Saturday, March 31, 2007

Ancestry.com and the DNA test Survey


Ancestry.com


This morning I took the Ancestry.com survey at DNA Survey

The company wants to

"to gauge your interest in a DNA testing service. This service could help you find and identify distant relatives, learn about your ancient ancestry or find common ancestors"


I've always been intrigued by the idea of DNA testing but didn't know exactly how it would help further my genealogy. I already know the towns in Europe where my grandparents were born. Interesting to me, among the normal survey questions for assessing interest, I found this as one of the multiple choice answers:

"If a DNA test can break through a dead end in my family tree research, I can't wait to take a test. "


I wonder if this is just marketing hype? Or can a DNA test really break through a family tree dead-end? I remember the famous Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemming DNA test. Although the descendants of Sally Hemming could prove that a "male" Jefferson fathered the clan, they could never say for sure whether it was Thomas Jefferson or his brother. Still, they proved they were part of the Jefferson clan.

I assume that the more people who participated, the better the results of the DNA testing. So having it as part of an Ancestry.com subscription would be a great thing as it would attract a large audience.

I might know where my grandparents were born in Europe, but I have a lot of other dead ends in my family research. Wouldn't it be great if a DNA test helped knock down some brick walls?

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