I want to give my dad a unique Father’s Day present. I’ve read the threads here about genetic testing, but there are so many companies and options out there.
Could you recommend a genetic testing organization that will give me the biggest bang for the buck? What exactly should the test include? I’d love to learn more about his family - he’s the last of the older generation, and doesn’t remember much about where relatives were born, etc. I’m guessing 2-3 hundred dollars would be reasonable?
What sort of stuff would you be looking for with this testing? I think of it in the context of determining if you’re a carrier of a disease (e.g. my husband has relatives with cystic fibrosis, so we got him tested before we reproduced).
I must admit, my first thought was “what, you want to prove to him that you’re really his?” but I’m pretty sure that’s not what you meant!
Huh, must be genetic testing week. I think the outfit I used, Family Tree DNA, is the established leader in terms of database, which is potentially useful. Can’t say if they’re the most economical or not.
But you should read my comments in this GQ thread to get a handle on what you are buying. It won’t, in of itself, tell you if you’re related to Edward III - it’s really more of a prehistoric thing. Genetic matches in the database, plus genealogical research might uncover more, but it requires a bit of active investigation and hopefully a starting point. The more you know about your family history before, the more useful it might be.
If you decide to go the FTDNA route, I might be inclined to say the Y-DNA37 + mtDNAPlus might be the best bang for the buck at $389. But it depends what you want - 12 markers and the basic mtDNA is a bit to generic for database searches, but will usually narrow down your potential matrilineal and patrilineal haplogroups, which might be all you want. And again, as per the thread I linked to above, if you’re from a less sampled part of the globe ( or even Europe ) the database may be too incomplete to be all that useful anyway.
I’m sure my brother would be thrilled to know he was not really my father’s offspring, but that’s another thread…
I hate to sound so ignorant, but even after reading about tests I’m more confused. There’s DNA ancestry project, which offers a 44 Y-DNA Marker Test for $199. Another site called DNA Tribes . com has a premium 21 marker kit for $239, which includes “testing for 6 additional STR marker systems”.
Reading the descriptions just leaves me more confused.
I guess I really just want to know where his people came from. What should I look for in a test? Can anyone recommend a reliable site?
Can anyone fight my ignorance?
(and Mama Zappa, I’m glad to hear your hubby was OK!
Thanks, Tamerlane. I had read that thread, but sad to say it left me more confused.
Family Tree DNA didn’t seem to have much information on people of Austrian or Russian ancestry (where we think my father’s line came from). Perhaps I just didn’t see the proper page with this info.
I would even do the more expensive testing if we could track down his lineage - or maybe I’m expecting too much from these tests?
Wikipedia goes into these tests in a bit of detail. The tests you are quoting above are Y-DNA tests, i.e. tests that seek to trace your patriline and by definition ( as they test markers on the Y-chromosome ) can only be performed on males. Using very conservative genetic markers on the Y chromosome it traces back your father’s father’s father’s father ad near infinitum until it finds a single putative ancient male ancestor, usually prehistoric or very early in recorded history. By studying varying proportions of the occurrences of these shared haplogroups ( i.e. groups of people that share the same common ancestor ), researchers seek to ferret out the movements of ancient peoples. mtDNA tests do the same, only they trace your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother… and can be traced in both males and females.
The more markers, the higher resolution of the test. So if you have 44-markers and while searching a genetic database you find someone with an identical set of markers, you can say that you have a certain probability of having shared a common ancestor x number of centuries earlier ( I can’t remember the exact numbers ). Get a geograpghic cluster of these and you might be able to surmise somthing like…hmmm…it would appear I might have had an ancestor somewhere in the Somerset region of England 500-600 years ago. Then you can combine that with more traditional genealogical reseearch to help trace your family tree. The fewer markers, the farther back that is pushed until you are just getting noise. Go back far enough and we’re ALL related ;).
23andMe is a service that will run your DNA sample on a SNP array. What that does is measure the presence or absence of 550,000 different known genetic variations, on all chromosomes plus mitochondrial DNA. This covers the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial haplotypes, as well as literally hundreds of thousands of other sites of variation. They also provide annotation from literature, showing existing links between particular genetic variants and known conditions - the latter is continually updated. It’s pretty expensive though - $1000 per kit.
