Heritage Album

Has anyone tried that Family Tree DNA?

There is a site called Familytreedna.com and you order some test kit where you take your DNA and send it to the company in which they test to see where you came from I guess your heritage. I am not totally sure but I wanted to know more info. If anyone has done this what type of results do they show? which Test kit is right for me? they have like 7 different kits which is confusing. Hope someone can explain more about this process and what results they find out.

Public Comments

1. That sounds interesting! I've always wanted to trace my roots. Thanks!
2. I have done something similiar to the DNA test you are looking at. I did a full test to see if they could tell me what heritage I am. I am not sure if they have a database to compare you to other people but the one I used just told me the types of people I was related to. I hope this helps
3. I did a little reading on this a while back. They don't actually send you the test results. They add them to everyone elses and compare them with others. Now if you are wanting to do an ancestor dna then I suggest that you contact a company near you to see if they do this type of test. Just remember you get what you pay for. This test shows you what percentage of this and that you are. In my case I came out very high on Native American and low on European. So really it just depends on what you are looking for. I just don't think the family tree dna is what you are looking for if you want answers for yourself.
4. I did. I paid about $250 in total for the 37-point matcing test. That one only works if there are a dozen or so sons of sons of sons . . . who sign up and take the test. In my case, my DNA matched 34 out of 37 with another PACK, which almost proved what we long suspected; that my PACK ancestor, who shows up 6 ridges west of civilization around 1760 and doesn't talk about why he left his home, was the son or grandson of a PACK who stayed in Maryland. If I had matched the other guy 37 for 37 it would be certain; as it is, the Maryland PACK could be a grand uncle or something. They can tell you if you have Native American markers or African-American markers or some other markers just by looking at your DNA alone, but to get down to specific common ancestors you have to get others to participate, and you have to go beyond the 12-point match. A 12 point match means there is an 87% chance you and the matchee have a common ancestor 600 years ago, in 1407. Since most of us dead-end well before then, it doesn't help much. If you are African-American, an expensive test can tell you what tribe your ancestors came from, which will tell you from what part of Africa they came from, which is kind of interesting.
5. Ted Pack, has got the answer I have also done the Y-dna test for males who descend or think they descend from certian families, it helps to prove or disprove certian links, with me it was helpful because my last name is so common, and most of my ancestors lived on the american frontier and left little or no record of there existence, so its been helpful, it has also helped a man from Iowa who was adopted and never knew his birth parents, his dna and my dna matched 24/25 which means we are probably cousins of some sort, and his birth parents family came out of Ohio about the same time my great,great,great grandfather was leaving Miami Co, Ohio its just been a test to try and find the records now to prove the connection on paper, I would greatly recommend this I used familytreedna labs out of Houston,Texas it does help if you join a surname project, I have never bothered with the mt-dna and so my advice would be worthless in that area.
6. My uncle got his DNA analyzed, I think by another organization. His mDNA (Which is the same as mine, my mother's brother) belongs to Haplogroup T which makes us Celtic along my direct female line. This is the line we know the least about so it is good to know where they came from. His Y DNA was also analyzed and the results were put into a database and came up with the closest matches. The family name is Grierson and there was always a belief in the family that we are descendants from Rob Roy McGregor's family. According to the DNA we are not closely related to that line but we are closely related to some Mulligans/Millikan's. According to early records the Mulligans were closely related to the Griersons in the 13-14 hundreds. This seams to indicate that my Grierson family belongs to the Grierson clan and not to the McGregor clan. I've always wondered if I was related to the Grierson clan that can be traced back to at least the 13th century, now I know I do belong to that clan. Finally! I am still a McGreger, just on another branch of the family tree. Oh, my uncle was given his results but they don't really mean anything on their own. They are only really useful when they are compared to others to see if there are any similarities.