How satisfied are you with your DNA test experience?

[jillruss]

Jill, How things change.

Remember this? -

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=787945.0
Questions - Still undecided about creating a tree on Ancestry following DNA test

I presume that question has been answered by yourself!


Regards Margaret

Good point, Margaret. Experience is a wonderful thing!

I have debated with myself (can you do that?  Oh well, I did!) whether to make my tree private or public and have tried both - and it really doesn't seem to make much difference re the replies I am (not) getting. Though I agree with you about the frustration you feel when someone has a tree but its locked, so I should really follow through and make mine public. When it comes right down to it, should I really care if some people want to go in and 'nab' great chunks of my tree? Its just amusing and a little maddening when the info comes back to you as if it were someone else's years of research. I'm not about to change human nature by any decision I make! 

So, I'll add a few more names, make the damn thing public and see if that makes any difference! 

[Finley 1]

I felt it best to have a specific tree for DNA purposes.  Because my MAIN TREE is full of personal information, like special notations and pics.  Besides BMDs etc.   

So I created this 'specific for DNA' tree by downloading the main tree to my old PAF  prog. and doing that doesn't carry pics  etc over ... I then altered addresses and suffixes ... leaving the tree with just BASIC necessary information and uploaded it again.

This one should be public-  shouldn't it......  I cannot bring myself to do that, for goodness sake.  I did for 24 hours and then panicked...  

Anyhow still no replies from the people I have sent to  and as you say so many ----  never mind private - just no trees.

Plodding on with it... who knows I may yet find a distant match worth finding.

xin

[TinaRoyal]

Jill and Xinia,

My top match in Ancestry has no family tree.  This is the message I sent them.  Note that there is no mention that they have no tree.  I received a reply from them within 48 hours, and am now building a relationship with them.

“Hi xxxxxxxxx,

Last year I took a DNA test through Ancestry, which I believe you have also taken. The results indicate that we have a very close relationship, predicting 3rd-4th cousins, with an Extremely High degree of Confidence. Apparently we share 116cM of DNA across six segments, which suggests that there is almost a 100% chance of us sharing a common Ancestor.

I note with interest that one of your Ethnicity Regions is Ireland. Many of my Ancestors were born in Ireland and came over to England, probably in the 1840’s, possibly to escape the Potato Famine.

I have had success contacting other Ancestry members and have been able to establish a genetic relationship with them, all of whom had considerably less than the DNA that we share. Do you think we could try and figure out what our connection might be? I would appreciate a reply, even if it is only to say that you don’t think that there is any connection.

Kind Regards,

Tina Royal.”

Tina.

(I have had almost a 50% response from this type of message.  If anyone else has a message which they have found successful, please post it.)

[Finley 1]

That does sound better,

THAN

OY you  Ancestry said   we have a match


 

xin

[jillruss]

Whilst not going into as much detail as TinaRoyal, my messages are very similar. I like the idea of adding the bit about

I would appreciate a reply, even if it is only to say that you don’t think that there is any connection.

so will add that in future. Or perhaps Xin's approach might be better - short and to the point!! 

That's if I get any more matches - I'm thinking of not bothering with the hundreds of 5th-8th cousins 'good confidence' without a tree. I've also been taking note of the last time these people were logged into Ancestry and am - for the moment - discounting any who haven't made an appearance this year. They just can't be that interested!

I am actually having a dialogue at the moment with a lady who did bother to reply but we are finding it hard going to discover our connection.

[Pheno]

Jill, to possibly narrow down the connection go into Ancestry dna through your match and then click on the person with whom who are corresponding and then when her details appear click on the 'shared matches' option in the middle of the bar.

This will then bring up another list of people with whom the both of you share matches and this might help narrow it down a little, particularly if you have already established a match with somebody on this new list.

I find this method by far the easiest starting point to try and determine a match.

Pheno

[hilarykellis]

I am very satisfied. I found confirmation for a lot of different ancestors and hints for others (e.g. I match with descendants of a specific person who I was wondering about as a potential relative, so DNA match gives more evidence to consider).

I found the Ancestry test most useful for finding ancestor matches but it's frustrating that so many people have private trees and do not respond to messages asking to identify the match/share.

The twenty three and me test gave a more accurate health and places of origin profile.

I uploaded raw DNA to GedMatch and found that was a great way to find even more cousins.

All in all I had a good experience and was realistic in my expectations going in.

[familydar]

Some people have multiple trees but the one attached to their DNA results is private.  I used to ignore the ones that said private tree but now I view the match in case there's a public tree that might be of help.

I wish there was some way of marking a confirmed match other than marking it as a favourite because I already use that to keep track of matches I need to revisit.

Jane :-)

[jillruss]

Jill, to possibly narrow down the connection go into Ancestry dna through your match and then click on the person with whom who are corresponding and then when her details appear click on the 'shared matches' option in the middle of the bar.

This will then bring up another list of people with whom the both of you share matches and this might help narrow it down a little, particularly if you have already established a match with somebody on this new list.

I find this method by far the easiest starting point to try and determine a match.

Pheno

Yes, thanks Pheno, I've tried that - and the locations button can sometimes help as well. In this particular case, we had one other match in common, but I've already messaged that lady and she replied that she hasn't done any research recently! oh well!!