Genetic Genealogy: is it accurate?

Question

"The Geneology Project" claimes that for less than $200.00 one can send in for a swab kit to trace their ancestral origins through the mail.

Sounds cool, but is there evedince that DNA testing can accurately trace back that far?

http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/ydna_intro_howto.php

Dances with unicorns, mtDNA is the maternal dna passed from female to offspring. The ptDNA is only passed to males, but maternal testing is available.

The surname was not what I was looking for.

Answer 1

It's not really that you're tracing *back* - but you're looking for common markers among males having the same surname. Obviously, we don't have your 6th-great-grandfather's DNA to compare to, but we DO have people with known surnames, and those people generally share some DNA markers. The trick is figuring out how closely related they are; that's determined by the number of markers in common. Two men who share practically all of their markers are probably very close relatives - brothers, first cousins, uncle and nephew, etc. Men who share fewer markers probably share a more distant forebear. If all the men named Roberts, for example, share *most* of their DNA, then there's a good chance the share the same common ancestor. Statistically speaking, mutations occur at a known rate, so it's often possible to determine how far back people are related as well.

You'll notice I only mention men; that's because this is only do-able with the Y chromasome, and only males have a Y chromasome. To find out about who women are related to requires a much more precise test on mitochondrial DNA (the DNA we inherit from our mothers found in the organelles of a cell, rather than in the nucleus). It's also a lot costlier. (The person answering just above me is talking about mitochondrial DNA analysis, by the way, when she talks about DNA that points to locations rather than to a surname).

If you're female and want to do the test, then you'll need to get a brother, father, same-surname male cousin, father's side uncle, or paternal grandfather to supply the sample for analysis. I do know men from my own family have had this done, and the results are quite fascinating!

By the way, I notice that I said "we" in terms of having DNA for your forebears; I'm not affiliated in any way with the project, other than having a male relative who contributed a sample from our "branch" of the family.

Answer 2

All they can tell you is percentages, like 30% european, 10% Native American, etc.

I'm not real sure about the $200 being that good. The Ancestral test we took was $1500. We already knew our origins just not the percentage. We wanted to dig deeper into the Native American if it was strong enough. Which is was.

I think it all depends on the lab. I'm not real hep on the dna projects tho. They want your results for their project and they may not give them to you. They didn't my Aunt.

Answer 3

I think most of it is a way for companies to get money out of you. How do you know the information you receive is right?

I think you get more bang for your buck building your family tree on Ancestry.com and backing up your genealogy with historical records. I would prefer knowing that I was a decedent from Sir Thomas More than to know that I was 10% English. That's just me. To each his own.

Answer 4

i'm no longer particular on the right suggestions that they provide to you (i'm confident you will locate that out from their website), yet as for accuracy - ninety 9.9%. thinking DNA exams are used as helpful evidence in lawsuits and in paternty exams confirming a organic and organic father, i could say thats fairly darn precise.