When it comes to ancestry, DNA is very good at determining close family relations such as siblings or parents, and dozens of stories are emerging that reunite or identify lost close family members (or indeed criminals). For deeper family roots, these tests do not really tell you where your ancestors came from.

How accurate is DNA genealogy testing?

Reading your DNA is a first step in generating your AncestryDNA results. Accuracy is very high when it comes to reading each of the hundreds of thousands of positions (or markers) in your DNA. With current technology, AncestryDNA has, on average, an accuracy rate of over 99 percent for each marker tested.

Are AncestryDNA tests ever wrong?

Though it's possible that it's a mistake, it's extremely unlikely. Relationship predictions are almost always accurate for people who are second cousins or closer.