Has anyone taken a dna test to trace their ancestry? How accurate are these tes

Question:

Has anyone taken a dna test to trace their ancestry? How accurate are these tests?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: As was explained above male surname descendancy or yDNA can be very useful in verifying your research and maybe give guidance where to begin researching beyond the "brick walls".

How do you research your grandmother's surname back? Look for male cousins from her lineage, with her same surname of course, that you can talk into participating.

It's a buccal swab test, has nothing whatever to do with other personal DNA, only compares certain markers, and can be absolutely private. I paid for my brother's test since I'm female, and he used an alias and anonymous email.

mtDNA is a useless waste of money for genealogical research. It does have other usefulness, for instance identification of a mother's missing child. It also lasts much longer in human remains than full DNA which is why mtDNA may more likely be the comparison used for identification in those cases.