Just ordered my DNA test kit

Can you upload a tree into Ancestry that can be used for DNA matches or do you have to build it in Ancestry again from scratch? I don't have a tree in a programme that spits out a gedcom but if I have to rebuild it I would rather do it once than twice if I can.

 

Ancestry allows you to upload a GEDcom instead of building it by scratch and if you already have an ancestry tree, you simply link the DNA results to you in that tree (or alternatively the person who the DNA test is for). That is what Ancestry uses as a basis for giving you hint leaves in the DNA results.

 

thank you

 

Got my Ancestry DNA results last weekend. The ethnicity results are rather vague (as expected) but are at least consistant with my research and haven't thrown me any curveballs. My ancestry comes out as 96-100% England, Wales & NW Europe, with the West Midlands & North West England highlighted as the only specific region, and 0-3% Ireland & Scotland.

Of course the real interest is in the DNA matches: I've got just one 3rd cousin then about 5 pages of 4th cousins, the first 40 or so with a confidence rating of "high" or better - I can only assume this is more or less average? I've already picked out about a dozen matches where I can see a definite relationship and these seem to come from all quarters of my tree. Since I often feel anxious about making some catastrophic blunder and researching the wrong family this is all very reassuring! I reckon Ancestry could do with some more/better ways to filter the results, but first impressions are all good and I'm rather glad I took the plunge into the realm of DNA testing.

I've been on Ancestry for about seven years now and in that time I've only had the occasional interaction with other users. In the last few days I've been contacted by about six or seven of my DNA matches, so that's quite a (welcome) change of pace! I'm now exchanging messages with a lady from the US who is a third cousin of my mum.

 

Thanks Peter, I am loving Family Historian. I am assuming that you can upload an updated GEDCOM to Ancestry anytime and over write the old one?

 

I have just ordered an Ancestry DNA test, so I have a few questions.
I have read Peter's Masterclass and found it interesting and helpful.
How much information do I put in a family tree on Ancestry?
Do I just put in my direct ancestors or do I add siblings etc?
I am not a subscriber to Ancestry, will I be able to contact matches or will they have to contact me?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
K

 

Will do! I had been putting off reading that - I got part way through the first one, but it wasn't that relevant to me at the time.

 

Am I expecting too much? I ordered a couple of test kits, autosomal from Ancestry and Y37 from FTDNA, using the Black Friday discount offers. That was on Thursday 22/Nov in NZ but a day earlier in USA so not actually on the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to the tracking references given to me with the order confirmations, the Ancestry kit has been passed between various buildings/companies within Bell Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles, but has still not reached the airport after 10 days.

The FTDNA kit was sent from Houston, Texas, to DHL at Melrose Park, a suburb of Chicago (!?!), where it arrived a week later.

I realise that this is a busy time of year but wondered how this schedule compared to other members experiences. How long is a reasonable length of time for me to await movement towards the final delivery destination?

 

I live in England, and I ordered 2 Ancestry kits for my husband and myself on 2 August last year, and received them just 2 days later on 4 August. My husband got his results back on 19 August, whilst I had to wait till 31 August for mine. But overall not too long to wait, though of course a quieter time of year. Sounds like they are being slow getting your kits to you, but they were probably swamped with orders from the Black Friday sale.

 

Mine took quite some time to arrive as well, but then just about everything does when coming from the U.S. to Canada. But I also noticed that it seemed to take a considerable time to get to the airport in LA. It took much less time for the little box to make its way to Ireland with my sample. I was actually afraid that because the box was so small that Canada Post would lose it, but no.

 

In think it depends if you have a "depot/hub" in your home country. I ordered mine in Oz and was surprised how quickly it arrived but I discovered it was sent from within Australia and I had an Australian address to send it to.

 

I ordered mine the day before Peter and it was delivered the following Monday too.
UK orders appear to come from Germany, so not far.
I seem to remember another discussion saying that you cannot order an Ancestry DNA test if you live in Germany.
That seems strange as the kits are posted from there. We have to send them back to Ireland.

 

That is what I had half expected and thought that a week was plenty of time for a kit to make some progress towards me here in NZ from Oz. Perhaps NZ really is at the end of the World and folks in Texas are not sure in which direction the journey should start. That kit has been stationary in Chicago for almost a week, waiting for instructions as to where to go next. Fortunately, there is no desperate rush. My main concern is that it does not get lost.

However, there must be at least one follower of this discussion working in the USPS at LA because that kit has started moving shortly after my original post. It looks as if that one may even have reached NZ (it is a direct flight from LA) after almost 2 weeks.

I suppose that I should be grateful for the well documented trail produced for both packages. Here in NZ, the Track 'n Trace service tends to be in two parts -
a) collected from source location, and
b) given to Rural Post driver for delivery
with nothing in between.

 

I realise this is an old post, but I have just prepared my DNA sample ready for posting back to Ancestry. I am going through Peter's masterclass but I am confused. It says 'First create a list of ALL your ancestral surnames including any genuine variant spellings (ie ignoring mistranscriptions)'. Does this mean both up and down a tree i.e. a 3rd cousin who is the same age as me as well as a 1st cousin 4x removed born in 1895?

I want to make sure I get this right to make the most of my Ancestry DNA test.

 

Thank you Peter. I have now managed to compile my list and it's over 150 names/spellings! Plenty to keep my occupied once my test results come back.