Mitsuko Manne: Well it might not be as exact as all the hoopla on some of the TV shows. I don't know of any company that is not reputable but bear with me while I explain.There are 4 types of DNA that I know of and 3 that are being tested for genealogy or ancestral background purposes. None will tell you who your specific ancestors are.Y & Mitochondrial have been used for years for people if they find another with whom they think they share ancestors if they have an exact match in either of those 2 DNA then some place back down the line they share ancestors. A male get his Y from his father, his father, his father etc. Both males and females get their Mitochondrial from their mother, her mother, her mother etc. With both Y & Mitochondrial they will assign you to a Haplogroup based on your results and show you the origin of your nomadic ancestors going back thousands of years. However, it is only in 2 lines and your family lines double each generation you go back. I! n other words if you are a male you get your Y from only one person in each generation you go back and if you are male or female you get your Mitochondrial from only one person in each generation you go back. If you are a male and could have both done by the time you got back to your 16 great great grandparents, 14 of them will be excluded from the results.Y & X are sex chromosomes. At present the X is untraceable. Mitochondrial is in the cytoplasm outside the cell.Most of your DNA is Autosomal. It is what is used for overall ancestral testing. You get Autosomal 50-50 from both parents but not necessarily 25% from each of your 4 grandparents. The reason why what you inherit can be biased between grandmother and grandfather on each side of the family. How you inherit any bias will not be how your siblings inherited it. An exception can be for identical twins. Autosomal is more complicated and there are no Haplgroups with Autosomal. What companies do that do this type ! of analysis is match you with population samples in their data! base. So the analysis could vary from company to company as one might be deficient in population samples the other one isn't and vice versa. Chip has mentioned 23andme. Two companies that come to mind also are FamilyTreeDNA & DNATribes. FamilyTreeDNA will match you with persons in their database going back 5 generations. I feel they do the overall testing also. DNATribes will show you your top 20 matches in descending order which includes specific countries. They aren't saying you have ancestors from all those countries but your DNA shows some match. The same DNA crosses national and ethnic boundaries. With both websites, FamilyTreeDNA and DNATribes if you go under "feedback" at the top there is a way you can email them and ask questions. They are very prompt at replying. I have always received a reply within 24 hours.Another company SMGF will do Y & Mitochondrial testing for free. They will not provide you with analysis but at one time they had GeneTree do ! the analyses for about $20 which is very reasonable.They have stated on their website they are building up a database for Autosomal and plan to use it in the future. Don't know if "the future" has arrived yet or not but if you go under "Contact Us" at the top there is a way you can email them and ask questions. They are also prompt at replying.Never, never, never take any DNA test without asking as many questions as you have. I think most of us here believe the best way to find your ancestry is good old fashion research using documents/records. DNA tests can be used as a supplement or aid in your research....Show more
Becky Mosena: I don't know of any companies that use blood samples. The ones I'm familiar with use either a cheek swab or a saliva sample.I've been tested through Family Tree DNA (cheek swab) and 23andme (saliva).EDIT: http://www.23andme.com gives you a % breakdown of your ancestry. My results showed that I'm 99.81% European, 0.19% African, and 0% Asi! an/Native American. 23andme will soon be expanding this breakdown from ! 3 categories to 20. 23andme also gives you health information. For instance, my health report says that I'm more likely to get severe anemia if I ever contract malaria.To take 23andme's test, you simply spit into a plastic tube, snap the lid shut, and give it a shake....Show more
Edwina Fu: First, companies greatly exaggerate the amount of information you will receive. DNA testing has its place but I don't think it is likely to do what you want it to do. There are basically three kinds of Genealogy DNA tests:Y-DNA - can only be taken by a male and only shows the father line. Your father, his father, his father and so on. No wives at all. That means out of 8 great grandparents, you get information on only one.MT-DNA - can be taken by either men or women, but only shows the mother line. Your mother, her mother, her mother and so on. Plus the mutation is so gradual that it only shows very deep ancestry, thousands of years ago. Autosomal DNA can be taken by ether sex and ! potentially shows all ancestors for 4 or 5 generations, but only useful if distant cousins have also been tested. The so called Family Finder gives you a very general idea of where your ancestors came from. Oh look, it says they came from England and Ireland - gee I already knew that. The most useful Genealogy DNA test is one from the company who tested your distant cousins. Comparing results is the only real value to DNA testing. A DNA test is most useful in confirming the paper documents and conclusions you have already made. I would suggest researching your family history first and then seeing if a DNA test might be useful....Show more
Leif Serabia: or another other way besides blood. what a goo company?
Monroe Rainey: There are many companies that say they offer that service but I personally do not know which ones are reputable. Perhaps a call to the Better Business Bureau or the American Medical Association could shed light on that. There are tests for the ! Y-chromosome in men (females can ask their brother or father to partici! pate in these tests) and there are tests for mitochondrial DNA which I believe is for both men and women. The mtDNA is for the maternal direct line (mother, mother's mother, mother's grandmother, etc.) The Y-chromosome test is for the paternal direct line (father, fahter's father, etc.)....Show more
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