Marc McDermott
Are you thinking about buying a DNA test, but aren’t sure if the AncestryDNA test is right for you?
You’ve probably seen all the TV commercials about folks discovering their ethnicities and thought it’d be pretty neat to see your own ethnicity report.
This article will help you decide if AncestryDNA is right for you, walk you through the process, show you what to expect, and answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
This review is for AncestryDNA. Looking for a review of the Ancestry.com website? Read this article instead: Ancestry.com Review.
So what exactly does AncestryDNA tell you? What do the results look like?
The two main things that AncestryDNA will provide are:
If you decide to purchase the optional ‘Traits’ report (or upgrade later on), you’ll also get a list of personal trait reports that show how your DNA might have affected things like your sensitivity to bitter food or if you have a natural aversion to cilantro.
More on that later.
By far the most common reason for taking a DNA test, the ethnicity report (as its name implies) is what will tell you the percentage of each of your ethnicities.
Here is a screenshot of my report to show you what to expect:
Like every DNA testing company, Ancestry simply compares your DNA with sets of ‘reference populations’ across the globe.
They then use their own complex algorithms to calculate all of the percentages.
And because DNA reference populations are constantly being expanded and refined, your results may change from time to time.
As an example, Ancestry used to group together both Italy and Greece as one reference population.
They’ve since been able to isolate Italian DNA, thus updating existing ethnicity estimates.
It’s worth noting here that you do not need to have any paid subscription to get updated results.
Ancestry currently uses 2,600+ reference populations.
If you’re looking to build out your family tree, then the Matches Report is a goldmine of information.
This is the section where most people interested in their family history will spend all of their time.
Your match list will be generated by comparing your DNA to the entire Ancestry customer database (excluding those who opted out of this feature).
Because Ancestry is currently the most popular consumer DNA test kit on the market, it has the largest customer database (currently 22 mil. ).
This fact alone is why I recommend Ancestry over other testing companies for genealogical purposes.
Generally speaking, you can expect to be matched with nearly all of fourth cousins and closer.
I say “nearly” for a reason.
Because of the way DNA is inherited, not all of your fourth cousins will show on your match list.
But the majority will (roughly 75%) and nearly all of your third cousins will show up.
And 100% of your 2nd cousins and closer will show on your list.
You can also expect a small percentage of more distant cousins as well – all the way to your 8th cousins!
But once you get to the 8th cousin level, less than 1% of them will be detectable through DNA.
And in most cases, it’s extremely difficult to track down the paper trail to an 8th cousin match anyway.
For me, I currently have over 300 matches at this level with new matches being added all the time as new people get tested.
The vast majority of my matches are more distant than the fourth cousin level. I have over 20,000 matches at this level.
Many will have their family trees posted online, and if you already know or can identify the common ancestry, then these trees can help you expand your own.
A lot of your matches won’t have a tree posted, or just not a public one anyway.
But you can contact these matches through Ancestry’s secure private messaging system.
I’ve found that response rates can be hit or miss. A lot of the matches you contact will flat out ignore you for various reasons. They’re just not that interested in their family tree which is kind of a shame.
Others will be invaluable resources for your own family history.
For example, one of my mom’s 2nd cousins who I’ve never met before was kind enough to send me a photograph of my 2x-Great Grandfather.
I had never seen a photograph of him, and without this DNA match, I may have never seen one.
So you can see how valuable a match report can be.
This is probably the #1 question I get asked about DNA tests – are AncestryDNA results accurate?
It’s one of those questions that’s so hard to answer, other than to say “it depends”.
Without getting into too much scientific detail, the DNA we inherit from our parents is completely random.
Yes, we get half of our DNA from each parent, but the half is random.
Just because my father is 50% Irish, that doesn’t mean my DNA is exactly 25% Irish. It should be somewhat close, but not exact.
It’s also important to note here that comparing the accuracy of two testing companies is not always comparing apples to apples.
The reason for this is that each company defines their reference populations differently.
Some will be much broader (continental level), while others will be more granular (specific countries or regions within a country).
Keep in mind that the more granular a company tests for, the wider the margin of error will be.
With all that being said, I found that my ethnicity estimates from AncestryDNA to be very accurate when compared to my own genealogical research.
So how does AncestryDNA stack up to the competition?
Here are some quick comparisons with other major testing companies. You can read more about other testing companies in my guide to DNA testing.
Probably the biggest competitor to Ancestry in the US market, 23andMe is a definitely solid choice.
They have a customer database of 14 mil. compared to Ancestry’s 22 mil.. They currently test for 2,750+ regions, compared to Ancestry’s 2,600+ regions.
