DNA test: Ancestry vs 23andme vs Other? Probably this question has been settled here before

[UTUSN]

I had one done a few years ago, and all I remember was a very general report about the continent (no breakdown of specific countries).

A couple of my cousins have gotten theirs recently (I don't know which companies) and are sort of recruiting us/others.

I'm interested only in the ethnic breakdown, not the "health" predictors or "Neanderthal" content (23andme). A Google search for reviews brought up some disturbing issues about 23and me, about false claims of medical uses faulted by the FDA, plus using personal data for sale to medical and insurance companies. Plus that (the owner?) is married to the Google dude, sort of sharing the same information-selling techniques.

What are this Group's recommendations or Cautions? Too late, because Ancestry is running a sale price and I clicked there. How specific are the ethnic results there? Thanks in advance.

[TM99]

1. I have participated in both.

I did 23andme prior to the FDA getting involved. Those issues seem to now be resolved. The health information has been beneficial to me.

I found more specificity in the 23andme report than with Ancestry. You get information on maternal and paternal DNA as well. So I got the specific haplogroup K for my mother for instance which was never given at Ancestry. I also signed up to be contacted when a relative also does their DNA. I have greatly expanded my family tree with this information and made many contacts. This has been more specific than at Ancestry. Ancestry also only provides estimates and percentages for the basic test. It might be more specific in a different test but I don't know.

I have my tree there but I hate the constant costs for different things.

[UTUSN]

2. tyvm

[hfojvt]

11. I have only done ancestry

I have found it to be awesome.

I don't care that much for the ethnic breakdown part, although it sort of boggled my mind that my dad registered as Scandahoovian rather than as German. I mean if you look at the ethnicity of his great great grandparents it is

5/16 German
4/16 Swiss (German speaking so I always kinda added them to the kraut)
3/16 English
2/16 Scot
1/16 Irish
1/16 French (huguenot)

and yet their DNA test said

17% Scandanavian
15% western europe
15% Italy/Greece
15% Ireland
14% Great Britain
11% Spain
10% Eastern Europe

I guess that means the Scots were originally Normans or Saxons. Italy/Greece presumably comes from the Swiss connection.

Anyway, for me the best part came from the cousin matches. Recently I had found a supposed brother of my great great great grandfather, and a bunch of his descendants. Well, there kind of was no way to verify if that connection was real. A dna match from one or two of the descendants though, seems to do it.

It has been fun for me too, to be able to help some people. Although I am kinda non-plused that I have not heard back from them. One person had seven people in his tree and I sent him data on 40 more.

So far, it has not extended my own tree at all, except perhaps on my mom's side, but I do not know if that person is a father to my ancestor or just an uncle. I have a couple of places to look, if I can find records from there. I kind of need some more people to do tests. For example, my tree stops at Isaac Chamberlain (1799 Connecticut) I have some leads on perhaps extending that back to 1589, if I can a) verify it and b) find the missing links. I have contacted a 3rd cousin from that line and hope I can talk him into getting a DNA test.

From my experience, it seems to me that their test tells more about a male than it does for a female. My dad had a connection to a cousin and a bunch of other lines from that ancestor and yet that cousin was not connecting to those other lines, and she should have. Well, going back to their common ancestor, my dad is a son of a son of a son, and she is the daughter of a daughter of a daughter or a son of a daughter. Dad connects to 12 other common relatives, and yet this cousin does not.

Then again, who knows what cousins that she is connecting to that my dad is not. Maybe I should compare ethnicity with these cousins and I can figure out where that Scandahoovian came from.

[wishstar]

3. I tested with Ancestry and then uploaded results for free to Gedmatch

I have tested with Ancestry, and I think they're the best. Ancestry's analysis was very accurate for me- much better than the analysis on FamilyTree DNA. I downloaded my Ancestry .com DNA results to my computer and then uploaded my DNA to the free website Gedmatch that has several analysis tools not available on Ancestry including exact chromosome matches with other members and several ethnicity tools. I recommend Gedmatch.

I also uploaded to FamilyTree DNA for a small fee but their ethnic breakdown was much too general and not very accurate so I don't recommend them plus I have a hard time navigating their website.

I like Ancestry's website which was invaluable for me to find out my ancestry due to their DNA matches with cousins who have trees you can look at. I knew almost nothing about my ancestry 2 years ago, but I now have a tree on Ancestry with over 700 ancestors I have confirmed with extensive research. Just by taking their test, you can set up several trees without even paying for membership. I have only paid for a couple months membership. Soon after I tested and they did my DNA matching, I heard from 2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins I had never met but who knew more about my great grandparents than I knew and were able to help me tremendously. The accuracy of the degree of relationship of DNA match cousins is very good.

