How can technology help uncover my ancestry?

Contemporary innovations in genetic technology are crucial in advancing knowledge of ancestry. There are several companies on the market, such as AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage, that provide genealogical service in which they typically analyze one’s entire genome (DNA) and compare the data extracted with their existing reference sets, or DNA samples of people confirmed to be descended from a certain region in the world. Percentages are then assigned based on the perceived shared similarity between one's DNA and a particular ethnic group in the data set. For example, if someone’s genome had a high percentage of commonality with a set of people known to be of Italian descent, the individual would be assigned a substantial percentage of Italian DNA.