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Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / What might Ancestry be up to?
« on: Sunday 17 April 22 06:36 BST (UK) »
I have tested with FTDNA and uploaded my raw data to My Heritage so only know about Ancestry, from what I have gleaned through reading various threads here on rootschat.
As Ancestry are the only company who won’t share with others, I was considering buying an Ancestry DNA test at Christmas but was put off by some concerns about tests not reaching Ireland due to flight cancelations. There was also apparently some bullying and threats to ban going on by Ancestry on social media when people pointed out the issues with returning test kits from some parts of the world, which pit me off.
Over the past couple of days I have been reconsidering,in the hope that these issues have been resolved.
I do loads of online surveys, and serendipitously just now I completed one about DNA tests, specifically Ancestry. Many of the questions were asking which features I was aware that Ancestry provided, and which of a number of features would make me more likely to take an Ancestry DNA test. It hinted at the new side view by asking if I would be more likely to take a test if results were broken down into maternal and paternal sides.
Very few of the questions related to matching with living relatives, and those that did asked if I wouldn’t take a test because I didn’t want to be contacted by matches. I don’t know how it currently works with Ancestry - are you able to opt in or out of being contacted by anyone you match with? If they don’t already offer this, I got the impression this is something they are looking at to prevent all those pesky emails from people claiming that they are related to you.
Presumably they are testing the waters through this survey, but one set of questions was a bit worrying. It asked if you would be more or less likely to take an ancestry dna test if you need to:
- be a subscriber to do a test
- pay to access new features in the future
- pay more to see updates or changes to your results in the future
- pay a sub to access dna results in the future
Price hikes on the horizon perhaps?
It also asked the maximum price you would be willing to pay to take a test to just see your geographic and ethnic origins. ($50 was the lowest option they provided) Wonder if Ancestry are thinking of doing an ethnicity only test?
They also asked about sharing results with other companies - I presume that means other dna companies, though it wasn’t clear.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes they make after analyisng the survey replies.
I get the impression they know most of their testees are after the ethnicity results only (as per their advertisements), they aren’t interested in doing their own research (another question touched on this), nor do they want to be contacted by anyone who is a dna match.
Not sure that there are any positives in any of this but I thought this might be of interest.
As Ancestry are the only company who won’t share with others, I was considering buying an Ancestry DNA test at Christmas but was put off by some concerns about tests not reaching Ireland due to flight cancelations. There was also apparently some bullying and threats to ban going on by Ancestry on social media when people pointed out the issues with returning test kits from some parts of the world, which pit me off.
Over the past couple of days I have been reconsidering,in the hope that these issues have been resolved.
I do loads of online surveys, and serendipitously just now I completed one about DNA tests, specifically Ancestry. Many of the questions were asking which features I was aware that Ancestry provided, and which of a number of features would make me more likely to take an Ancestry DNA test. It hinted at the new side view by asking if I would be more likely to take a test if results were broken down into maternal and paternal sides.
Very few of the questions related to matching with living relatives, and those that did asked if I wouldn’t take a test because I didn’t want to be contacted by matches. I don’t know how it currently works with Ancestry - are you able to opt in or out of being contacted by anyone you match with? If they don’t already offer this, I got the impression this is something they are looking at to prevent all those pesky emails from people claiming that they are related to you.
Presumably they are testing the waters through this survey, but one set of questions was a bit worrying. It asked if you would be more or less likely to take an ancestry dna test if you need to:
- be a subscriber to do a test
- pay to access new features in the future
- pay more to see updates or changes to your results in the future
- pay a sub to access dna results in the future
Price hikes on the horizon perhaps?
It also asked the maximum price you would be willing to pay to take a test to just see your geographic and ethnic origins. ($50 was the lowest option they provided) Wonder if Ancestry are thinking of doing an ethnicity only test?
They also asked about sharing results with other companies - I presume that means other dna companies, though it wasn’t clear.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes they make after analyisng the survey replies.
I get the impression they know most of their testees are after the ethnicity results only (as per their advertisements), they aren’t interested in doing their own research (another question touched on this), nor do they want to be contacted by anyone who is a dna match.
Not sure that there are any positives in any of this but I thought this might be of interest.
