Anyone have any experience with Genetic Genealogy Companies?

In My Humble Opinion
1

The Title kind of says it all. I wondered if you or someone you know have ever used one and/or heard good or bad stories.

Thanks in advance

2

There was some hoo-ha in the media about it a few days ago. Someone had done a bit of secret shopper activity with some of the major companies and got results which suggested it was all nonsense. Wildly different results from the same company for the same sample submitted under different names, Y-chromosome results from an XX sample, that sort of thing.

Ah, here we go Expensive online DNA tests are 'no more accurate than horoscopes' | Daily Mail Online

3

There was also a 60 Minutes episode on this that strongly suggested that these companies don’t have large enough databases to give you any sort of definitive answer.

4

I’ve had my DNA analysis done and have been able to make contact with several others with the same last name who did the same. We were able to clear up quite a few errors in our genealogy and have been able to verify the corrections using Censu info and land records. It helped me get past a big gap in information.

5

I perhaps should have been clearer: What the companies on 60 Minutes were doing was attempting to establish roots in Africa for blacks, which is a fairly iffy proposition. The DNA connection to posible living relatives is an entirely different thing, and can be easily established.

6

I understand. I was worried at first that there wouldn’t be a large enough sample of people with my last name, but I managed to make some connections fairly quickly. The president of a genealogical society devoted to the family put a call in the newsletter asking people to participate and the number of participants grew to a good sample size.