Dna And Ancestry - Anyone On Ab Had It Done?

[Mosaic]

Curious to know whether any ABers have had their genotype mapped, whether they considered the activity worthwhile and whether any companies are worth recommending?

[Zacs-Master]

I believe it's still over £1000 to have it done but if you think you're likely to suffer from hereditary diseases it could be worth it. The younger you are the better in terms of value for money.

[DaisyNonna]

How many people have £1000 available?

[jno]

I did a short-range one to see where some of my mystery recent ancestors came from - very interesting results (though the percentages of my DNA attributed to them were impossible, maybe because their databank is nowhere near big enough yet). Cost about £60. Possibly not the one you want but here it is

https://www.familytreedna.com/family-finder-compare.aspx

[Zacs-Master]

Quite a few. It depends what value, other than monetary, you put on finding out such things. I can understand it being more popular in the US where there is no NHS.

[bookbinder]

I did this about 2 years ago. It cost me about £200, and I was disappointed with the result. I expected to get something that would give me information about my ancestors, but instead I received a load of information about ancient people that meant nothing to me. Apparently, my fatherline is Pretani, and my motherline is that of the First Farmers. I have wasted £200.

[237SJ]

I was quite interested in this http://www.britainsdna.com/ but then I met someone at work who is a scientist for one of the big drugs companies and he said these tests are a waste of money because the dna companies won`t disclose their failure rates and are too vague in their results

[jno]

BritainsDNA came up with the much-hyped claim that Prince William has Indian ancestry, which has come in for some criticism

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/06/prince-william-may-have-little-to-no-indian-ancestry/#.U-k-52Mlo2g

[jno]

bookbinder, there are various different DNA tests available; you need to know which one you want, and what you're looking for.

The company who did mine offer several

https://www.familytreedna.com/products.aspx?

The one I did came with a list of suggested relatives (ie people who'd done the same test with the same company and come up with similar results, which is far too small a sample); but I didn't believe a word of it. I am not related to a lot of people in Minnesota..

[Mosaic]

Interesting answers, all of them - thanks. I'm motivated by idle curiosity but am aware of lots of other quite tangible things i could do with the cash sum concerned.
The websites seem to be popping up all over, and prices range from £99 to extremely silly. Like Jno says, I think they're riding the wave of 'ancestry' media coverage.
I wonder if any reputable outfits want volunteers to take part in longitudinal studies?

[jno]

well, you might like to bear this in mind

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1031360/online-genetic-testing-exposed-scam

[jno]

I should add that I don't believe it's necessarily a scam if two companies produce different results - one of them might be. I think Oxford Ancestors is highly thought of; the founder has written interesting books

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[soapnumpty]

Following on from Jno's post I used Oxford Ancestors last year and paid £250 for a test. It told me where my maternal line came from and what route my ancestors took when they left Africa. You can do a similar test following your paternal line. If this is what you are interested in read the founder Bryan Sykes' book Seven Daughters of Eve. I would recommend Oxford Ancestors if this is the type of test you are interested in. They sent me out a kit to take the swab which was easy, and the results took a few weeks. The test didn't tell me anything about my genetics, or what % neanderthal i am for instance, which i think i might look into next.