Although I have done extensive research into many branches of the tree and am reasonably sure about my ethnic origins, there are a couple of family stories that I have failed to establish via normal research so thanks to a special offer at Ancestry, I decided to take the plunge and do a DNA test. I have subsequently discovered that AncestryDNA ethnic report is extremely poor and very inaccurate BUT the ability to download the raw DNA file means that it may be uploaded to sites with far superior reporting features like Gedmatch which quickly confirmed the Italian, Scottish and English heritage along with the French one that has so far eluded me but which I heard was part of our line! It has also produced a few surprises like the German, Swedish and Irish connections!
Needless to say, this is all very new and I have yet to connect the data with surnames in the tree but a more experienced friend has offered to help and I intend to learn more about how to decode the DNA data. Note that these reports do not display any personal information other than genome, chromosone and potential ethnic origins which may go back through many generations and due to the nature of how we inherit certain chromosones, may not include or display the information we had hoped for. A good article which explains this is DNA Tests Genealogy Ethnicity written by an Italian Genealogist Lynn Serafinn
The following is a small example collection of my Autosomnal DNA results provided by GedMatch which offer different percentages depending on the type of utility used to extract and display the information. Some are designed to display more specific results like the EthioHelix K10 + French whose results are more meaningful if you have a mix of African and European heritage. The Green coloured text denotes 'clickable' links which opens an image or pdf file in a new window. At the bottom of the page are links to articles and websites where you may upload your Raw DNA Free.
Dodecad V3 Chromosone Graph (image file)
Dodecad V3 Admixture Proportions (image file)
Dodecad V3 Population Spreadsheet (pdf file)
EthioHelix K10 + French Chromosone Graph (image file)
EthioHelix K10 + French Admixture Proportions (image file)
EthioHelix K10 + French Population Spreadsheet (image file)
Eurogenes K13 Chromosone Graph (image file)
Eurogenes K13 Modern Admixture Proportions (image file)
Eurogenes K13 Population Spreadsheet (pdf file)
Gedrosia K3 Chromosone Graph (image file)
Gedrosia K3 Admixture Proportions (image file)
Gedrosia K3 Population Spreadsheet (image file)
HarappaWorld Chromosone Graph (image file)
HarappaWorld Admixture Proportions (image file)
HarappaWorld Population Spreadsheet (pdf file)
MDLP K11 Chromosone Graph (image file)
MDLP K11 Modern Admixture Proportions (image file)
MDLP K11 Population Spreadsheet (image file)
puntDNAL K10 Ancient Chromosone Graph (image file)
puntDNAL K10 Ancient Admixture Proportions (image file)
puntDNAL K10 Ancient Population Spreadsheet (image file)
Baltic : Geopolitical term used for grouping the three sovereign states in Northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Baloch : A people who live mainly in the Balochistan region of the southeastern-most edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, as well as in the Arabian Peninsula
Beringian : The land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Read about the Ancient Beringian at Wikipedia.
Caucasian : Also Caucasoid or Europid is a grouping of human beings historically regarded as a biological taxon, which, depending on which of the historical race classifications used, has usually included some or all of the ancient and modern populations of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.
Caucasus Hunter Gatherer (CHG) : Defines peoples found in and around a mountain range in Caucasia, between the Black and Caspian seas, along the border between the Russian Federation, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. A region between the Black and Caspian seas: divided by the Caucasus Mountains into Ciscaucasia in Europe and Transcaucasia in Asia.
CEU HapMap : Northern and Western European
Early Neolithic Farmers (ENF) : Unlike the first settlers they did not move from place to place. They grew crops such as wheat and barley and reared animals like cows, sheep and goats.
Mediterranean : Countries include France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal along the north; Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel on the east; and the African countries of Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia on the south.
Oceanian : Geographic region spanning the eastern and western hemispheres comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
Orcadian : A native or inhabitant of the Orkney Islands.
Papuan : Indigenous peoples of New Guinea and neighbouring islands.
Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) : Mesolithic European hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers expanding from the Near East were called "Western Hunter-Gatherers" (WHG) and "Early European Farmers" (EEF, also "First European Farmers" FEF).
Genetic History of Europe article at Wikipedia.
Neolithic Europe article at Wikipedia
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All of the following sites offer FREE registration, most also provide a FREE Raw DNA upload option for users with Kits sold by other services along with the ability to either manually create a family tree or upload an existing gedfile. Some have limitations, charge a premium or may change their criteria at any time so please read the sites FAQ before registering as I am only reviewing the free option or low cost upgrade not their full premium membership.
As I am always being asked HOW DO I DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD RAW DNA FROM / TO I have posted links at the top of this section to articles that describe the process!
FTDNA How To Upload Download Raw DNA
Step by step instructions on how to upload your DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA
MapMy23 Ancestry FTDNA Fix
This online tool fixes the error message issue when uploading some AncestryDNA files to FamilyTreeDNA
AncestryDNA to GEDmatch
Step by step instructions on how to download AncestryDNA and upload it to GEDmatch.
