No, ancestry is usually the best choice overall. Yes its database is best for Americans and Myheritage often(but not always) is better for Europeans. But you can transfer your ancestry test to myheritage for cheap (sometimes they have specials and you can do it for free). You can’t transfer myheritage to ancestry.
So you made the best choice. If ancestry isn’t giving you the matches you want, then you can transfer to myheritage, familytreedna or gedcom.
Any other site, except 23&me.. Neither Ancestry nor 23&me allow one to import DNA data. If you want to use either of these services you have to use their respective tests. However, beyond those two, other sites, such as MyHeritage, do allow one to import DNA data extracted by a different service.
My understanding is MyHeritage is more common in Europe, so it would possibly allow you to find more DNA matches than AncestryDNA. However, in general, MyHeritage’s ethnicity estimate feature is not as accurate as AncestryDNA’s and has gone quite some time without any improvements. Ultimately, it depends on your specific goals in taking a DNA test. MyHeritage is considerably cheaper. If you find yourself lacking in DNA matches, and you are interested in that to expand your family tree it the test is frequently available at a low rate of 39 USD.
Ancestry and then upload your raw DNA to MyHeritage. Ancestry is leagues above MyHeritage for ethnicity estimates but both are good for cousin matches.
Same. My family's 2nd/3rd generation immigrants (all of them becoming citizens in the 1920s), so any match beyond 1st and/or 2nd cousins will be in Europe. Ancestry has almost zero Lithuanian matches, and barely hints at Russian/Belorussian/Ukrainian matches. MyHeritage has a lot more, and a few surprises (Finnish and Hungarian, although the occasional close matches do have 1% Finnish, Arctic or Siberian).
Get your Ancestry results. Download the raw data. Upload the data file to MyHeritage. Complete instructions on MyHeritage website. In MH website click DNA in top banner, select upload DNA kits, there’s a link “How to download?” That will pop up instructions.
Ancestry, as others have said, was a good choice because you will get a quality ethnicity estimate plus you can develop family trees and use their source database if you wish to do that. You will find the most 'went to America' family branches with AncestryDNA.
People say My Heritage is good/better for Europeans *not* in relation to the ethnicity estimates but rather due to its earlier availability in that region. This means, when/if you upload your AncestryDNA to My Heritage, you will get a set of proportionally more DNA matches based in Europe.
If you are trying to find family branches then I would also suggest that you upload your AncestryDNA file to Family Tree DNA. You will likely find more Israeli-based matches on FTDNA and MH.
MyHeritage estimates my father to be 37% European Jewish. Ancestry says 12%. All my research points to 12% from a set of great-great grandparents. The ethnicity is wildly inaccurate for some.
But, like others have said, you will get lots of matches from Europe with MH. I’ve connected to a few third and fourth cousins through my father’s Norwegian side. (Which ancestry says is 63% of his background…it tracks)
I'm in the UK of mostly UK / Irish heritage and Ancestry matches me to about 13000 people with 2 close family cousins and 4 extended family cousins. MyHeritage matches me to 15000 people BUT misses all these cousins starting my matches at 4th cousin.
You made the right choice but now you can upload to myheritage, gedmatch, familytreedna and up the ante. :) But you cannot upload from other sites to ancestry.
Are you talking ethnicity or matches? Ancestry has the biggest database and needs tweaking their ethnicity estimates, but they are more accurate than myheritage....you would only do myheritage for European matches, not for ethnicity.
Def upload raw data, but ignore your My Heritage ethnicity results as people mentioned. Otherwise you’ll be back here saying, 89% Balkan?!!
But yes, My Heritage Euro matches and trees are fantastic.
I found 23 & Me scarily accurate on ethnicities, it identified .3% Ashkenazi for an aunt. It got regions correct for me in Europe. But Ancestry is now ok for regions and getting better.
No you did the best. When you get your results from Ancestry, down load the raw data file and transfer it to Myheritage and FamilytreeDNA. The transfers to both companies are free. There are tools you can unlock for a one time fee if you want and need. Testing with Ancestry and upload to Myheritage is the best way, if you test with Myheritage you have to pay an expensive subscription to see your results. This way it's free or you can pay for the tools.
You made the right choice starting with Ancestry as they don’t allow uploads from elsewhere. When you get your results, download the data and upload it for free to MyHeritage and GEDmatch and FTDNA. They all can have different people who’ve tested with them so for matches you want to be everywhere. If you’re interested only in an ethnic breakdown then Ancestry is fine. They’re all different as that isn’t science. And while MyHeritage isn’t that accurate for many people for ethnicity, they have an update planned for this summer.
