Who can take the AncestrybyDNA test, and how long does it take?:

Anyone can take the AncestrybyDNA test. It takes 8-10 weeks from the day we receive the samples in our laboratory.

Your ancestry split by four major population groups

The results will show percentages of biogeographical ancestry from four major population groups of the world. These groups have been defined by anthropologists as: Indo-European, sub-Saharan African, East Asian and Native American. The tests we perform will allow you to see what percentages you have of each of these population types in your own DNA.

Extremely Accurate DNA Testing

This assessment of your DNA is extremely accurate (close to 98%) and comes from matings in your ancestral history between males AND females by evaluation of all 22 pairs (44) of autosomes, not just one Y chromosome (male line only) or one Mitochondrial X chromosome (female line only). 

Because of this dual contribution from both male and female ancestors, any male OR female may take the AncestryByDNA 2.5 autosomal test (or the Euro DNA test described below).  Every human has a total of 46 chromosomes and these are derived from all the males and females in their history who ever mated - 23 from each male and 23 from each female.  In other words, 23 "pairs" of chromosomes.

The alleles found at these marker locations show very high specificity for people from particular populations, ethnicity and/or geographical regions. AncestryByDNA can be used to resolve the following four groups:

The detail behind your AncestrybyDNA Test

We cannot tell from the way a person looks physically (phenotypically), or even from the DNA report of his or her parents or siblings, the exact nature of his or her personal DNA admixture.

Certainly, if there is enough of a percentage (generally above 30% or so) of say, sub-Saharan African or East Asian in the DNA, the person would start to have the look of an African or an East Asian. The ranges are very wide however, so we never try to predict the exact heritage of a person from his or her looks or the DNA of other family  members . Below is some information about our biogeographical ancestry admixture tests; what they can reveal to you and what they cannot:

A complete Ancestry Test

Because every human receives 1/2 of their DNA from the male and 1/2 from the female at each mating in their history, when only the male line or only the female line is evaluated you do not get the larger picture of your ancestry. Our autosomal ancestry tests provide this larger picture which includes all the matings of males PLUS females in your history.

Every human has 23 pairs of chromosomes present for a total of 46 chromosomes. Only 1 of these pairs (i.e. a total of 2 chromosomes) comprises the sex chromosomes: XX for females and XY for males. The remainder of the 22 pairs of chromosomes (44) are the autosomes, and these autosomes govern everything in a newly created individual except their sex. Our autosomal tests offer very accurate results in percentages from each major anthropological population group.

How many generations back do these tests look?

We don't know exactly how many generations back our tests go. The results may be accumulated from many, many generations. For perspective, we do know that 15 generations (500+ years or so) produced more than 32,000 ancestors, so there could have been thousands and thousands of random genetic marker couplings over that time period. (20 generations back brings genetic information from more than 1 million ancestors!)

Every member of the family will get a different Ancestry Result

A person may get some markers from one of the population groups more than others or just as likely not. Their genetics may have some contributions from all of their ancestors but which ones actually appear within their own genetic markers are not certain and could be quite different from those genetic markers recorded in a mother or father, brother or sister, or a fraternal twin, even though they are from the same parents, grandparents, etc. (Only identical twins have identical DNA, but that is because they came from the same fertilized egg that simply split after a single sperm and single egg united to become an embryo.)

Its not as simple as looking looking back at your closest relatives!

The random recombination of DNA at each coupling is why one can not predict exactly what percentage of a particular heritage a person will get - for example, we can not say someone "should be" 25% Native American because one of their four grandparents was Native American. It does not work that way and because of random recombination of DNA, we cannot tell anyone exactly which specific ancestors contributed to their personal DNA composition.

Again, please note the word, "RANDOM" - which is the way the genetic markers from all the males and females who mated in a person's history were created in each new human being. This random recombination process of DNA assures that each person is a completely unique individual but still contains genetic markers from their ancestors.  As stated above, even brothers and sisters have different looking DNA portraits in this autosomal SNP test. A person can expect that their DNA is only their DNA and will NOT be like anyone else's DNA and certainly not their parents who each have different genetic heritages.

Here's a simple example of random recombination of DNA for you to try to imagine. Picture throwing vegetable soup with all its alphabets, peas, carrots, celery etc. in the air and watching it land a certain way with some peas next to an alphabet and some next to a carrot. If you scooped it up and threw it down again, although it contained the same number and types of individual vegetables and alphabets (i.e., genetic markers), it would probably land in a totally different pattern. This would happen every time you threw the soup contents down again and again. They would combine "randomly" and almost invariably occupy a different pattern at each toss.