Tag Archives: LivingDNA

DNA Deals Galore

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With acknowledgment to Thomas MacEntee of Genealogy Bargains, I would l ike to share the excellent “deals” on the most popular DNA testing kits from the top testing companies that he was able to put together.

FamilyTreeDNA is advertising their “Family Finder” kit for $49 reflecting a $30 savings. Click here to take advantage of this one. Be aware that this test is for autosomal DNA (atDNA) only. This is the test offered by all of the other companies who offer only atDNA testing such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com. (See below for LivingDNA which offers 3 types of DNA tests. More on that later.)The results could help you with the past 4 or 5 generations with less and less accuracy as you travel back 6th or 7th generations and earlier. It’s the nature of the manner in which atDNA is passed down to you.

Yes, it will give you ethnicity estimates, but ethnicity is a moving target as more people test and the data bases of the various companies grow. To illustrate, if there were absolutely NO Irish who have tested, it would be impossible to determine that you had Irish DNA with no one to compare results. Actually, it would almost prove that you don’t! Germany has just recently made DNA testing legal with strict guidleines. I predict that ethnicity reports will begin to be updated over the next few years as more German people, or at least people who descend from populations who live in what we know today as Germany, decide to test.

Next, we have mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is passed down to every child, male and female, from their mother. FamilyTreeDNA also has a program and holiday sales for mtDNA. There are 2 levels of testing. The first is a test of just two segments called Hyper Variable Regions 1 and 2. It’s a less expensive test which can be upgraded to a “Full Sequence” test. Click here to read more.

Fnally, FamilyTreeDNA tests Y-DNA, the DNA that is only passed  through the father. If the father passes an X chromosome, the child will be a biological female. If he passes a Y, the child will be a biological male. They will test 4 levels of Y-DNA; 37 “markers,” 67 or 111 markers. Then they offer what they call “The Big Y” which is the most expensive of them all. Click here to read more about the tests and the various holiday discounts.

The other major DNA testing companies also have specials that you may want to take advantage of.

MyHeritage DNA has an offer for a $30 discount. A $79 kit will only cost you $49 until 23 November 2018. There’s a $12 standard shipping charge per kit for 4-7 business day delivery or $25 per kit for expedited 2-3 business day delivery. There are some discounts on shipping for 3 or more kits purchased at once. Read all the details here. As I write this, MyHeritage has announced a “Black Friday” special offering free shipping when you use their promo code topnov18 when ordering.

AncestryDNA kits are discounted to $59 per kit with $9.95 shipping for the first kit and $4.95 for additional kits in the same purchase. Expedited shipping is available for $24.95 for the first kit and $12.95 for additional kits. Click here for the details at AncestryDNA.

The next company to consider is 23andMe. There are 2 levels of tests, an atDNA test ($99) or an atDNA test with a health report for an additional $100. They are offering the basic atDNA kit for $49 each when ordering 2 or more kits. Click here for more details.

Last and certainly not least, the “new kid on the block” is LivingDNA. This is a company based in Britain that is making incredible inroads here in the USA.  Their test covers all 3 types of DNA but they make it much easier to remember which test is which. Their Y-DNA test is called “Fatherline,” mtDNA is “Motherline,” and atDNA is “Familyline.” Their standard price for their “3-in-1 test is $99 but is discounted for the holiday to $79. Details are here but they don’t seem to indicate an expiration date.  There, you can read about their optional “personalised book showing the journey of your ancesry. Your story told in print.” The book is normally $100 but is available during this sale to an additional $69.

There’s lots here to consider. Please comment or ask any questions. I’ll do my best to provide clear, understandable responses. It can be a daunting subject!

One last note: Ask “Alexa” to read your daily “Genealogy Flash Briefing.” You’ll hear Thomas MacEntee with the latest genealogy news Monday through Friday.

DNA Testing Advice

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A friend who is also a client was asked some questions about DNA by her friend. She referred that friend to me who didn’t have time for a telephone conversation for a brief consult as we had mutually conflicting schedules.  She asked for a simple email to help her make some decisions. Well, that’s not so easy when her motivations to test are unknown and there is simply so much to discuss! Which test; which company; what results can be expected. I had to approach my response blind. No problem! Below is the text of the note I sent her. It may contain a few errors here and there but I don’t believe there is any misinformation.

Any thoughts on what else I should have included?

Hello Elizabeth,

The first point I’d like to make is that in general, DNA testing does not replace basic genealogical research. Other than an adoptee tracing parents or the parents of an adopted ancestor, that rule would apply. The testing can prove or disprove your research but doesn’t generally do the research for you.

