This article is from 2012, but it seems nothing has changed.

My husband and I did Ancestry DNA a year ago. My family history is already well documented back to when dirt was invented. My initial DNA results did not tell me anything surprising. In fact, I thought they were quite accurate.

My husband is Hungarian. My research on his family has been difficult since his ancestors arrived through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, and it has been difficult to trace before that. His results initially came back 95% Eastern European Jew, which was not surprising, with a dab of Iberian Peninsula and Western Europe thrown in.

A few months later, we were notified that our results had been updated and “improved”. Wow. Gone were my connections with Spain, Western Europe, Northern Africa, and a few other areas that I had documentation of being connected to, and Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandanavia were bumped WAY up. Obviously artificially up when compared to my records.

My husband learned that he was now 98% Eastern European Jew and 2% Italian! I cannot completely discount this, as his record is still spotty, but the only Italian I have found are people who marry into his family line and are of no blood relation.

You can count me as another Ancestry skeptic.

My father was related to Niall of Nine Hostages (Irish). I always knew this as did he.

I bear a birth mark that is of his family dated back to an individual that was alive in the late 1500s.

So that makes me 1/2 Irish at least.

Seems my mother (who was adopted) was also of Niall of Nine Hostages (surname).

My record was changed showing I am more British Isles than Irish!

My very German grandmother is now only ~15% rather than 100%.

Too many questions w/no answers.

I feel like tossing the whole thing frankly and no, I did not renew my ancestry.com account when it expired!

has a different data base.

I did mine with 23 and me and got precisely the results I expected, since all four of my grandparents immigrated at the turn of the 19/20th centuries from Ireland. The only small surprise was a fraction of one percent that came up as Sardinian, and according to 23 and me would have come into my ancestral line about 400 years ago.

A friend of mine did hers through National Geographic, which has a better world-wide data base, and she got pretty much what she expected, including verification of some Turkish ancestry. She's a mix of lots of different things, so her results were quite fascinating I thought.

It's up to you about getting another DNA test with another company, but it might prove interesting.

My husband's late dad was adopted, so he did the ancestry.com test. We also did the Family Tree test, but they removed their family finder database because of the privacy concerns brought up by the 23andMe issues.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/04/27/ancestry-genealogy-dna-test-privacy-golden-state-killer/557263002/


We want to find some relatives, as his dad had some health issues that might be congenital, but the idea of this data being used by insurance companies to deny care makes us hesitate.

They certainly don't put me in touch with various relatives, unlike the other one that most people use. Frankly, that was why I went with 23 and Me, that implicit privacy. Other family members have done the Ancestry one and are delighted to discover unknown relatives.

National Geographic also does genetic testing, and I don't think they share information or put you in touch with possible cousins. They are apparently very good for people who have a far more world-wide genetic inheritance. I have a friend in that category. Most recently half Chinese, half Caucasian. Most interesting is that there's a family story about one branch that arrived in China from Turkey. Guess what? The Turkey connection showed up!

My immediate ancestry is that all four grandparents came from Ireland, so there's no genetic diversity for me. Not sure how I'd feel were I, or a parent, or child, adopted. Different people will make different decisions.

23 and Me apparently is interested in tracking various diseases, and I used to respond to their various questionnaires. Lately I haven't.

My test was paid for by another family member who was trying to see if we were related. I really only pay attention to genetic matches. I think for some folks, it is a vanity project or else it is like having your tarot read. For what it is worth, the DNA test told me what I already know, that I am basically a northwest european.

I had a large percentage of Scandinavian DNA according to them. My DNA updated results are entirely different now and make more sense according to what I know from my own research. I think it's likely close to correct now.

Hello there *cough* cousin!

although both of my parents still have mystery percentages of "Sweden" and "Norway" respectively (neither has any known Scandinavian ancestry whatever; mostly British Isles). The "Scandinavian" in people of British Isles ancestry seems to be picking up on very old admixture events involving Danes/Vikings and possibly Anglo-Saxons (some of whom were north Germanic).