Should I go by what my ancestry dna says I am or is it not that accurate?

That all depends on what you mean by trust. The results are all based on the size of the data base use to make the comparison. Ancestry has a rather large data base of European ancestral samples. The National Geographic has an extremely large data base as they have collected all over the world and have had this project going for year all over the world.

Ancestral DNA only provides the results of comparisons of DNA and does not provide actual ethnicity or ancestry. Say someone shows result that indicates middle eastern and Iberian, but has no family knowledge of either, most likely has results from perhaps thousands of years ago. Does that make them Jewish, or Iranian - NO is simply means that at some time in the past their ancestors were in the middle east and Iberia. I would suggest that you use common sense. If something shows as a trace I wouldn't go about bragging that you are of that

ancestry

It's as accurate as any of the DNA tests.

The company that did mine said 2% - 5% of the people who do it get results they were not expecting due to "infidelity or hidden adoption". You might be one of those. There could be something else at work, too, like someone assuming surname origins were 100% accurate.

On that matter, I helped a lady who was a Pack, which is English. When we got to 1910, her great grandfather, who had been Pack in 1940, 1940 and 1920, was living with his father, a Czech named Pacek; at some point they changed the spelling to seem more American.

I'm not sure what you mean by "go by". You can't use a DNA test to join a Native American tribe anyway; anything else is mainly for your own amusement. If you want to join, for instance, the Sons of Norway, they will probably let you without too much fuss, if you pay your dues on time and help out with the annual pancake breakfast.

Okay, there are 4 types of DNA and you have 46 chromosomes.

Two of your chromosomes are sex chromosomes. If you were a male you would have received a Y from your father and X from your mother. However, I believe by your Avatar name you have female. So you probably got X from both father and mother. Some females get a Y but if you have or had ovaries you are not one of them.

Your other 44 chromosomes are your Autosomes. You get Autosomal 50-50 from both parents but when your parents passed on the Autosomal they received from their parents to you it went through "meiosis" where it was randomly jumbled and recombined. So while you got 50% from your mother's side and 50% from your father's, there usually will be a bias in what you inherited from grandmother and grandfather on both sides of the family. In other words you could have inherited anywhere from 0 to 50% from any one grandparent. The gap usually isn't that big but can be. How you inherited any bias will not be how your siblings inherited it unless you have an identical twin.

Mitochondrial is not a chromosome but in the cytoplasm(connective tissue) of your cells. Both males and females get Mitochondrial from their mother.

For years people have used Y & Mitochondrial testing in genealogy and with each they assign a person to a Haplogroup and show them the origin of their ancestors going pretty far back. This type of testing is viewed as very accurate. However, a person gets each from only one person in each generation he goes back. If you were a male get back to your 32 great great great grandparents and 30 of them will not be included in either results. Since you are probably a female you got your Mitochondrial from only one person in each generation you go back. Therefore 31 of them will be excluded in the results.

Autosomal along with the X is used in the overall testing. Some companies call it ethnicity testing. If you and a full sibling were tested by the same company at the same time your results probably will vary.

Example: You could have received more Scandinavian Autosomal from a Norwegian grandfather and your brother or sister could have received more Slavic Autosomal from a Croatian grandmother. Also it has been reported if you go to more than one company to get the same test done the results will vary. That is because there are no Haplogroups with Autosomal and the only thing companies can do is match you with population samples in their database. So if one doesn't have or is deficient in certain population samples another has and vice versa, the results naturally will not be the same.

The best way to use genealogy testing is if you are into traditional genealogy work using documents/records and if the company you choose has cousins of yours going back several generations in their database and they are allowed to notify you of those cousins who also might be into traditional genealogy research, you can make contact with them and collaborate information with them. They might have discovered things you haven't and you might have discovered things they haven't.

Also understand when you look at your results there are no pure nationalities, ethnicities, ancestries or whatever. Borders have changed. One nation invaded and conquered another. The original population didn't get up and move but eventually mingled with those that conquered. There has been intermingling for centuries across Europe of different people.

[People misread their tests. y-dna and mtdna, passed in an unbroken line, are accurate but these are from prehistoric times, before therre were names countries and ethnicities. The tests that show different 'ethnicities' are more problematic as they can vary by data bases. People also think if they see unexpected French or German or whatever, that you must have a recent ancestor from that area. All that is happening in many cases is that you have a similarity to people from those areas.

Most Genealogical DNA testing is reasonably accurate. However, you must realize that the results may indicate traces and traits that go back

several hundred years

The ethnicity predictions of the test is not perfect right now because we still lack reference populations and samples. So no you shouldn't take the ethnicity results at fact value (whatever your results were) right now.

But that's no reason for anyone to NOT do a test, as the genetic relatives features and the raw data for health traits and health risks for cancers are a great investment for one's family.

Even if someone knew absolutely everything about their entire ethnicity/ancestry, the genetic relatives features and the raw data for health traits and health risks for cancers are still a reason to do the tests

D.N.A.tests are not always accurate based on sampling ,interpretations,mistakes and other reasons. Different genetic tests from different companies can give different results . i have a background in anthropology , i should know what i am talking about in regards to this subject

In the question of nature versus nurture the answer is always - Both!

Your ancestry is the heritage of those who raised you. Your ancestry is the heritage of your biological lineages. Both are true. You get to pick, and both is an allowed choice.

ancestrydna is only for entertainment purposes, send again and you will get different results....... they entertain they are certainly not "accurate" as far as genealogy is concerned..the ONLY way to know the accuracy of your ancestry is to research the written records from yourself back through the generations of your ancestry

Because people are not perfect

reader has that excuse to deny

DNA analysis. Weak-minded

simply lose the moral compass.