Has anyone participated in the DNA Ancestry Project? Or maybe you used another DNA research service? Anyone else thinking of doing this?
There’s a TV program that I can’t remember the name of (and I’ve not watched it, but someone told me about it) where celebrities search out their DNA roots, but I’m guessing the show’s staff does a lot of extra research and finds names, etc. What can you find out from just your DNA? (BTW, everything I know about DNA I learned from watching the O.J. Simpson trial. :rolleyes: )
Also, how much does the initial test cost and how much do they tell you at that point? I’m guessing that knowing more will cost you additional fees?
I did Family Tree DNA a couple of years ago. Most seem to run $150-200 for the Y-chromosome, or male line. You’ll either need to be male or get a male family member to do it. I found out I am descended from Johann Georg Mehn that I had researched.
I have thought about doing the family finder type test, but don’t have the money right now. I also don’t think they offered it when I took my test.
There’s also the showFinding Your Roots that’s actually much better then “Who Do You Think You Are” and I know they use DNA in every show.
I participated in the Genographic Project about6 or 7 years ago. It told me my mtDNA trace back to western Europe, which is exactly what I thought it would tell me. But I’m a geek about this sort of stuff, so I was happy to do my part.
This is the kind of thing I’m wondering about… that’s all you found out, that “my mtDNA trace back to western Europe”? I KNOW both of my maternal grandparents came from Czechoslovakia (now just plain Slovakia) in 1921 because I’ve seen the documents on the Ellis Island site. I know what village they came from. No mystery there. So… what can DNA add to this? I don’t mind spending the money if there’s more that it can tell me.
It tells you more then just where your grandparents came from, it can tell you how much of your DNA is European/African/Asian etc. It can also connect you to other people who are also researching their family history. It’s really not going to tell you anything specific, that’s what the paperwork is for, it adds more to how you relate to others. You could also get lucky and find that you are descended from ‘Royalty’ which can make your research a bit easier as they kept a lot better records.
You may know this, but you have to be aware that the mtDNA test is only going to tell you about one family line, since mtDNA is only passed from mother to child, which is only a fraction of your ancestors. The tests that break your heritage down into percentages do so by correlating markers to geographic regions, which isn’t going to really give you 100% definitive answers.
I know the mtDNA is only the maternal line. I’m not looking for 100% definitive anything. I was just wondering what kind of information one gets from this kind of testing.
Well, they’re talking about thousands of years ago. But the thing is, you only need to go back maybe 5 generations or so, and it’s likely you have negligible DNA from any given ancestor, so it’s pretty meaningless. They tell you which haplogroup you belong to. That’s all. Who your mtDNA Eve is, if we take Eve here to mean the last common ancestor on your female line before a split is recognized.
It can be done on the male line, too, if you have a y Chromosome.