AncestryDNA Test on sale for $79...

...plus shipping! And  the offer is only available through the link in an email. This info just came to me about an hour ago and I have no idea how they chose the recipients of the email notice. I've already tested so perhaps they believe I'll  but more tests for family and friends?

It'd really like to know how their sales fluctuate since they seem to have this "20% off" deal quite frequently. So much so that I nearly always advise people who have interest in the test to wait for a holiday or even call them up and simply request the test at the sale price.

All I can be sure of is that  by comparing the results I received from AncestryDNA to the results from FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe the most recent results seem to be more accurate. I tested long ago with NatGeo whose results also parallel those of the other major testing labs. I am predominantly Northern European with just a smattering of Eastern European and almost a full half of a percent of Ashkenazi Jew.

Would I recommend one over the other? The famous answer to that is "That depends." It depends, of course, on your needs or your motivation. AncestryDNA is a relatively simple (and inexpensive) "cousin finder" inasmuch as they only test autosomal DNA. Autosomal lives in the nucleus and is the DNA that is 50% Mom and 50% Dad. If you follow that out several generations, the logic dictates that your autosomal is 25% from each of your 4 grandparents, 12.5% from each of your 8 great grandparents, 6.75% from each of your 16 2nd great-grandparents and so on. That same logic demonstrates that the accuracy of discovering 4th, 5th or earlier generations is relatively remote at best. However, since Ancestry.com has a significant data base of family trees, some of which are reasonably accurate, there's also a reasonable chance you'll be able to discover some new relationships up to about 4th cousins or so. But don't try to prove you're descended from Charlemagne with the AncestryDNA test!!

The other companies' tests can be more expensive, but the testing is a great deal more complex. Just keep in mind the Y-DNA is specifically for your paternal line. Why (couldn't resist the pun)? Because only men have Y-DNA. That's what makes the men men! It is the 23rd of  the23 chromosomes in the nucleus of each cell.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), on the other hand, lives outside the nucleus but still within the cell itself. EVERYONE has mitochondrial but  ONLY the females transmit it, thereby giving us all a genetic map to our mother's mother and her mother as well, back many generations of mothers

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It starts to get a little technical from here on, but it may be enough to help you make a decision...hopefully!