Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I am thinking of doing the DNA test and wonder if any of you lovely people know if there is a difference between the FMP and Ancestry ?

DNA results are much the same whichever company you test with, there may be slight variance in numbers due to the individual testing methods, however all in all the results are the same. Similarly the ethnicity results depend on the algorithms they use, the more testers they have on their database the more checks they can refine and so although you may get different results from different companies again, the ethnicity should be taken loosely.

What is useful is the matches list that is produced. Ancestry, because the largest proportion of people test with it, appears to have the largest database to compare your results to others and get matches.

You need to decide what you want from a test, is it just to discover your ethnicity? or to match with others to help find your family? or to know more about your health, traits and ancestry. 23andme apparently do a specific test for fitness and health results as well as matching.

With each of them, in addition to the matches you can compare with on the site, you can also upload your raw data (a copy of) to other sites, ie MyHeritage, FTDNA and others including Gedmatch.com. Ancestry however, does NOT accept uploads of data from other sites, nor does it have a chromosome browser to display visual examples of your matches. This is not necessarily a disadvantage if you want to use it for the largest database, as other sites will show this if you use them afterwards.

One site which accepts all raw data uploads is Gedmatch.com. This is a free utility offering you probably the largest group of matches, chromosome browser, one-to-one matching, one to many matching etc. plus a paid area with more utilities.

Once you try to interpret your results, or better still while you are waiting for them, I would suggest you do some reading, one that you may be able to get from a library (or if you use a kindle then send me a private message) is from one of the most respected geneticists Blaine T Bettinger called The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy. He also admins a Facebook Group and gives lots of specific and general advice and help, as do other groups, such as one specifically for help with Gedmatch and you will often get groups relating to the places where your family originated, ie counties in Ireland.

Overall, never forget that DNA results won't give you anything without your own research and it goes hand in hand with your genealogy research that you have been doing over the years, which is extremely important in backing up anything you discover.

I used ancestry and found several people who I have confirmed as distant cousins. It is not easy from the matches to find where you are related. The non DNA research is extremely important other wise you may be stuck.
Good luck. It is fun.

Thank you so much MaryA for all the information - you are so knowledgeable. I am more interested in ethnicity and blood line than finding cousins who are 3 or 4 times removed. On both maternal and paternal sides of my family seem to originate in Ireland. I have gone back to the early 1700s but come to a halt because of the Irish connection. Thank you also Lyn for your input. Its all been very helpful.

Just to add, I had my Ancestry DNA taken a year or so ago, as I wanted family link matches as well as ethnicity. Ancestry recently revised their ethnicity estimate algorithms so that it is more accurate. I was quite impressed with its accuracy Irish/English mainly, but pinpointed the exact region of Northern Ireland that my gang were from.