Even though 23andMe’s numbers look good relative to Ancestry, it’s worth noting that a huge percentage of test-takers at 23andMe are only interested in the health reports.
Therefore you won’t get anywhere near the number of matches interested in genealogy which doesn’t really help you build your family tree.
So if heath reports are what you’re after, go with 23andMe. If genealogy is your goal, go with Ancestry.
And be sure to check out my complete guide to 23andMe vs Ancestry for a more in-depth comparison.
MyHeritage is the company whose offerings as a whole are the closest match to Ancestry.
It’s the only other major testing company that allows you to link a family tree to your DNA.
They have a nice size customer database (6.6 mil.), with a large percentage being international customers (as compared to Ancestry).
So if you want to potentially be matched with people in your ancestors’ homelands, MyHeritage might be a better option for you.
They also have better reference populations for Jewish ancestry.
FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) is most often mentioned when talking about more distant ancestry which requires a different type of DNA test (Y-DNA, mtDNA). AncestryDNA is an autosomal test.
While FTDNA also has an autosomal test (called Family Finder), most of the reference populations are much broader than other companies.
See our guide to Y-DNA testing and our guide to mtDNA testing.
LivingDNA is the newest of the big five testing companies. They are based in the United Kingdom and specialize in granular reporting of British ancestry.
If you think you have British or Irish DNA, I would still test with Ancestry but also consider uploading your raw DNA to LivingDNA.
Taking the AncestryDNA test is really quite simple. Here are the basic steps involved:
AncestryDNA’s processing time is around 3-5 weeks, depending on the time of year. This is from the time you mail in your kit to when you receive your results.
Of course, if you mail in your test kit the week after Christmas like everyone else, your wait time will likely be a bit longer.
In this section, I’ll share the results from my own DNA test to give you a better idea of what to expect when you buy your own.
This sample report will also help you better understand what to do with your AncestryDNA results once you have them.
The first thing you’ll see is a world map. The sections highlighted with various colors are the reference populations you match.
On the right side of the page, you’ll see the same reference populations in a list format with the percentage estimates for each.
For some populations such as Ireland & Scotland, you’ll also see more granular estimate regions called “Communities”.
You can see in my results for Ireland & Scotland that Ancestry has listed the Ulster and Connacht regions.
You can click on any region in order to read more about your estimate, as well as a brief history of the region’s populations and migrations.
A feature often overlooked here is the ethnicity range estimate.
If you look closely, you can see that Ancestry actually provides an estimated range for each ethnicity. For my Irish roots, they estimate me to be 38%, with a range of 33-54%.
I mentioned above that Ancestry (like all testing companies) will refine estimates over time. When they do, you will have the ability to view your previous estimate if you wanted to compare with the most recent.
You can also view all of the regions Ancestry has tested your DNA with but came back without a match.
I already talked about the importance of the shared matches report above, so in this section, I’ll show you what your report will look like.
At the time of writing this article, I have over 22,000 matches. But the majority of those matches are distant (beyond fourth cousins).
The bulk of your time with the shared match report will be in the ‘Close Matches’ filtered view.
This list will filter your matches to estimated fourth cousins and closer.
For me, that number is 334.
Remember that these are predicted relationships based on the amount of DNA you share with each match.
So it’s possible for say a known 3rd cousin to be grouped together with your distant matches if for some reason you share less DNA than the average third cousins.
This is even more likely to happen when you start talking about third cousins once or twice removed.
By default, Ancestry will sort your matches in descending order by the most shared DNA (as measured in centimorgans). You can also choose to sort by match date to see the most recent matches first.
Your results will also be grouped by the estimated relationship (ie parent/child, full sibling, 1st cousins, 2nd cousins, etc).
Some of the other cool things you can do with your match list as a whole are:
You can click on any match to be taken to a separate page which details the DNA you share.
For each match, you’ll be able to see:
By far the best and most used feature here will be the shared matches report.
As the name implies, this is a report of all matches that are shared between you and the match you’re looking at. Think of it like another filter of your main matches list.
So for example, my grandmother was 100% Italian. If I wanted to find all my Italian family matches, I would look on my matches list for a known second cousin from my grandmother’s family (this assumes you know of your 2nd cousins already outside of DNA testing).
That second cousin and I would both descend from my grandmother’s parents (our great grandparents). You can also do this with known third cousins.
When I look at the list of our shared matches, it will show all of our other Italian cousins on this branch.
This feature is especially useful for when you have a match and aren’t quite sure who they are or where they fit in your family tree.
You can look at the shared matches with this unknown match, and hopefully spot some known matches which can help you narrow down which side of the family the unknown match fits into.
