There was a time when this interrogation might have been a toughie . Where can you take a family tree test ? Pre - Internet , maybe you would ’ve had to consult your doctor or trail down some sort of genetical scientist , and whatever test they might have give you would be positively naive compare to what ’s available today .
Nowadays , an on-line search for the idiom will render a dizzying act of links to family tree examination companies that promise to reveal your entire family line tree back to the Middle Ages and discover dozens of unnamed relative in return for a simple cheek swab and a hundred bucks . So perhaps the more relevant question is this : How do you reckon out which family tree test to take ?
Research is emphatically your friend when it comes to direct - to - consumer ( DTC ) genealogy testing . First , you ask to figure out what kind of tryout — and what type of results — you ’re looking for . If you ’d just like to know more about where your ancestors came from , mayhap you do n’t need the interactive portion that comes with taking a test from one of the big companies . But if you ’d like to discover living relatives or fill in your kinsfolk tree with remark from previously unknown congeneric , a aggregated - market on-line test would be right up your alley . You might also be interested in finding out how much you could be at hazard for certain transmitted diseases . Some companies will give you all these resolution in one fell swoop , so make certain you experience what you ’re getting into if there are some thing you do n’t want to know — or if you ’d rather not be reach by a long - lost quaternary cousin .
Next , you have to be mistrustful of getting swindled . There arescammersaround every box in the on-line family tree field . Scientific and medical inherited testing is governed by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments ( CLIA ) , but the unmediated - to - consumer market is totally unregulated . It ’s fundamentally unacceptable for you alone to tell whether your test results are accurate , so do your homework on these ship’s company . Some are CLIA certified , but for the rest of them you ’ll have to rely on follow-up , both from customer and trained genealogists .
After pressure sensation from the Government Accountability Office and members of Congress — who dread the public would n’t be capable to properly render the results — some of the major company have blockade test for genetic disease markers , focusing instead on the class - Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree aspect .
If you ’re pop out from zero and are loose to contact from possible congeneric , a canonical software package from one of the big testers is in all likelihood the way to go . You ’ll commonly get effect under three umbrellas . First is a percentage breakdown of where yourDNAsays your ancient ancestors are from . Second , they ’ll compare your DNA to that of the other customers in their database and connect you with congenator . And third , you ’ll be able to fill in a family Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and yoke yours with those of any relatives you find .
As long as you ’re wakeful about doing background check and know to take all effect with a grain of saltiness , you could have a lot of fun — and perhaps make some major discovery — with family tree examination .
