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Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / Re: Could the Golden Age of DNA Testing Be Over?
« on: Monday 15 April 24 15:38 BST (UK) »
The downside is that many fall for the marketing thinking they will get an instant tree so the pool of genuine researchers isn't as large as the test numbers indicate.
On top of that the issue of the 'copy regardless' is ever present. I couldn't make it any clearer on my tree or through 3 acknowledged messages that my great grandmother though married fell pregnant to another man (hence a pile of matches on the Isle of Wight where the father finished up), but my closest matches just copy other trees based on a household in the 1891 and 1901 census so have the wrong ancestors. They may as well skip the dna test for all the notice they take of the results and just go with the majority of tree just as they do anyway.
I think a further issue is that low response rates to messages just drives the research to working out links to matches further underground to the point where lone research is the default starting point and can remain the prefered method.
On top of that the issue of the 'copy regardless' is ever present. I couldn't make it any clearer on my tree or through 3 acknowledged messages that my great grandmother though married fell pregnant to another man (hence a pile of matches on the Isle of Wight where the father finished up), but my closest matches just copy other trees based on a household in the 1891 and 1901 census so have the wrong ancestors. They may as well skip the dna test for all the notice they take of the results and just go with the majority of tree just as they do anyway.
I think a further issue is that low response rates to messages just drives the research to working out links to matches further underground to the point where lone research is the default starting point and can remain the prefered method.