DNA test experience survey results

The survey was completed by 61 people.

Responding on places your great-grandparents and following generations lived?

This is as expected, heavily weighted toward Canada and UK/Ireland — the survey was not publicized beyond the blog.

35% reported endogamy or pedigree collapse in their ancestry, 50% none, and the remainder responded maybe/don't know.

Those responding had experience with 181 tests from the five companies. AncestryDNA's latest ads now claim 20 million members so it's not surprising that 89% mentioned testing with AncestryDNA. Others in order were Family Tree DNA at 80%, then MyHeritage DNA 51%, Living DNA at 43% and 23andMe at 35%.

Overall 77% reported being somewhat satisfied or very satisfied (combined) with the test.

AncestryDNA led the pack with 94% combined satisfaction, followed by Family Tree DNA (81%), 23andMe (81%), MyHeritageDNA (77%) and, trailing, Living DNA (31%).

Comment

AncestryDNA leads in terms of both the number of times mentioned and combined satisfaction.

23andMe had the fewest test-takers those that did were fairly satisfied. They might also be happy that unlike the other companies, except LivingDNA, they also got a read in their mitochondrial and Y-DNA (if male) in the same test.

Living DNA has likely suffered in not having a database in which to find individual matches.  The company now has a Family Networks feature which predicts relationships between clients "with groundbreaking detail" but for me, there are no matches.