DNA tester recommendations

veryintrigued · 15 July 2017 at 8:56PM

Recently discovered that a 'Grandparent' may not have been a blood relative and instead its suspected that the true grandparent may be from Eastern Europe.

Can anyone advise of their experience of how accurate specific companies are in geographic results for two generations away please.

More intrigued than desperately needing to know situation.

PS the generation above is no longer with us and we've been advised of the birth country of the possible real grandparent but leaving from this thread for identification of poster and family.

unholyangel · 15 July 2017 at 11:14PM

Has this actually been a DNA test to confirm you are related to x person or is it one of those "we'll tell you your history" type tests?

If the latter, they're not reliable and should only ever really be done for fun.

veryintrigued · 15 July 2017 at 11:23PM

unholyangel wrote: »

Has this actually been a DNA test to confirm you are related to x person or is it one of those "we'll tell you your history" type tests?

If the latter, they're not reliable and should only ever really be done for fun.

Sorry if I wasn't clear - presumably the person in question is long, long gone with no clue of their full name or what happened to them many years ago.

Hence the ideal test would be looking to identify location of heritage.

Have you got experience of these tests? Are they as accurate as the Dog DNA ones from Watchdog last week?

kittieviolet · 16 July 2017 at 9:11AM

I took an Ancestry DNA test which was accurate regarding my known heritage. It also puts you in touch with others who share your DNA as 1/2 or 3/4 generations away. This has been very accurate as its put me in touch with known relatives from either side of my family (and someone who shares my x4 great grandfather)

badmemory · 16 July 2017 at 12:00PM

I did the 23 & me DNA test, which seems to give more info than the Ancestry one & is also more expensive, although postage is included with 23 & me. My sister also did one. It did notice she was my sister. It was also interesting to see which traits were the same & which were not. So far only 3rd relations have turned up no 2nd.

It can be upsetting though as there can be family secrets that show up. A friend discovered that his siblings were actually only half siblings.

I did originally think I might do both tests but this one seemed to give a lot more info. I may change my mind on this though as I am attempting to do our family tree.

Grumpelstiltskin · 16 July 2017 at 12:07PM

Forget the dog breed DNA tests, they only prove the breed not which actual dog was the grandfather.

Forget the Jeremy Kyle DNA tests unless you have another person to check with, don't forget they test parent and child or siblings.

The Ancestry type tests will show if you have European ancestry, but not where that came from.

Don't hold up much hope of proving anything by DNA.

unholyangel · 16 July 2017 at 1:48PM

veryintrigued wrote: »

Sorry if I wasn't clear - presumably the person in question is long, long gone with no clue of their full name or what happened to them many years ago.

Hence the ideal test would be looking to identify location of heritage.

Have you got experience of these tests? Are they as accurate as the Dog DNA ones from Watchdog last week?

Scientists have likened these tests to genetic astrology.

The reason is because they're not working on historic DNA samples but modern and obviously if you were able to take dna from someone from - for example - prague from 200 years ago and compare it to someone who comes from there today, there will be different DNA markers. That and the fact that you can connect anyone in the world to pretty much anyone else in the world using just a few steps/people. We all share history. Humans all migrated in the same patterns. And also things like all blue eyed people - they all share a common ancestor about 10,000 years back because blue eyes didnt exist before then, it was a genetic mutation.

Your results won't be tailored to you. The same results will be given to thousands of people with similar DNA markers.

It can be used in conjecture with other evidence but can never be reliable on its own.

ETA: for example their test might recognise you have a common marker with someone of eastern european descent, but in the actual history, the common marker you both share was given by someone of french descent so you wouldn't actually be eastern european although the test would say you are.

FatVonD · 17 July 2017 at 8:01PM

There is a story online somewhere about identical triplets that did the test on US TV and it came up that two had different percentages of the same racial heritage and the third was supposedly from somewhere completely different.

cheruk · 19 February 2018 at 5:08PM

Does anyone know of the VIAMEDEX company. I am more interested in health testing.

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