The Browser's DNA Testing Thread

The Browser

Hi All,

So I'm very keen to get my DNA tested to see where my ancestors hail from, i.e. what percentage European I am, what percentage elsewhere.

I am Irish born and bred, but would like to see back into the mists of time, as it were. Surnames in my close ancestry, both maternal and paternal, include O'Donnell, Cleary, O'Gorman, Purcell, and Ahern.

I recently married a girl from the Philippines and would be interested in getting a test kit for her, too.

So, please advise me! What service should I use and how do I maximize use of the results?

23andMe seems good from a cursory look at their website and is far cheaper than the national geographic test kit.

Please advise and I'll take it to the next level and share results.

Ipso

The thing is unless you have any "exotic" non European ancestry in fairly recent times it most likely won't get detected as all your other ancestry would be Irish and the exotic DNA would be diluted by Irish DNA each subsequent generation.
To look for something like this 23andme would be best. They test your entire genome and will tell you your male and female haplogroups.
If you do test with them don't get hung up on what your haplogroups are as they only look at two direct lineages in your family tree.
You will also get a list of relatives who match you, these relatives can share any ancestor in your family tree with you. In order to utilise this best I would recommend finding out as much about your background as possible so you can confirm shared ancestors with any matches you get.
The other main company is Family Tree DNA. They offer a product like 23andme called Family Finder, they don't have as large of a database and the features offered aren't as good so I would go with 23andme.
What FTDNA are best at is direct Y lineage testing, this focuses on your male line only (your father, his gather, his father etc).
So if you are O'Donnell it will match you with people who share each of your direct O'Donnell males as common ancestors. For this it is best to get a 37 marker or 67 market test, they also have sales so if you're interested keep an eye on the website.
These types if tests have helped hobbyists expand the Y DNA family tree in recent years.
You can do the same kind of test for your female line.
I can't talk about National Geographic Gen 2 but from what I've read it doesn't offer too much new from an individual point of view.
That is my take, a few others have tested so I'm sure they will be along to offer their opinions/experience.

Here is a good forum if you want to read up a bit.
http://www.anthrogenica.com/forum.php

The Browser

Drat. Just tried to order a kit and it looks like they don't ship to the UAE. Maybe I'll get my (full biological) brother to do it. I presume that would yield the same result.

Ipso

Yes, he should get more or less the same results, same haplogroups but maybe a very small overall "genetic profile" due to the randomness of DNA recombination.