MyHeritage vs. AncestryDNA for Polish Ancestry: Which DNA Test Should You Take?

If you’re descended from Polish immigrants and want to confirm, extend, or double-check what the paper records say, a DNA test is one of the fastest ways to find living relatives you didn’t know you had — both in the United States and in Poland itself. The two services genealogists reach for most often are MyHeritage DNA and AncestryDNA. They aren’t equivalent products, and for Polish research specifically, the differences matter more than the marketing suggests.

Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links to MyHeritage. If you buy a DNA kit or start a trial through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not earn commissions from AncestryDNA or the other companies mentioned. See our affiliate disclosure.

The short answer

Both are worth considering, and the better first test depends on where your Polish relatives are most likely to have tested. If your cousins are more likely to be in Europe or Israel, or your family is Polish-Jewish, start with MyHeritage: its user base skews far more international than AncestryDNA’s, with meaningfully better representation from Poland, Central Europe, and Israel, which matters enormously for Polish-Jewish research in particular. If your Polish relatives mostly settled in the United States or Canada, AncestryDNA has the largest database in the industry by a wide margin, which means a higher chance of matching a Polish-American cousin who tested for the same reason you did. Many researchers end up testing with both.

Database size: why it’s the single biggest factor

A DNA test can only find relatives who have also tested with the same company. MyHeritage has grown to around 9.6 million samples, and its database is disproportionately weighted toward European and Israeli testers, some of whom will be Polish cousins that AncestryDNA’s more US-centric database simply doesn’t contain. AncestryDNA’s database is larger, at roughly 27–30 million tested individuals, making it larger than every other consumer genealogy database combined. For a Polish surname search, that gap matters less than it would for, say, a common English surname.

MyHeritage also offers two optional extras. DNA Traits is a set of recreational reports on everyday characteristics, unlocked for a one-time fee per kit. DNA 360° is a separate kit that adds health and wellness reports to your ancestry results; it is for informational purposes only, is not a diagnostic test, and is currently sold only to adults in the United States and United Kingdom. Check MyHeritage for what is included (affiliate link).

Ethnicity estimates: why your Polish percentage will differ between the two

It’s common to test with both services and get two different “Eastern European” or “Poland” percentages back. This isn’t an error on either company’s part — it’s a consequence of how ethnicity estimation works. Both companies compare your raw DNA against a reference panel built from people with known, deep-rooted ancestry in a given region, and then estimate which segments of your genome most closely resemble which panel. MyHeritage and AncestryDNA use different reference panels, different regional boundaries, and different statistical models, so a border region like historical Galicia or the former Prussian partition can get classified differently by each company. Neither number is “more correct” — they’re two independent estimates of the same underlying ancestry.

If your family history involves the partitions — meaning your ancestors’ villages may have shifted between Russian, Prussian, and Austrian administration over the decades — expect some ethnicity-estimate variation even within results from the same company over time, as reference panels are updated. Treat the percentage as directional, not exact, and lean on your documented tree and DNA matches for the details the ethnicity estimate can’t provide.

Finding Polish DNA matches: what actually works

1. Search matches by surname. Both platforms let you filter shared matches by surname; run every spelling variant of your Polish surname you’ve documented, including Americanized versions.
2. Build out your tree before you test, not after. Matches are far easier to place if you already have grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ names, birth villages, and approximate dates entered.
3. Use shared matches to triangulate. A match who shares DNA with you and with a known cousin on your Polish side is very likely connected through that same branch.
4. Upload your raw data to GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA if you tested with AncestryDNA (Ancestry does not accept outside uploads, and MyHeritage stopped accepting DNA uploads from other companies in August 2025). This widens your matching pool without buying a second full kit.

