DNA tests

[Kate]

Hello, I am considering asking my parents to take a dna test ,as if i do it myself I won't know from which side I have inherited the dna. I have read a bit ,but am not very good at scientific stuff, so would appreciate advice as to which one to use. Thank you.

 

[jorghes]

The easiest company to do DNA tests with in my experience is Ancestry - and you can then take Ancestry results of course and upload them to GEDmatch.

It's probably still a good idea for you yourself to also get yourself DNA tested.

 

[Pauline]

It’s always a good idea to get the oldest generation possible to do a DNA test, so if your parents are willing, go for it. You will need to go for an autosomal DNA test, and in recent newsletters Peter has given some good overviews of the pros and cons of different companies.

I’ve used Ancestry to do the testing and then uploaded my data to GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA as well, and have been happy with the outcome.

 

[peter]

It's probably still a good idea for you yourself to also get yourself DNA tested.

Since all of your DNA comes from your parents then in theory, if they've already tested, you're not going to learn anything about your ancestors by testing yourself.

In practice, because of the use of statistical techniques to process the results and identify matches you will be matched with some 'cousins' who aren't identified as cousins of either your father or your mother. See this article by DNA expert and LostCousins member Debbie Kennett.

Almost all of these additional matches are likely to be spurious. Similarly if your grandparents were still alive and your parents match list compared with theirs, the chances are that a similar proportion of their matches would also be spurious.

A few of the additional matches may be genuine - it's almost inevitable that statistical analysis will throw up false negatives as well as false positives.

 

[Kate]

Thank you for the replies. At least I know what to go for, if I decide to do it. I will read Debbie's article first.

 

[Kate]

Hello. As an unscientific person, sorry if this is a silly question. Would the largest amount of DNA relate to more recent ancestors? My mother's family possibly came from France about 1066, while my father's have Irish origins which I have documented. So I would expect more Irish than French on that basis. Or am I wrong? still reading up on DNA after Debbie Kennett's article. If some dna does not come from either parent, where does it come from? Or is it like a recessive gene? Sorry if I am really dopey!!

 

[peter]

Hello. As an unscientific person, sorry if this is a silly question. Would the largest amount of DNA relate to more recent ancestors? My mother's family possibly came from France about 1066, while my father's have Irish origins which I have documented. So I would expect more Irish than French on that basis. Or am I wrong? still reading up on DNA after Debbie Kennett's article. If some dna does not come from either parent, where does it come from? Or is it like a recessive gene? Sorry if I am really dopey!!

Forget what you've been told about your ethnicity - unless you tested with Living DNA it'as likely to be meaningless at best, misleading at worst. For example, at Ancestry so-called Irish ancestry can include Welsh, Scottish, and even English.

The chances are that your mother didn't inherit any DNA at all from the ancestor who supposedly arrived in 1066, and even if she did the Normans originally came from Scandinavia (Norman=Norseman), though some may have married locals when they arrived in France.

But yes, if ethnicity estimates actually worked then a high percentage would indicates lots of ancestors, and a small percentage a small number. Barring cousin marriages (pedigree collapse) we each have between 200 million and a billion ancestors in 1066, more people than there were in the whole of Europe at that time. Virtually none of them have contributed to our DNA.

 

[Kate]

Thanks Peter. That bit about the Normans is especially interesting. I almost feel that I am more interested in ancestors I can document and find out about, at least give a name to, rather than someone in the dim and distant past! Still considering...

 

[Kate]

Well, my son bought me an ancestry dna test and I have the results. I also have some matches to investigate. I have printed off the way to do this from the newsletter! I am (apparently) 45% GB, mostly Southern England and 30 % Irish plus bits of Western European and less of Eastern and 3% Iberian Peninsular.