About a week ago, I finally took the plunge and ordered an autosomal DNA kit from Ancestry.com. This won’t be my first DNA test; approximately three years ago I tested myself and many family members with 23andMe. I have learned a lot about genetic genealogy since then and have my various posts about it grouped on my Genetic Genealogy page here on the site.
However, I’ve hesitated to test with Ancestry because they do not provide testers with a chromosomal browser for our DNA results. This means, that while you are shown genetic matches, you are not able to look specifically at the areas on each of your chromosomes to see where the matches are. This is a limitation for me personally because I rely on the ability to look at specific chromosomal segment matches as I triangulate my results.
Yet, I am curious to learn more about genetic testing with Ancestry so with a recent sale of testing kits for $49 (plus a coupon for an additional 25% off), I decided to go ahead and do it. The kit came today, I’ve just spit into the tube, and all is packaged and ready to be mailed back to them on Monday. Let the adventure begin!
That’s cool, I think everybody should do both the big two companies,23andme and Ancestry.comDNA. Hope your results are done also done fast. My dad’s results were done in a little over four weeks, and my maternal grandparents, were done exactly three weeks from the time we mailed off their samples.
Thanks Anthony! Good to know you got yours and your family results back so soon.