Newbie. Options for further information ??

[Carrielwb]

Hello

I'm new to all this and just received my family finder results. The process is somewhat fascinating to me and lead me to dive into online genealogy records.

I am wondering if doing other DNA tests might help give me more information about my origins. I'm also trying to figure out if having my father and/or mother do testing if it will give me more detailed information about my background and perhaps explain some of My Origin results. For instance would it narrow down some of my results (e.g. West/Central Europe, British isles, Iberia, Asia Minor)?? Or give me a deeper look at my roots.

I am female so am not sure if there would be a benefit to having my father do a y test or if family finder/autosomal done on my parents would be sufficient ? Also wondering if I should consider trying a diff company for a test for myself?

Thank you to anyone taking the time to read 😃

Carrie

[loobster]

If your parents are alive, and if you are interested in genealogy, then by all means have them do the FamilyFinder test.
The more generations back you can test, the better - so if you still have grandparents alive, have them tested as well (or instead, eg if you can test both the parents of one of your parents).

If all you care about is the Ethnic Origins part, not the Matches - be aware it is still considered highly dubious and tentative, and not particularly reliable. However, I suppose even with regard to that, testing parents might possibly be useful (certainly it ought to be,if results were/are reliable)

[MoberlyDrake]

I agree that ethnicity results are dubious and unreliable. The best way to discover the ethnicities of your ancestors is through a well-researched tree (not copied off the internet).

For example, FTDNA says that my father has zero Sephardic ancestry, my mother has less than 2% and I have 14%.

If you test at all 3 of the major DNA companies, you get different ethnicity results at each company. For the family members I have tested here and at other companies, FTDNA does the worst job of guessing.

The important part of the DNA test is your list of matches.

[Carpathian]

I agree that ethnicity results are dubious and unreliable. The best way to discover the ethnicities of your ancestors is through a well-researched tree (not copied off the internet).

For example, FTDNA says that my father has zero Sephardic ancestry, my mother has less than 2% and I have 14%.

If you test at all 3 of the major DNA companies, you get different ethnicity results at each company. For the family members I have tested here and at other companies, FTDNA does the worst job of guessing.

The important part of the DNA test is your list of matches.

I agree, in that the ancestral reports issued by genetic genealogy vendors will vary greatly. They are guesstimates - very often dubious and unreliable - or at least misunderstood in terms of time frame cited and the relevance involved. In my case the reports of my ancestry by both Ancestry and FTDNA are entirely correct, but that of 23andme is provably wrong by 25%. The proof of your ancestry is found in records and the search for them can be difficult. Not all records are located on websites such as Ancestry.

I'm not against having family members tested, if you want to do that. But many think genetic testing is a shortcut or substitute for interviewing and garnering information from older members of your family while they are still alive. Genetic genealogy can be a useful tool, especially in certain cases, but it is not a magic key that will unlock and reveal unknown genealogy in every situation.

[joko71]

The great help is the book "The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy" by Bettinger, explains every option of DNA testing.

[Carrielwb]

Thank you for the responses. Very much appreciated. This sure has brought some regret that I didn't find out more details of my grandparents relatives when they were alive. I'm trying to trace my tree using various records. It's fascinating trying to put all the little pieces together especially when they come in unexpected areas.