For
those who have considered taken a DNA test to determine your ancestry, let me
share with you my experience with the Ancestry.com $99 DNA test. Back in January I sent a test tube of spit to
Ancestry.com for the DNA test. The
results came back last week. The lab
results consisted of first, an analysis of where your DNA came from. Second, a list of 7,800 other people who took
the DNA test and were a match to be immediate family or a distant cousin.
The
Ethnicity Estimate, or where my DNA came from, was no surprise since I have
done family tree work for a while. In my
case it showed;
Great
Britain 56%
Ireland
25%
Scandinavia
8%
Iberian
Peninsula 3%
Finland/Northwest
Russia 3%
East
Europe 2%
Italy/Greece
less than 1 %
European
Jewish less than 1 %
Asia
Central less than 1 %
For
the most part, you can see the origins follow trade routes, wars and
invasion routes
The
list of 7,800 people that had a DNA test done and I was a relative of them was of
a questionable value. My daughter had a
DNA test done last year so they showed her as immediate family, the second and third cousins I could see how
they were relatives. The problems came
when you got beyond third cousins; because everyone who is a native of the area
tends to have the same surnames in their family tree. For me, the number of Hearnes, Ellis,
Hastings, Callaways, Culvers etc is staggering
so when you look at the remaining 7,700 “relatives” you have no idea how they
are relatives other than they have a number of the same surnames your family
tree has. In some cases there are no familiar
surnames and you would have to research deep in order to find the connection.
If
you were to take the DNA test results seriously you would want a second DNA
test made by a different company and then you could compare the results to have
a better feel for how accurate they are.
