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What DNA tests are best for me in regards to identification of dominant ethnicities?

I do not know where my father is and my mother's side of the family has mostly educated guesses about our ancestry. All the family I know of are substantially more European looking, though I am quite sure we do have some ancestry native to the Americas. I only have surnames going back to my great grandmother at most, and I am told that most of the records regarding my relatives were probably destroyed or lost in the Mexican revolution, perhaps their names were even changed. In my research, connections with Castilian Spanish, Visigoth, French, Sicilian, and Basque are most likely. But I am at the point where I would like to have more concrete biological evidence as to what ethnicities I am linked to and by what percentages. I realize that having Mexican heritage might make it more difficult because they are a highly mixed population. I would like your suggestions as for what tests to take and any relevant information about the tests below that I am considering. DNA Tribes to find out ethnic breakdown of autosomal dna corresponding to geographic area For Y and MT DNA I am looking at The Genographic Project from National Geographic, Family Tree DNA, and Ancestry.com . They all seem to offer about the same thing for the 12 marker test (am I wrong about this), though I did notice Family Tree DNA seems to offer more upgrades like the deep subclade test, which I am not sure is available for the others. Opinions on these? Thank you. Also, what does the amount of markers you buy improve in terms of being able to identify your probable ethnicities? Or is 12 enough for this purpose, and the additional markers are only used to verify you are related to someone in relatively recent times?

Public Comments

1. Here is a great site that will assist you. They perform ethinicity tests. Give them a call. For more information, please call 210-692-3800. Outside San Antonio, call toll-free 1-877-DNA-0-DNA (362-0-362) or fax us at 210-615-0100. DNA REFERENCE LAB 7271 Wurzbach Rd. Suite 125 San Antonio, Texas 78240
2. 23andme.com test the most markers [half a million] and will tell you your ethnic make up right now as it is,I tested with them and was happy with the results [I got the test at a discount] Though I must add their sample populations [the people they are comparing your markers with ] are very very small e.g abt 2 or 4 people for some countries.They also are very general abt your ancestry - you wont get specific areas and if you are mixed with different groups forget abt it.But you get a tonne of other information on your health etc,can look at your genes bit by bit, and they are adding stuff all the time. Dnatribes looks at a fragment [21 markers] so a fragment of your ancestry/ancestors [not ALL of them,people don't realise this]but has the most sample populations [thousands] of all the dna tests so are comparing you to the most amount of people.Some people get very weird results e.g if you are an american of european with a bit of native american descent you will get matches to brazil etc because the ethnic make up is the same there, some get very accurate results e.g a woman whose mother is from tuscany and got tuscany as her top result. If your parents are not mixed with alot of different groups you will get more accurate results.I tested with tribes and got heavy/high scores for most of eastern europe.When I tested with 23andme I was found to be 27% asian - tribes did not pick up my large segment of asian ancestry.Not their fault there only looking at at 21 markers. Also there is a new tool 23andme have now called "relative finder" which matches you to other people on 23andme who have shared markers/segments with you ,I matched mostly to be people with eastern euro ancestry ,so i know that as far as my euro ancestry goes dnatribes was completely correct.Good for parts of your ancestry,deep ancestry,23andme for current and overall ancestry,but dont expect specfific countries.
3. There are 3 types of DNA. Y which is passed from father to son only. To get your father's Y if you are a female you would have to have him tested, a brother or uncle that is a brother of your father. Mitochondrial which is passed from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it on to their children. Autosomal which you get 50-50 from both parents. If you are involved in family history Y & Mitochondrial can be helpful in matching yourself with other family trees. If you are not involved in family history they are really useless. However, only one person in each generation go back you will have received your Y if you are a male from only one person and your Mitochondrial if you are male or female from only one person. For instance you have 16 great great grandparents, Y & MItochondrial testing will leave out 14 of them, 7 on your father's side and 7 on your mother's side. One company that only does Y & Mitochondrial advertises that they will help you discover "your deep ancestral roots." It is true in those 2 lines only they will show you the origin of your nomadic ancestor going back thousands of years. However, you come from a vast myriad of family lines. But if you are successful at matching yourself with another and their family tree and you are involved in research the two of them, research and the DNA match, will be helpful in discovering some of the left out people. Here is a link to a company that is the oldest in the U.S. and has the largest database. http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com Autosomal is a little too complicated to use for family history research. However, there is one company in the U. S. that will take your Autosomal DNA and match you with population groups throughout the world. At present they have over 900 batches of 100-200 samples of population groups. The company is http://www.DNAtribes.com FamilyTreeDNA does do Autosomal testing but they will not give you an analysis. I think at one time they did. I had to send my results from FamilyTreeDNA to DNATribes. You get your Autosomal 50-50 from both parents but when you get back to your grandparents, it will not be 25-25-25-25. You get 50% from your paternal grandparents and 50'% from your maternal grandparents, but what you received from your grandmother and grandfather on both sides will not be even steven. How you inherited this bias will not be how your siblings inherited it unless you have an identical twin. I asked DNATribes if my sister with whom I share both parents had the same Autosomal test would her results be the same and they replied: . "Two siblings will each obtain unique results. Family members do typically share some regional or ethnic genetic affiliations, but in some cases matches can vary substantially between siblings." I also asked DNATribes if they can break the results down between mother and father and they replied: "To isolate each parent's genetic contribution in each case, it is necessary to test at least one parent as well." I had found a website that stated you don't get Autosomal 50-50 from both parents so I asked a question about this on the Biology Board since Genealogy and Genetics are not the same thing and this is the reply I received: "Actually, you do inherit your autosomal DNA 50-50 from each parent. That site is wrong. "Your mother's egg contributes one set of 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome (an X). Your father's sperm contributes the other set of 22 autosomes, and another sex chromosome (either an X or a Y). "Where the 50-50 part breaks down is when you pass on your DNA to your children. Each of your children will get half their DNA from you, but they won't necessarily get an equal mix of what you inherited from your parents. They could inherit a more from your mother, through you, and less from your father, or vice versa. "Another way to look at it: you inherited 50% of your autosomal DNA from each parent, but you didn't necessarily inherit exactly 25% from each grandparent. Your maternal grandparents contributed exactly 50% in total, but it could be biased in favor of either your maternal grandmother or your maternal grandfather. Same goes for your paternal grandparents." "When you take one of those DNA tests, which markers they find depend on which ones you inherited through your mother and father, and that will be different between you and your siblings (assuming no identical twins). If one of your grandparents is Dutch, and another is Polish, you might happen to inherit more markers that the test considers NW Eur., and your sister might happen to inherit more that are considered E Eur. In most cases, that will just be a random chance. Also, just because you have more markers that the test considers NW Eur, doesn't necessarily mean you really are "more" NW Eur. in any real sense." If you go under Feedback on both sites there is a way you can email them & ask questions.