Can I find my European Ancestry from my blood?
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I want to trace back where my ancestors came from, but I don't really have many records to go on. Would it be possible to take my blood sample and link it with other people in some location in Europe to determine my family origin that has a similar DNA blood sample? I would like to find out if I am German, Scottish, English, Danish, etc...Is there a company that does blood testing like this to determine European background? Can they tell my ethnicity just by my blood?
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Answer:
No. There are DNA test and they don't use blood. Pretty much all your body tissues and fluids contain your DNA. Genealogy testing companies use saliva. A male can have his Y & Mitochondrial tested and with both they will show you the origin of your nomadic ancestor going back thousands of years but you get each from only one person in each generation you go back. Get back to your 16 great great grandparents and if you are a male and can have both tested 14 of them will be excluded. DNA testing companies that test for ancestral origins use Autosomal DNA. It better represents your total ancestry and you get it 50-50 from both parents but not always 25% from each of your 4 grandparents. The reason why what you inherited can be bias between grandmother and grandfather on both sides of the family. However since there is no such thing as racial, national or ethnic purity and the same DNA crosses national, racial and ethnic boundaries in the long run they will tell you that you are,for instance so much European or so much Asian or so much Amerindian. Now one company DNATribes will show you your top 20 matches in descending order including specific countries and you can get extended matches for an additional fee. However what they are doing is matching you with population samples that they have and they are not saying you have ancestors coming from those specific countries. I can see how the results could vary if more than one company did the same type of analysis as one might have population samples the other one didn't. After further questioning they told me I was about 7/8 European and 1/8 Amerindian. That is pretty much all they can do. So if you decide to have any testing done ask a lot of questions in advance and make sure they know what you are trying to accomplish. Here are 2 links and on both if you go under "Feedback" at the top there is a way you can email them and ask questions. http://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx http://www.DNATribes.Com Also on this one if you go under "contact us" there is a way you can email them and ask questions. http://www.smgf.org/pages/overview.jspx
Vinteal at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source
Other answers
No, you will be disappointed and would have spent money on a DNA test which is not done by blood anyway and 'could' tell you thousands of years ago that you originated from eg the Asian or European continent.....it doesn't tell you England or Denmark, it doesn't discriminate in detail, so you would be no better off. Your ethnicity is about culture, custom, affiliation, background and association, that will be from where you grew up and who brought you up, not where your ancestors came from 3,000 years ago You want to find your ancestry prior to the US, those records exist it is just about finding them and working slowly back to find out...some you will have and your living family will have even if you don't recognise them as 'records' we all have records and most people can get back 3-5 generations from these records...which then enables you to look externally in records offices, archives and online for more http://familytimeline.webs.com/
Maxi
just a slightly different approach, since you have two excellent answers about dna testing. "I don't have many records" No..people don't have records always at home, but that is where research comes in. You use what you have to get going, then explore historical records to get further. Say you don't know who were the parents of your grandfather, born in 1935. You use an index online to find he died in 1987, in Georgia, then you send for his death cert. This document names his parents...and now you look to find them in the 1930 census which is the latest one open. To your surprise, the census includes data on place of birth of a person and their parents. For another ancestor, you learn he is a US citizen born in another country...which tells you that your next search is finding naturalization records, and surprise, that tells you he came in 1893, and you sometimes then can find the ship records. so, no..dna tests won't give ancestry, except in rare situations. to compare the various lines, to see which lines have a common ancestor. I found the other day, where a distant cousin submitted his sample..only to be told he matched none of them. There had been a rumor that our ancestor was not a Biggs by birth but a Manning. Voila, he used the test result to compare to a Manning dna group..and results match. So the test was of value to lead us to the right birthname for further research. so... hang out here and we can explain how to find records that will be more explicit. edit http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sfollis/sources/genealogy_hoaxes.html some background on known scam operations incl houseofnames
wendy c
There is no DNA test as yet that can do what you are proposing. You might read the information on the Soreson Data Base site. The explanation of DNA is in lay terms and not difficult to understand.
Sunday Crone
DNA tests for genealogical purposes use swabs you swab your cheeks with. I recommend www.familytreedna.com, the oldest and also has the largest data bases. Family Tree also does the DNA testing for the National Geographics Genotype Program, which traces human migration world wide. The highest degree of accuracy of any DNA test (paternity, genealogy, criminal) is about 99%. In otherwords, your DNA test can tell you your ancestors came from Germany, but they might have been from Poland. I have a high degree of confidence in the tests; mine says I have ancestors from each country in Europe and the Middle East, as well as scattered around the world. My paper trail has led me to each country in Europe and the Middle East. So, yes, DNA tests can reveal where in the world your ancestors came from; no, it can not tell you names, dates, exact places where they lived nor can it tell you what language they spoke, what they ate/drank; their religion/politics, etc. (their ethnicity or culture).
Nothingusefullearnedinschool
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