[Misc] DNA ancestry kits - anyone used one?

[Fungus]

I'm being given one as a Christmas present. I expect mine will be very similar as my cousin on my mother's side has traced the family tree of our maternal and paternal grandparent, and not got out of Sussex for quite a few hundred years. I suppose that could make me an inbred.
Although, my mother was all East Sussex and my dad's family were all West Sussex.

Sussex people are very loyal! I've gone back 300 years on my dad's side, and they are all from Sussex.

My mum's side are from Essex, Kent, Cambs, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Durham and Fife. They must have had a caravan...

Bet you find lots of cousins in Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Sussex people are very loyal! I've gone back 300 years on my dad's side, and they are all from Sussex.

My mum's side are from Essex, Kent, Cambs, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Durham and Fife. They must have had a caravan...

Bet you find lots of cousins in Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

My dad is well into this sort of thing.
His side going all the way back to Dublin & Liverpool.
Mums side Cumbria & London.
All very interesting stuff.

 

[StonehamPark]

It'd be pretty surprising if anyone in the UK had 100% British/Irish DNA given the multitude of different DNA sources that have passed through over the millennia. Your first result sounds more likely.

You would think so, however they apparently constantly update and improve their database and methods, for what it's worth.
One thing I do know, is the first ever known record of my surname was made in Sussex. So I'm at least happy and proud of that fact.

That's pretty uninspiring, eh?

More to the point, they kept your data on file? Is this a good thing?

I couldn't care if they keep my info to be honest.
I've previously registered with multiple banks (inc. online banking), social media profiles, internet forums, utility companies, other financial institutions, Amazon, Google etc, etc. My data (and most likely most on here) is not, and will never be safe or secure.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

I subscribed to Ancestry a couple of times in the past but each time I gave up as I didn't seem to be getting very far. Mind you, it didn't help that my Grandmothers father's name was John Reid, so was his father and so was his father!

But on the strength of this thread Ive just subscribed again and give it another go - third time lucky.

Does anybody know of an idiots guide? Is it best make sure you have the right person by maybe starting with a birth or death certificate? Presumably working back from me is best as obviously I know about my parents and my grandparents? if I find my grandparents birth certificate presumably that will have their parents on it - I hope!

Would you work on one ancesstor at a time?

Any other tips other than just keep at it?

 

[StonehamPark]

For reference, here is my 'before and after' DNA results.

 

[Wozza]

Does Ancestry give any context with the DNA results? Is it saying you're 90% British/Irish based on, for example, data from the last 1000 years and 1m people?

Edit: I see it says "“a few hundred or even a thousand years ago”.

And this may explain the change in results...

4. What does it mean when my ethnicity results identify 'Trace Regions'?
Most people may have a percentage identified with 'Trace Regions' in their genetic ethnicity results. Trace Regions are regions where the estimated range includes zero and does not go above 15%, or where the predicted percentage is less than 4.5%. Since there is only a small amount of evidence that you have genetic ethnicity from these regions, it is possible that you may not have genetic ethnicity from them at all. This is not uncommon, and as more genetic signatures are discovered with a higher confidence level, we may be able to update these Trace Regions over time.

 

[Fungus]

I subscribed to Ancestry a couple of times in the past but each time I gave up as I didn't seem to be getting very far. Mind you, it didn't help that my Grandmothers father's name was John Reid, so was his father and so was his father!

But on the strength of this thread Ive just subscribed again and give it another go - third time lucky.

Does anybody know of an idiots guide? Is it best make sure you have the right person by maybe starting with a birth or death certificate? Presumably working back from me is best as obviously I know about my parents and my grandparents? if I find my grandparents birth certificate presumably that will have their parents on it - I hope!

Would you work on one ancesstor at a time?

Any other tips other than just keep at it?

Then it's a good thing you have seven other great-grandparents to research!

Yes, it's best to start with yourself and any siblings, and add your parents and their siblings, and so on. You'll soon get loads of hints from Ancestry.

Work through all your lines until you reach a brick wall, then come back to it later. Keep all your lines in one big tree, though.

You do have to be quite persistent, and it's often more difficult with generations in the last 100 years, because of privacy laws.

