Which DNA Test is Best for Finding Close Relatives? | Genetic Genealogy

What DNA test will help you find your closest relatives? Should you take an autosomal, y-DNA, or mitochondrial DNA test? Which DNA testing company is best to test with to find your kin?

0:00 Intro
0:26 What DNA test you take depends on the question you are asking
0:53 Three kinds of genetic DNA tests - autosomal, y-DNA, and mitochondria
1:51 Why take an Autosomal DNA test to find close relatives?
2:20 Why take a y-DNA or mt-DNA test?
2:43 What DNA companies help me find my closest relatives?
3:23 Which DNA company test should you take to find your closest relatives?

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[FamilyHistoryFanatics]

QOTD: Which test have you used to find close relatives?

[alanheadrick]

I'll start this early. My experience is if its just close relatives any of them work. I think Ancestry has more people tested. However you will probably have to test at 23andme, FTDNA and Myheritage to make sure you cover the most people you can. 23andme is my favorite.

[erikbarkefors]

The best DNA test for finding relatives is the one used by those relatives themselves. If they used something other than the one you use, you won't find them. Start with one of them that has the most people in their database and check if they share information with anyone else (for example government or researchers).

[ItCountsMyFears]

You only need to do Ancestry and 23&me. You can download your raw DNA from Ancestry and upload it to the other databases. Except for 23&me.

[mschari]

How can I donate money to y’all??? I’m loving all this info

[scrapingrama]

I use ancestry and you can upload to other sites. I only have two close cousins one from dad side and one from moms side. That way I colour coded. Lots of third and fourth cousins with shared matches on each side. Gradually busting brick walls.

[ggpex]

I am curious about 23andMe being attributed in many Genetic genealogy sites as providing autosomal DNA only. They provided maternal haplogroup for me and maternal and paternal haplogroups for my brother, my paternal first cousin, my hubby, and his brother. Do they no longer offer that? What does FamilyTreeDNA additionally provide for Y & mitochondrial testing that 23andMe did not already provide for me and my family?

[rodneykaiser]

Andy, are you familiar with CRI Genetics? I was interested in taking a taste from them, but I haven’t heard much about them.

[elainedebruce]

So I've always wanted to find my dad. My mom knew but would never tell me and died without ever telling me. I'm a female. Would I take the autosomal or the y DNA?

[johnross]

WGS tests (whole genome sequencing) were on the market prior to this video being published, IE more than 10 months ago. WGS testing results include Y-DNA discovery testing (coverage of 100% of the Y chromosome), mtDNA, and autosomal DNA. Telling the public only FTDNA offers Y-DNA and mtDNA testing is erroneous. FGC, YSEQ, Dante Labs, and Nebula Genomics all offer WGS tests.

[dragonmummy]

My experience says 23andme is best for finding out where your dna is from, down to actually naming specific areas. There are 6500 names in my family tree so we know it’s accurate. Ancestry shocked me with how bad they were so much that I complained. They gave me 63% Irish, making me more Irish than my Irish mother - there’s not one single Irish person on my dads side. They told me it’s just an estimate which runs from 3% to 64%! Which seems pretty useless to me. They are better though at finding relatives, especially if you use thrulines. They’ve just reassessed the dna results and my Irish dna is now a much more reasonable 48%. But they’ve now given me, and it seems everyone else, a large proportion of Scottish dna. You will find some on my dna in Scotland it’s true. But it’s from my Irish family, some of whom have moved there.

[amandahorner]

maybe some of you can give me guidance on finding relatives. Do I register on Ancestry, then take one of the Ancestry DNA tests? How is my dna put onto the Ancestry data base for finding relatives, do I need to upload results? thanks for any help or guidance you can give me

[caracre]

All my relatives are in Europe and they don’t do these DNA tests generally, so does that mean I won’t get much ancestry info?

[jasonjase]

I would say do ancestry with a subscription. That way you can find people through records since most people haven't done a DNA test. With out a DNA test ancestry is only really good at finding deceased relatives or people you have entered yourself

[mikekeltner]

I have no family, I want to see if I fathered any kids in my past. Where do I go?

[kerrymckee]

My family has a man that was given up for adoption so we're trying to find them.

[donnapoole]

Looking for a brother that my mom gave up for adoption.