How these services meet your DNA to prospective parents?
When you complete a DNA test and mail it to the laboratory for testing, you have to wait weeks or months before getting your results. Before taking the test, you can choose whether you want to be matched with potential parents it finds. It is important to note that you will only be paired with others who actually took the same test with the same service you use. So if you took a DNA test to MyHeritage, for example, you will be paired with the users in a database that also completed the DNA test.
The genealogy service will then analyze the segments within your DNA and compare the segments in the DNA of others; markers over your DNA together with the DNA in the database of someone else, the more likely you two are linked. Once the service has found enough similarities between the DNA samples, you have the opportunity to connect with your relative potential, and view their family tree to see if you have common ancestors. Some services, such as Ancestry, notice how you could be related to someone with similar DNA (eg, identical twin, relative, member of the immediate family, cousin remote, etc.).
How accurate are these DNA match?
All results of DNA tests are based on information that the genealogy service already has in its database. Essentially the most renowned genealogy services will have more DNA data to compare the DNA results, because they have more people in their database. The accuracy of your DNA is also dependent on the type of DNA test you're done. The autosomal DNA testing, for example, can be taken by men and women and are the best type of tests for tracing generations. Because DNA is "weaker" over it is transmitted from generation to generation, the more distant the relationship, the less DNA you share with this report - which means breaking the genetic share with your cousin in the third degree will be no gaps in the DNA segments that you and your cousin.
Is what I can do to improve the accuracy of my DNA matches?
If you took a DNA test and are not matched with prospective parents, or if you want to discover more DNA matches, there are a few things you can to help improve your chances. For one, you may have other family members, like your uncle or grandfather, a DNA test and submit it to the database. By testing the DNA of your elderly parents, you get a better and stronger link to the past of your family. Your other known members of the family may also have some DNA matches that you do not, this could help you discover even more parents to connect with. Because DNA matching gives you the ability to view and connect with other family trees, which also discovers new parents, it is important to try to keep your information up to date and as factual as possible. Misinformation in your tree or the tree of another member, such as a misspelled name might lead you to believe that you are someone when you really could not.
If you are interested in doing a DNA test to advance your research project on the family, visit our genealogical comments to learn more about services that offer this kind of test.