Family Tree DNA was the first results I received in 2015 when I tested.
My First to 3rd cousin on my maternal side not only tested at Ancestry but also tested here. At the time I did not know him or that he was a maternal cousin. But as an adopted person it was very exciting to see people who were closely biologically related.
I clicked on everything looking for hints and information. Wish I knew then what I know now about testing and research. But part of the satisfaction of success is the journey.
Family Tree DNA was founded about 20 years ago, by Bennett Greenspan, Max Blankfield and Jim Warren.
It was the first test I did that analyzed my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA. Like most of the companies they have made changes and additions to what they provide.
The most advanced package they offer, known as the ‘Comprehensive Genome’ includes the ‘Family Finder’ autosomal test, the ‘Y-DNA67’ and ‘mtFull Sequence’ tests.
Again while I found information on my origins about ancient migrations on the European Continent. And that there are three major players being the Hunter-Gatherers, Early Farmers, and Metal Age Invaders and what percentage I was is fascinating. For me it didn’t get me any closer to answering my question of who were my bio mom and dad?
So why test with Ancestry.com? As of November 2018, the company claimed to provide access to approximately 10 billion historical records, to have 3 million paying subscribers and to have sold 14 million DNA kits to customers.
If that is not enough for someone specifically of European decedent, live in the USA and are looking for DNA matches your odds are the best with Ancestry. Not only for matches but for research and tree building to go along with your DNA.
Again I had really no idea what I would get from them as far as information and matches. I had no idea about building a genealogy tree. So I had a huge learning curve. Still do.
Also when new research data comes online they are there uploading it. For example when the records of the Lutheran Church in Romania became available it was a field day for me. My paternal side was from there and Lutheran, so here were previously unavailable records for them from Romania in a digital format.
For me Ancestry was a major key to my success of finding my Bio People. My two top “2nd Cousin” matches turned out to be; one on my paternal side and one on my maternal side. And with their Shared Match function and tree hints and lots of research, it helped me figure out this mystery.
I contacted both of my close cousins and from 2015 to today they have helped me find my Bio People. Yes I built trees and spent countless hours doing research and also contacted other matches. It wasn’t a quick process.
I was fortunate that I did not need any of the great advance tools that GedMatch offers. So at this point I am not sure how all of them work.
Their purpose is to help amateur & professional researchers & genealogists. I like it so much that I am a Tier1 Sustainer and donate $10 a month to them to keep up their good work.
Their were founded in 2010 and are based in Lake Worth, Florida. In 2018 they had 929,00 genetic profiles with 7,300 users who like me pay $10 a month. This money pays for their $200,000 a month server costs.
It is still run by the owner Roger and 5 volunteers. There are no full time staff.
According to then they have helped $10,000 adoptees find their bio families.
Yes they are the data base company that CeCe Moore has used to help law enforcement crack some very high and low profile cases. My self I am good with this.
Check them out I find they have good privacy rules in place.
I did not test there. While all modern humans did come from Africa I am not an African American and as far as I can tell I don’t have a close relative who are. While doing research I came across this company. So I have no experience with them so do your research.
The information below is from an ad they sponsor on face book and their website.
“They are a 100% black owned business and the only DNA company with black scientists.”
“We are the only DNA testing company that can match people of African descent specifically to their present day African country and tribe.”
“We have spent 15 years doing something the other DNA testing companies Don’t value – helping people f African descent understand who they are.”
” Our database is the most comprehensive resource of African lineages available. We have worked with historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and other geneticists to build the largest collection of African lineages in the world. We use a sequence similarity score (SSS) measure to determine matches. The SSS measure is a likelihood estimate based on the frequency of identical and closely related (>99%) haplotypes. It is our degree of confidence in your results.”