Best company to get DNA from?

[WhiteHaven]

I want to go deeper into my father's side of my ancestry and want to see what a DNA test says about where we come from,What is best company to go with?

[Tropico]

Overall autosomal and halo groups I'd say either family tree DNA (Family Finder $99) or 23andMe (also $99). For the basics anyways which would be halogroups (paternal and maternal) and admixture. For DEEPER looks into paternal vs maternal halogroups family tree DNA is the way to go.

[Thor2009]

23andMe is generally regarded as the best.

There are supposedly some things that FTDNA does better, like identifying certain haplogroups, but 23andMe is really good at that, too.

[Artek]

23andMe is generally regarded as the best.

There are supposedly some things that FTDNA does better, like identifying certain haplogroups, but 23andMe is really good at that, too.
Guy needs a deep ancestry on the fathers side, 23andMe can't obviously provide such. Sorry for the negrep, but I can't allow confusing him.

[Equilibrium]

Guy needs a deep ancestry on the fathers side, 23andMe can't obviously provide such. Sorry for the negrep, but I can't allow confusing him.

Agree about the deep ancestry part, but lol at the thumb-down. :icon_cheesygrin:

[Artek]

Agree about the deep ancestry part, but lol at the thumb-down. :icon_cheesygrin:
I'm just allergic to such situations. Maybe I exaggerated a little ...

[Benacer]

So FTDNA is that good? Do I get more than 23andme for $99? Apparently they work with Brazil, so I wouldn't have to wait until I'm abroad to order.

[Equilibrium]

So FTDNA is that good? Do I get more than 23andme for $99? Apparently they work with Brazil, so I wouldn't have to wait until I'm abroad to order.

No, you get actually less for 99$ from FtDNA compared to 23andme. With 23andme you get your autosomal analysis (967,000 SNPs tested vs 708,092 SNPs tested @FtDNA), Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups, plus health information. The 99$ family finder from FtDNA only gives you the autosomal analysis.

But if you want to do a deep analysis of your haplogroups FtDNA is your choice, but it gets very pricey.

[ZephyrousMandaru]

23andMe, they genotype nearly 1,000,000 data points in your genome with their Illumina OmniExpress chip. Giving you a very high resolution look into your autosomal DNA, but in addition to that, they'll list your Traits, your susceptibility to drugs, genetic predisposition to certain diseases, and assess your health risks for each. But most importantly, you'll have the option of downloading your raw data. Which can be used for further testing, through the ADMIXTURE calculators, and other tests developed by the administrators of the various genetics project.

[Artek]

All you've said there is right. But he said that he needs a deep ancestry. 23andMe offers more widespread services for their price but at the same time - they have lower-resolution Y-DNA and mtDNA tests. I assume that deep ancestry means both Y-DNA and mtDNA, because autosomal genetics is parent-based and is formed differently in every next generation.

[Argang]

Geno 2.0 of National Geographic has the best SNP analysis for Y chromosome among tests in the couple hundred dollar price range.
FamilyTreeDNA offers full mtDna test for the same price which completely takes care of maternal deep ancestry.

Fullchromosomes says they will sequence nothing less than the full Y-chromosome, which would be the most extensive paternal deep ancestry test but has a $1,250 pricetag.

[Argang]

Geno 2.0 of National Geographic has the best SNP analysis for Y chromosome among tests in the couple hundred dollar price range.
FamilyTreeDNA offers full mtDna test for the same price which completely takes care of maternal deep ancestry.

Fullchromosomes says they will sequence nothing less than the full Y-chromosome, which would be the most extensive paternal deep ancestry test but has a $1,250 pricetag.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

It's only 5k, maybe less to get full genome, though. If you are going to go up to 1250 I'd just wait a couple years and full genome will be 1000 or less. That is what I am waiting for.

[WhiteHaven]

Guy needs a deep ancestry on the fathers side, 23andMe can't obviously provide such. Sorry for the negrep, but I can't allow confusing him.

Yeah. My mothers side we have it traced back to the 1200's in England/Scotland. My fathers side I can only trace back to 1880's or so. That's when my fathers fathers side came over from Poland. I want a good all around test that can tell me where I come from exactly etc...Plan on doing the wife as well.

[Stanley]

23andMe, probably. That's what I'll be ordering soon and I have some of the same queries you do, i.e. I can only trace my immigrant ancestors back to late 1800s Europe. Plus I don't know what 1/16 of my ancestry actually is.

