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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Biggles50 on Thursday 12 February 26 11:18 GMT (UK)
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When this was first announced I was intrigued by the feature so thought that I would document the whole process and share it with you Chatters.
The kit was ordered on the 2nd Feb and it arrived on the 9th Feb and it was posted yesterday (11/2/26), so let us see what the whole genome test gives once the sample is processed and matches identified.
When I ordered the DNA Kit My Heritage activated the 30 day “free” period which I did not really want as would rather have it available to start once the DNA sample has been processed and results have been analysed.
They offered a full year subscription for £59 which I accepted so I then thought that I would take a look at how the site has changed since my last time using it.
I have therefore built a very small, very basic tree.
Have to say that the My Heritage system has the potential for huge errors in trees.
It is very easy to accept one of their “smart matches” only to have the tree populated by a mass of data.
The tree now has 63 people which is all I intend to populate it with for now at least.
As a matter of interest I clicked on a couple of the “smart match” suggestions and it populated the tree with the data.
Then using the “Consistency Checker” it showed 28 issues.
So I spent 2 hours going through each one removing all the duplicate records that it added.
Be warned of this issue if you are considering using MH.
As it is I only intend to use it periodically for the year of the subscription and will end auto renewal once I have worked through the DNA Matches.
Prior experiences with MH were mixed, I did have some useful DNA matches but was less impressed by the Admixture results. We dumped and expunged all our data on MH when they “lost” my Wife’s DNA, one day it was there, the next gone, no records, no matches, just her basic tree. At the time MH said that we had to have deleted her DNA, I know that this was not the case.
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I've considered ordering a kit from MH now they are doing whole genome testing, but will wait to see what you have to say about it once you get your results.
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Have they specifically announced these new tests will be full genome?
For going through matches on MyH, I have tests for my father and his sister; and two of my maternal aunts. I don't pay any attention to a match unless they include both of either of them. Even for 50cM-100cM matches, about 50% are false positives. Only paying attention to matches that match two of the relatives avoids going off on wild goose chases.
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Yes, I queried the “whole genome testing” and yes it applies.
I activated the test before posting it and have just received an eMail from My Heritage offering a £50 upgrade on my test for the Health reports.
I am 75 years old and only have to take one tablet a day, I am riddled with osteoarthritis and have a heart issue, which is best quoted what my my Cardiologist said “the only way your heart is going to be stopped is by hitting it with a sledge hammer”.
At my ripe old age I’ll forego learning that I have a chance of diabetes, have a slim chance of Parkinsons, a chance of breast cancer, the only aspect that is likely to be correct is the high chance of loosing my hair.
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17th February.
Sample received at the Processing Lab in the USA, 6 days after posting the kit in the UK.
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19th February
DNA extraction in progress.
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22nd February
Whole Genome Sequencing, in progress
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After enthusiastically waiting for mine for six or 8 weeks or so it was a bit of an anti-climax, because it gave me the same matches, in a slightly different order apart from one that disappeared and one new one was added. Maybe when the CRAM file becomes available this might change.
ZAPH
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It is OK Zaph, I have set Low Expectations for the results.
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1st March
DNA Raw Data produced.
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3rd March
The results are in.
Out of the 10 highest matches 6 were already in my tree, one has a tree of one and the matches currently give no clues. Another has a tree where there are a lot of holes in her tree but the potential is there in one of our Shared Matches. They seem to be First Cousins to each other and from his tree I found that I share the same GGGP’s with him. Alas his 1C is not visible in his tree and no names in her tree are shown in his. Awaiting a response from him.
As yet I have not got beyond looking at matches and ethnicity.
Ethnicity, as shown by MH it is still the same as its reputation, not accurate at all.
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Out of the 10 highest matches 6 were already in my tree
What would be the reason behind now being shown higher cM matches that were not there previously?
And is there any conformation this is really a full genome test?
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I am not with your thinking.
Looking through the closest matches there does not seem to be any change in cM values compared to my recollection of the first MH test.
I have linked four new DNA Cousins into my Ancestry tree from the MH matches but that is only due to them having trees on MH that have recognisable family members.
So not really much benefit as far as I can ascertain so far from the new MH testing process.
Now by my logic, whole genome should enable far more accurate use and results of using the Chromosome Browser and Auto Clusters.
The Chromosome Browser with the limited testing applied by myself does not seem any different to the prior system, still zero triangulation and any useful indication using DNA matches who are close relations to each other.
The Auto Cluster has taken a while to generate but it used the highest 100 matches to cluster. The result is a largest cluster of 15 with the top one having more shared matches than the others but with just their name and no tree, they are not presently worth any time researching. Nor is no tree, “Auntie M” for obvious reasons.
Again spurious results with DNA matches who are closely related not in the same cluster yet in another cluster they are there.
Ethnicity as stated, way off the mark.
I am 50% Cheshire/Yorkshire going back 250 years, 25% Irish and 25% Italian both going back to 1800 and beyond.
MH shows me as 31% Scottish/Welsh, 25% English, 15% Italian, 11% Irish & 7% French then a smattering of other origins.
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Biggles, I don't pay a lot of attention to ethnicity results, as it's not really of interest, but I have always understood that they relate to 500 to a thousand years ago. That's a lot more remote than the dates that you give, 225 to 250 years ago.
Your ancestors from 500 to a thousand years ago may have come from different places, compared to your own research of the last 200 to 250 years.
Zaph
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Hi,
I would tend to agree with Zaphod99. I think the more revealing and interesting stats come from the Ancient Origins data, and Genetic Distance data. The can explain some of the apparently anomalous “Ethnicities” or at lest they do in my case, the also possibly explain the maybe came from before 1700 for a couple of my families.
I just wish Ancestry would provide similar rather than PetDNA and Traits.
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Yet, Ancestry gets my ethnicity breakdown to match the research.
My Heritage does not.
It is all down to data processing so best thought of as a rough approximation.
It is all a bit of fun in any case and taken with a bag of Saxa.
The whole point of taking the revised DNA Whole Genome test was to see if it offered anything new to genealogical research.
Jury is still out on that.
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So it has been a few weeks and quite a few additions have been made to my tree.
Been in contact with a new 3C and a very informative outcome that has been.
The DNA Tools are so far not proving much different.
Not getting any Triangulation but a couple of potentials.