Ancestry FAQ
Why do I have to pay for Ancestry?
By charging for some additional reports, such as ancestry, we are able to prioritize and focus on the features that are most valuable to our customers. This allows us to provide the best possible experience and continue to innovate in the future.
Why am I being prompted to purchase a DNA kit?
In order for us to generate your Ancestry Report, we need to have enough information in the raw data. While we can accept some third-party DNA files, if they contain enough data, not all files will work. This also includes older SelfDecode DNA files, as they did not pick up important haplotype data needed for this report.
If you have any questions or concerns about whether your file will work with ancestry, please email support and we'll be glad to assist.
Do you test paternal lineage?
Currently, we do not report on parental lineage, but we have some updates coming out soon. We will report on maternal lineage first and in the future, we also plan to develop a report on paternal lineage.
What is the difference between global ancestry and mitochondrial ancestry?
Mitochondrial DNA tests trace your maternal (mother only) lineage up to 8000 generations ago, and it can be completely different from your global ancestry!
Your global ancestry will mainly reflect recent ancestry from all your family members — down to the last ~10-15 generations or so.
So, if you had a grandfather who was Japanese, for example, you’d expect to see that with about 15-35% in your global ancestry. But, if you had a Japanese predecessor 15+ generations ago, those pieces of DNA would be too fragmented to call in a global ancestry test, or you may not have them at all, because of the random process in which the DNA gets inherited.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis is completely different, because it basically gets inherited without changes — so if there was an Japanese person in your female lineage 2000 years ago — that is your direct maternal ancestor, you could in theory have that mitochondrial DNA while still being 100% Ukrainian.
We recommend clicking on each haplotype (the letters in your ancestry report) to learn more.
You can also click on the question mark at the top of the report to learn more about how the analysis works.
How do you determine the results?
On a molecular level, the DNA of a person is more similar to that of other people in the same population or region, compared to people in other populations and regions.
If you are Italian, for example, your DNA is usually more similar to other Italians, and less similar to the DNA of Germans, Nigerians, or Japanese people.
Our algorithm leverages this by comparing each segment of your DNA against 32 different reference populations from around the world. Your ancestry report shows how your DNA connects to one or more of these reference populations.
How accurate are your Ancestry Reports?
Our ancestry model consistently outperforms today's state-of-the-art models.
There are currently 3 other companies that have reasonable Ancestry based on our research - 23andme, Ancestry, and MyHeritage.
Our algorithm outperforms their algorithms.
Why do I have to answer the ancestry questionnaire?
After all, we’re analyzing your DNA, so shouldn’t we be able to determine your ancestry without additional input?
It’s a great question, and we’re happy to explain what’s going on. Your input helps us properly assign your DNA to your mother’s and father’s chromosomes. When your DNA is read, what you get back is two reads for each position (e.g. AA, AT, GT, etc.). One of them belongs to the chromosome you inherited from your mother and the other one to the chromosome that belongs to your father. However, without also having your parents’ DNA available, it’s really hard to tell which read came from which parent. Algorithms help us get part way there, but even with the leading industry algorithms, we end up with chromosomes that are mosaics of your parents' DNA. Now, this may not affect you much if your parents are of the same ethnicity. However, if you are admixed (e.g. Chinese and Italian), you may end up with scrambled chromosomes, which will decrease the accuracy of both our ancestry model and our PRS models
By filling out the ancestry questionnaire, you’re helping us sort different chunks of your DNA to your maternal and paternal chromosomes. Your answers don’t affect what each of those chunks get called in our ancestry algorithm — we call these chunks first, and we do so by comparing each piece of your DNA with 33 different populations that we have in our database. However, it may affect the final layer of the ancestry algorithm that looks at all your chromosomes in entirety — this layer works better when most of the DNA pieces are on the right chromosome.
Further, our ancestry algorithm is by no means limited to your grandparents, which is the information we gather. It reflects hundreds of years of ancestry. For example, you may think that all your grandparents are Hungarian, but our ancestry algorithm may detect significant Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, that you may or may not have been aware of. This happens.
Finally, we use this information to adjust our PRS models. For example, when we predict your risk of heart disease, we use the reference DNA of your ethnicity to adjust your risk score. Therefore, by completing the ancestry questionnaire, you’re helping us to provide you with the most accurate and personalized analysis of your DNA.