Question 1

What does Ancestrify actually offer?

Accepted Answer

Three ancestry products. qpAdm (from €29.99, in four depth tiers) takes your raw DNA export and returns a formal admixture model tested against the Allen Ancient DNA Resource, with p-values, standard errors and z-scores. Global25 (€29.99) takes the Global25 coordinates you already have and returns distances, admixture models and a PCA across six eras. Ancient Matches (€29.99) takes your raw DNA export and finds the individual ancient people you share stretches of DNA with, painted onto your own chromosomes. All three are one-time payments with no subscription.

Question 2

What are the qpAdm depth tiers, and why do they cost what they cost?

Accepted Answer

qpAdm is sold in four depths, Base (€29.99), Medium (€39.99), Deep (€49.99), Perfect (€59.99), that deliver the same report, and every published model passes the same strict quality check whatever the tier. What a deeper tier buys is a longer, harder search for your best model: the focused search at Base, the search past good enough at Medium, the full sweep at Deep, the exhaustive search at Perfect. More searching means more hand-built models, which is where the price goes, a human analyst spends a few hours at Base, about one working day at Medium, several working days at Deep, a week or more at Perfect, from roughly 15 to 25 hand-built models at Base to 120 to 200 hand-built models at Perfect.

Question 3

What is the difference between qpAdm and Global25 or nMonte percentages?

Accepted Answer

Global25 and nMonte percentages are coordinate-fitting estimates: your coordinate is fitted as a weighted mixture of reference coordinates, and some mixture always fits best, whether or not it is historically sensible. qpAdm uses allele-frequency statistics and outgroup populations, and produces a p-value, so a proposed model can be rejected as incompatible with the data. Neither method can prove descent from a named ancient population; qpAdm is the one that can tell you a model does not work.

Question 4

Can I upload my raw DNA file?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We accept raw-data exports from the major consumer testing companies, 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA and similar, as .txt, .csv, .zip or .gz files up to 50 MB. Files are validated by their actual content rather than by vendor name, so exports following the usual microarray text layout work even where the company is not listed. qpAdm and Ancient Matches analyse the file directly. A Global25 order starts from a coordinate row, paste the one you already have, or upload your raw file and we obtain your official coordinates for you (+€15).

Question 5

Can I upload a whole-genome sequencing VCF?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on qpAdm and Ancient Matches. A VCF from tellmeGen, Dante Labs, Nebula or a similar whole-genome service (.vcf or .vcf.gz, up to 1 GB) is accepted for a €10 add-on that is added automatically when the file is a VCF. It is converted to the reference panel's markers at upload, GRCh38 files are lifted to GRCh37, and the VCF itself is not stored. Sequencing kits cover more of the panel than array chips do.

Question 6

Do you generate Global25 coordinates from raw DNA?

Accepted Answer

We never compute them ourselves, official Global25 coordinates only ever come from the independent Eurogenes Global25 service. You can order them there yourself and paste the row with your Ancestrify G25 order, or upload your raw DNA file at checkout and, with your explicit consent, we obtain your official coordinates from that service for you for a €15 fee, then run your full analysis the moment they arrive.

Question 7

Can I run qpAdm models myself?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in the Ancestry Workbench, which needs no report: upload a raw DNA export as a kit (or attach the sample from a finished qpAdm order for free) and run real qpAdm models with your sample as the target, rotation batches in which every row is a genotype-direct fit, and Fst distance to every reference population. It runs on a prepaid balance from €9.99 that never expires; a qpAdm run draws about €0.004 and failed runs are never charged. The published model on a qpAdm report is still built and checked by hand, because automated rotation has a high false-discovery rate; the Workbench labels its rotation rows as your own hypotheses. qpWave, f3 and f4 against your kit stay operator-only; the free AdmixTools 2 Lab runs those methods over the public reference panel.

Question 8

What is a refined qpAdm analysis?

Accepted Answer

An optional second version of your published model. If the analyst revisits your report and finds a better model, it is published as a new version beside the original and offered as a €15.00 one-time unlock per version, never swapped in silently, never charged unless you choose it. The original stays exactly as published, and once unlocked you switch between versions from the report.

Question 9

What is the Personalized Calculator?

Accepted Answer

A Global25 add-on (€10, at checkout or later on the report): an analyst hand-builds a calculator around your own coordinates instead of choosing one from the published library, and publishes the result as a second version beside your standard admixture result. Both versions stay and you switch between them. It arrives after the standard result because it is human work, and you are notified when it is ready.

Question 10

Which countries and regions are covered?

Accepted Answer

Every sovereign state, 199 countries and 1,115 regions, for both qpAdm and Global25. The qpAdm source populations (49 across two eras) each have a public page on the Ancestry populations directory.

Question 11

Which reference dataset do you use?

Accepted Answer

For qpAdm, the Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR) v66, roughly 23,265 samples across roughly 6,015 distinct population labels, merged against your own genotypes on our infrastructure. For Global25, a curated set of 1,535 populations drawn from 30,386 individual samples.

