If you’ve already taken a DNA test, you might be wondering who else you should test next to help build your family tree. DNA test kits make unique gifts with a great deal of added value for both you and your family, so you might want to consider sending one to the following relatives for their next birthday or gift-giving holiday.
Parents
Testing your parents is the best way to determine whether your DNA Matches are related to you on your maternal or paternal side. Their ethnicity results will also which parts of your own ethnicity were inherited from each of them. You may even learn that your mother or father has ethnicities that you did not inherit at all. DNA best practices encourage testing as many elderly ancestors as possible.
Spouse
Testing your spouse will reveal his or her ethnicity and find DNA Matches on the other side of your family. This can be valuable information for your children.
Siblings
Testing your siblings will shed light on the similarities and differences between you. You share on average 50% of your DNA, but because of the way DNA is inherited, your ethnicity estimates may vary! While you and your sibling each inherited half of your parents’ DNA, you didn’t necessarily inherit the same halves.
This means that testing a sibling may yield additional DNA Matches that you didn’t get from yourself, because they match segments of your sibling’s DNA that you don’t have.
Adult Children
It may be fascinating to find out which ethnicities your adult child inherited from you and your partner. Testing your adult children will also give you DNA Matches for them who are not a subset of your own matches, since they inherit half of their DNA from their other parent.
Cousins
Genetic genealogy experts recommend testing cousins, especially second cousins, to expand the reach of your known DNA matches — which will help you understand how you’re related to your unknown DNA matches.
People searching for family
Adoptees or people who put their biological children up for adoption, Holocaust survivors who were unable to reconnect with any relatives after the war, and people born using a sperm donation looking for information about their paternal side are just a few examples of people who can benefit from DNA testing. Combined with a huge DNA database, people searching for family have a lot to gain from DNA testing. The many MyHeritage DNA reunions have been made possible thanks to DNA testing, and continue to give hope to people who are still searching.