Ancestry
One of the most popular sites that offers DNA testing also allows you to download the Raw DNA file which you may upload to other sites. Their ethnic breakdown is very limited but you do not need to pay to view your potential DNA Matches and they have a large membership. They do NOT allow you to upload Raw DNA from other services. Using their databases to research your family tree is free, but viewing the individual results and details requires an active membership to one of their premium services. Note that 90% of their UK research content is available FREE from sites like FamilySearch, FreeBMD, FreeCen and FreeReg but their worldwide membership includes more countries than other services and although annual membership is expensive, they are the only service that offers 50% discount on their pricing from time to time.
CodeGen
Upload your Raw DNA file to view a free and anonymous extensive report covering over a wide range of topics including health with genotype-disease associations to over 2000 diseases grouped in 15 major topics - aging, cancer and others, nutrition, fitness, social genomics with fast processing and browsing of your data all built from scratch by algorithms.
DNA Land
Upload your Raw DNA file to participate in essential research with this not for profit site associated with Columbia University, the NY Genome Center and in partnership with the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) to better understand the genetic risks of breast cancer. As well as uploading your DNA you will be asked to complete surveys relating to your (or your family’s) ancestry and health. In return you will be able to connect with the scientific community and learn more about your genome for free, including information about ancestry and relatedness to other individuals on the site that is not available elsewhere.
DNA Painter
Provides a user-friendly online tool for chromosome mapping. Unlike the other sites, it is not possible to upload Raw DNA. The site works by creating a profile and entering chromosone blocks to compare with others. I am unable to provide a review on this Free service as still trying to figure out how it works, however, I have seen some results of the mapping capability done by others and if set up correctly can be a helpful and useful tool in identifying matches.
FamilyTreeDNA
Offers both FREE Autosomal Raw DNA upload from other providers or National Geographics Geo 2 DNA and their own DNA Testing service which includes Y-DNA and mtDNA. The Free upload option provides users with a more limited offering than their own basic Family Finder service but you can unlock further features for around 20 dollars which includes their Chromosone Browser which allows you to compare up to 7 people in your cousin matches, Origins graphs and Linked Relationship. You can also manually create your own tree or upload a Gedcom although I found the latter annoyingly slow and in fact failed to display my tree until the following day so I initially thought it had failed!! Tree navigation is also clunky as part of the page is hidden under a page break making it inaccessabile! Also worth noting is that there may be issues uploading AncestryDNA Kits which return an error message - they state this problem is now fixed, but I discovered that the original file still returned an error message. There is a lengthy forum discussion about this issue which includes a link to a site where you can upload your file that fixes the problem for some - see M.
GEDmatch
Offers the most comprehensive free set of ethnic breakdown reports, graphs and spreadsheets, cousin matching, family tree and gedfile upload, gedfile comparison via upload of existing Raw DNA from other services plus they have their own comprehensive DNA testing service and further options available to their premium members. I found their Gedfile family tree display somewhat basic, clunky and difficult to navigate but their DNA options are far superior to other sites and provides centimorgan breakdown that you can use to enter into the DNA Painter website.
GenomeLink
Offers a free and premium service that provides something completely different from the others. Upload your Raw DNA to the site to unlock information on how DNA shapes your nutrition, fitness, personality and intelligence traits with everything from earlobe size to your sensitivity to bitter taste and more. This is definitely the fun side of things with the option to upgrade to unlock more traits. New traits are added regularly.
LivingDNA
Currently offering free membership and Raw DNA upload from other services to premium members of FindMyPast, however, their lead time for processing the files is exceptionally long at an estimated 6 to 8 weeks instead of between 48 hours to a week by other sites. Due to this, I am unable to recommend or review the service as still waiting for my DNA to be processed. They also offer their own DNA testing service.
My Heritage
Offers a similar service to Ancestry and FindMyPast with their own DNA Testing option that also allows free members to upload their Raw DNA downloaded from other providers. Although you can upload your Raw DNA it must be said that to actually view anything of interest requires payment which initially seems a reasonable cost until you get to the payment window and realise that VAT is not included which hikes up the price considerably! Their ethnic breakdown is clear and slightly better than Ancestry and you can manually create a family tree or upload a Gedcom via the Free membership, however, the tree is limited to a maximum of 250 people and you cannot add genealogical records without upgrading to one of their paid and somewhat pricy subscriptions. Although they state they cover a wide range of countries, I found that if you were searching for anything other than USA that their records are limited, especially with the newspaper archive and lack of European records.
Personal Genome Project
Unlike the other sites, this is a coalition of projects across the world dedicated to creating public genome, health, and trait data. They invite invite willing participants to publicly share their personal data for the greater good. I have not registered for this site so unable to comment on whether they offer anything, but feel it is an interesting concept that visitors may wish to participate in.
Promethease
This is a retrieval system that builds a personal DNA report based on connecting a file of DNA genotypes to the scientific findings cited in SNPedia. It costs $12 to upload your Raw DNA and produces a downloadable report which includes information on your propensity for various health related diseases and other information. Whilst much of the report provides the same information that CodeGen does, Promethease is easier to read online and offline.
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