DNA testing strategy for Australians
Update August 2025 - Upload to MyHeritage no longer available. As this is the site where most Australians will get the second largest number of matches, I would suggest testing there prior to testing at 23andMe when you have exhausted your AncestryDNA research. Australians are taking commercial DNA tests to- find biological parent/parents, solve family mysteries generally who's my great-grandfather to great-great-grandfather, verify their genetic pedigree (and often finding it's not the same as their social pedigree) and establish ethnicity. Louise Coakley (aka "genie1") is an Australian genetic genealogist with an excellent website. You can read about genetic genealogy HERE. Testing at any of the major commercial DNA companies gives useful ethnicity estimates. However, if you're testing for any other reason, my first step would be to take an autosomal test. Often called cousinship tests, you'll get matches across all your ancestral line. They're of...