I was disappointed to read your German ancestry wasn't picked up. I was hoping that if I could persuade my sceptical father to be tested, we might get a lead on where his elusive 2xGGF came from. Dying in 1837 and never being naturalised, all we have is a name and his occupation to go on. I suppose things may change with Living DNA's recently launched Germany project in the future. At least that may give me some time to persuade him that the fact the testing is done in Denmark, rather than the UK, isn't as bad as he thinks. He'd never agree to a test from a US company under any circumstances, but I don't think they would help much anyway. To be fair to him, it is the only DNA test that really interests me too.
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Took Advantage of DNA Test Special Offer
- Thread starter FamilyHistoryGal
- Start date
We don't inherit DNA from all of our ancestors - my German ancestors are 5 and 6 generations back, but your father's ancestor is only 4 generations back, so he's got a much better chance of success.
But don't ignore the possibility of finding out the answer by as result of testing with Ancestry - he'll get around 5000 matches with cousins, and roughly 300 of them will be connected through each 2G grandparent (you just won't know which one until you start investigating).
Confusingly, when I spoke to someone on the Living DNA stand at WDYTYA Live, they suggested there wasn't that much of a chance that the DNA would show up because it was Dad's 2xGGF, yet, as you say, if you read their information, it tends to suggest it should.
As to Ancestry DNA, there is absolutely no chance he would agree to test with a US company and, to be honest, I'd rather spend limited funds on Living DNA as it may help with the reasons that I want to test, not just the Germanic 2xGGF. Having been researching for over 18 years, I appreciate others have researched for longer, I have found over the years that we can help far more people than can help us with brick walls. And while I appreciate it is a good thing to be able to help others (not that many can be bothered to respond to information as I've found), if I'm going to invest in something like a DNA test, I would like to see some help from it eventually. In any case, from what I have read, it seems very unlikely Ancestry's database has that many German members so the chances are if we did match, it would be someone stuck at the same ancestor as us. I think there is a far better chance, if any, that Living DNA may a better bet eventually.