OK where do I start.

[Luisfc1972]

I know some people know the percentage of what various ethnicities they carry in their DNA. I would like to know that. (for example) I am Mexican (mestizo), so obviously I have Spanish and Indian blood. But, historically the French have been in Mexico and the Phoenicians and Moors have been in Spain, so have the Visigoths, etc.

So I may be more mixed than I think. I am not really looking for any relatives or any connections via surnames, yet. Before I put some money down on a kit I would like to know everyones opinion of the best place to go. I have looked at DNATribes.com and Ethnoancestry.com

I tried a search but i couldnt find exactly what i am looking for. Sorry for these noob questions you must get these a lot.

Anyway thanks for any help.

[Stevo]

I don't think autosomal dna testing is that trustworthy yet, so I would recommend you order at least a 37-marker y-dna test from Family Tree DNA to start with. That way you will know something solid about your paternal ancestry.

That is what I did, and I have never regretted it.

I have learned a lot and have had a great time doing it.

I've made some friends, too.

[paitenceofjob]

I don't know much about the autosomal tests, such the ones offered by Ethoancestry, DNA Tribes and AncestrybyDNA. I agree with Stevo. Autosomal DNA testing still seems to be in the early stages. The mtdna and ydna tests would yield more specific information, though it would be restricted to indivdual lines. For the price of an autosomal test, you could probably get a 12 marker ydna test, a HVR-I mtdna test and still have some left over. BTW, these test results often raise more questions than they answer. But for my part, this is fun and quite addicting. There are books and research papers that help in interpreting the results. They barely scratch the surface of my old questions and raise a bunch of new ones, so I hang out here and at the DNA Rootsweb forum, salivating for the next book or research paper on population genetics.

[Luisfc1972]

though thats not what i wanted to hear, thanks for the replies.

this article is what got me interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/us...081d8e&ei=5090

i guess those autosomal tests can be accurate sometimes though?

[cacio]

Luisfc:
the journalist didn't seem very informed. Nor am I, for that matter. But for what I understand, the confidence intervals are so high that 10% is irrelevant, that is, you can get a 10% mixture even when there is none. Presumably, if one gets 50%, then may be there is something to it.
Note that the paternal or maternal line test can be extremely precise. If, say, you find out that you belong to mtDNA A, then it means that your maternal line was Native American. Same, say, if your paternal line is Q3. But this way you'd pick up only those two lines. If the person of interest were, for instance, your mother's father, or your father's mother, then this wouldn't show up in those tests.
cacio

[tomcat]

Last time I checked-in, Ethnoancestry had taken the long-promised BGA off their list of offerings.

I have taken both the DNAPrint AncestryByDNA 2.5 and the DNATribes. I think the Tribes test is the better value.

Tom

[Jim Honeychuck]

I learned a lot from DNA Tribes.

My advice is first look to see if there is a reference population you will probably match.

http://www.dnatribes.com/populations.html

DNA Tribes results are not percentages of ethnicity. See the sample results. If you would be satisfied with that relative affinity explanation, and the company has the reference populations you need, then you might find this test interesting and informative, as I did.

Jim

[tomcat]

Luisfc1972,

You seem to have various interests - your first post expressed some interest in deep ancestry (Phoenicians, etc.) and your second made reference to an article on the use of DNA for more practical purposes (affirmative-action qualification etc.).

If the later is the immediate need, I suggest that you contact the target audience to learn what DNA proof is acceptable to them.

If the prior interest is compelling, I suggest you collect samples from as many family elders as possible and run y- and mt-DNA tests on them. Such a family survey would yield unambiguous patrilineal and matrilineal lineages as defined by international scientific standards.

Both of the autosomal tests are based on solid science and industry-standard statistics. But the actual field research, databases, and algorithms employed are proprietary to the companies offering the tests. Some may find that caveat a large "grain of salt" but I am fairly confident both companies are competent and honest. Moreover, I expect their respecting offerings will continue to improve now that there is competition in this area of DNA testing.

Jump in. Your first DNA test will not be your last.

Tom