So the question I ask anyone contemplating a DNA test is the motive. In other words, what are you trying to find out? That will help determine which company and which test. What follows is a “brief” discussion that hopefully will help.

There are essentially 3 types of DNA tests:

  1. Autosomal or atDNA examines 22 of the 23 chromosomes in the nucleus. It is often referred to as “Cousin Finder” or “Family Finder.”  These are the pairs of chromosomes that form the familiar “double helix” which are comprised of approximately 50% from each of the parents. Because of this ratio and the fact that is never exactly 50%, any individual will have roughly 25% of each grandparent (4 individuals), 12.5% of each great-grandparent (8 individuals), 6.25% of each 2nd great grandparent (16 individuals), 3.13% of each 3rd great-grandparents (32 individuals) and so on, melting by half as you go back each generation. Because the percentages are never perfect and get quite small at the 6th or 7th generation and beyond, it is possible that an individual may have none of a 3rd or 4th great grandparent’s DNA and thus making a match difficult if not impossible the farther back you go. All the current DNA testing companies do this test with AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage doing atDNA exclusively.
  2. Y-DNA examines the 23rd chromosome in the nucleus. That chromosome can be a combination of the X from the mother (as females do not carry a Y, otherwise they’d be male) and an X from the father (X/X) or the X from the mother and a Y from the father (X/Y). If the 23rd chromosome is an X/X, the result is a female. If that chromosome is and X/Y, the result is a male. Since the Y comes exclusively from the father and mutates very slowly, it is the Y chromosome that can be very useful in tracing paternal lines. Barring an adoption or “non-paternal events,” it can be a matter of following a line by way of the surname.
  3. Mitochondrial or mtDNA is the found inside each cell but outside the nucleus. Rather than a linear double-helix configuration, mtDNA is circular. It is transferred exclusively by the female to all her children. Everyone has it but the way it is transmitted, mtDNA will follow the maternal line.

FamilyTreeDNA and LivingDNA currently do all types of testing. FamilyTreeDNA has been testing DNA for longer than the other services while LivingDNA is, perhaps, the latest to enter the market. FamilyTreeDNA has a wide variety of combinations of tests with a variety of prices. LivingDNA, a British company, does one level of test by testing all types of DNA. They call atDNA “Familyline,” Y-DNA “Fatherline,” and mtDNA “Motherline.”

Will the results of atDNA testing be the same at all companies? Not necessarily as they all have developed different their own unique databases but there is a great deal of overlap from one company to the other. Should you test at more than one company? That all depends on your motivation for testing.

Here are the websites and there are many sales running this holiday season between all these very competitive companies:

www.familytreedna.com

www.dna.ancestry.com

www.23andme.com

www.myheritage.com/dna

www.livingdna.com

Some companies accept the “raw data” from other companies. For example, you can upload a raw data file of your results from 23andMe to MyHeritage. The only 2 that I know of that do not accept an upload are AncestryDNA and LivingDNA. There are also websites where you can upload your raw data in order to broaden your ability to compare your results to the results of other testers. GedMatch is one such company. They can be found at www.gedmatch.com.

Blogs to which you can subscribe:

www.legalgenealogist.com by Judy G. Russell who blogs on DNA at least once a week.

www.dna-explained.com  by Roberta Estes. Roberta can get a bit overwhelming but still worth a look.

www.thegeneticgenealogist.com by Blaine Bettinger, a nationally renowned expert.

www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com by CeCe Moore who has done analyses for “Who Do You Think You Are” as well as other programs.

Facebook has dozens of pages where you can read the questions and answers that others have posted or join and post your own questions. If you go to Facebook (where there are more than 14,000 genealogically oriented pages), search for ISOGG, the International Society of Genetic Genealogists; DNA Detectives;  GEDmatch.com User Group: and many, many others.

The website www.familytreewebinars.com offers webinars on a weekly basis, often on DNA as a subject. Anyone can register for and view current programs. The site has a tab for “Upcoming Webinars” where you can keep an eye out for DNA related programs and register to view. These webinars are open to the public on the day of the broadcast and remain open for about a week or 10 days. Membership is very reasonable and allows full access to their entire 600+ webinars on a broad spectrum of subjects beyond DNA.

There is a great deal more to the subject such as the concept of “Haplogroups,” genetic distances, chromosome browsers and so on. But this should be enough to digest for now.

I hope this helps without confusing the issue.