Why you should get AncestryDNA over 23andme

[calxpal]

Yes I agree.
My maternal grandfather was pure Irish by blood.. His mother's family originated in Newry (hence the big match I have there) , and his father's family originated in SE Ireland
My maternal grandmother (whom I have v extensive ancestry records), was 1/4 irish, 1/4 Welsh, and 1/2 Northern English (originally from the NE not far at all from the borders)
I think Ancestry are confusing my grandmother's NE English ancestry with Scottish tbh

This is interesting Ancestry for me assigned about twice as much Scottish ancestry as I should have realistically and about 1/8th as much Irish as I should have and people say it must be because I don't know my ancestry

[calxpal]

Well to share my thoughts, I would say that people should weigh the pros and cons very carefully of each test before ordering them and figure out what there interests are first before deciding. Personally after having done both of them I would be much more likely to recommend 23andme, although Ancestry does have some neat features however after they added the sudden paywall for all US users with the beta features the value of the test just dropped a lot and they revealed they are considering paywalling all the matches as well so something to consider carefully. Ancestry does have better raw data, and in terms of ancestry composition I personally think 23andme is better for Europeans but sometimes Ancestry works better for some people. Ancestry has a lot of European subregions but I think they sacrifice a fair amount of accuracy for specificity. 23andme also has confidence levels and more advanced DNA features and I think they are better with assigning genetic groups. Although Ancestry does have some fun tree features like hints. Ancestry does have a ton of genetic groups however they seem to under assign them.

So overall I would say if your primary interest is genealogy research get Ancestry, but if you're more interested in health and extra detailed reports get 23andme.

[Creoda]

Well to share my thoughts, I would say that people should weigh the pros and cons very carefully of each test before ordering them and figure out what there interests are first before deciding. Personally after having done both of them I would be much more likely to recommend 23andme, although Ancestry does have some neat features however after they added the sudden paywall for all US users with the beta features the value of the test just dropped a lot and they revealed they are considering paywalling all the matches as well so something to consider carefully. Ancestry does have better raw data, and in terms of ancestry composition I personally think 23andme is better for Europeans but sometimes Ancestry works better for some people. Ancestry has a lot of European subregions but I think they sacrifice a fair amount of accuracy for specificity. 23andme also has confidence levels and more advanced DNA features and I think they are better with assigning genetic groups. Although Ancestry does have some fun tree features like hints. Ancestry does have a ton of genetic groups however they seem to under assign them.

So overall I would say if your primary interest is genealogy research get Ancestry, but if you're more interested in health and extra detailed reports get 23andme.

It depends on your background as well. If you're fully British and/or Irish like me and know your ancestry well then getting 100% B & I on 23andme isn't going to be very interesting or surprising, and AncestryDNA separates English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish well. If you're a Euromutt then 23andme will be more accurate, while AncestryDNA provides the best raw data files.

The Ancestry.com genealogical side and DNA matching features are also superior. And as far as genetic groups go, at least for British and Irish Ancestry is far more accurate. Seems like every person with British or Irish ancestry comes from Greater London, Dublin or Glasgow according to 23andme.

[Grace O'Malley]

It depends on your background as well. If you're fully British and/or Irish like me and know your ancestry well then getting 100% B & I on 23andme isn't going to be very interesting or surprising, and AncestryDNA separates English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish well. If you're a Euromutt then 23andme will be more accurate, while AncestryDNA provides the best raw data files.

The Ancestry.com genealogical side and DNA matching features are also superior. And as far as genetic groups go, at least for British and Irish Ancestry is far more accurate. Seems like every person with British or Irish ancestry comes from Greater London, Dublin or Glasgow according to 23andme.

It's not perfect at separating populations. A cousin from Dublin gets a big chunk of Scottish and my daughter gets Scottish and some English. Both cousin and daughter have no recent ancestry from England or Scotland. My cousin's father is from Dublin and mother's side Roscommon and my daughter's father's family are from Eastern Ireland as well partly Dublin and Wexford.

Daughter's latest result. Her Irish has gone up 3% from last update and her Scottish has decreased. She has regained England & NW Europe which she had previously but lost in the update before this one.



I think a lot of British also get Irish etc without having actual Irish ancestry.

[Mortimer]

Im very content with AncestryDNA

[earthtube]

The information on my ethnic background from Ancestry DNA resembled very closely what paper records I have of my family tree, while 23andme connected me to places I have no verifiable connection to. This is anecdotal, I know, but it leads me to trust Ancestry more, despite the fact that they removed communities that matched very closely my paper records.

[calxpal]

I personally still trust 23andme way more because my Ancestry results don't align with my paper trail very well and they couldn't even get my one genetic community region right either.

I respect everyone's opinions though and please don't chew me out of you're an AncestryDNA fan I some of you have gotten good results from them.

Also the underhanded greedy paywalls have mad me lose respect for them. I'm probably going to delete my Ancestry account in the next 2 years if they don't improve.

[Laredo]

I personally still trust 23andme way more because my Ancestry results don't align with my paper trail very well and they couldn't even get my one genetic community region right either.

I respect everyone's opinions though and please don't chew me out of you're an AncestryDNA fan I some of you have gotten good results from them.

Also the underhanded greedy paywalls have mad me lose respect for them. I'm probably going to delete my Ancestry account in the next 2 years if they don't improve.

Ironically my FTDNA turn out to be more accurate than what Ancestry gave me , a bit more Indigenous and SSA, I don't feel like spending any unnecessary money on DNA test but I feel 23andme would still be more accurate.

[calxpal]

Ironically my FTDNA turn out to be more accurate than what Ancestry gave me , a bit more Indigenous and SSA, I don't feel like spending any unnecessary money on DNA test but I feel 23andme would still be more accurate.

Same FTDNA was better for me too especially after the recent update, but I know the FTDNA update wasn't good for everyone. I mean FTDNA does have decent features for the price, I could also understand though since DNA companies sadly don't seem to be doing well in general. 23andme has issues like all of them but I would still recommend it.

Also I can't 100% confirm this is true, and please Ancestry fans don't bash me lol but it seems like Ancestry genuinely does have a tendency to overestimate Indigenous in Latin Americans I heard this is because they used some admired samples but I am not an expert lol so don't take what I say as for certain.

But ofc these tests are always going to be estimates and have some issues.