DNA test in South Africa

Question

Where, how, who?  For ancestry purposes of course.  Is it worth it?

Comments

Hi Izak, I am new to this exciting world of Genealogy. Where can we get these tests done? I reside in Gauteng.

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From personal experience - I've just got my sister to do an autosomal test. I live in UK, she in Jo'berg.

We used ftDNA and everything worked fine. The only issue was how slow the postal system seemed to be . Took 3 months for the sample kit to reach her and then 2 months for it to get back to Houston.

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Hi Judy, I'm still trying to find out myself.  I'm still not certain if it's even worth all the effort.

Regards

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Judy and Izak - Do try this group 

"The mission of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy is to advocate for and educate about the use of genetics as a tool for genealogical research, and promote a supportive network for genetic genealogists." 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/isogg/?fref=nf

 

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I have had two sets of DNA testing done, and can honestly say that neither have made much difference to, nor added substantially to my knowledge about my relationships with other Snymans around the world. Sure, second and third and more distant cousins have emerged, and I am in contact with them, but my feeling is that it was a waste of my time and money. Maybe as more and more people have the tests done, and the database grows, more will come of it. But for now, hard research is far more fun, and provides more satisfying results than the DNA tests did. Maybe I'm not using the DNA results to best effect, who knows?

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Hi Trevor, and everyone.

I noticed today that of all their millions of subscribers Ancestry has only 11500 who have known autosomal links to South Africa. Of those I have 236 matches, quite a high proportion. Of course, a lot of Subscribers don't have family trees, making it difficult for the algorithms to work properly. However, I have found this website the easiest to use, and have cross-linked a lot of family and cousins using the cousin matches. The Cape genealogists have really a great detail of information, and Natal is building. There is a lack of information going back more than say five generations, on 1820 settlers. So, that is, knowing where exactly families came from before joining the immigration. We have also discovered through DNA testing a large familial connection to the Native Americas, which was a surprise, and we are discovering roots in the Americas our family didnt realise we even had, the genetics coming with the sailors, some of whom were Native Americans. It's an exciting field opening up all the time.

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Hello everyone I live in Utah my daughter bought me a kit from Ancestry. I did the test on May 20th mailed it in and received my results June 15th the turn around was quick because I live in the same State.  There’s quite a few South African Genealogy Facebook groups I have ask them quite a few times which company to get a kit from 99% Said Ancestry.  They recommend if you live in South Africa you have your kit shipped to a friend or family member in the USA then have them use DHL to ship to you.  Some get stuck at customs because because of the label-DNA  so Ancestry Kit has been suggested.   I got quite a few 3rd and 4th Cousin matches so far I hardly any of them have a Family Tree set up on Ancestry I have reached out to them by email you need to have membership in order to contact the matches on Ancestry.  There’s the other option Gedmatch you upload your raw DNA get a number and you can attach to your profile on Wilkitree Gedmatch takes a while to apparently match you up but you can One on One matches straight away.  I am hoping to get beyond my brick wall Grandmothers and Grandfather.

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Trevor and everyone else incase you unaware of the very large South African Genealogy group on Facebook I suggest you search on Facebook join the group with in the group you will find other Sugested South African groups, the groups are wonderful you can post questions about where to find documents what documents are avalible there's a large file within the group to help with research. There's a DNA group you will find it within the first group funny enough almost all of us have a connection they have done a spreadsheet that can help you with your Gedmatch matchers.  There a few group Angles we call them because they go the extra mile and use their talents and avalible tools to help everyone i.e. go to PTA and photography estate files. I have found that not every document has been scanned so you more thank likely are miss huge amounts of information that's not avalible on line.

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Roslyn, thank you for the reply to my comments, I am aware of the Facebook groups, and have seen what they do. Whilst it is dynamic and there is a good flow of information, it is not really my cup of tea.

Answer 1

Yes and no

All  depends what you would like to  accomplish

DNA test is worth it if you would like to know your relation to other family members,  (finding family connections to others) or would like to know from which region (country) your family came but of no use without hard research and source finding for your family 

Research is still needed to confirm that you are sitting on the correct branch of the tree :-)  

Answer 2

I believe that getting a test kit to South Africa may be an issue; FTDNA does anywhere, other companies don't. It can also be very expensive ordering from overseas. I'd recommend getting someone the kit delivered to someone in the US and have them send it on to you. I did that recently for a tester in Australia without any issues.