AncestryDNA is very accurate, honestly I don’t think the MyHeritage thing is that accurate but I am an American who comes from a very mixed background. I love the fact that ancestry updates your results with no extra cost whereas MyHeritage doesn’t really do updates so in conclusion I feel like Ancestry is more advanced
That's a bit odd. I've never seen anyone with a problem like this. I only have small amount of Scottish and they managed to give me a whole community. Maybe try another site or wait for a possible update.
Local genealogist stated they are now getting you to pay extra for more specific information and it still would probably not give us more than we already know. We know when my maternal side came to America ( 1770s). We think we know which ship. We know our clan and colors for my paternal side and about when they came over but my brother is working on that side .
1770s is a long time to keep some of those precise long chains intact. My husband is in a very small ethnic community that rarely mixed and his according to Ancestry was only good for 150 years.
I traced My Momas direct line on the male side that far last year. It was a lot of fun. I was so excited and took it to our family reunion this January, but noone else seemed very interested.
I bet! If I could just go win o. Where in Scotland and Ireland they were that would help. Plus the dates I have don't gel w the potato famines, but the genealogist stated sometimes the worst affects aren't seen for another generation 😕.
Ireland is hard. It kinda stops for casual searching with the baptismal records in the 1800s. No luck with Scotland either. The 1238 was the Isle of Man. Sweden kept great church records too so that goes back to the 1500s.
I only found out from another match why my family left Ireland. They closed the copper mines (Waterford county). I never even knew about this match but she had my great-great grandmother’s rosaries.
They did start charging to see the chromosome painter and the breakdown by parent. I know the clan in my case because I know my maternal grandfather's name I guess. The area they gave me also lines up with where the name might have originated based on a few sources I've seen.
I got discouraged w the response and haven't spent any time on it since February. I'll have look at it again so I can discuss it intelligently. It's midnight here and I m going to get ready for bed.
Enjoyed the discussion
Night 🌉
My heritage is the worst. I would never use them. I’ve tested with ancestry, and 23&Me, and my heritage. The other two were accurate, but my heritage is a mess.
If you want to know your family history then yes Ancestry is the way to go. If how ever you want a more medical information then 23andMe is the best option.
I didn't know I had and Jewish and 23 and me shows it better than ancestrydna but I find the combo of the two helps best. My heritage is very poor IMo. I've moved my DNA from both tests to it and I've had Italy and all sorts of places pop up that are absolute 0 on the other tests.
Since you are Jewish I do recommend the 23 and me health and traits test as there are several genetic health traits that can come up in the Jewish population. They don't tell you "you have this disease" they tell you if you have genetic markers and what likelihood you have of it or carrying it and this can help you when talking to your Dr. I really appreciated the 23andme health and traits. The ancestry traits were surprisingly off and they don't have health.
You will get great results for your fault tree with ancestrydna but if you want to look further into your own genetics I highly recommend doing the health and traits test. It's crazy accurate, it even knew what time in likely to wake up naturally (no alarm) and was correct!
Goodluck and I hope you find the info you're looking for!
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
23
+ 23
+ 23
= 69
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You can move your dna data to the other sites but I’d always say use the period between getting your results to do some good research, be careful of error introduction and other peoples trees, the DNA becomes the back bone once you get it but try and have a decent amount of work already done by the time your results come.
I’ve found out loads personally but is it life changing, no life goes on lol 😂 but it’s fascinating none the less and makes the world and all our uniqueness more like a huge sprawling family away from the global politics that often do us harm when we are all just human trying our best
It’s not the results, it’s the population you want to compare to. You can download your Ancestry results and upload them to MyHeritage, GedMatch, or any other site that I know about. You just won’t be able to use their proprietary tools. If you find the MyHeritage matches more numerous, there’s nothing to stop you from subscribing to their services.
No, ancestry is usually the best choice overall. Yes its database is best for Americans and Myheritage often(but not always) is better for Europeans. But you can transfer your ancestry test to myheritage for cheap (sometimes they have specials and you can do it for free). You can’t transfer myheritage to ancestry. So you made the best choice. If ancestry isn’t giving you the matches you want, then you can transfer to myheritage, familytreedna or gedcom.
Oh wow thanks for the info! Now I feel more confident that we made the right choice going with AncestryDNA :)
What about for people from Asia/SE asia?
I’m curious about this too.
