Ancestry DNA is a company that was designed to help people who had a desire to trace their ancestral roots. The company responded to this need by creating a platform that you can use to trace your ancestral origins.
Using your DNA, the company uncovers your family heritage up to your most distant relative. You can find out your whole family history by the use of a simple DNA test. The company has one of the largest consumer DNA databases on the entire planet.
To get the results of your DNA test, you have to follow a few simple steps. The first step is to order the kit online. The kit comes with instructions that are quite easy to follow in order to get your saliva sample. You then return the DNA sample extracted from your saliva back to the company in a pre-paid envelope.
This will get it back to the laboratory for a complete analysis. In the laboratories, the DNA will undergo an extensive analysis that will cover over 700,000 genetic markers. The results will then be posted to you via email, and you can expect your results within 6 to 8 weeks.
Why Ancestry DNA Is Needed
The company enables you to uncover your comprehensive ethnic mix. Because the company has a huge database of DNA, they can help you to trace your ethnic origin. They have collected DNA markers of ethnicities from at least 26 diverse regions globally.
When you send your DNA sample to them you will get a complete breakdown of your ethnic background. You can even delve deeper into your genetic history via the use of Genetic Communities.
The company has gone beyond the reaches of ethnicity and has moved on to find your community. Currently, you can discover all the groups of people that you are related to courtesy of your DNA.
You can also find out the places that your ancestors called home. You also have the option of discovering the paths that your ancestors followed in order to get to the place you finally settled down. From your DNA, you can uncover a huge variety of things that will give you a full picture of where you are from, both geographically and culturally.
A genetic community is a group of members of Ancestry DNA that are connected to each other through their DNA. The connection could exist because they most likely share the ancestors from whom they descend.
This is the case, for example, in a group of people who married people of the same religion and ethnic group and who, over time, came to share a substantial amount of DNA. The descendants of these groups in modern times that have inherited his genetic make-up are what is considered a Genetic Community.
Searching For Your Ancestors
Census Records
The company helps you to search for your ancestors through various ways. One of them is through census records. The census can then give you plenty of information on your ancestor that can be crucial to your search.
Make sure that you properly analyze each question that was asked to your ancestors at the time the census was taken and think about what those answers could possibly mean to your family’s story. They will also give you clues that can help you to unearth even more clues about to your family heritage.
Most countries globally took a census at regular intervals of time. The records from these censuses can give you vital information on your ancestors and their family. You can then pin point the location of your family to their exact location at a particular period in history.
Although the census records often vary, there is information that remains constant in all of them. You can find crucial information in them, such as the names of household members, their places of birth, their residence, their occupation, their marriage information, and the ages of the household members.
You should note that the records from censuses do not always have the best penmanship, so you should manually write down the names of your ancestors and look for similar letters.
Immigration And Travel
The company will help you to track your ancestors’ geographical locations through their travel. You can get information on your ancestors through their immigration and naturalization records. Although the earlier records do not contain as much information on your ancestors as the current ones do, they still have enough to give you clues into your ancestors’ story.
You can examine the immigration records in the context of the timeline when your ancestors lived, and you can know about the type of travel that they undertook. The details that you can find in the immigration and naturalization records include the day they immigrated into their mos recent place of residence. You could potentially even get arrival records and border crossing information.
In order to search for your ancestors’ travel records, you need to learn their names in their ethnic variations. This is because they might have used their ethnic variations in their travel documents.
Birth, Death, And Marriage
This is another way of detecting your ancestor’s heritage. These are known as vital records and can give you information on the life stages of your ancestors. Most of the death records include the cause of death and, as a result, you will get to know what occasioned your ancestor’s passing.
To estimate the time of birth, use the information that you get on the census. You can also use city directories to get the records on the places of death of your ancestors. Normally, if a husband dies before the wife, they will stop being listed.
Benefits of Using Ancestry DNA
The company helps you to get a trace of your ancestors. Not only can you track down your ancestors, but you can also trace your relatives through your DNA.
It helps you to track down your ancestors through the geographical regions that they originated from. You can get a better idea of where your ancestors came from as the system compares your DNA to others across the world. The comparison will give you insight into where your family came from geographically.
The system is also quite easy and affordable. This is because the advances in technology have made DNA testing and comparison affordable. It can be an excellent way of finding your long lost relatives, both distant and near.
In addition, it is an invaluable tool for people who do not know their family tree. The company has a huge DNA database that can help you discover it.
Downsides
Some of the tests in the system can only be used by male members, making it hard for women to trace their own lineage independently.
The company is new to the international market, and as a result mostly has the heritage of people living in the US. If your heritage is mostly outside of the US, you might want to cross-reference your results with other companies.
The company lacks a chromosome browser which geneticists consider essential. Without this, the company relies on a system that can hamper advanced work into the DNA development.
The company also has an unreliable messaging system. You need to make a subscription to get the best of the company’s services, which is quite costly at $59 per year and upwards.
Ancestry DNA Conclusion
Ancestry DNA is a company that seeks to provide genetic information to help people track down their family tree. They are especially interested in linking up multiple users into a common genetic community. It is something worth trying for those who are curious about their heritage.