Before that, you can usually find people in the census records, and it's easier to be sure you've got the right ones when you know locations and names of the other family members. Ancestry does also have the 1939 register, which is a bit like a census.

Birth and death certificates give plenty of useful information, and they are only £6 from the General Register Office (GRO). Don't EVER buy certificates through Ancestry!

There are a million books, websites, forums and Facebook groups out there for help,

 

[btnbelle]

I'm being given one as a Christmas present. I expect mine will be very similar as my cousin on my mother's side has traced the family tree of our maternal and paternal grandparent, and not got out of Sussex for quite a few hundred years. I suppose that could make me an inbred.
Although, my mother was all East Sussex and my dad's family were all West Sussex.

Hopefully you will have no London Palace in you....

 

[Worthing exile]

How long do these kits take to arrive?

 

[StonehamPark]

How long do these kits take to arrive?

With the Black Friday and Cyber sales, I'm sure there will be delays.
Mine took 10-12 weeks.

Edit: Kit arrived in days, results back 10-12 weeks later.

 

[Worthing exile]

With the Black Friday and Cyber sales, I'm sure there will be delays.
Mine took 10-12 weeks.

Edit: Kit arrived in days, results back 10-12 weeks later.

Thanks

 

[Hampster Gull]

Nope, don’t want to give my DNA to a company I know nothing about.

 

[Insel affe]

National Geographic is pretty god damn good, tracks your ancestry including your regional , deep ancestry, and genius matches etc and constantly being updated.
My regional the past 10,000 years was
Western and Central Europe 45%
Scandinavia 29%
Great Britain and Ireland 10%
Southern Europe 8%
Eastern Europe 6%
Southern Asia 2%

Pretty bad when your 2nd generation Danish/ American wife has a lot higher percentage Great Britain match than me....

Got a bit of a ribbing from the wife over that, but from what I was told about our family it makes complete sense, coming over with the Normans, before that obviously mix of Germanic and Scandinavian with a smattering of exotic slave encounters probably...

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Hopefully you will have no London Palace in you....

No chance of that.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I have traced my dad's side back to Billingshurst 1700 via Fletching Battle, Rye, mum's lot London Germany, don't know where the Scandinavian or Iberian Peninsular came from and I have a touch of Gengis........The results are probably more confusing than informative but fun.

ETHNICITY ESTIMATE


46% Great Britain

28% Europe West

15% Scandinavia

4 More regions

 

[cloud]

Quite a few in our family have done it. It's very interesting, and you can download the raw data as a CSV if you want to analyse it yourself. I'd recommend Ancestry as they will have the largest number of matches.

 

[BLOCK F]

I have used Ancestry.
52%English and North West Europe.
42% Scotland ( mainly Highlands and Outer Hebrides)
6% Scandinavian.

Having traced some of my Scottish ancestors back to about 1760, it confirmed my family's connection to the Outer Hebrides and the Highlands.
I have been in touch with one 'highly likely' cousin and we are indeed related and have swapped some fascinating information.

 

[blue'n'white]

Both me and my wife have done the DNA test and results are interesting. The ethnicity thing is fairly immaterial but the tests do then put you in touch with people with whom you share enough of your DNA. We'd done a fair bit before the DNA testing but I've found a relative who can trace back to the founder of the Knights Templar in the late 11th century, I've also found relatives in most of the larger English speaking enclaves of the world - USA, Australia and New Zealand however most of my mother's side appear to have originated in a very small village which has now been subsumed into Southampton. If you do do it via Ancestry (and the various other sites) you get tips/hints when they find other matches for people in your tree. I find the whole genealogy thing fascinating - however it is very time consuming and a job for the winter months.

 

[Goldstone1976]

My uncle keeps asking me to gob into a tube. He’s well and truly got the bug, and like many newly-converted zealots finds it impossible to understand why I won’t comply. I have no interest in the topic and just as much interest in helping him give my DNA to a random corporate.

He’s a persistent bugger though. Last year, he asked me whether I had licked the envelope that contained his Christmas card. I told him I’d used tap water - which may not have been entirely truthful.

 

[Mr Putdown]

Nope, don’t want to give my DNA to a company I know nothing about.

This.

I received the Ancestry DNA kit last Christmas and, having read their T’s & C’s, a year on it remains unused and gathering dust.