DNA Test Questions

Question

Hail.

This year I decided to break down and get the Ancestry DNA kit. I had been saving to get a Nintendo Switch, but, I got one for Christmas. So....that money is gonna go for the test. I do have a couple questions, though. I saw a couple vids on Youtube about it and the procedure seems simple enough. My second cousin, Cathie, took the test and she got some interesting results from her mother, who is from Italy.

She got 64 % Southern Italian and a bunch of other nationalities in her. Syrian, Lebanese, Armenian and Wester European being the large amount. This is probably due to the Roman Empire. I think it's safe to say that DNA is also in me. It would have been in my grandfather and then passed down to my father and then to me. My paternal grandmother was also Italian.

Taking it is no big deal. Dude in the video spat into the tube and recorded it. You know jump cuts are okay...I didn't need to see that.

Back on topic. How many vials do we get per kit? The guy who took it only showed one vial.  This test will give what kind of results? autosomal? What? How do I input the data here and elsewhere once I get the results?

I just have a few unanswered questions. Hope someone can help out. What can I expect with the test? I hope I can test myself and my parents.

Answer 1

Sorry to have to tell you that it's normally just one vial per kit. You have to buy a separate kit for each person you want to test. But if you order more than one kit at a time, you may save on shipping costs.

It would be great if you could test yourself and your parents, but if you have to choose, you might want to start with your parents. They are one generation closer to your distant cousins than you are, so their test data could be more useful for finding autosomal DNA matches and using them to confirm ancestry.

Comments

That's okay. Thanks for the info. =) Perhaps I'll flip a coin. Would any of the other testing companies have more than one vial?

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The standard rule is one-person one-kit.

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Each company seems to only do one person per test ordered, as far as I know.

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Gotcha. I didn't know that. My cousin tested herself, my great aunt and her daughter. I think she got three tests in one go.

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Then she paid to buy 3 kits. There is only one person per kit.

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Right. Thanks!

Answer 2

Ancestry only does autosomal tests now. The ethnicity percentages can be a bit hit and miss as it depends on the bits of your DNA that they're checking against being commonly present in particular ethnic groups or populations and it's still being developed. Where it gets more interesting (for me) is in cousins results - make sure that you link your DNA test to your family tree in Ancestry. When Ancestry recognises a person in your DNA result list as having a shared ancestor (based on their family tree) it will highlight those matches for you.

You can link more than one test to a single Ancestry tree but each test needs to be originally registered under individual accounts - you will have to sign up your parents (possibly with one of your own email addresses) then transfer admin rights on the test to yourself to link them to your tree and mess about with their results. This probably sounds more tricky than it is. :)

The test will probably take more a month or two to come back from processing as heaps of people get tests for Christmas.

You can mark on Wikitree that you or your relative has taken a DNA test with Ancestry as soon as you've sent it off or wait until it's available to view. Once the processing is done you can download your raw data from Ancestry and upload it to Gedmatch.com to get more bang for your DNA buck, then record your Gedmatch kit number in your Ancestry test info on Wikitree. That sets up the link to your Gedmatch from Wikitree, and the link back from Gedmatch so that people who get you as a cousin match there see your compact tree.

Results-wise, in my family I've been able to confirm/support almost all of my family lines with DNA matches against cousins and knock through a couple of walls for myself and others. My mother in law, on the other hand, has only shown up one line of people who are clearly related from a particular shared ancestor and hundreds of people whose relationship I just can't pin down but may become clear later on.

Comments

I would love to have my dad register. For some reason some trees on Ancestry have his father as being born in Palermo, Sicily. (He wasn't.) It makes me laugh. Where did they get THAT information. I want to send the people who put the wrong info in private messages. But, I only have a basic account. You can't send messages to people. That is really lame about ancestry.com

Wow. Wall of text about Ancestry. LOL.

Thanks for the tips, Kathleen!

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I'm a librarian so I have trouble sending less than a wall of text. :-D

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I've seen worse. :)

Answer 3

Just a couple of extra points that may help.

Once you've got your test results from ancestry it is a big help to upload them to gedmatch.com - it gives you much better comparison tools and the ability to look for matches across providers (and it's free)

It's also worth while to upload your results from ancestry to family tree DNA - free to upload, small one-off fee to unlock all their tools. Worth it in my opinion to get access to the ftDNA database as well as ancestry's.

When you've done it, give yourself a DNA badge here and add in your gedmatch ID - that makes it easy for anyone who spots you here to cross check for DNA matches - that can be a big bonus.

Don't get too hung up about the ethnicity thing - what chunks of DNA you got from which ancestors is a lottery. There are many ancestors from whom you got zero DNA so they cannot show up in any ethnicity match. You also get quite variable results depending on which company you test with as their databases are only as unbiased as the population who have tested with them.

Answer 4

Withing the past year, I have tested with 5 different companies. The more companies you test with, the more cousin matches you find. Also, I have gifted like 25 kits to relatives. The more people that test, the more answers you find about your origins. That being said, my favorite company to test with is Family Tree DNA. I use them for everybody.