From there, you can do some much more targeted research to pinpoint exactly where they fit in your tree.
Ancestry will also show you the predicted common ancestors between you and a match.
Without getting too complicated, Ancestry will compare your family tree with your matches and try to locate a common ancestor.
If they find one, they will also show the predicted path back to that ancestor to illustrate exactly how you and your match might be related.
You can also compare the ethnicity of each of your matches.
While this feature isn’t particularly useful for genealogy, it can serve a purpose when dealing with unknown matches.
Going back to my example of finding my Italian cousins, if I’m trying to place an unknown match and see that they are 0% Italian, chances are I can exclude them from the Italian branch of my family.
Likewise, if only one of my grandparents was Polish and the unknown match is predominantly Polish, that’s a pretty good hint that they somehow fit somewhere on my Polish branch.
So comparing ethnicity with your matches is just another way to narrow down the possibilities of your common ancestor.
The only two other features worth mentioning here are:
Thru lines is a very neat feature that shows you all the predicted matches who descend from a specific ancestor in your family tree.
Like the predicted common ancestor feature I mentioned about, Ancestry uses data from family trees in their database to make hypotheses.
So for example, if I select my 3x great-grandfather Bartholomew McDermott, I see that Ancestry predicts seven other descendants, and shows me exactly how I might be related to them.
There are many more matches on Ancestry who descend from this Bartholomew McDermott which I’ve identified in my research. But not every match has a tree posted so Thru Lines was only able to predict seven.
For each of your matches, Ancestry will show you a list of every possible relationship (and the likelihood) based on the amount of shared DNA.
This is a terrific feature when dealing with unknown matches; particularly ones that are close matches.
You can use this feature to help narrow down the possible relationships between you and an unknown match.
To show you what this looks like, here’s an example of one of my known matches who is a 2nd cousin 1x removed.
I highlighted in red the actual relationship.
In this case, this match and I share more DNA than the average 2C1R which is why Ancestry predicts we’re more likely to be 2nd cousins.
But you can see that based on the amount of shared DNA, the most distant possible relationship cannot exceed a half 2nd cousin 1x removed.
So the real value of this tool is for eliminating possible relationships so you can narrow your search.
The Traits report is a relatively new feature of AncestryDNA. You can either purchase this when you buy your kit or upgrade later.
It’s similar to the traits reports of 23andMe, so if you’ve already tested there, there’s probably no need to buy this report.
Here are some of the more popular Traits reports:
Because these Traits reports aren’t super relevant to genealogy, I won’t go into any more detail in this article. I look at it as something that’s neat which I can talk about at family gatherings
I really don’t want this article to be interpreted as a big fluff piece for Ancestry.
But really, there are very few things I do not like about Ancestry.
Every product has room for improvement, so here are the things I don’t like at the moment.
The lack of a chromosome browser is something that really bugs me.
While the overwhelming majority of people who test with Ancestry would never use this feature, there are a lot of DNA geeks out there (like me) who would absolutely love this feature to do more advanced analyses.
This is especially annoying considering that 23andMe, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA all have chromosome browsers, and Ancestry has the largest database!
The only workaround to this at the moment would be to transfer your Ancestry raw data to one of these sites.
You can also transfer to a third-party site like GedMatch .
Of course, the matches you want to compare your chromosomes with would also have to transfer and/or already be in the same database.
Paid Subscriptions to view trees
While this isn’t really an issue for me because I have a paid account, I don’t really like the idea that you need a paid account to view someone else’s family tree.
I feel like if Ancestry allowed this feature on the free accounts, more people would be engaged about their family history and be more willing to communicate with matches.
Privacy in the DNA market has been a hot topic ever since the ‘Golden State Killer’ was found using DNA.
Here’s a quick video from Ancestry that talks about their stance on privacy.
The best place to buy an AncestryDNA kit is on their website. Click here to go directly to the DNA section.
I usually recommend people buy from the website as opposed to Amazon because it’s easier to get your account setup and link the DNA kit.
Plus the price on their website is almost always the same as Amazon.
Prices do tend to fluctuate throughout the year. Usually between $59 and $99 depending on if there’s a sale running. You can click here to check the latest price.
I hope this review of AncestryDNA was helpful and that you now have a better understanding of how it works, and what to expect when you order your testing kit.
If you want to learn more about AncestryDNA, click this link to visit their website.
Marc McDermott
My name is Marc McDermott. I have a deep passion for all things genealogy. I am a member of the National Genealogical Society, an annual attendee of Rootstech, and an active participant in several genealogy and DNA Facebook groups. My aim with this site is to break down complicated topics related to family history to help fellow hobbyists discover their family histories. Learn more.
