Are you interested in learning more about yourself through a DNA testing kit? There are a number of DNA test kit options to select from, so be sure you consider the following points before you pick one. From the type of test, to privacy, to what taking the test involves, here are a few of the top factors in choosing a DNA testing kit.

Type of DNA Testing Kit

While at-home DNA testing kits can give you some DNA-based insights about yourself, if you’re looking for a DNA test that tells you more about your ancestors and family history, there are three main types of DNA tests you can use:

• A Y-DNA test
• A mitochondrial DNA test (also known as an mtDNA test)
• An autosomal DNA test, which is the most information-rich one, as it can trace all of your family lines rather than just your mother’s line (like an mtDNA test) or your father’s line (like a Y-DNA test)

AncestryDNA^® test kits use autosomal DNA testing. This is why you get such rich, deep content about your living relatives, as well as your ancestors on both sides of your biological family.

DNA Test Process

Not all DNA testing kits are equally easy to use. Some require a number of additional steps or costs for your initial test, including paying one price for the actual DNA test kit and an additional amount to activate it. This is not the case with a DNA test kit from AncestryDNA. When you order an AncestryDNA test, the price includes a DNA test kit and the lab processing fee. Each AncestryDNA test kit contains a full set of instructions, a DNA collection tube for your saliva (your DNA sample), and a prepaid return mailer.

To take an AncestryDNA test, all you have to do is fill the test tube that comes in your DNA test kit with your saliva and mail it in with the prepaid mailer. You’ll then receive your DNA test results online (typically in 6-8 weeks), via the free Ancestry^® account you create when you register your test.

What You Get with Your DNA Test Kit

The information you’re looking to discover from a DNA test clearly matters a lot when choosing a DNA testing kit. An AncestryDNA test can help you discover a more complete story of you—from your origins in over 2,000 world regions (your ethnicity estimate) to connections to living relatives in the world’s largest consumer DNA database (DNA matching).

Your ethnicity estimate, for example, could tell you that 34% of your DNA looks most like the DNA of people from France. This would appear in the test results displayed in your online AncestryDNA account as a 34% France ethnicity estimate.

Your ethnicity estimate could even be more specific, showing a DNA connection to a community. For instance you could be part of the Eastern Louisiana & Mississippi Border African Americans community, meaning one or more of your ancestors likely lived in that specific region of the South.

In addition to an ethnicity estimate, test results from your AncestryDNA kit could also include DNA Matches. DNA matches are other AncestryDNA test takers who are genetically related to you and are displayed in your results according to how closely they are likely related to you.

DNA matching is an opt-in feature which allows you to make all sorts of interesting connections. For example, you could end up connecting with and visiting your long-lost family in Ireland. Or you could discover Civil War veterans in your family tree, thanks to a connection with a DNA match who has a publicly viewable family tree. With more than 24 million people who have taken AncestryDNA tests, there’s no telling what connections you might make.

Privacy and Your DNA Kit Test Results

When you buy a DNA testing kit, one concern can be privacy. If you purchase a DNA test kit from AncestryDNA, know that you own your DNA. AncestryDNA does not claim ownership rights in the DNA that is submitted for testing. You can learn more about AncestryDNA and privacy by visiting the privacy center on Ancestry^®.

DNA Test Precision

If you’re in the market for a DNA testing kit that tells you more about your origins, one important thing to consider is the precision of the test. For example, with DNA communities, AncestryDNA gives you a level of insight into your origins that you can’t get anywhere else.

AncestryDNA draws on the power of millions of family trees in combination with the world’s largest consumer DNA database to give you more precise results. This method allows you to not only learn where your ancestors came from, but to see how members of their community moved around their homeland and across the globe as far back as 1700—sometimes in detailed increments of 25 year blocks.

You could learn, for example, that your family was part of a community that moved from Donegal, Ireland, to Chicago between 1850 and 1875, in the wake of the Irish Potato Famine. Or you might learn that your family may have joined others and moved from Louisiana to Chicago during the Great Migration.

Through AncestryDNA you could learn not only about your unique family story, but also how the movements of your ancestors fit into the larger picture of human history.

If you are ready to join the millions who have already uncovered something new about themselves with an AncestryDNA test, order your AncestryDNA test kit today.