DNA Testing recommendations?
 

Hi,

Which are the best companies for genealogical DNA testing in the UK please?

Also, are there books or guides to navigate newbs through all the technical terms which DNA test results may come with?

Many thanks :)

Ancestry is the best one if you want to see who your DNA matches with, and they currently have a special offer on DNA tests - 25% off until 12th June. £59 + £9.99 shipping.

Hopefully if you click on the link below it will take you to their home page and there will be a box with the 25% discount offer:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/

When you get your DNA results, you will be able to download your raw DNA data from Ancestry and there are various other sites that you can upload it to such as My Heritage, Family Tree DNA, etc, where you may find more matches who didn't come up on Ancestry. But if you take your test with one of those companies instead, Ancestry doesn't allow uploads from them, which is why it's best to do it that way round.

If you use Findmypast you have probably seen that they have a partnership with a company called Living DNA, which is supposed to give the most accurate regional breakdown of "ethnicity estimates" within the UK, but unfortunately they are not coming up with many actual DNA matches (or any at all, in many cases) at the moment so I would not recommend them. But again, you can upload the DNA data from Ancestry to Living DNA anyway.

As for books or guides, the family history magazines tend to have regular articles for those new to DNA testing. Maybe someone else on here can recommend a book?

Kits
 

Many thanks Kiterunner,

What level of membership do you require at Ancestry to access results from their DNA kit please?

What's a GEDmatch - do all companies give those :confused:

:)

You don't need an ancestry subscription to access the results from their DNA test, but it helps if you want to be able to do family tree research as well.

GEDMatch - now called Genesis - is another website which you can upload your raw DNA data to and compare it with other people who have done the same, but unlike the rest, it wasn't started as a commercial company, but just to help people compare and analyse their DNA and other people's. It doesn't have the same kind of privacy rules as most other sites, so make sure to read through their privacy rules before uploading DNA to them.

Many thanks, I have been using FMP as a library resource but have gone as far as I can, the line I am following stretches back into Victorian London which was then one of the most densely populated cities in the world. It was suggested that I try DNA testing.

Not entirely sure that DNA testing helps with all our brick walls. It can prove a relationship you suspect, but I'm finding it difficult with my family: masses of people piling into a town and then inconveniently dying before 1851. I have had my aunt's DNA tested and have 350 close cousins and 31k distant cousins to wade through. I'm recognising a lot of people I have already made contact with using conventional means, but it is challenging when the brick wall is two centuries ago, with a common name.

It would be much cheaper (free!) to post whatever you are stuck with, or want to find out more about, on our Research board and see if we can help you!! :)

Click 'New Thread' here:

http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/F...isplay.php?f=4

Am now hooked though, after I googled the subject & found that results are genuine if vague, that is much better than nothing (I hope) :D

Many thanks, I already had a huge amount of help from the Rootschat site & several very kind individuals who found names, dates and certificates for me.

This is where the trail ended: a documented army pensioner in Southwark, London. There were over a dozen hits for his name but no-one succeeded in identifying his unit, it just ended in a 'bump', after a great deal of effort on behalf of the forum - great thanks to them. That man was probably my gt gt paternal grandfather who fathered my gt grandmother out-of-marriage, so you can see the difficulty, her birth certificate is blank for the father's name, it's worse than looking for a needle in a haystack, it might be a completely unrelated needle at that. His name is recorded by a registrar on gt gt grandmother's marriage certificate, and that's that, no actual proof that he was present in person or even that he was in fact the father - the name used is quite a common one, it isn't unusual at all.