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Mine has some surprises and I'm being cautious because I assume it will change with future updates and might meet my expectations a little more. For example, all my German contribution comes from my mom who was half Irish and a mix of Dutch, French, English and Scottish. My dad who has close ancestors from Hanover and Hesse is mostly East European which accounts for the Pomeranian ancestors but there's no German. He has some Scottish and Swedish which seems like my mom's side. It might improve after a while.
Thanks. As far as I can tell, that hasn't shown up yet in my account. I've never been particularly impressed by their ethnicity estimates, so I'm not sure I expect much from this effort, but it should be interesting to see what they come up with.
Everyone has it, it can be hard to find. Click ethnicity on main DNA page, scroll to the 2nd box, you'll see the ethnicity inheritance tool. Click view breakdown. There is no male or female first, you have to figure out which parent is which.
If you want to look at the various ethnicities by themselves, click the ethnicity name, it will only show that ethnicity. On my cell phone you can't click the ethnicity name, you click the colored circle, it will add or remove ethnicities as you touch the parts of the circle.
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Originally Posted by Ellwood
I used ancestry off and on for years. Many of the census, military, birth, marriage, etc. records were very helpful, but the family trees contributed by people need to be vetted before just copying the data, which many people do.
Additionally the cost of a subscription is in many cases simply too expensive. Although I have used Ancestry (at times they had a sale), I did not use their DNA, rather used 23andme. The last time I used it, I did not find any useful information.
Ancestry DNA is a LOT cheaper and more useful than 23 and me. 23 and me is a health testing site. Ancestry is a genealogy site. Ancestry has family trees, 23 and me has a DNA family tree that does not work like the family tree on ancestry. It is strictly to add DNA matches to and once you "build" your DNA tree, they do not suggest any more DNA matches unless you wipe it out to start over. Ancestry's tree can be linked to your DNA matches when looking at your match with them. If you can figure the match out, you can build their line in your tree, then attach their DNA to the tree profile. You can also group and color code your matches on ancestry, you can't do that on 23 and me. To group would be to assign a name and color to matches, say my maternal grandmothers parents line I have as light pink with my mothers paternal line light blue. For my dad, his mothers line is dark pink with his fathers line dark blue. For unknowns I use a lime green and orange.
Ancestry also has the largest DNA database for matches. What were you looking to find in your family tree? I'm on a free account, if I were to get a subscription, I would do it during their half price sale. I'd never pay full price for it.
Since you did DNA at 23 and me, you can download your RAW DNA file to upload to my heritage for free. My Heritage has some pretty neat DNA tools, the upload is free, if you have decent matches there, I suggest you pay the one time fee of $29 to get ethnicity, shared matches, family trees and surnames of matches, chromosome browser and a few other things. My Heritage is a genealogy site like ancestry, so you can save your ancestry tree, upload it to my heritage, attaching your DNA there. My Heritage has the largest European DNA database, they're very popular in Europe.
Ancestry DNA is a LOT cheaper and more useful than 23 and me. 23 and me is a health testing site. Ancestry is a genealogy site. Ancestry has family trees, 23 and me has a DNA family tree that does not work like the family tree on ancestry. It is strictly to add DNA matches to and once you "build" your DNA tree, they do not suggest any more DNA matches unless you wipe it out to start over. Ancestry's tree can be linked to your DNA matches when looking at your match with them. If you can figure the match out, you can build their line in your tree, then attach their DNA to the tree profile. You can also group and color code your matches on ancestry, you can't do that on 23 and me. To group would be to assign a name and color to matches, say my maternal grandmothers parents line I have as light pink with my mothers paternal line light blue. For my dad, his mothers line is dark pink with his fathers line dark blue. For unknowns I use a lime green and orange.
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23andme provides more than health. It connects you with people that are related via DNA. Through 23andme I was contacted by the biological father of my spouse, who had been adopted. It also provides connections to relatives previously unknown.
23andme provides more than health. It connects you with people that are related via DNA. Through 23andme I was contacted by the biological father of my spouse, who had been adopted. It also provides connections to relatives previously unknown.
