An ancient DNA ancestry test, from the file you already have

A consumer ancestry estimate compares you with living people, grouped by where their grandparents were born. An ancient-DNA test compares you with people who were excavated: individuals whose genomes were sequenced from bone and tooth and published with their site, their date and their archaeological context. That changes what a result can mean — a match is placed in time as well as in space — and it changes what a result can never mean, because the panel is a sample of the dead rather than a family tree.

Ancestrify runs three such tests. qpAdm is a formal statistical test: it can reject a proposed model, and every published model carries the p-value that does so. Global25 is a coordinate fit: fast, era-by-era, with a fit distance rather than a p-value. Ancient Matches works at the level of individual people and the stretches of chromosome you share with each. They answer different questions, which is why they are sold separately and why qpAdm vs Global25 exists.

Input

A raw-data export (.txt, .csv, .zip or .gz, up to 50 MB) — or a whole-genome sequencing VCF up to 1 GB (+€10) on qpAdm and Ancient Matches

qpAdm reference panel

Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR) v66 — ~23,265 samples, ~6,015 population labels

Global25 reference set

30,386 individual samples across 1,535 curated populations

Eras

qpAdm: two — Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer, and Classical Antiquity. Global25: six, from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Era

Catalog

Every sovereign state — 199 countries and 1,115 regions — for both qpAdm and Global25

Data location

European Union (Germany and Finland), under GDPR

Who does the work

One person. Every qpAdm model is built and checked by hand before it is published

Delivery

An interactive on-screen report and server-rendered videos. There is no PDF

It will never name a population or a buried individual as your ancestor. A source population in a qpAdm model is a reference the model was tested against; a close Global25 distance is a position in a reference space; a shared stretch in Ancient Matches is evidence that you and that person draw on the same ancestral population. None of these is descent from anyone in particular, and the reports say so beside the number.

It will never present a coordinate fit as a statistical test. Global25 percentages always exist, whether or not the model makes sense; qpAdm is the product that can say no, and it is the one that costs more and takes longer because a person builds it.

The Ancestrify Lab is free. The raw DNA file check tells you what your file can support before you order anything; the distance, admixture and PCA tools run in your browser with no account; the AdmixTools 2 Lab runs real qpAdm on the public panel; and the live demo shows every report with example data.

• 01

  What is an ancient DNA test?

  A test that compares your genotypes with genomes sequenced from archaeological remains — people who lived thousands of years ago — rather than with a panel of living reference populations. You do not send in a new sample: the analysis runs on the raw DNA file a consumer testing company already gave you, or on a whole-genome sequencing VCF.

• 02

  Which raw DNA files can I use?

  A raw-data export from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA or a similar company, as a .txt, .csv, .zip or .gz file up to 50 MB. Files are validated by their content rather than by vendor, so exports following the usual microarray text layout work even where the company is not named. A whole-genome sequencing VCF (tellmeGen, Dante Labs, Nebula and similar) up to 1 GB is accepted on qpAdm and Ancient Matches for a €10 add-on.

• 03

  Which of the three products should I choose?

  qpAdm if you want a model that can be statistically rejected and is published with its p-value, standard errors and z-scores. Global25 if you already have a coordinate row, or want one obtained for you (+€15), and want distances, admixture and PCA across six eras. Ancient Matches if you want to know which individual ancient people you share stretches of DNA with, rather than what proportion of your ancestry comes from which population.

• 04

  Will the test tell me who my ancestors were?

  No test can, and this one never claims to. A source population in a model, a close distance or a shared stretch of DNA is evidence that you draw on the same ancestral population as those people — never proof that any of them was your ancestor. Every report says so where the number appears.

• 05

  How many countries and populations are covered?

  The catalog covers every sovereign state — 199 countries and 1,115 regions — for both qpAdm and Global25. Global25 draws on 30,386 individual samples across 1,535 curated populations; qpAdm models are built on the Allen Ancient DNA Resource v66, roughly 23,265 samples across roughly 6,015 population labels.

• 06

  Can I try it before paying?

  Yes. The Ancestrify Lab's in-browser tools — distance, admixture, PCA, averaging and the authenticity check — need no account, the raw DNA file check tells you what your file can support, and the live demo runs the real report components on example data. Nothing is ordered on any of them.