It's All About That DNA Database
- Leslie Ryan
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
With all the recently hoopla about Ancestry's Origin updates, I thought it would be interesting to see how those compared with my Ethnicity Report in MyHeritage.
As we have discussed before, It's All About That Database! The MyHeritage database is based on mostly European testers, so if you are looking for European ancestors, it's a great place to test. Ancestry has the largest DNA database of all of the testing companies, but testers are based mostly in the Americas. The more people that test at either company, the larger the databases become.
Here again, are my updated Ancestry origins (from 2 weeks ago). I am no longer just "Irish," the regions are further defined, and I am up to 92% Irish (including Central Scotland and Northern Ireland). When I check my DNA matches, I have only 7 Ancestry DNA matches in Ireland and the UK.
In the MyHeritage Ethnicity report I am 73.3% Irish (including testers in the US (from New York City, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia) and Australia, 18.3% Scottish and Welsh, 5.2% Breton, and 3.2% English.
But look at these MyHeritage DNA match locations! I have 65 countries, and over 22,000 matches, and 1,601 in Ireland. I even have 1 match in Benin (West Africa)!
Ancestry has a bunch of fun tools to show your origins by maternal or paternal or to compare with other testers, and all immediately available on the site. MyHeritage will put together your Ethnicity Report and email it to you later.
MyHeritage includes a Chromosome Cluster tool (and a Tree Consistency Checker) in its Membership fee, while Ancestry requires you to upgrade to ProTools for an additional monthly fee. I have not yet succumbed to that temptation, have you?
You can no longer upload your DNA from other sites to MyHeritage. You can buy their test for $29 right now ($10 less than Ancestry), but they have linked up with FamlyTreeDNA for tree building. If you have already tested at FamilyTreeDNA you are able to use MyHeritage.
There are good and bad points about both of these major providers and their tools, but if you have to decide between one or the other, remember it's ALL ABOUT THE DATABASE. Where are you looking for matches and answers? Choose wisely.
I hope your November is off to a good start! If you would like some help with your Family Tree, send me an email to get a free, no obligation review!
Warm almost Holiday regards,
Leslie Ryan
PS I apologize for the bad pun of "bass" vs. the "base" in Database. I couldn't help it!
The photo of Paul McCartney is from a Rolling Stone article about the 50 greatest bass guitar players of all times.
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