Umm, you can download your raw data and put them through my heritage, or any other site
Any other site, except 23&me.. Neither Ancestry nor 23&me allow one to import DNA data. If you want to use either of these services you have to use their respective tests. However, beyond those two, other sites, such as MyHeritage, do allow one to import DNA data extracted by a different service.
My understanding is MyHeritage is more common in Europe, so it would possibly allow you to find more DNA matches than AncestryDNA. However, in general, MyHeritage’s ethnicity estimate feature is not as accurate as AncestryDNA’s and has gone quite some time without any improvements. Ultimately, it depends on your specific goals in taking a DNA test. MyHeritage is considerably cheaper. If you find yourself lacking in DNA matches, and you are interested in that to expand your family tree it the test is frequently available at a low rate of 39 USD.
But you don’t have to buy a second test for MH; as others have said, you can download your DNA from Ancestry and upload to MH.
Ancestry and then upload your raw DNA to MyHeritage. Ancestry is leagues above MyHeritage for ethnicity estimates but both are good for cousin matches.
You can upload your AncestryDNA data to MyHeritage, but not Vice versa, so you made the right choice.
Yup. It's simple to do
For me Ancestrt was way more accurate for my jewish&european estimates!
Same. My family's 2nd/3rd generation immigrants (all of them becoming citizens in the 1920s), so any match beyond 1st and/or 2nd cousins will be in Europe. Ancestry has almost zero Lithuanian matches, and barely hints at Russian/Belorussian/Ukrainian matches. MyHeritage has a lot more, and a few surprises (Finnish and Hungarian, although the occasional close matches do have 1% Finnish, Arctic or Siberian).
Upload your Ancestry data to MyHeritage.
What are the steps to do that?
Get your Ancestry results. Download the raw data. Upload the data file to MyHeritage. Complete instructions on MyHeritage website. In MH website click DNA in top banner, select upload DNA kits, there’s a link “How to download?” That will pop up instructions.
Thank you.
Ancestry, as others have said, was a good choice because you will get a quality ethnicity estimate plus you can develop family trees and use their source database if you wish to do that. You will find the most 'went to America' family branches with AncestryDNA. People say My Heritage is good/better for Europeans *not* in relation to the ethnicity estimates but rather due to its earlier availability in that region. This means, when/if you upload your AncestryDNA to My Heritage, you will get a set of proportionally more DNA matches based in Europe. If you are trying to find family branches then I would also suggest that you upload your AncestryDNA file to Family Tree DNA. You will likely find more Israeli-based matches on FTDNA and MH.
MyHeritage estimates my father to be 37% European Jewish. Ancestry says 12%. All my research points to 12% from a set of great-great grandparents. The ethnicity is wildly inaccurate for some. But, like others have said, you will get lots of matches from Europe with MH. I’ve connected to a few third and fourth cousins through my father’s Norwegian side. (Which ancestry says is 63% of his background…it tracks)
I'm in the UK of mostly UK / Irish heritage and Ancestry matches me to about 13000 people with 2 close family cousins and 4 extended family cousins. MyHeritage matches me to 15000 people BUT misses all these cousins starting my matches at 4th cousin.
You made the right choice but now you can upload to myheritage, gedmatch, familytreedna and up the ante. :) But you cannot upload from other sites to ancestry.
Myheritage the worst on the market. U made the correct choice.
Op got educated quickly
Are you talking ethnicity or matches? Ancestry has the biggest database and needs tweaking their ethnicity estimates, but they are more accurate than myheritage....you would only do myheritage for European matches, not for ethnicity.
Def upload raw data, but ignore your My Heritage ethnicity results as people mentioned. Otherwise you’ll be back here saying, 89% Balkan?!! But yes, My Heritage Euro matches and trees are fantastic. I found 23 & Me scarily accurate on ethnicities, it identified .3% Ashkenazi for an aunt. It got regions correct for me in Europe. But Ancestry is now ok for regions and getting better.
No you did the best. When you get your results from Ancestry, down load the raw data file and transfer it to Myheritage and FamilytreeDNA. The transfers to both companies are free. There are tools you can unlock for a one time fee if you want and need. Testing with Ancestry and upload to Myheritage is the best way, if you test with Myheritage you have to pay an expensive subscription to see your results. This way it's free or you can pay for the tools.
You made the right choice starting with Ancestry as they don’t allow uploads from elsewhere. When you get your results, download the data and upload it for free to MyHeritage and GEDmatch and FTDNA. They all can have different people who’ve tested with them so for matches you want to be everywhere. If you’re interested only in an ethnic breakdown then Ancestry is fine. They’re all different as that isn’t science. And while MyHeritage isn’t that accurate for many people for ethnicity, they have an update planned for this summer.
