Is DNA testing to find out where your ancestors came from actually a real thing?

Question

I have heard about the thing that oprah did about finding her roots, and I know that they are just matching genetics with similar ones around the world. But does it actually work if you were to do it? Cuz, I am Latino (Mestizo: Spanish and Indigenous) and I wana know what tribes my ancestors might have come from.

Answer 1

Yes but there has to be a data base to compare it to.

Answer 2

Save your money. I saw a thing on tv the other day where a couple of people had it done. the dna place told them all they came out of africa, and spread across europe. Basically it was the out of africa theory with a few variations depending on what the nationality of the people were. Give me 1,000 dollars, I'll tell you you came of africa, too.

Answer 3

Yes, although it's pretty poor at identfying the tribal origin of most black Americans. You'll usually just get an area of origin, not a tribe.

DNAwitness will give a cheap but reasonably accurate breakdown of your ancestry by race.

http://www.dnawitness.net/

It almost certainly won't give you the native Americans tribe you are related too. I don't know any tests that do.

Answer 4

Of course it is. It is used world wide and is scientifically proven. If it was not true then it wouldn't be recognized internationally.

Answer 5

It do; you can; and, good luck.

Answer 6

Yeah, it's typically through mitochondrial DNA, which normally traces better through matrimonial line.  It's also been pretty good for whatever reason for tracking down a general geography where someone's ancestry is from.  I think because there is a known rate of change in certain genes, and they tend to change mostly as generations of people move.