Amazon than Ancestry's own website. Mrs M.

Most of my family and various in laws have tested with Ancestry now. My wife found out via ancestry that one great grandfather and one great great grandfather were someone completely different than recorded and known by the family. She also found via ancestry that another great grandfather had a whole extra family after her great grandmother died young and was able to trace several living children and grandchildren of the resulting half great uncles and aunts, who she is now in touch with on a fairly regular basis. On my side we found a close family friend of many years' closest match was my grandma and then my mum was also a very close match, we had no idea she was related so that was a nice surprise. My wife has also done 23andme but functionality on there is a lot more limited and there are far fewer UK users. So would recommend Ancestry more. It is cheaper to order from Amazon as opposed to from the Ancestry site, as from the Ancestry site tests are shipped from Germany which costs quite a bit extra per test and it can take up to three weeks to arrive. I had already used Ancestry for general genealogy purposes since the mid-noughties so had full membership already, which covers unlimited use and functionality of the DNA 'portal' and tools. As others have said the Ancestry matches tools are not the best and are lacking compared to other sites. Also Ancestry is either unavailable or is simply just not popular in most European, Asian and African countries so if your ancestry is not mainly from the UK you won't have many matches and are likely to have a less detailed ethnicity estimate. It is possible to upload your raw data to other sites except for 23andMe and I would recommend this, but make sure you read up on the sites and their reputation for data protection and transparency first. My Heritage are particularly good for matches with many tools Ancestry don't have and a much more user friendly layout, though their ethnicity estimate is highly inaccurate for most users and should be read for comedy value only.

Over the last few years I've gone from buying my parents these kits out of curiosity to becoming quite an advanced researcher having bought tests for most of my family members. Some people are only interested in pop-science things like ethnicity, but that barely scratches the surface of what you can do with these tests. When used to their fullest extent by attaching your results to a small family tree Ancestry's systems can link it to their vast databases of trees, and use that to give good suggestions as to how you are related to your DNA matches. And oh, the matches. It will obviously vary depending on your background, but my parents have about 30,000 matches (each!) Ancestry's database is vast, and by far the biggest. If you only test once, test at Ancestry first, only then maybe consider other services to mop-up. Once you get into the details these tests can reconnect long-detached branches of your family tree, help identify biological parents of adoptees, or reveal long-forgotten family history. My tests have taught me things about my family it's quite likely my great grandparents didn't even know about their parents and grandparents. It's really made history come alive for me thinking about all they lived and died through. It's not all sunshine and roses with this product, though. Despite the power of the data they have available Ancestry seems to not want to cater for advanced researchers. Their DNA searching and filtering interface cannot do simple things like exclude matches by criteria, and their match tagging support is curiously limited. This can make working with large numbers of matches somewhat of a chore. They also steadfastly refuse to offer something called a chromosome browser to show you exactly "where" you match you matches, not just by how much. All the other DNA testing services offer this feature. It can be invaluable in revealing (at least on your side of the connection) which of your ancestors the connection (or connections!) pass through. Hopefully one day they will offer this. What they do let you do, however, is download your DNA results which you can then upload to third party services which do offer these features (i.e. GEDmatch.com). I strongly recommend doing this once you understand a bit more about things and the ramifications of doing so. There are excellent educational resources online to teach you all about what you can do, and case in point I've managed to compile artificial profiles for my ancestors almost as if they themselves had spat in those little tubes themselves, despite in some instances having left this world decades before I or even my parents were born. Science is amazing, and these tests have opened up a huge new world to me. They're so much more than how Scottish/German/English you supposedly are.

My friend originally told me not to get one they are useless. He found out from a family member that his father wasn't his biological father. I helped with his test and was amazed by how good it was. I brought my first test last November and my test came back end of December, my results proved most of my lines but I have lost some(or maybe someone was unfaithful). 72%Irish makes sense. I know some people complain about their results but a lot can make sense if you know history and go back far enough in time. Since December I have brought a test for my mother, her sister, my dad's brother, and my husband. All perfect and making sense. My mother and aunt 100%Irish. Uncle and hubby are mixed. In fact it didn't just say we were Irish it actually marked exactly what part of Ireland. UK born tests are getting a lower amount of 4th cousins and nearer than Irish born as a lot emigrated to America, and I am getting a lot of matches there. All I would say is if you want to find out your make up for fun that's fine. If you are expecting it to work out your tree for you, it won't. You need to have some knowledge of your tree (I started my tree 13+yrs ago), and a lot of time spent on the computer. With help of other online groups and GEDmatch also videos online I have found Ancestry all I could wish for and more. It's addictive. - After my results being back for 8plus months I can say I am still getting new relations coming online. Only thing I don't like is the amount of people who only just do the test for fun and the % of their make up. They you can see only went online for the test on % and aren't interested in Family history research. I have known a few who have found close relatives they never knew about Inc my husband. Delighted to have done the tests, and want to get more... Just waiting for the price to come down lower. Better buying from Amazon as not postage but have brought directly when offer was on with Ancestry.

If you've been doing family history for any length of time and have reasonably comprehensive family tree, then you'll probably find this test very useful. To get the most out of this test you'll need to also buy an Ancestry subscription of some sort. Don't rush into this, since you'll probably be offered a decent discount at some point, once you've got you DNA results. There are two elements to the results, namely your Ethnicity Estimate and your DNA Relatives. As the name suggests your Ethnicity Estimate is a best guess at who where your immediate ancestors most likely came from. My partner and I both have British and Irish ancestry for at least 5 generations, so no surprises there, although the estimates are very accurate. To my surprise they picked out South Sutherland on my side and Durham on my partners side - both very small areas and both correct. All other areas were correct too and my (recent ethnicity) was spot on - slightly more English and the Scottish, with a bit of Irish. This element is more about fun than serious genealogy. The other part of the test is to help you find close DNA relatives and confirm any family tree you might have. You get these results no matter what, but to get the most of them you'll need at least basic family tree built on Ancestry and an Ancestry Subscription (UK was okay for me, but an International one may be more useful for some). Ancestry have done a decent amount of work on this recently, an it's DNA hints are getting very useful and seem very accurate. My partner now has 80+ confirmed relations (ie. their tree matches up with yours at some point). This have allowed us to confirm almost all branches of our trees back to 3rd great grandparents and beyond (including one 8th Cousin!). No need to contact any of your matches unless you want to! We've also 23andme tests and used MyHeritage - both useful but nothing like as helpful as Ancestry. I'd recommend this product.

Purchased this as a 70th birthday present for my mum and at first I was very skeptical as to how accurate the data and results would be. The kit was easy to use and we just popped it into a regular post box. It took around 4 weeks to process and we had regular updates along the way. We were then notified that our results were ready via the ancestry website. Reviewing the results was very easy and was nicely presented in a friendly web user interface. How accurate were the results? To my surprise yes it was incredibly accurate. A bit scary in that sense. It did pick up our family origins which did match in to family accounts including the mass emigration to the USA in the 1850’s where my grandfather side settled in Utah and clear references to them establishing a Mormon community. Lots of other data and results were also established and all of this information could then be added to your family tree via the Ancestry subscription. Personally if you don’t mind having your DNA results analysed this is simply amazing and yes despite some people stating it does not work then for us the results were incredibly accurate from what we can tell so far. Highly recommended!!

Overall great, quick. I remember that I had to wait longer than the instructions said for something to happen but it eventually did. I recommend doing as much research as possible during the free trial because the membership is beyond expensive.