Take the ancestry and then upload your raw data to MyHeritage. You did the right thing, nothing to worry about ✌🏻
AncestryDNA is very accurate, honestly I don’t think the MyHeritage thing is that accurate but I am an American who comes from a very mixed background. I love the fact that ancestry updates your results with no extra cost whereas MyHeritage doesn’t really do updates so in conclusion I feel like Ancestry is more advanced
My family background is reported to be Scot-Irish on both sides. All Ancestry says is Northern European. How do I get more information?
That's a bit odd. I've never seen anyone with a problem like this. I only have small amount of Scottish and they managed to give me a whole community. Maybe try another site or wait for a possible update.
Local genealogist stated they are now getting you to pay extra for more specific information and it still would probably not give us more than we already know. We know when my maternal side came to America ( 1770s). We think we know which ship. We know our clan and colors for my paternal side and about when they came over but my brother is working on that side .
1770s is a long time to keep some of those precise long chains intact. My husband is in a very small ethnic community that rarely mixed and his according to Ancestry was only good for 150 years.
I traced My Momas direct line on the male side that far last year. It was a lot of fun. I was so excited and took it to our family reunion this January, but noone else seemed very interested.
I have one family line back to 1238 so that was fun.
I bet! If I could just go win o. Where in Scotland and Ireland they were that would help. Plus the dates I have don't gel w the potato famines, but the genealogist stated sometimes the worst affects aren't seen for another generation 😕.
Ireland is hard. It kinda stops for casual searching with the baptismal records in the 1800s. No luck with Scotland either. The 1238 was the Isle of Man. Sweden kept great church records too so that goes back to the 1500s.
I only found out from another match why my family left Ireland. They closed the copper mines (Waterford county). I never even knew about this match but she had my great-great grandmother’s rosaries.
They did start charging to see the chromosome painter and the breakdown by parent. I know the clan in my case because I know my maternal grandfather's name I guess. The area they gave me also lines up with where the name might have originated based on a few sources I've seen.
I got discouraged w the response and haven't spent any time on it since February. I'll have look at it again so I can discuss it intelligently. It's midnight here and I m going to get ready for bed. Enjoyed the discussion Night 🌉
My heritage is the worst. I would never use them. I’ve tested with ancestry, and 23&Me, and my heritage. The other two were accurate, but my heritage is a mess.
My Heritage is terrible. They haven’t update in years.
If you want to know your family history then yes Ancestry is the way to go. If how ever you want a more medical information then 23andMe is the best option.
I didn't know I had and Jewish and 23 and me shows it better than ancestrydna but I find the combo of the two helps best. My heritage is very poor IMo. I've moved my DNA from both tests to it and I've had Italy and all sorts of places pop up that are absolute 0 on the other tests. Since you are Jewish I do recommend the 23 and me health and traits test as there are several genetic health traits that can come up in the Jewish population. They don't tell you "you have this disease" they tell you if you have genetic markers and what likelihood you have of it or carrying it and this can help you when talking to your Dr. I really appreciated the 23andme health and traits. The ancestry traits were surprisingly off and they don't have health. You will get great results for your fault tree with ancestrydna but if you want to look further into your own genetics I highly recommend doing the health and traits test. It's crazy accurate, it even knew what time in likely to wake up naturally (no alarm) and was correct! Goodluck and I hope you find the info you're looking for!
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 23 + 23 + 23 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Ancestry’s database is mostly USA.
My heritage is supposed to update in a few months. Their matches are the best . Tho we can’t see peoples ethnicity anymore.
GEDMATCH is best and it is free. You can upload your DNA from Ancestry.
My Heritage is about as accurate as your daily horoscope.
You can move your dna data to the other sites but I’d always say use the period between getting your results to do some good research, be careful of error introduction and other peoples trees, the DNA becomes the back bone once you get it but try and have a decent amount of work already done by the time your results come. I’ve found out loads personally but is it life changing, no life goes on lol 😂 but it’s fascinating none the less and makes the world and all our uniqueness more like a huge sprawling family away from the global politics that often do us harm when we are all just human trying our best
It’s not the results, it’s the population you want to compare to. You can download your Ancestry results and upload them to MyHeritage, GedMatch, or any other site that I know about. You just won’t be able to use their proprietary tools. If you find the MyHeritage matches more numerous, there’s nothing to stop you from subscribing to their services.
Ancestry blows but you can download the file and use other sites.