What do you think ancestry does? It does the same thing, plus their DNA database is about 4 times larger than 23 and me.
Since ancestry is a genealogy site, your DNA matches can be much easier to figure out because their DNA is attached to a family tree most times. With 23 and me you have to contact the matches to find out exactly who they are and how you're related. I'm there too. I have crappy matches there.
You happened to luck out that the bio father happened to test at 23 and me. You may find even more family doing it on ancestry. More people do DNA at ancestry because it's so much cheaper.
If you're looking for his biological mother he should test at ancestry.
If you upload free to my heritage you may be matched with DNA relatives in other countries.
I like this new feature and is something that can propel Ancestry to the next level, potentially exceeding 23andme when it comes to the ethnicity aspect. It persuaded me to finally purchase a kit from them over 23andme for my mother on Mother's Day. (And honestly, the discount $59 weighed as well as certain close cousin matches I want clarification on.) Really, I'm hoping this feature is a precursor for Ancestry to introduce tthe ability to phase with a tested parent for a more accurate ethnicity breakdown, just like what you can do on 23andme. But for the time being, I'm very curious to see how well my mother's results align with the inheritance estimate, because so far I suspect the inherited 25% Nigerian comes from her and I think that will become apparent if she comes back as >50% Nigerian( I myself have 44% currently). Even more interestingly, what she inherited from her parents will make things more clear about their ancestry, since this is the closest I will get to knowing without the ability to test them directly.
Last edited by Chicagoland60426; 05-08-2022 at 10:46 AM..
I keep looking at it and wondering how to reconcile the results with what I know on paper. My parents are long gone so there is no way to test them. Some of it is very peculiar the more I look at it. ALL of my Germanic Europe DNA comes from my mostly Irish mother. My dad's side is solid German from Hanover and Hesse on paper and a bunch from Pomerania (which is shown as Eastern Europe from him at 19%). His paternal line was from Frisia before migrating east centuries ago and I get 4/5 of my England/NW Europe from him (8% of 10%). It is all about the randomness of the trickle-down DNA contributions.
It's a nice idea, but when the results were inaccurate before they tried to divide it up between your parents, they will still be inaccurate after they divide them up. Just another gimmick that doesn't live up to its promise.
It's a nice idea, but when the results were inaccurate before they tried to divide it up between your parents, they will still be inaccurate after they divide them up. Just another gimmick that doesn't live up to its promise.
...and it will change the next time they do an update. I think that the ThruLines feature has been a bit helpful after a while. The StoryScout feature was interesting for about two minutes.
I've never done a DNA test. Any opinions on which one is the best to use?
Ancestry is the best DNA test to buy to find biological family because they have the largest DNA database plus they're a genealogy site with family trees. It goes on sale for $59 very often. Check their site, it was $59 last week, not sure if the sale expired yet. Also check Amazon, sometimes you can buy it there for $59 with free shipping.
The next one to do is My Heritage which is a free upload, you would download your Ancestry RAW DNA file to upload there. My Heritage is also a genealogy site that is world wide with a very large European DNA database, so if you have any immigrants in your bio family you may just get matches that still live in the home country. I have more European matches there then I do in the US. My parents were immigrants, my mothers parents had siblings who came here, they did Ancestry and 23 and me, my father's fathers side had one person come here with his kids. I have one match at ancestry, the rest of my grandparents matches are all in Europe on my heritage.
As I said my heritage is free to upload, it will show you matches and on the main page is matches in other countries where it shows how many matches you have in each country, it's very cool. If you want "advanced DNA tools" including ethnicity, seeing matches of matches, family trees and surnames of matches along with chromosome browser, theory of family relativity (like thru lines) and autoclusters it is a one time fee of $29 and very worth it if you have matches in other countries. My Heritage also allows us to label, group and color code matches.
The only features they don't have yet is to be able to link the DNA match to someone in your tree and being able to set the custom relationship like ancestry allows us to do.
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