People are telling you to avoid 23andMe because they took your original post as meaning you wanted a high resolution y-DNA test, but I don't think that's what you really want. Just ten generations back you have 1,024 ancestors and y-DNA tells you about only one of them. Haplogroups are essentially trivia.

It sounds like you want actual ancestrally substantive information. Go with 23andMe.

[WhiteHaven]

Was reading on another forum that 23andme is not what I want..says it doesn't break down the exact areas of Europe I come from just generalizations...Thinking about going with the family one...I want to know where in Europe we came from...now will it tell my mother side as well or just fathers? I know mothers but would be cool to learn more.

[WhiteHaven]

Which test do I get from FTDNA if I want farther back than 5 generations? The 99$ one only does 5 generations...would also love to do my mothers side as well...

[Stanley]

I'm not an expert in this whole genetics scene, and I don't know much of anything about FTDNA, but I believe 23andMe does give information about potential countries of origin and the locations of people you share large segments of DNA with. As I understand it, you can also take the 23andMe raw data and do additional things with it.

My reply was just to point out that a lot of people seemed to think that you wanted some deep Y-DNA testing and were recommending FTDNA on that wrong assumption.

But I'll let those more knowledgeable weigh in. FTDNA might be what you want after all, I don't know.

[amerinese]

Was reading on another forum that 23andme is not what I want..says it doesn't break down the exact areas of Europe I come from just generalizations...Thinking about going with the family one...I want to know where in Europe we came from...now will it tell my mother side as well or just fathers? I know mothers but would be cool to learn more.


Which test do I get from FTDNA if I want farther back than 5 generations? The 99$ one only does 5 generations...would also love to do my mothers side as well...

You need to understand some basics about personal DNA testing, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Y-DNA: Non-recombining DNA that is a nearly identical copy passed from each father to each son. If you are interested in your "paternal line", "family name", etc. this can be useful. It can go back several hundred, or several thousand years. It is not going to tell you anything about your mother's side, your paternal grandmother's side, etc. It's male line only.

mtDNA: Non-recombining DNA that is passed in a similar way, from each mother, to her sons and daughters. Similar to Y-DNA but it's your female line only.

Autosomal: A sampling across your entire genome. You get approximately 50% from each parent. It is good for identifying all of your ancestry from both sides, but only back about 5-10 generations, based on the resolution of testing from 23andMe and FTDNA. It is also good for seeing your general similarity to historical population groups, races, etc. but it isn't going to tell you whether ex. your 8th great grandfather was German, Polish, or Russian etc. If he is your direct paternal-line ancestor, Y-DNA *might* actually be able to tell you that.

X-DNA: Women inherit two copies, one from each parent. Men inherit one copy, a combined version of their mothers. This is a sort of auxiliary test which goes deeper than autosomal, but provides a less complete picture of your ancestry, since you (as a man) didn't get a copy of your dad's.

So my recommendation is as follows:

If you are interested in all of your ancestry, get a 23andMe or FTDNA Family Finder test.

If you are interested in your paternal line, family surname, etc. get a FTDNA Y-DNA STR test. This *might* be able to tell you where that distant grandfather really came from, if it isn't too common, and there are a bunch of modern men (your distant paternal-line cousins) carrying that same STR profile, with some variant of your surname, in a particular country... or better yet if they dug up some historical remains in a country that have your STR profile.

Alternatively, if you are *really* interested in your paternal line, get a Geno 2.0 test, which will get you the most comprehensive Y-SNP test for tracing your paternal line back for thousands of years, then transfer those results to FTDNA (for free), then get a FTDNA Y-DNA STR test. This will give you the most comprehensive set of data for your paternal line *only*.

[Stanley]

If you are interested in all of your ancestry, get a 23andMe or FTDNA Family Finder test.

Which of the two would you personally recommend for this purpose? Or what specifically does one do better than the other?

[amerinese]

Which of the two would you personally recommend for this purpose? Or what specifically does one do better than the other?

I have 23andMe results, and haven't used FTDNA Family Finder. So I can't compare based on firsthand experience. 23andMe has health results, Family Finder doesn't. I think 23andMe's customer base is bigger, so it's probably better for contacting cousins. You can transfer your 23andMe raw data over to FTDNA in order to use Family Finder, but FTDNA charges a fee for it. You can take raw data from either one, and load it into third-party tools (like Gedmatch or DIYDodecad) for cousin-finding and admixture analysis.