I have some extended family from Eastern Europe. What's the best service to use to find out most about my lineage? (American, search)
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I've noticed a lot of these ancestry services better suit Americans. Which ancestry service has the most comprehensive database for someone of European ancestry or are they all the same?
I've noticed a lot of these ancestry services better suit Americans. Which ancestry service has the most comprehensive database for someone of European ancestry or are they all the same?
For the ethnicity report, or the DNA matches? For ethnicity, most Americans are of European descent, so most tests are fairly European focused and have a solid dataset of samples in their reference panel, although not all companies publicly offer those details. Some companies try to narrow down the regions to smaller areas in the report, but the more break down there is, the more speculative the results will be. Ethnicity is not an exact science and should not be taken literally.
For DNA matches, AncestryDNA by far have the largest database of testers overall (over 10 million), but they have been available in Europe for less time than some other companies. MyHeritage and LivingDNA are newer DNA companies in general, and have smaller databases because of that - however, LivingDNA is a British company, not an American one, and therefore might have more European customers. MyHeritage are said to be popular among Europeans because they ship to so many places and have the ability to sort your matches by their location.
MyHeritage is available "worldwide, excluding locations which do not allow it" (MyHeritage Support rep cited the following locations do not allow commercial DNA tests "including but not limited to": France, Poland, Israel, the state of Alaska)
Are you looking for DNA testing and family matches (see PA2UK's post above)? Or are you looking for genealogical research like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org (the free one, so a good place to get started)?
Hm, my mind must be so much on DNA at the moment, I somehow thought the OP was asking about DNA companies... maybe I need to take a break from DNA research...
I've noticed a lot of these ancestry services better suit Americans. Which ancestry service has the most comprehensive database for someone of European ancestry or are they all the same?
Where, exactly, in Eastern Europe? Because it's a big place with a couple dozen countries.
DNA testing doesn't go over big in Europe, because there's no point to it.
If you're a Serb, then, well, uh, you're a Serb. DNA testing isn't going to tell you anything you already don't know. Now, if you suspected you might actually be a Vlach and not a Serb, then I could see where you might want to test.
If you're Bulgarian, you might actually be Greek or even a Seljuk Turk, but I don't believe DNA tests can distinguish between Bulgars, Avars, Tartars and others.
Now, if you lived in Bekescsaba in Hungaria I could see why you might want to get tested, because you might be a Magyar, or a German, or Czech or Slovak or even a Pole, Romanian or Ruthenian, since different Magyar kings at different times invited people to settle in areas giving them free land if they would defend against the Ottoman Turks.
If you're more interested in genealogy, you should probably go to that country's internet and search government web-sites, because they sometimes have digitized documents available on-line for birth, marriage and death records (notwithstanding the fact that many records were destroyed during the numerous wars).
I think the question needs to be clarified a bit. Are you looking for people or documents? I am exclusively of European descent but American. I have been able to trace a large chunk of my family through Ancestry.com records; starting with English colonial ancestors followed by my Swedish and Czech side more recently.I'm not sure if the Czech and Swedish was always there, I wasn't spelling correctly or if said distant relative (who hasn't responded to my messages) just recently added their tree to Ancestry. Whatever it is, those newer (to me) European documents have been a great help in uncovering a lot of things. If you get the "World Access" subscription Ancestry you'll have access to international records. I had to breakdown and go from the 14 day trial to the World Explorer to get some Swedish records recently. For DNA matches, FTDNA has more European matches for me, even a third cousin from Norway, who also has not responded to my messages.
DNA testing doesn't go over big in Europe, because there's no point to it.
That's not really true. I agree there are fewer Europeans interested in DNA testing because most of them feel they already know their background. If you're British, your family history is very probably British and you don't need a DNA test to tell you that. But that doesn't mean DNA testing is pointless for Europeans. For one thing, many Europeans are much more mixed than even they may realize, and for another thing, the true value of the test is with the DNA matches, which can be useful no matter where you are from. There is much, much more to the DNA test than just ethnicity.
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