Recommended DNA testing companies

[kiterunner]

The following companies are the only ones that we recommend for DNA testing for genealogy purposes:

Ancestry
23 and Me
MyHeritage
FamilyTreeDNA
Living DNA

Any other DNA testing company that you come across may not be genuine and will not have a sizeable database of other testers to compare your test with. If you do consider using any other company, you are strongly advised to look up reviews, e.g. on Trustpilot, or ask for advice on here.

Since Ancestry and 23 and Me do not allow DNA uploads from other companies, but the others generally do (although you may have to pay to access certain features), it is best to take a test with Ancestry or 23 and Me, then upload from there to the others. Ancestry has the biggest database of people who have tested, and plenty of family tree features etc which 23 and Me does not have; also 23 and Me restricts the number of DNA matches which it shows you.

If you use a company which doesn't show you DNA matches at all, but only a heritage / ethnicity estimate, again, you need to check reviews very carefully because there is no proof that they actually test your DNA at all.

If you are thinking about doing a paternity test, you need to consider whether it needs to be valid for legal purposes, in which case find out which labs are court-approved. If not, then if both parties test with the same company from the list above, the results will show whether they are parent and child or not.