A big hello everyone, and welcome back to the fifth episode in our Origins series.
In Todays episode we are going to take a look at how to combine your family history research with genetic DNA.
We will be looking at three different DNA Kits on offer and the sites that will provide you with everything you need to further your research and even solve illegitimacy issues.
This video is not sponsored by any DNA sites these are my own personal choices and I will be sharing my reasons behind these choices with you today. After all, we all want to spend our money wisely and achieve results from the DNA KITS we purchase.
I have been studying my DNA for seven years, and I have been researching my family history for 25 years. Over that vast amount of time I have seen huge developments and changes in what is available to the genealogist. I saw family search in its infancy and remember it as only a place to search the IGI, The International Genealogical Index, and it was very sparse at the time with not enough available information to help grow your family tree confidently.
I remember Ancestry when it was a company offering just cd’s and floppy discs.
Now look at them, the biggest site out there.
This video will be perfect for beginners, seasonal researchers and the more experienced.
I manage several DNA KITS across many different platforms, and I also manage kits for most of my closest family members, I use the power of my families combined DNA to push my genealogical research as far as I can.
Okay ladies and gentleman lets begin…
Myheritage – Is often ranked at #1 for DNA testing –
Lets see why?
With MyHeritage DNA, you can discover relatives who share DNA segments with you, inherited from the same common ancestor. You will also uncover the ethnic and geographic origins of your ancestors across 2,114 geographic regions and 42 top-level ethnicities — more than any other DNA test on the market.
Myheritage searches for those people whose DNA Matches yours, it will show the percentage of DNA you share and showing you how closely related you are.
I actually like myheritage as a tool to discover your ancestry and your ethnicity regions, and its one I use and check frequently.
But it’s a DNA kit that should be your second purchase rather than your first one, and the reason why is this.
Firstly, this video is about using your genetic DNA as a powerful tool to push your family history further.
Myheritage does have a lot of family trees published on their site and you need that to make your DNA Test as powerful as possible, otherwise its nothing more then a needle in very big haystack, but for English speaking countries my heritage is far behind sites like ancestry. That’s because my heritage is far more popular with continental Europe than it is for England or the united states of America.
Now I have 54,000 people in my family tree and I have uploaded my full gedcom to my heritage.
I have 5,428 DNA Matches on this site which is incredible.
But I only have 4 theories of family relativity and no smart matches.
Which means I will need to email all of my matches.
4 theories of family relativity and one of them was completely wrong.
That’s because, there is not enough family trees published on my heritage which matches with mine.
The second DNA kit we are going to look at is 23andme, which doesn’t often get rated in the top five DNA testing kits, that’s because most people who use this testing company do so, for health reasons. They want to know what their DNA tells them about the their genetic health problems, I have checked mine and its certainly fascinating but its not going to help me push my family history research further then ever.
That said, 23andme does have some great utilities and tools, it will give you your YDNA and mtdna results and from that you can learn lots about your older ancestry, prehistoric ancestry and even more than that.
It doesn’t however, help very much if you want to find a match to your 3x great-grandfather, that’s because the ancestry tree system on 23andme is not very good.
From this site I have been able to find just a handful of matches, but they have been interesting Eastern European ones that I didn’t find else where.
So 23andme wasn’t a complete loss, I would certainly recommend it as an extra tool. But not THE TOOL, as that’s what this video is about.
So what about Ancestry DNA Kits –
For me, this kit is worth its weight in gold, and the kit will become even more powerful if you add your family tree to the site, public or otherwise its your choice.
I manage several kits on ancestry for different close family members and in the past 7 years I have confirmed 602 Combined DNA Matches across all the kits I manage.
So that’s 602 on ancestry, 4 on 23andme and 3 on my heritage. So its a no-brainer really.
Ancestry should be #1 if you want a powerful tool to further and confirm the paper trail in your tree.
My own personal matches on my own kit is 102 matches.
Which is still really good, the younger you are the less matches you have, and that’s because you are further removed from your cousins. Most of the DNA kits on ancestry are managed by the over 40’s. So if you can, test your oldest family members.
My niece Yhana is 11 years old and I also manage her kit on ancestry she has 38 Confirmed DNA Matches, paternal only as I have never researched her maternal line.
But if I wanted too, it would be very easy, as ancestry DNA Combined with everyones online family trees has made the kit so powerful, I can hit a button on Yhana’s DNA Kit profile page and take a look at all of her potential ancestors up-to her fifth great-grandparents.
I can actually see all of her maternal ancestors, even though I have never researched it.
Is this because ancestry is a powerful tool, or is it thanks to every genealogist out there who has put in countless hours of research, years of research and published they’re entire trees publicly on ancestry.
Of cause it is, ancestry.com have combined their science with the hard work of all of us genealogists. In turn sharing this priceless information for every future generation to come.
Ancestry DNA will search for your matches up to your fifth great-grandparents, you will just need to check if your common ancestor is correct, as ancestry DNA is only as good as your cousins tree it is matching with, I have found a few mistakes but not that many.
The correct matches far out way the wrong matches sometimes in their hundreds.
Ancestry DNA is autosomal and ancestry stop giving common ancestor matches at your fifth great-grandparent level, that’s because you have most likely inherited DNA from all of your fifth greats.
After that it becomes very diluted, some of your branches past the fifth great mark will even be lost completely and you may not have inherited DNA from them at all, but other branches would certainly have retained some.
This is often called sticky DNA, Which can remain for centuries.
It’s safe to say that you can identify DNA back 300 years.
But your DNA can go back a little further, you just need to look for it.
I have many kissin’ cousins in my tree, which means some of my ancestors I descend from twice, which gives an even greater chance that you have inherited their DNA even if they are your 8th great-grandparents.
I have matches as far back as 10 great-grandparents, but only a few, it is certainly possible to inherit DNA from someone who lived in the 16th century.
You just need to search for it.
There are different opinions on the subject of sharing DNA with more distant ancestors, so use your own judgement and your own family research to confirm that.
If your tree is good and so is your cousins and you both match DNA and both share a common ancestor born in 1550, then the likelihood is, the match is correct.
If your tree is not very good and neither is your cousins, then the chance is more likely incorrect.
There are lots more kits available on the market and just as many sites which can be used as a means to help further your research, some of these a free too, so do your research and take a good look around at the market and make your decision wisely.
Make the decision that will help you achieve the best possible results to further your genealogical research.
As that’s what this video is all about.
Next week, I am going to take a look at my paternal; grandmother’s haplogroup – K1BA1A, Which was generously shared with me through a female cousin who belongs in that maternal line, we will see what we can discover from this haplogroup including some of the prehistoric cultures associated with it.
Next weeks video will follow on from the first two videos in this origins series which looked at my own YDNA and Mtdna
I hope you all found this video interesting, if you’re still with me now and enjoyed the video, then please give it a like and a possibly even a comment as it will help the video grow and reach a wider audience.
The Lives of my Ancestors 