How British are you? Melksham company launches new DNA test

A MILITARY history company based in Melksham is asking how British are you? The company has launched a new ancestral DNA test that discovers the ethnic origins we have with our ancestors. 

Forces War Records is offering to provide the answers to our history as printed  on everyone’s genes is hidden information about all of the ancestors whose DNA they have inherited. Anyone taking the Forces DNA test will unlock a very personal story that they could never have known otherwise.  The test will enable the participant to discover on a global level how much European, Asian, African or Native American DNA they carry and on a more detailed European level how much Northwestern European, Mediterranean, Balto-Slavic, Jewish, Steppe-Turkic, Basque-Iberian and Anatolian-Caucasian ancestry they have.

Dominic Hayhoe, CEO of Forces War Records says, “As the website to visit for those researching their family’s military history, we are continually helping people find out more about their ancestors.  Everyone’s reasons for researching their family’s history are different but it’s a human truth to want to know where we fit in, where we come from and how we connect to another person which is what makes genealogy so fascinating. We introduced Forces DNA to help our customers develop a deeper connection with their past, establish a common link with their forebears and help them answer the questions ‘where am I from?’ and ‘who am I?”

The Forces DNA test uniquely examines over 250,000 autosomal markers.  Autosomal DNA makes up the majority of our DNA.  Alongside the allosomes (X and Y chromosomes), autosomes make up the other twenty-two out of twenty-three chromosome pairs in every cell in the human body.  Autosomes are responsible for many of a person’s traits – such as eye-colour, height, hair thickness and hair colour.  They can also reveal an individual’s ethnic ancestry – the percentage of their DNA that has been inherited from different continents.

By comparing an individual’s DNA signature with an extensive set of DNA samples of known ancestry, the largest on the market which includes over 4000 individuals from over 200 populations from all over the world, Forces DNA is able to reveal which populations an individual is closest to genetically.  It also reveals what the proportions of their recent ancestry are, going back six to eight generations, approximately 120 to 160 years, from each of seven continental level groups.

For more information visit www.forces-war-records.co.uk/forces-dna