Geneology Online Test

redmgar

What is the best test for Ireland you can order online for tracing your ancestry.
The Saliva tests?

Hermy

Ancestry - they have the largest database and you can then upload for free from Ancestry to several other platforms.

spurious

I tested with FamilyTreeDNA. It was the cheapest option and was a simple cheek scrape rather than spitting into anything.
I also uploaded to GEDMatch.

redmgar

Would you recommend it?

spurious

redmgar wrote: »

Would you recommend it?

I used it for all my relatives.
They seemed a bit more open than other companies about who actually 'owned' the DNA results once done, though of course the lawyers could have hidden things somewhere.

Hermy

Lawyers is all well and good but it won't affect the outcome of your results.

spurious

Hermy wrote: »

Lawyers is all well and good but it won't affect the outcome of your results.

Yes, it was more what the results could be used for in the future with testing for health conditions etc. and information being passed to insurance companies that I was worried about.

I often see people with identical results from different companies on GEDMatch. Not quite sure why they test with more than one company.

paddysdream

Tested with Ancestry and have uploaded their results to any platform that allows it.
Maybe not a fair comparison as am only subscribed (basic package) to Ancestry but find them far and away best if its just family tree building.
Have got the most relevant matches on there and a good few with trees attached.
On the other hand it also has a lot of people who seem to have just tested and neither attached any detail or even logged in again as well.

pinkypinky

spurious wrote: »

I often see people with identical results from different companies on GEDMatch. Not quite sure why they test with more than one company.

1. Ignorance
2. 23andme and Ancestry doesn't allow transfers so they might want to be in another pot.

I won a competition for an Ancestry test but had previously tested with FTDNA.
So I have 2 kits. I created a superkit on Gedmatch from them both but it didn't really add anything.

brownangel

The database of the company that you test with is not a limitation as far as the main testing companies go. I tested with FTDNA. Good experience and I was matched with cousins who had tested on different platforms, e.g. MyHeritage and Ancestry. So the databases are interconnected somehow.

Mick Tator

brownangel wrote: »

The database of the company that you test with is not a limitation as far as the main testing companies go. I tested with FTDNA. Good experience and I was matched with cousins who had tested on different platforms, e.g. MyHeritage and Ancestry. So the databases are interconnected somehow.

That's not quite correct. FTDNA allows uploading of tests by other DNA companies, that is how you got 'outside' matches e.g. I did their Y test and also uploaded my Ancestry autosomal. FTDNA is one of the better sites BUT you need to be skilled on DNA to gain the most from it.

As said by others Ancestry is the best ‘family finder’ due to database size. However I have had no success on any site with DNA breaking my brickwalls. Ascertaining family relationships from a DNA test is heavily dependent on contact with another sharing the same chunks of DNA. Very often a reply is not forthcoming. I’ve had no luck on my surname or my mother’s paternal line, hers stops in the mid 1800s.

Starting with a FTDNA test (37 marker Y-DNA) I graduated to a 67 and then a 111 test because of disappointing results - nobody shared my surname. I have 9 matches at the 111 marker level covering five very diverse surnames/nationalities, no surname is close to mine. All I have for my expenditure of several hundred euro is that I’m R1b RM-269. That places me among about 110 million Europeans and in common with 85% of Irishmen.

My Ancestry autosomal test threw up a few close relatives, all of them known to me. They have no male of my surname in their DNA database. I have 3,490 cousins at 4-6th level. Using the shared match function I can place several of the closer in a family ‘branch’. There are a further 13,000 or so ‘distant‘ matches. (Beyond the 20 cMs level generally they are less useful than compost!) I’ve corresponded with a few distant cousins and obtained a photo of a 2nd great aunt. You can email without a sub, also the site is intuitive.

MyHeritage – used this for my mother. They say her ethnicity is 100% Irish/Scottish/Welsh. It threw up 9,357 relatives (3rd cousins or more distant), of which 4,500 were in the US , 1,200 in the UK and 570 in Ireland - an indication of their customer distribution. You need a sub to email matches. Their site also is clunky, I’m not a fan.

I've also upload to Gedmatch, but not enough people do that it seems.

Bdoon51

Hello

I was gifted a test with Ancestry. Pretty much no surprises but did give me verification of the trace of Mi'kmaq tribe in the pot with my Irish and French Canadian mix. The tests I believe just confirm what 90% or so of us already know. To find out more detailed interesting facts one has to pay extra.

I was lucky in that my Canuck ancestry had been revealed via the French speaking University in Nova Scotia, Université Sainte-Anne, along with many other French family names by a Federal Gov-funded program. Though even that was only verification of what my aunt had compiled 20 years earlier.

My meme's Boston Irish husband family was late immigrating from Ireland so the facts were available and not hard to trace.

My Mother's famine Irish maternal family history was substantially available from the Catholic parish in Ireland where my forbearer's 19th century letters "back home" had been archived. also, a cousin of my Irish/French father had time/money and genealogy was his thing so researched my Mom's maternal NYC Irish ...which was the most interesting of all .... a lady in the family whom the Brits hanged supposedly for a crime but actually for aiding Young Ireland.

My Mom's father ancestry impossible as he was from a Philadelphia Catholic orphanage which he ran from at 16 years of age. God only knows if his surname was as claimed as he was born only a few decades after the American Civil War.

agrince

I have been involved in this for a long time. Overall, FTDNA offers the most.

Hermy

agrince wrote: »

I have been involved in this for a long time. Overall, FTDNA offers the most.

In what way does FT-DNA offer the most?

Waitsian

I've tested with Ancestry and FamilyTreeDNA. I'm uploaded to Gedmatch and LivingDNA. In my experience Ancestry has been far and away the most helpful resource for finding new cousins, and more importantly confirming long held family tree beliefs and facts. Now I should point out I have North American roots on my father's side, but even they originated in Ireland. My mother's side is Armagh/Cavan and my father's upstate New York/Ontario, Kerry and Clare. I point this out because I hear so many people say that Ancestry's database is better suited to the North American market. Well in my experience I've confirmed roots, and gone back further generations, using DNA results from Ancestry even more in Ireland than in Canada so...

For me, personally, Ancestry is definitely the best.

VirginiaB

I have tested with both Ancestry and FTDNA and Ancestry has been by far the most useful. I have 250 fourth cousins and closer on Ancestry and almost 10,000 total matches there, even after The Great Purge this summer. I have been able to identify the relation on almost all of my 4th cousins and closer with the aid of Ancestry's 'shared matches' tool and family trees. On FTDNA, other than my brother, I have identified exactly one person where I could figure out the connection. One.