DNA results from My Heritage

Thank you Esspee for your detailed explanation. It certainly cleared up many of my questions. I appreciate the time and trouble you have taken.and the PM.

I’ve thought about having a DNA check on my dog as everyone takes her for a border terrier. I saw both parents, pug and Jack Russell so she’s a bit of a mystery.

Hi Espana. Once you pay the company they send you a kit. You fill a phial with saliva and post it back to them. It takes a couple of months before you receive the results. At the most basic level they work out the family link between everyone on their database and suggest relationships. It is mainly used by people researching their family tree. It is extremely accurate and a boon to genealogists who have hit a brick wall in their research.

Lately some companies have been advertising the tests as a way of identifying your ethnicity. Here it is not accurate at all as it depends on the company database which may or may not cover all the variants which make you you. As more people are sampled then the accuracy grows.
My children have a small percentage of Amerindian blood but this hasn’t shown up as presumably there are not enough Amerindians (particularly Carib and Arawak) in the database.

At least one company also includes health screening. I used 23 and me for just that purpose. The genealogy was a side result but it got me interested and now I’m addicted to tracing my roots.

The health results told me what health problems I have or have not inherited. This is not for the faint hearted. You may be told for example that you have inherited the likelihood of having breast cancer, or Alzheimer’s. I am the type of individual who wants to know so that I can alter my chances. My mother was completely the opposite. She would prefer not to know. That is a possible downside of the health feature.

The genealogy feature possible downside depends on the type of person you are. If it turns out that you are not genetically related to your grandfather how would you feel? If a half sibling that you knew nothing about appeared how would you feel?
Personally I would be fascinated and want to learn more.

Ladyleftfieldlover sorry just noticed you said your son. He will have inherited 50% of his DNA from you and 50% from his father, so is it possible the dark gene comes from his father?

Ladyleftfieldlover My son, granddaughter, paternal grandmother and aunt all have a Mediterranean tinge to their skin and dark brown eyes. Must be Italian or Spanish I thought. No, nothing further south than northern France
Everyone has a different DNA, even siblings, so these people may not have the same DNA as you. My husband and two daughters are being tested, so I will be able to compare all our results which will be interesting.
I have a third cousin tested on Ancestry who I don't show any connection to. That means one or both of us hasn't inherited any DNA from that particular family.

Espana the details are all online and yes, they can only link you to people who have also had their DNA tested. One happy outcome for me was being linked to a distant cousin in France, we have worked out how we are connected. I thought the drop of French blood was a family legend, but it turned out to be true! He sent me a photo and he looks very like my brother.

I’d like to get mine done - I think I’d use ancestry, but I suspect the results would be disappointingly un-exciting.
One reason is that one dd has different colouring from anyone else in the family, except for my paternal GM - that olive-y Mediterranean skin that goes very brown so easily.

Some GGparents on that side came from near-coastal Suffolk and ditto Devon, so I do wonder whether there’s a bit of washed-up Armada sailor somewhere.

I sent my DNA sample off to Ancestry a couple of years ago. My son, granddaughter, paternal grandmother and aunt all have a Mediterranean tinge to their skin and dark brown eyes. Must be Italian or Spanish I thought. No, nothing further south than northern France and a biggish percentage in Scandinavia and Iceland. Admittedly my maternal grandmother looked like a Viking with her blue eyes and long blonde plaits. A cousin has being doing research into our grandmother and quite a lot of amazing stuff has emerged which my mother never mentioned. Two marriages, children with ‘father unknown’ etc. Fascinating.

Do they send details of people who are related to you? Presumably they have to have done their DNA and given permission. Is there any downside to doing this?

Espana they send you a test kit, you send off a saliva sample for analysis. I had mine done by Ancestry years ago, it was very accurate. My ethnicity is exactly what I expected and it has linked me to a few more cousins. It’s interesting seeing the updates from time to time.

Sorry “their”

esspee I don’t know how people send there DNA off / and to where/ and to what purpose.

I have had my DNA done with both Ancestry and My Heritage. I have researched all my ancestors very carefully back into the 1700s and I believe Ancestry has now got it spot on. I'm certain my mother was 100% Welsh and Ancestry shows me 53% Welsh which matches.
I don't recognise the results on My Heritage at all. They include countries I am certain I have no connection with whatsoever. And they show only 9.9% Irish/Scottish/Welsh which I know is complete nonsense.

Espana. Could you be more specific.

DNA results are accurate when indicating relationships.

Where they are inaccurate is in suggesting ethnicity. Their calculations are done by comparing you with their database. As this changes with more people being tested the results improve. Don’t waste your money getting tested for ethnicity. If you are interested in family history (genealogy) it is worth every penny.

you can upload DNa from Ancestry to My Heritage but sadly not the other way . I found results the two differed a lot when I put mine on My Heritage . It all depends on what they use as a benchmark I think ancestry have a bigger pool of DNA .

How does this work?

MY results can’t be right. Every contact they have sent is a 3 rd to 5th cousin with less than 1% shared dna and I recognise none of the names.
Really disappointed ☹️.

I did my dna recently with My Heritage and was pleased with the results as I knew of certain details anyway and they matched.

Tangerine was that with My Heritage ?

I am happy my results were accurate as I knew which countries were likely to figure in the information and they did.

No I haven't, but I remember a fairly recent post where someone else wasn't sure about their MH result.

I had mine done through Ancestry and am happy the results are accurate. Can you afford to have another test with them to confirm, or otherwise, your results?