DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the code that makes up all living organisms. It is found in our cells, and it contains instructions that tell our bodies how to function. DNA is useful for genealogy because it passes down from parent to child relatively unchanged. As people reproduce, they pass on half of each parent’s DNA to each child. If you have one parent from a specific ancestry, you have a 50% chance of inheriting that DNA. DNA testing kits can help you find your ancestry by comparing your DNA to others in databases to find matches. If someone in the database has taken a DNA test and identified their ancestry, you can compare your DNA to theirs and see if you also share their ancestry.
Most DNA kit tests focus on specific parts of your DNA and ignore the rest. This may be useful for finding relatives and understanding your health, but it can’t tell you much about your overall ancestry. You inherit DNA from your parents, and they inherited it from their parents back to the beginning of humanity.
While each generation may have added or subtracted a few pieces of DNA, your DNA represents the full history of human ancestry. Because of this, a test that focuses on a small part of your DNA may not give you a full picture of your ancestry. DNA tests that look at specific parts of your DNA may be useful for finding relatives and knowing more about your health.
Ancestral DNA kit tests can be a great way to learn more about your heritage. They can help you find distant relatives, discover where certain traits may have come from, and even get a glimpse of what life was like for your ancestors. While DNA can help you understand your ancestry, it can’t tell you everything about your past. It can’t tell you what language your ancestors spoke, or their daily lives were like. It can’t tell you how your ancestors felt about their lives. There’s no single test that can tell you everything about your ancestry. Instead, it’s best to take multiple DNA tests to learn about your heritage as much as possible.