There are 3 types of DNA. If you are involved in genealogy and would like to match your family tree with other family trees, Y & Mitochondrial are the 2 you want to use.
If you just want to get a somewhat view of your ethnic background Y & Mitochondrial are a colossal waste of money. You should use a company that uses Autosomal DNA.
Y goes from father to son only.
Mitochondrial goes from mother to both sons and daughters.
They both go back in a straight line virtually unchanged. Therefore people use them to match themselves with other family trees. However, they both represent a very teeny weeny part of your total ancestry. If you are a male in each generation you go back, you get your Y DNA from only 1 person. If you are male or female as you go back, you get your Mitochondrial DNA from only 1 person. In other words if you get back to your 16 great great grandparents, Y & Mitochondrial both will leave out 14 of them. Now if you are using them to match yourself with other family trees and make contact with others you no doubt will discover some of the left out people.
Be careful about the way they are advertised. One company that only uses Y & Mitochondrial states they will help you "discover your deep ancestral roots." It is true in those 2 lines only, they will assign you to a Haplogroup based on your DNA and show you the origin of your nomadic ancestors going back thousands of years. However, you come from a vast myriad of family lines.
If you wish to have your Y & Mitochondrial tested this is the company with the largest database.
When you go into their website, if you click on "Feedback" at the top, there is a way you can email them and ask questions.
You get Autosomal DNA 50-50 from both parents. It makes up most of your DNA. You have 46 chromosomes(23 from each parent). The 2 that determine your sex only are the 2 that is made up of a person's Y & Mitochondrial.
The other 44 (22 from each parent) are made up of Autosomal. Now although you get it 50-50 from both parents, when you get back to your grandparents it will not be 25-25-25-25 split. You get 50% from your paternal grandparents and 50% from your maternal grandparents, but the breakdown between grandmother and grandfather will not be even steven. How you inherited this bias will not necessarily be how your siblings inherited it unless you have an identical twin.
Now they won't tell you that you are 1/2 of something, 1/4 of something else and 1/4 of another something else. What they will do is give you your top 20 matches in descending order. You have to understand the same DNA crosses national, racial and ethnic boundaries. There are no pure nationalities, races or ethnicities.
When you go into their website if you click on "Feedback" at the top you can email them and ask questions.
FamilyTreeDNA does do Autosomal testing but they will not give you any type of analysis. I think at one time they did. I had to send my results from them to DNATribes.
I believe a DNA test can cost anywhere from $300-$600. Normally they need a sample from the potential father and then they rule him out as the baby's father based on how closely the DNA matches the baby's. It concerns me that there could be so many possible fathers for your child at age 17. I'm not judging you, but please make sure you use protection if you are going to have multiple sex partners. Not only to prevent pregnancy, but also sexually transmitted diseases. You have to take care of YOU, sweetie.
You could contact your local Genealogy Society or Family History Center for a recommendation on which company to use, then contact them for price lists.
Comments
There are 3 types of DNA. If you are involved in genealogy and would like to match your family tree with other family trees, Y & Mitochondrial are the 2 you want to use.
If you just want to get a somewhat view of your ethnic background Y & Mitochondrial are a colossal waste of money. You should use a company that uses Autosomal DNA.
Y goes from father to son only.
Mitochondrial goes from mother to both sons and daughters.
They both go back in a straight line virtually unchanged. Therefore people use them to match themselves with other family trees. However, they both represent a very teeny weeny part of your total ancestry. If you are a male in each generation you go back, you get your Y DNA from only 1 person. If you are male or female as you go back, you get your Mitochondrial DNA from only 1 person. In other words if you get back to your 16 great great grandparents, Y & Mitochondrial both will leave out 14 of them. Now if you are using them to match yourself with other family trees and make contact with others you no doubt will discover some of the left out people.
Be careful about the way they are advertised. One company that only uses Y & Mitochondrial states they will help you "discover your deep ancestral roots." It is true in those 2 lines only, they will assign you to a Haplogroup based on your DNA and show you the origin of your nomadic ancestors going back thousands of years. However, you come from a vast myriad of family lines.
If you wish to have your Y & Mitochondrial tested this is the company with the largest database.
http://www.familytreedna.com/Default.aspx?c=1
When you go into their website, if you click on "Feedback" at the top, there is a way you can email them and ask questions.
You get Autosomal DNA 50-50 from both parents. It makes up most of your DNA. You have 46 chromosomes(23 from each parent). The 2 that determine your sex only are the 2 that is made up of a person's Y & Mitochondrial.
The other 44 (22 from each parent) are made up of Autosomal. Now although you get it 50-50 from both parents, when you get back to your grandparents it will not be 25-25-25-25 split. You get 50% from your paternal grandparents and 50% from your maternal grandparents, but the breakdown between grandmother and grandfather will not be even steven. How you inherited this bias will not necessarily be how your siblings inherited it unless you have an identical twin.
Now they won't tell you that you are 1/2 of something, 1/4 of something else and 1/4 of another something else. What they will do is give you your top 20 matches in descending order. You have to understand the same DNA crosses national, racial and ethnic boundaries. There are no pure nationalities, races or ethnicities.
The company that does this type of testing is
http://www.dnatribes.com/
When you go into their website if you click on "Feedback" at the top you can email them and ask questions.
FamilyTreeDNA does do Autosomal testing but they will not give you any type of analysis. I think at one time they did. I had to send my results from them to DNATribes.
Here are a couple of more links that explain DNA
http://www.smgf.org/pages/how_it_works.jspx
http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/060293.html
I believe a DNA test can cost anywhere from $300-$600. Normally they need a sample from the potential father and then they rule him out as the baby's father based on how closely the DNA matches the baby's. It concerns me that there could be so many possible fathers for your child at age 17. I'm not judging you, but please make sure you use protection if you are going to have multiple sex partners. Not only to prevent pregnancy, but also sexually transmitted diseases. You have to take care of YOU, sweetie.
See -- https://backgroundreports.im/ancestry
You could contact your local Genealogy Society or Family History Center for a recommendation on which company to use, then contact them for price lists.