Genetic Ethnicity

This is an excellent starter kit for anyone interested in learning more about or understanding their ethnic roots. We tend to think we're British or Afro/Caribbean, American or European or whatever. The truth is often surprising. DNA testing for ethnicity is still relatively young, but the database is growing and having taken this test, I'm both surprised, impressed and convinced by the results.My roots are diverse. There was no way that could have been known by Ancestry as I'm not a member. The test is easy; you provide a saliva sample in a tube, seal it and send it. Postage prepaid. Sit back and wait for results. Mine took 5 weeks, with a couple of progress updates.The readout is informed and comprehensive. A pie chart ethnicity breakdown with detailed region specific analysis and an illustrated history. Possible socio/economic influences which are likely to have affected movement of people. In my case, the overwhelming Scottish DNA profile was unexpected, but with the explanation of the story provided by Ancestry, it makes sense. Also some interesting genetic connections to Andeans and native Americans which were a surprise.The results also identify possible people matches; Ancestry members to whom there's a direct connection. I've contacted a couple on my list and unearthed some family detail which is new to me.This is a basic test. There are other mitochondrial kits for the maternal line, specifically and another for the paternal side. But they're more expensive. The Ancestry DNA ethnicity test is an excellent introduction to who you really are. I'm convinced the results are accurate and relevant, impressed with the detail provided and there's loads of ways to add more info without actually subscribing to Ancestry. This is more than fun, it's a building block for a bigger story. Excellent value

These Ancestry DNA kits are great value when they are offer from Amazon especially as the postage is included.Remember to note the activation code and activate the kit on Ancestry before posting!

Purchased this as a 70th birthday present for my mum and at first I was very skeptical as to how accurate the data and results would be. The kit was easy to use and we just popped it into a regular post box. It took around 4 weeks to process and we had regular updates along the way. We were then notified that our results were ready via the ancestry website.Reviewing the results was very easy and was nicely presented in a friendly web user interface. How accurate were the results? To my surprise yes it was incredibly accurate. A bit scary in that sense. It did pick up our family origins which did match in to family accounts including the mass emigration to the USA in the 1850’s where my grandfather side settled in Utah and clear references to them establishing aMormon community. Lots of other data and results were also established and all of this information could then be added to your family tree via the Ancestry subscription.Personally if you don’t mind having your DNA results analysed this is simply amazing and yes despite some people stating it does not work then for us the results were incredibly accurate from what we can tell so far.Highly recommended!!

Over the last few years I've gone from buying my parents these kits out of curiosity to becoming quite an advanced researcher having bought tests for most of my family members.Some people are only interested in pop-science things like ethnicity, but that barely scratches the surface of what you can do with these tests. When used to their fullest extent by attaching your results to a small family tree Ancestry's systems can link it to their vast databases of trees, and use that to give good suggestions as to how you are related to your DNA matches. And oh, the matches. It will obviously vary depending on your background, but my parents have about 30,000 matches (each!) Ancestry's database is vast, and by far the biggest. If you only test once, test at Ancestry first, only then maybe consider other services to mop-up. Once you get into the details these tests can reconnect long-detached branches of your family tree, help identify biological parents of adoptees, or reveal long-forgotten family history. My tests have taught me things about my family it's quite likely my great grandparents didn't even know about their parents and grandparents.It's really made history come alive for me thinking about all they lived and died through.It's not all sunshine and roses with this product, though. Despite the power of the data they have available Ancestry seems to not want to cater for advanced researchers. Their DNA searching and filtering interface cannot do simple things like exclude matches by criteria, and their match tagging support is curiously limited. This can make working with large numbers of matches somewhat of a chore.They also steadfastly refuse to offer something called a chromosome browser to show you exactly "where" you match you matches, not just by how much. All the other DNA testing services offer this feature. It can be invaluable in revealing (at least on your side of the connection) which of your ancestors the connection (or connections!) pass through. Hopefully one day they will offer this.What they do let you do, however, is download your DNA results which you can then upload to third party services which do offer these features (i.e. GEDmatch.com). I strongly recommend doing this once you understand a bit more about things and the ramifications of doing so. There are excellent educational resources online to teach you all about what you can do, and case in point I've managed to compile artificial profiles for my ancestors almost as if they themselves had spat in those little tubes themselves, despite in some instances having left this world decades before I or even my parents were born. Science is amazing, and these tests have opened up a huge new world to me. They're so much more than how Scottish/German/English you supposedly are.