AncestryDNA + Traits Genetic Test Kit: Personalized Genetic Traits, DNA Ethnicity Test, Origins & Ethnicities, Complete DNA Test, Ancestry Reports

Got this for my husband so we can see what his lineage may be. The instructions are easy to follow and the sample you have to give isn’t invasive, it’s quick and easy. Took 2 minutes! Mailed it the next day, they pay for the postage to have it sent in with results in 6 weeks. I highly recommend this product for genealogical research for yourself.

No surprises!I know a lot of people have unusual and hard-to-determine ancestry or even progeny, but let me reassure you that the accuracy seems flawless to me. I had literally no surprises in my results, which may seem a bit boring at first blush. But it's exciting to confirm all of the research that I did on Ancestry and Family search for the last 2 years.I have a regular and recurring Ancestry account that I paid less-than-full price for (thanks to coupons) and this kit worked extremely well with it. Everybody should know that they run sales for the kits all the time (pick a holiday that entails family members, and you'll find a discount here). So I got mine near Black you-know-what day and it was probably the best sale you'll see.My tree of over 1,000 people is woefully incomplete in my cousin lines. I had only worked on direct ancestors. Well, if you are like me, now you can do two things: you can (1) add in your cousins with DNA matches, most of which will be alive, and (2) confirm or fix your direct ancestors. I was happy when I was able to do #2 especially for my father's line. It turned out that my father's father's father was quite the lady's man! He sort of loved them and leaved them, so to speak. Well, I have several cousins because of all this. While not entirely unexpected, it had been assumed that he died. Nah, he was just starting a new family elsewhere.It also helped me figure out who his father was. So, I guess the secret is out, and I can confirm the rest of my (admittedly boring) tree.So I got many, many DNA links, and some of them shared quite a bit (1 to 3%) of my DNA.And I pretty much can put a damper on the old wives' tales about being descended from Indians. Either they made that up, or I got no DNA from them.I recommend1. you work on your tree in Ancestry (you will need a subscription)2. you watch a video about using the DNA matches and ThruLines3. you learn about cM4. you compare your tree to your 1st, 2nd, 3rd cousins trees5. you eventually try the "dot" method to identify hidden/unknown lines in your tree6. you make your tree public to help othersI sort of forgot about the traits. Anyway, they are interesting, and I already found three traits which don't describe me well.I actually think Ancestry DNA's traits are terrible. I hate them. You know why? They somehow refuse to explain them. They go to all of this trouble to identify the genes for iris coloration and nose shape, but they can't be bothered with photos of ACTUAL humans (not drawings) of a Grecian nose or a pigmented ring. Even an attached ear lobe could help some people.I also don't like their "male hair loss" trait when it has been called "male pattern hair loss" for decades. And get this: their photo for male hair loss shows a BALD man who appears to have his head shaved and is relatively young instead of the commonly-seen man with bald spots at that age.Possibly the stupidest trait is CLEFT CHIN (see photo). Rather than showing us a cleft chin, they draw white dots where one would be ... on a stock photo of someone without one! Come on, man. Really? I also looked up cleft chin on the Interwebs and there is a funny study of US Senator photos that concludes it is "hard to draw a clear boundary between cleft and smooth chins." Traits may be fun for kids in 5th grade science, but this is just embarrassing.So while I can't really complain if I have 3+ traits or so that don't describe me, their questionnaires are confusing and the results need a lot of fixing.The "traits" were not something that sold me on this test: they seem (both to me and the DNA Traits website team) to be an afterthought. DNA testing is to figure out how you relate to others. You sort of already know who you are. So 5 stars with a caveat: ignore the man behind the curtain that tells you that you don't like dancing -- but you like to run marathons!You have been warned: DNA Traits are very underwhelming, scientifically questionable, confusing in their descriptions, and no more accurate than a palm reading.Also: my results came fast! And I submitted them during the December rush period. I liked that. They completely over-delivered on speed here.

Very simple to understand. Register first, don’t eat or drink for 30 minutes before spitting. There’s a line to tell you how much to spit. Replace funnel with cap, shake to invert liquid into container to keep the spit fresh. Tighten lid, put in plastic bag and seal in box. No added fee for shipping as long as it’s in the U.S.A. There is a dollar fee if you want to get the three month deal of using the site for genealogy work. After that price goes up to $99 a month. I did the dollar deal for three months and then went in and canceled it when it expires so I don’t have to worry about forgetting to cancel. It will offer a cheaper price upon canceling that you can choose to accept or decline. I’m adopted so I’m doing this to learn more about my family history. Takes up to 6 weeks on average to get information back or you can choose to pay $20 more for a faster result.

I bought both this and 23andMe to cover my bases. Lets' compare.COLLECTIONAlmost identical. You spit into a tube, wrap it up, send it in. Then wait.TIME UNTIL RESULTSNearly identical. It took around 4-ish weeks for both. They emailed me at different steps of the process which was nice.RESULTSPretty surprising. Ancestry DNA says I am 33% English, 23% Irish, 19% German, 13% Scottish, and so on. 23andMe says I am 77.1% "Irish & UK", 17.7% French & German, 4.3% Scandinavian, and so on. Comparing Ireland and UK, Ancestry totaled 56% while 23andMe totaled 77%. Quite a difference. Ancestry didn't even pick up on my French ancestry while 23andMe didn't quite recognize my Norwegian ancestry.23andMe did include results for WAAAAY back results like Middle East, Africa, and even Neanderthal.USER INTERFACE/EXPERIENCEI will give 23andMe the edge here. On Ancestry you can see the highlighted countries representing your DNA. On 23andMe you can click the country and see all of the regions/counties where your DNA is from. Bolder regions show where more DNA is from vs. lighter regions. So rather than just "Ireland" I know most of my DNA came from County Dublin, County Mayo, County Cork, and County Galway. Pretty cool.KEY DIFFERENCES23andMe dives much deeper into your health markers. You really can't make informed decisions on it but it's still interesting to see that I have an increased likelihood of skin cancer, glaucoma, ADHD, etc. 23andMe has the ability to build a family tree but if that's what you're after, Ancestry beats them hands down.Ancestry has years and years of data from others building their family trees. What this means is you can add your parents, grandparents, etc., and there is a high probability Ancestry will automatically identify your past relatives. Basically, "Hey, we think we found a good match for Jane Doe's parents. Does this look right?" With that feature I was able to build out my direct lineage back to the 1700s in a couple of hours.CANCELLATIONThis is where it gets fun. Cancelling 23andMe and SUUUUUUCKS. The site conveniently broke for me when I went to cancel. What made this more annoying is you have to sign up for their annual subscription to get your results. Yes, the results that you already paid for with this kit requires an annual subscription. But don't worry, you can "cancel at any time." I ended up having to write to customer service to cancel. It took almost a month to get back to me. So I just completely deleted my account and scrubbed my DNA results (assuming they follow privacy laws). That whole process was annoying and left a bad taste in my mouth.Ancestry was super easy to cancel. No issues there.BOTTOM LINEI think both are worth it given the varying results. The health data is interesting but not something I am putting much stake in. If I only had money for one, I would absolutely go with Ancestry.

I didn't have any problems with the kit. They met their times. I won't buy it again because I think it is overpriced.

This works great. I have been able to go back to 1824. Be warned, if you don't want to find a person out, then be careful. My dad was adopted, and now I have relatives from 3rd cousins on it.

makes a great gift! super cool to find out the results!