For me, Ancestry was much more specific and accurate than FamilyTree DNA but for certain areas Ancestry .com cannot distinguish. For example, Italy/Greece is combined and Italians or Greeks will get a result showing significant West Asian/Middle East/Caucasus ancestry even though they have no Middle Eastern ancestors for at least 600 years+.

I have 30% British ancestry and a little Irish, and a little Scandinavian which Ancestry .com accurately detected while FamilyTree DNA didn't show any British Isles ancestry for me at all. And Ancestry correctly found zero Iberian (Spanish/Portuguese) for me while FamilyTree DNA mistakenly lumped Iberian together with my predominantly Southern Mediterranean ancestry.

My only serious caution in using Ancestry is that a lot of people there have erroneous information in their trees, so you have to do a lot of independent research and use a variety of alternative online sources to insure accuracy rather than assuming other people have posted correct information.

[UTUSN]

4. *Very* helpful - thanks!1 & whew about Ancestry, since I already ordered it on a cheap Special!1

I've seen an Ancestry report of one of my cousins, and it was broken down into national percentages (European countries) but I'm specifically interested in the (separate?) Jewish test. Does the basic test allow for further options for breaking down results?

[wishstar]

7. Ancestry's basic result has a European Jewish ancestry percentage

In my results, Ancestry . com listed European Jewish ancestry as a trace amount of 2% and Eastern European as a trace amount of 2%. Which is probable since I have found one line of possible distant Jewish ancestry from Poland. They just have one basic set of percentage results though, no tools for further analysis.

However the free Gedmatch website where I uploaded my Ancestry DNA has several options for analysis including a J test which also showed a trace of Jewish ancestry for me. Gedmatch and Ancestry were quite close in their analyses of all of my percentages but Gedmatch has a lot of additional analysis tools you can run, whereas Ancestry just provides one basic breakdown.

If you are interested in DNA health factors without spending much $, I also highly recommend Promethease. Just last week I uploaded my Ancestry DNA to the Promethease website where for a $5 fee they provided detailed results of my specific SNP's matching with scientific research findings of health factors. My results were fascinating and very educational with links to articles detailing research studies into the various SNP markers they detected in my DNA. At first I was bummed out at the "Bad" genes they found but in context I had only about 250 "Bad" ones compared to 1680 they consider "Good' genes. Promethease has good search capacity, seems very professional while easy to navigate.

[CBHagman]

5. A couple of relatives have taken the 23andMe test...

...but I live in one of several states that do not allow its use, and so I went with Ancestry. Since I have a sibling who went through 23andMe, I was able to compare notes and also find out what haplogroups are represented in our family tree. The Ancestry DNA results were generally similar and in addition provided me a list of relatives (under pseudonyms, of course) already tested, only one of which was a cousin I already knew.

I'm not certain how I'll proceed from here, but I am glad my family's made a start with DNA testing.

[UTUSN]

6. "states ... not allow its use" - ??????

I'm just a regular schmo at a loss, being a sucker for scams? Anyway,

lately, our family issue is Ashkenazi vs Sephardic Jews. I have *no* idea

[CBHagman]

9. A news report that escaped my notice...

...is to be found here:

[url]https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/new-york-and-maryland-prohibitions-against-23andme-fall-120415.html[/url]

Consumers curious about their genetic make-up have been able to get some answers using 23andMe, which describes itself as a personal genetics company.

(SNIP)

However, not all consumers have been able to participate. Two states, New York and Maryland, have specific statutes that barred residents from using such a service.

(SNIP)

The company says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent decision designating 23andMe’s service as an over-the-counter device gets around the restrictions in both states.

[Sancho]

8. I use Genebase...

http://www.genebase.com

It probably depends on your own interests. Investigate the reports, costs, and websites.

The reference groups the company uses, plus how willing you are to learn what the results mean. Also, some do a better job if you have multiple family members you want to test.

Good luck.

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. I did Ancestry and some of the results were surprises.

Based on where my grandparents/great grandparents came from, I am:

1/2 Luxembourgisch
1/4 Irish
1/8 French
1/16 Swiss
1/16 German

Based on Ancestry's analysis, I am 100 percent European (guess the story about the First American ancestor was fantasy). The breakdown was:

52 percent Western Europe
24 percent Ireland
11 percent Italy/Greece
8 percent Portugal/Spain
5 percent Great Britain
< 1 percent trace Scandinavia and Eastern Europe

I'm very happy that I did this because the results are fascinating. I had no clue about the Southern European roots and 19 percent is a respectable percentage. This leads me to wonder why I'm an extremely fair-skinned blonde. Like you, I didn't want particularly want to know what is going to kill me or the Neanderthal stuff.