ANCESTRYDNA ®

GETTING THE FAMILY INVOLVED!

DNA provides an exciting opportunity to get other members of the family involved in your family history quest. Discover how to get them on board, and new ways in which to make the most of their Ancestrydna® tests, so you can all work together to find out more about your ancestors’ stories

There’s something about ‘DNA’ that appeals to people of all generations, so why not make the most of this and encourage other family members to take an Ancestrydna® test? Here we outline a few tactics to help you with your family DNA project.

Why it’s good to get family members testing too

Although family members share segments of DNA with one another, we each inherit a unique combination of genes from our ancestors, half from our mother, half from our father. We also share roughly half of our DNA with each of our siblings, and roughly a quarter of our DNA with each of our four grandparents.

What this also means of course is that each of our parents have segments of DNA that they have not passed on to us, but which they may have passed on to our siblings; each of our grandparents have segments that they have not passed on to our parents, but which they have to our aunts and uncles, and so forth. Thus family members will have DNA matches that may not appear in your DNA match list.

However, by testing as many family members as possible, you will be able to create a network of DNA matches, comparing your match lists with theirs, and so increase your understanding of your DNA results and grow your family tree.

Sharing your family tree with others

It’s simple to share your Ancestry family tree with others.

• Select ‘Trees’, then ‘Create and Manage Trees’ from the drop-down menu.

• Choose the tree you wish to share > ‘Tree Settings’ > ‘Sharing’.

• Selecting ‘Share’ or ‘Invite’ will reveal a pop-up window.

• From here, choose whether you would like to invite your family member as a ‘guest’, ‘contributor’ or ‘editor’.

Linking your family tree to your DNA

You will also benefit if you link your family tree to your DNA test results. Linking the two will help you connect with others and see how you may be related to your DNA matches. To link your tree to your DNA, select ‘DNA’ then scroll down to ‘Link to tree’. When you manage a family member’s DNA test you are also able to link their DNA to the same tree too.

Who is best to test?

As a rule it is best to test the older generations of the family first – as they will have segments of ancestor DNA that they have not passed on to their children. By capturing their DNA you can ensure this vital evidence is not lost with the passage of time.

As well as direct ancestors, it is also very valuable to test their peers – your grandparents’ siblings, your parents’ siblings, and your own siblings too.

Lastly, if you have a brickwall on a particular branch, then you may wish to focus your DNA project there and enlist cousins on that branch to test, to provide more DNA match lists to help you research this roadblock.

Managing other people’s DNA tests

You may wish to offer to manage your family members’ DNA tests. While they retain ownership of their DNA, management will enable you to study their DNA test results.

Informed consent

When encouraging family members to take a DNA test, it is also very important to ensure that they are giving their informed consent, which can be be written or verbal.

Working with DNA matches

When studying your DNA matches on Ancestry you’ll see that there are many tools to help you.

• Explore the filter options displayed at the top of your DNA match list.

• Utilise the note and message fields displayed when you click on a DNA match (see right).

Get rewarded when your family member buys an Ancestrydna® test

Go to www.ancestry.co.uk/dna, scroll down to the bottom and follow the link: they’ll receive a 15% discount and you’ll get a £10 Amazon voucher.