One genealogist's impressions of Ancestry DNA's testing service

Ancestry.com's DNA testing has a large pool of users whose DNA samples can be sampled to determine ethnicity and help aid genealogical research.

AncestryDNA's testing commercials are everywhere these days. From Kyle, who traded in his lederhosen for a kilt to Livie, a Latina who discovers a rich and varied ethnic background she didn't realize she had, it seems that you can't turn on a television without running into one of these commercials. That doesn't even include radio, billboard or print ads.

I've done Ancestry DNA testing before, back in the days when they offered both Y- (paternal line) and mtDNA (maternal line) tests. I've also tested with Family Tree DNA and while their comparison tools are superior, I've thus far only found one relative there, a second cousin. Ancestry is the Big DNA Test Company, with a sample pool of millions, the Pepsi to FTDNA's Royal Crown – I always preferred RC, but it seems that everyone else bought Pepsi. When I finally took the Ancestry autosomal DNA test I was unprepared for my results, for more than one reason.

First, based on what I know about my family, the ethnicity percentages are way off. Please notice I didn't say they were wrong; they might not be. I know that these figures are based on probability and subject to change, but my numbers are skewed more Irish (and British even though I don't know of any British ancestors) and less Italian than what I expected. Suffice it to say I'm more than a bit skeptical about these numbers. Ancestry freely offers some reasons one might not expect the results one gets: some geographic locations overlap and the political boundaries we know of today didn't always exist, among others.

My advice is if you're taking this test solely to find your ethnicity, I'd take the results with a grain of salt. If Kyle wants to go out and buy a kilt based on the test, I'd advise him not to be selling his lederhosen on eBay anytime soon. Like with non-DNA genealogy, use what you find as a guide and do the research to reach verifable conclusions.

But ethnicity estimates are not the reason I tested. I'm far more interested in what my DNA can actually tell me, than in what DNA probabilities can tell me. And here's where Ancestry's humongous database comes into play.

I suppose that everyone's experience is different, but I when I saw the pages and pages of DNA matches, I was floored. I have a few cousins who had tested with Ancestry, whom I recognized right away. Looking through some of the other matches there were surnames I recognized but many I didn't. It became clear to me as I compared some of these names, that I could tell how we were related by some of the other Ancestry matches we shared. For example, if a cousin I know shows as a DNA match and I find her as a match for a cousin I don't know, then I can tell what branch of my family tree I need to research to make the connection.

I tried reaching out to some of these newly-found cousins and was happy to hear from a couple of them. But others have not responded at all. A shame really, not to capitalize on this technology, but that's life. I'll be writing to more of my cousins and I'll be hoping to hear from them.

So by all means, get tested. Have fun. Find relatives. Expand the family. Learn about yourself by learning about where you came from.

[Update: Corrected to reflect the fact the Kyle from an Ancestry.com commercial, traded in his lederhosen for a kilt when discovering his ancestry was Irish, not German.]

Danny Klein is a librarian at the Jersey City Free Public Library's New Jersey Room and a founding member of the Hudson County Genealogical and Historical Society. He can be reached at hudsongenealogy@gmail.com or @HudsonGenealogy on Twitter.

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