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So I tested with 23 and Me when it first came out. I have not had much luck finding relatives with the info I received. My GG grandfather is the one I am chasing. I know everything about him in the US, but nothing about him in the UK. He arrived here in 1839-41 and died in 1904.
My male cousin is a direct descendant and has given his permission for me to purchase a kit for him. But which kit will give me the best chance of finding my GG grandfather's family? Does it have to be 23 and Me? My Heritage is on sale now. The Y test is too expensive, otherwise I would do that one. TIA
A direct male descendant (same surname as the ancestor you're interested in) is useful primarily for his Y chromosome. His autosomal DNA will not likely help with your issue.
If you absolutely don't want to pay for a Y test at FTDNA, you should buy him the Ancestry.com test. It has the largest number of people tested and is fairly popular in the UK. MyHeritage also has quite a few UK customers in its database. Test people from the earliest generation possible since they will carry more of your GG grandfather's DNA.
What kind of paper research have you done? The Ancestry.com World Explorer subscription is expensive but I managed to find lots of records for my German ancestors there.
So I tested with 23 and Me when it first came out. I have not had much luck finding relatives with the info I received. My GG grandfather is the one I am chasing. I know everything about him in the US, but nothing about him in the UK. He arrived here in 1839-41 and died in 1904.
My male cousin is a direct descendant and has given his permission for me to purchase a kit for him. But which kit will give me the best chance of finding my GG grandfather's family? Does it have to be 23 and Me? My Heritage is on sale now. The Y test is too expensive, otherwise I would do that one. TIA
Ancestry has the largest database and should be going on sale soon. Pretty sure they had a sale for Valentines day last year. If not, mothers and fathers day are next. You could also get $10 off with a link I have in the sale thread. Geneology & DNA Sites - Free Dates & Specials Thread - Post them Here
Do not test with my heritage as they allow free uploads, so does FTDNA and GEDmatch. See my thread Family tree and DNA general instructions for the links to everything and directions.
As to the Y-DNA; see the thread Need help with FTDNA Y test 2 of us didn't get great matches so the test was a waste until closer matches come. They will go on sale again for $99 to $130 so join there or upload even your own results and you will get sale notifications if you have your profile set that way.
If you order DNA; Topcashback and ebates give 7.5% cash back with each test. Join both sites then shop online like you normally would adding items to your cart. Once you're done open top cash back, type in the store/ website you're shopping at; it will give you the cash back link, next, hit your ebates cash back browser button, once activated go to your cart and check out. It's that easy.
Have you done Ancestry as well? You might find some connections that way for yourself. If you add your cousin on top of that it might knock down some walls. I have done ancestry and uploaded to several of the free sites previously mentioned. Each one has done different things for me. Most recently I found family from my GG Grandmother's second marriage on FTDNA after digging in their tree.
What is the purpose of testing your cousin instead of yourself? I would also recommend AncestryDNA as they by far have the biggest database of testers, and unlike 23andMe, they host family trees so you can actually make use of those matches more easily. So I think testing yourself at AncestryDNA first would be the more logical next step. Testing your cousin at AncestryDNA would also be beneficial, as you'd be able to compare matches you have in common and therefore likely share the same ancestry, which is your goal. But testing only one of you isn't going to be as beneficial because it will be harder to identify which matches come from that one particular branch you're looking for, and it doesn't really matter which one of you tests, so it just seems to make more sense to test yourself first if you can only afford one kit at this time. If you can afford two while they are on sale (hopefully Valentine's Day, but if not then perhaps St Patrick's Day) then definitely do that. If you can still only afford one right now, you should definitely consider buying a second one as soon as you can. What you're looking to do will best be accomplished by both of you testing at the same company.
For that reason, you should perhaps think about testing your cousin at 23andMe, since you're already there. Then you can compare matches you have in common without buying two tests. However, you're still stuck with the problem that 23andMe doesn't host family trees and I think that's the problem you're having with them right now and why you haven't had any success there.
Oh, and as for MyHeritage, there are a lot of people who say it's popular for foreigners to do MyHeritage, but frankly, I'm not sure how true it is that MyHeritage have a higher percentage of foreign testers than AncestryDNA. MyHeritage have a feature that lists your matches by their location, which AncestryDNA does not have (they recently added a map for that but it only includes your estimated 4th cousins or closer, whereas MyHeritage includes all your matches), so I think people just perceive it as having more foreigners because MyHeritage make them easier to find. That in itself (easier to find them) is a benefit MyHeritage have over AncestryDNA, but ultimately, AncestryDNA is still the better option purely because their database is so much bigger. It doesn't matter what better features or tools MyHeritage offer, if the right matches aren't there because the database is too small, those tools aren't of much use.
What is the purpose of testing your cousin instead of yourself? I would also recommend AncestryDNA as they by far have the biggest database of testers, and unlike 23andMe, they host family trees so you can actually make use of those matches more easily. So I think testing yourself at AncestryDNA first would be the more logical next step. Testing your cousin at AncestryDNA would also be beneficial, as you'd be able to compare matches you have in common and therefore likely share the same ancestry, which is your goal. But testing only one of you isn't going to be as beneficial because it will be harder to identify which matches come from that one particular branch you're looking for, and it doesn't really matter which one of you tests, so it just seems to make more sense to test yourself first if you can only afford one kit at this time. If you can afford two while they are on sale (hopefully Valentine's Day, but if not then perhaps St Patrick's Day) then definitely do that. If you can still only afford one right now, you should definitely consider buying a second one as soon as you can. What you're looking to do will best be accomplished by both of you testing at the same company.
For that reason, you should perhaps think about testing your cousin at 23andMe, since you're already there. Then you can compare matches you have in common without buying two tests. However, you're still stuck with the problem that 23andMe doesn't host family trees and I think that's the problem you're having with them right now and why you haven't had any success there.
I agree but I would abandon 23 and me for what the OP is looking to do.
Agree Ancestry has the largest database. It really grew a lot after the Christmas and winter sale from what I'm reading in adoption groups. Think of it this way, my parents were supposedly the 1st to come over from Hungary which I found out was wrong. My mother had an aunt on her mothers side that came over and come to find out my mothers fathers 3 brothers also came here. It was obvious which side was which as I started messaging my 3rd and 4th cousin matches. I finally got one of my grandmothers sisters descendants to upload to my heritage which finally showed me who we match there on that line. I'm hoping I can get one of my grandfathers brothers descendants to do the same because I know I have people from that line too. Testing at ancestry has been a huge help for me, not just with mine but my hubs with finding people descended from my MIL's mother who left the marriage and her 2 small children never to return. Same with my son's grandmothers family. The only one I'm not having luck with is my daughters grandmothers DNA. She's from Germany, had a hard life in a displaced person's camp and refuses to talk about her family. I'm not having luck with any of the names she gave me so I'll have to get busy in German groups when I have time to sift thru her line.
Anyway, the OP should buy a test for themselves then test the cousin later if they can't afford 2 tests
I agree but I would abandon 23 and me for what the OP is looking to do.
I would too, I only mention it since it sounds like money might be a concern and that might be the cheapest way to get both their DNA in the same place. That said, if the cousin tests at AncestryDNA, they could both upload to MyHeritage for the small fee.
I would too, I only mention it since it sounds like money might be a concern and that might be the cheapest way to get both their DNA in the same place. That said, if the cousin tests at AncestryDNA, they could both upload to MyHeritage for the small fee.
Last I saw My Heritage was free to upload but there was a charge for the cool tools. Have you seen them update that they're charging for uploads instead?
I'm assuming they might need whatever tools are including in the fee.
I'm still not seeing a price for what they charge for it.
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