Comments on: Is Genetic Genealogy A Scam?

By: kiki

kiki — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:57:24 +0000

I think genetic genealogy is a very useful tool, unfortunately, the companies that offer the testing scam people. There are complaints about DNA Tribes and Ancestry, now people are complaining that ftDNA is scamming them. ftDNA routinely LOSES DNA which is awful. There are still people waiting to be merged with 23 and me from…September, they paid for a service and never got results. I wish someone reputable would buy these companies out – it is really how sad and selfish the world is.

By: GloJo

GloJo — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:36:12 +0000

As an africa american young woman I am very interested in where I come from. As a black woman in american I lack a strong sense of identity. I have no clue what my lineage is and I would spend the money to know who I am. How do I know who to trust and who not to trust.

By: Would DNA testing be legitimate proof of jewish heritage when attempting to immigrate to Israel?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:54:39 +0000

[...] using immigration laws if you'd like to immigrate. Good luck by: Lupines on: 10th February 09 I have yet to get a clear answer on what defines a jew….especially when in concerns immigration to…ht it is via Jewish mother or conversion via Orthodox. That is the only mode of entry into Israel as [...]

By: Kelly Krieg

Kelly Krieg — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:29:40 +0000

DNA Tribes is a complete scam. I’ve gone back over a thousand years in several ancestral branches. It’s all heavily waited in northern Europe and there is absolutely no hint of anything outside of Europe. DNATribes, after their “considered analysis” determined my genetic profile most closely (and overwhelmingly) matched a sampling of Moroccan guest workers living in Belgium!

I tried to get a plausible explanation for those results, but all I got was some irrelevant nonsense from an inarticulate boob named Lucas Martin. He steadfastly refused to so much as address seven very pointed questions I raised.

I was unable to speak with anyone else. Apparently Lucas Martin has no supervisor or associates.

I submitted a complaint to the BBB. The response I got back was from the same scientific illiterate, Lucas Martin. It included the same irrelevant boilerplate.

The above defenders of DNATribes apparently think if they can’t dazzle us with brilliance, they can baffle us with bull *#@%.

By: John Deezy

John Deezy — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:32:37 +0000

What’s funny to me is everyone who is arguing the results so vehemently. If you knew what nationality you are (going back hundreds of years according to some commentators) then why waste your $$ on a DNA test?? I am having a hard time wondering if I should do this. For now I will pass until the technology can produce more reliable results. Thanks to everyone who posted.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:15:39 +0000

DNA Tribes is not a scam! For those who think it is, it might be because you are so mixed! With ethnic DNA testing being a pretty new consept, DNA companies, such as DNA tribes still has plently of data to collect. Everyone these days is mixed in terms of ethnic DNA, no one is 100% pure, and some people are more mixed than others, which is why some DNA tribes analysis’ could look unaccurate. As accurate as their autosomal testing is, it is better to be more pure than mixed when taking the test. When one is mixed so much, it can start to add noise and “weird” results to your analysis. Example: someone is around 75% Polish, 13% Serbian, 5% Tibetan, 3% Altaian, and 4% Mongol, this is the estimated contribution to the ethnic DNA of Russians, and Eastern Ukrainians (from DNA tribes digest). This means, someone who isn’t Russian or Ukrainian at all, could still get Russia or Kharkov, Ukraine in their results. Keep in mind that some DNA is related to other DNA across the globe, so if your DNA is at all related to other DNA, even if you don’t have that DNA, it could still come up on your analysis. Now you are probably thinking, “how stupid, how if I am mixed can I get my DNA results if I need someone pure to take it?” Easy, get a parent or a grandparent, who is more pure than you, to take it. In conclusion, DNA Tribes is no SCAM!

By: Eric Cravey

Eric Cravey — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:20:31 +0000

You must read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; it is a game-changer. I met Rebecca at a writing conference in April 2010 and could not wait to read the book. Amazing!

By: Anne Lewis

Anne Lewis — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:40:50 +0000

Oh yeah, I had DNATribes done-the 21 marker. I “know” my Dad’s family are/were all Russian Jews. Mom’s, English,Irish, maybe some Roma. My DNA Tribes came back as:Mostly Kuwaiti, Icelandic,Polish and Mestizo! All very weird. I don’t get the sense it’s a scam, just not so accurate OR it goes WAY,WAY back in time.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:47:18 +0000

The problem with autosomal SNP tests are that they are limited per marker to only two characteristics, or alleles. For instance, a SNP with rsXXXXXX may show up 99% of the African population as T and 99% of the European population as A, but will fail to clearly define the in-between, like Asian groups, or any other population for that matter who may have any combination of A and T within its members. One may actually be of East Asian heritage but will be much more likely, according to the test, to be African if he/she has a T at that SNP. That is the problem with using biallelic systems for ancestry testing, and the reason why most labs can only limit the populations to four (like DNA Print) or they start getting errors when seeking to pinpoint specific populations (like DNA Tribes). When the alleles exceed the populations tested you get problems. You need genome wide panels, not just 100-200 SNPS, because with biallelic SNPs you are either really right, or really wrong, and no statistical algorithm can fix “really wrong”. The only lab I’ve found that gets it right with autosomal DNA testing is DNA Reference Lab in Texas, and from what I understand, they don’t use these problematic SNPs.

By: David Ellis

David Ellis — Sun, 29 May 2011 18:25:03 +0000

I was tested at both FamilyTreeDNA and 23andme, hoping that they would be able to use my DNA results to turn up people I could connect to my family tree.

Neither service is a rip-off. Far from that. But I’m disappointed in the sense that out of all the people they identified as the closest matches to me, I was able to draw no connections at all between our family trees.

With FamilyTreeDNA, I was tested for Y-chromosome (paternal ancestry) and mitochondrial (maternal ancestry) DNA. With the closest matches, the probability of a common ancestor within N generations back didn’t hit 50% until N got to six, which is beyond the horizon of how far I’ve been able to trace my ancestry back.

The DNA testing from 23andme is more comprehensive, covering all lines of my family tree instead of just the paternal and maternal edges. They identified several hundred prospective third cousins. Most did not respond to my requests for communication, and out of the people I did contact, it was evident in each and every case that the estimates of cousinhood were considerably over-optimistic.

In summary, DNA testing probably works best if you are tested along with people you already believe may be close relatives, and it can reliably confirm or refute such hypotheses. But finding new relatives that you don’t know is an unlikely proposition at best.