Genetic genealogy is a valuable tool to augment, and in many cases validate, traditional genealogy.
However, do not ask the question if you can’t stand the answer. You might learn your father is not really your father, or you might discover a half-sibling that no one ever mentioned to you. On the other hand, this is probably the easiest/cheapest way learn who your mysterious grandparent really was.
Regardless of your testing company, you can transfer your results for FREE to gedmatch.com. Results from all the DNA test sites are compared at no cost, and within a few days time you can access, again at no cost a list of close kin, complete with an e-mail address that the donor chooses to use.
That is also the site being used to track down serial killers and rapists. If they left DNA behind, law enforcement can match it against gedmatch’s huge and ever-growing database to find relatives of the guilty party. It is then fairly simple to find the doer.
Unfortunately for the many FReepers who do not want to tested, if one or more of your relatives have tested, then your own DNA is already “out there.” By combining a DNA sample with some basic information such as rough age, results can frequently be linked to a pool of fewer than 20 people. Yaniv Erlich, a computational geneticist at Columbia University, was the leader of a study that found an internet sleuth can already identify about 60% of white Americans from a DNA sample, even if they have never provided their own DNA to a database. “In a few years, it’s really going to be everyone,” says the geneticist.
I recommend ignoring the ethnicity results at all the sites. People simple move around too much for these predictions to have much validity.
With all that said, which is the “best” company with whom to test your DNA for genealogy purposes? Ancestry.com is great at meshing DNA results with traditional “tree” data, and for finding first/second/third and even fourth cousins. These cousins might know a lot about your mutual great-great-great grandparents.
If you are a male (or have a cooperative male relative) then the Y-chromosome testing at familytreeDNA.com is fantastic. The results give you accurate links to your biological father’s father’s
(etc) father.
Both sites can assist you in finding genetic kin, but remember that any DNA test may shock you if you learn that, genetically, you are not who you thought you are.
You might learn your father is not really your father,
I am my daughter’s mommy even if we don’t share any genes. That isn’t the important part. I’m just lucky I got to carry and give birth to her, adopted from an embryo.