DNA tests

[Spartacus Maximus]

Question for anyone who has ever tried DNA tests such as “23 and me” and for those who know how these tests work:

With what accuracy can these DNA/ancestry tests analyse background? Can any of these test actually find the specific geographical origin of someone’s DNA down to a specific region of the world? Can any of these say someone is 10(totally random number) percent Dutch or would they just show something generic like “European” instead of a precise country/region?

Many of these DNA kits claim to be able to accurately identify a person’s ancestry with specific percentages for every “part” one might have in their blood. There are a lot of videos out there of people who have done these tests and found very unexpected results which they never would have thought of themselves.

[Zaine]

I did 23 and Me and I was satisfied with the results. I'm not a scientist, so I don't have the knowledge necessary to check their work on a level that can confirm their percentages. What I can say is that, based on my own genealogical research, it matched up pretty well with what I thought. My wife was a little surprised by some of her results, but they matched after doing some digging into her genealogical history.

The numbers themselves get pretty specific. When it came to "Broadly Northwestern European" it gave me a 9.5%. It also gave me 0.5% Finnish, so it gets as specific as it will allow. Furthermore, the specifics of region are there for the larger numbers. For my 21.1% French and German, it gave me the regions that my ancestors were from.

If you're thinking about doing it, I can definitely recommend 23 and Me. There are other features, as well, such as linking you with other blood relatives and things that you're disposed to genetically.

[Spartacus Maximus]

genealogy is a pet hobby and research into it has been fairly easy thanks to elder relatives as well has the reliable record keeping of Europe’s clergy. With all this information collected from various archives, it was possible to trace all the way back to the mid 1500s .

After that it becomes much harder to find anything significant. It is a personal challenge to try and see if DNA tests will make it possible to identify genetic origin much farther back. If most of these are reasonably accurate, it should be possible to go back a few centuries more….

This stuff only matters to nerds such as myself.