My great-great grandmother was Ann Nicolls from Devon, England who emigrated to South Australia in 1847, where she married, had a family then they moved to Victoria and then the family relocated to Dunedin in New Zealand in 1865. I am from New Zealand but I am currently residing in Brisbane, Australia and have been researching both sides of my family tree for a long time now. I am interested in doing a mtDNA test and wondered if I can do the test from Australia and how much it costs etc. I notice there is Allen surname on your Surnames listing. Also, Ann Nicholls' first husband was Henry Goodman, surname also on your list and Ann's 2nd husband was Joseph Allen from Penzance, Cornwall. Regards, Claire
Re: Nicholls, Ann
Posted by Debbie Kennett on 5/9/2017, 23:34:35, in reply to "Nicholls, Ann "
Hi Claire
You can indeed order a DNA test from New Zealand. An mtDNA test will only tell you about your direct maternal line as shown in the diagram in this article:
An mtDNA test is not really the best test to start with as it's not so useful for genealogy and the matches can be very distant. I would recommend starting with an autosomal DNA test. It's a choice between the Family Finder test from Family Tree DNA or the AncestryDNA test, both of which are available in Australia. If you test with AncestryDNA you can transfer to FTDNA but because the two chips are not compatible you only get about 10% of the matches that you would get if you tested direct with FTDNA. Ideally you should be in both databases. FTDNA have a project system so as well as the Devon Project there is a New Zealand project and various projects for Australia that you could also join. AncestryDNA now have the larger database. You might like to have a read of my article in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine which looks at the different types of tests: