Some people who have traced their family trees are now turning to science to see whether historical data is accurate.

For a few hundred dollars, a growing number of people are buying online DNA kits.

Dale Johns is president of the South Australian Genealogy Society.

"People who want to have their tests done, they can find a provider on the web and there's one we use in America," he said.

"They pay their money, they get a little kit and they take a swab out of their mouth and seal that up and send it back."

Ancestry researcher Antoinette Wade is enjoying the process.

"I recently had a test called Family Finder done and I have actually found some second cousins that I'm in communication with based on our DNA and that's very exciting," she said.

Another society member Robert Blair has had several tests done on DNA, and even had some cousins tested as well, to prove a person in his family tree did not belong there.

"The DNA tests showed that I was right. The ancestor that we thought was an ancestor wasn't really an ancestor," he said.

A DNA special interest group is among several that meet at Genealogy SA's headquarters, with others including English, Irish, German and other European groups.

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DNA checks done on family trees