Question 12

Which statistics do I receive?

Accepted Answer

A qpAdm report gives you the model's p-value per era, and for every source population its weight, standard error, z-score and 95% confidence interval, plus the right-population set used with sample counts. Its Reading view adds the model record behind those figures, chi-square, degrees of freedom, f4 rank, SNP counts, jackknife blocks and each source's panel label, with a written explanation from the analyst. A Global25 report gives you ranked distances, admixture proportions with a fit distance, and a PCA scatter of individual samples.

Question 13

How long does it take?

Accepted Answer

A Global25 order is computed automatically, after a holding period that the optional fast-compute add-on removes. qpAdm takes longer by design: merging your genotypes against the AADR panel is a heavy job, and your model is then built and checked by hand before publishing. The exact turnaround for each is stated at checkout, before you pay.

Question 14

What do I receive besides the on-screen report?

Accepted Answer

Cinematic ancestry videos rendered on our own servers at 1440x2560 and 60 fps, not encoded on your phone. There is no PDF report.

Question 15

Does an Ancient Matches match mean I am descended from that person?

Accepted Answer

No, and this is the most important thing to understand about that report. A match means you and that ancient individual carry the same stretch of DNA at the same place in the genome, evidence that you both draw on the same ancestral population. It is not proof of descent from that individual: stretches this old survive by chance across thousands of years, and the people in the panel are a sample of the dead, whoever happened to be excavated and published, rather than a family tree. Read a match as “my ancestry overlaps with these people”, never as “this is my ancestor”. That is why every match in the report carries its own evidence and why a population is never shown without the number of individuals behind it.

Question 16

Is Ancient Matches an IBD test?

Accepted Answer

Deliberately not called that. Products like it are often marketed as IBD (identity by descent); formally, what any method can measure against ancient genomes of this kind is identity by state (IBS), stretches that read the same, not stretches proven inherited from a common ancestor. That is why the product is named Ancient Matches, and why every match carries its own evidence rather than a claim of descent.

Question 17

Can a source population in my qpAdm model be my ancestor?

Accepted Answer

No, a source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A model that fits says your genome is compatible with a mixture of those references at those weights; it does not say anyone in those samples was related to you. Ancestrify never names a population or an individual as your ancestor.

Question 18

Does Ancient Matches match me against other customers?

Accepted Answer

No. It matches you against ancient individuals from published burials only. We do not match customers against each other, and there is no opt-in that would.

Question 19

Do you limit how many ancient matches I can see?

Accepted Answer

No. One price, the whole report, the match total and population roll-up count every match, and the closest 200 individuals are shown in full detail with every shared stretch, the chromosome painting and the map. There is no tier that shows you more.

Question 20

Where is my genetic data stored, and under which jurisdiction?

Accepted Answer

On infrastructure in the European Union, Germany and Finland, under GDPR. Your raw genetic file is processed only for your own analysis, you can delete it at any time, and both full account deletion and a machine-readable data export are self-service. We do not sell genotype data.

Question 21

Do you offer a mobile app?

Accepted Answer

No. Ancestrify is web-only and works in a phone browser.

Question 22

Is a haplogroup included?

Accepted Answer

The free Lab has a Y-DNA clade finder and an mtDNA haplogroup finder that read a raw DNA export (or, for Y, a VCF) and return your paternal or maternal branch, a free, email-verified account runs them. On a qpAdm report, the paternal haplogroup (€10) and the maternal haplogroup (€10) can be added as purchased sections, at checkout or later, each with its deep-tree placement and a map of ancient people who carried the same lineage. The maternal add-on is only offered when your file carries enough mitochondrial markers for a trustworthy call.

Question 23

What are the maternal haplogroup and Calculator Explorer add-ons?

Accepted Answer

The maternal haplogroup (€10, qpAdm) adds your mtDNA lineage to the report, everyone has mitochondrial DNA, so there is no gender restriction, but the add-on is refused rather than charged when the file cannot support a solid call. The Calculator Explorer (€10, Global25, at checkout or later) lets you re-solve your admixture against every other published calculator of an era, pure exploration; your delivered result and videos never change.

Question 24

How does Ancestrify compare with other services?

Accepted Answer

Factually, on the Compare pages: Ancestrify against Illustrative DNA, Vahaduo, GEDmatch and Genoplot, criterion by criterion, with every competitor cell read on their own site and dated. The short version of what differs: every published qpAdm model carries its p-value, standard errors, z-scores and full outgroup set; the Ancestry Workbench lets you run your own on a balance that never expires; the Personalized Calculator is hand-built around your coordinates; whole-genome VCFs are accepted; the catalog covers every sovereign state; Ancient Matches compares you with individual ancient people; prices are one-time; hosting is in the EU; there is no PDF.

Frequently asked questions

Start here

Questions