A note on endogamy in Polish-Jewish research

If your Polish ancestry is Jewish, be prepared for an unusually high number of DNA matches, many of them showing closer predicted relationships than the real genealogical connection. This is the effect of endogamy — centuries of marriage within a relatively small, geographically concentrated community — and it affects both MyHeritage and AncestryDNA results. A match estimated as a “second cousin” might genealogically be a fourth or fifth cousin. Cross-reference DNA matches with documented trees rather than relying on the relationship estimate alone, and see our guide on Polish-Jewish genealogy for beginners for research strategies suited to this pattern.

Should you test with 23andMe or FamilyTreeDNA instead?

23andMe remains active after its 2025 restructuring and 2026 acquisition by a nonprofit research institute, and it’s a reasonable secondary test, but its database and genealogy tools are not built with Polish research as a priority use case. FamilyTreeDNA is the strongest option specifically for Y-DNA surname-line testing — useful if you’re trying to confirm a direct paternal line to a specific Polish surname across generations — but it isn’t a substitute for the broader autosomal matching AncestryDNA and MyHeritage provide. For most people starting Polish ancestry research, testing with MyHeritage and AncestryDNA together remains the most efficient combination, with FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe as add-ons.

Connecting DNA results back to Polish records

A DNA match only tells you that a connection exists — the paper trail is what tells you which village, parish, or archive to search next. Once you’ve identified a promising match, cross-reference the surname and any known village names against Geneteka, Poland’s largest free index of vital records, and consult our guide to tracing Polish ancestry if you haven’t yet identified which partition your family’s records fall under.

A DNA match is a lead, not a conclusion — the documents are what turn a shared centimorgan count into a confirmed ancestor.

Bottom line

For most people researching Polish ancestry, MyHeritage is the stronger first test if your relatives are likely to be in Europe or Israel, or your roots are Polish-Jewish, thanks to its stronger European and Israeli representation. AncestryDNA’s much larger database makes it the better pick if your Polish relatives mostly emigrated to North America, and a valuable second test otherwise. Testing with both, and uploading results to free-to-search platforms like GEDmatch, gives you the widest possible pool of potential cousins to work with.

Cost and value: what you’re actually paying for

Kit prices change often and both companies run frequent sales, so check current pricing before you order. Beyond the kit, think about what you plan to do afterward. MyHeritage’s kit includes DNA matching and a chromosome browser, while its historical record collections and some tree-based tools sit behind a subscription plan. Getting full value out of AncestryDNA for genealogy research often means adding an Ancestry subscription to unlock historical records and the ThruLines feature, which suggests how a DNA match might fit into your tree based on other members’ public trees. If you mainly want DNA matching, compare what each kit includes before buying; if you also plan to research American-side immigration and census records, either service’s subscription can do double duty, since MyHeritage and Ancestry both host U.S. immigration and census collections.

Privacy considerations before you test

Both companies allow you to opt out of DNA relative matching and law-enforcement-facing features, and neither permits direct law enforcement uploads of crime-scene DNA to search their databases. Ancestry will release data only in response to a valid court order or warrant. If genetic privacy is a significant concern for you, review each company’s current privacy policy directly before testing, since these policies are revised periodically and a summary from any single article — including this one — can go out of date.

Frequently asked questions

Can I upload one company’s results to the other?

Not any more. MyHeritage stopped accepting DNA uploads from other companies in August 2025, so appearing in its database now means taking a MyHeritage test. AncestryDNA does not accept uploads either. Your AncestryDNA or 23andMe file can still be uploaded free to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch.

Will a DNA test tell me which Polish village my family came from?

Not directly. Ethnicity estimates identify a broad region, not a specific village or parish. A DNA match to a documented cousin who knows the ancestral village is far more useful for that purpose than the ethnicity percentage itself.

Is a Polish citizenship application affected by DNA test results?

No. Polish citizenship by descent is established through documentary evidence — birth, marriage, and citizenship records — not DNA. See our guide to Polish citizenship eligibility for what’s actually required.

Sources: company-reported database figures and independent DNA-testing industry trackers, current as of 2026.