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I had two awesome, wonderful parents who I am eternally thankful for, and will love them forever. Now, they have been gone over 10 years, and my brother (who I do not share lineage with) did a DNA test and found his blood cousins and one parent.
He is urging me to try. If I did, which company would most likely help me make connections with blood relatives? Is one better than the others? I am not concerned about price. Thanks.
I had two awesome, wonderful parents who I am eternally thankful for, and will love them forever. Now, they have been gone over 10 years, and my brother (who I do not share lineage with) did a DNA test and found his blood cousins and one parent.
He is urging me to try. If I did, which company would most likely help me make connections with blood relatives? Is one better than the others? I am not concerned about price. Thanks.
All of them will find blood relatives. Whether you will find close relatives depends on whether those relatives get tested.
If expense is no problem, test autosomal DNA with multiple companies. The three major ones are Ancestry.com, Family Tree DNA, and 23AndMe. You can test with Ancestry.com and transfer the results to Family Tree DNA, saving a little money. If you are male, doing Y DNA with Family Tree DNA can help you find men who match your direct paternal line.
It is also possible to download results from one of those companies to GEDmatch.
Not all of them - LivingDNA doesn't (though they say they'll be adding it), Nat Geo's Geno 2.0 doesn't, and a handful of other less popular companies like GPS Origins, Teloyears, etc. I know GPS origins in particular (from HomeDNA) is sold in shops like CVS and Walmart, so lots of people come across it.
Whether you will find close relatives depends on whether those relatives get tested.
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I do not know about some of the other testing companies, including MyHeritage.
MyHeritage offer matching with other testers, and they've corrected the problems they had with it in the beginning, but their database is still small, and more importantly, they are still taking free uploads from other companies so it does not make sense to buy a test from them. I recommend testing with AncestryDNA because they have the biggest database of testers, and if money isn't an issue, also with 23andMe. Then you can upload your raw DNA data from either of them to FamilyTreeDNA (upload is free, $19 to unlock full results) and MyHeritage (free).
Not all of them - LivingDNA doesn't (though they say they'll be adding it), Nat Geo's Geno 2.0 doesn't, and a handful of other less popular companies like GPS Origins, Teloyears, etc. I know GPS origins in particular (from HomeDNA) is sold in shops like CVS and Walmart, so lots of people come across it.
Whether you will find close relatives depends on whether those relatives get tested.
MyHeritage offer matching with other testers, and they've corrected the problems they had with it in the beginning, but their database is still small, and more importantly, they are still taking free uploads from other companies so it does not make sense to buy a test from them. I recommend testing with AncestryDNA because they have the biggest database of testers, and if money isn't an issue, also with 23andMe. Then you can upload your raw DNA data from either of them to FamilyTreeDNA (upload is free, $19 to unlock full results) and MyHeritage (free).
I agree, test with ancestry then upload to my heritage, GEDmatch and GEDmatch Genesis for free ethnicity and family matching and FTDNA for free ethnicity. When you have more money (if it's an issue) test with 23 and me. 23 and me currently has a new chip, it can only be uploaded to GEDmatch Genesis. See my thread below for directions.
My Heritage has come a long way. Before Christmas I had under 50 matches, now I have close to 2,000 due to the free uploads. If you do not get a close match, consider joining DNA Detectives FB group. They should be able to help with 3rd or 4th cousin matches.
MyHeritage recently launched its "DNA Quest" program to "help" adoptees find family by giving out 15,000 free DNA kits to qualified applicants. They set up an "advisory board" that is supposed to help adoptees taking this test find their biological family. I'm not sure how they can manage 15,000 cases, but it would be interesting to try it and see how it works.
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