DNA community through Ancestry DNA.
https://www.ancestry.com.au/As mentioned previously, both Brenda and I have just recently joined the DNA community through Ancestry DNA.
I specifically went with Ancestry because of their television exposure through commercial advertising, while I am well aware that there are a multitude of companies out there offering DNA testing, my reasoning is that the novice would be more inclined to go with Ancestry through the power-of-advertising and thus increasing my chances of a match with an actively growing database.
I also believe other firms offer a range of techniques to analyse DNA with slight variations in results, so for uniformity I have made a conscious decision to just stick with the one company for testing other family members and obviously to achieve matching.
I am by no means an expert on DNA and in fact I am still on the free side of Ancestry, which is fine for my current usage needs, until I get more confidence to venture further. I have not seen the paid membership side of Ancestry myself (yet!), but I understand a more comprehensive range of features are obviously made available with the privileges of actual membership.
For myself, the whole DNA experience was exciting, following the progress of my test online through the Ancestry site was a daily essential. When they arrived, the results themselves were opened with both anticipation and trepidation… would I be who I thought I was? The proof was there, the years of research the old fashion way, long before online resources was vindicated—it was me! Nevertheless, I do have one anomaly which will need more researching (more fun to be had!), but essentially there it was, what I thought I knew about myself and more importantly, my ancestors.
A new beta feature, literally added to the Ancestry DNA site in recent days is their ThruLines™. This new facet on the site displays relationships in tree format and for myself has made following family connections immensely straightforward. I am still navigating through this fresh feature and it appears to me that only public member trees are linked to display, (as I have cousins with private trees not being shown). Nevertheless, the platform really is an impressive boon for the site.
If you have not already done so, I personally recommend taking the DNA plunge as I have personally found the entire experience extremely rewarding. BM
