You mention connecting with cousins. I have sent out numerous notes to people who show to be cousins. I have only heard back from one person. Naturally I am disappointed. I can't imagine why someone would go to the trouble to pay for the DNA test and have a public tree and then not respond to a message. Is it possible the these folks just don't know someone has sent them a message? I know people are busy and this is a hobby for a lot of us. But you'd think I'd get more than a 10% response. Lori -----Original Message----- From: roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Joan Young via Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 5:39 PM To: suziejazzaroo@gmail.com; ROOTS@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] DNA Autosomal test with AncestryDNA is the place to start for a variety of reasons: 1) their database contains more than 2 million others who have tested so they have by far the largest database for finding matches. 2) more people there have trees online attached to their DNA results making it easier for you to connect with your cousins and figure out how you are related.

Lori - I am an avid genealogy fan, have a large tree, and have taken all three DNA tests. However I have found the results tedious to work with and have done little with them. I am one of those people "who may not be responding to message sent to me on DNA results. Barbara St. Louis Missouri USA Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 28, 2016, at 11:49 PM, Lori via <roots@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > You mention connecting with cousins. I have sent out numerous notes to > people who show to be cousins. I have only heard back from one person. > Naturally I am disappointed. I can't imagine why someone would go to the > trouble to pay for the DNA test and have a public tree and then not respond > to a message. Is it possible the these folks just don't know someone has > sent them a message? I know people are busy and this is a hobby for a lot > of us. But you'd think I'd get more than a 10% response. > > Lori > > -----Original Message----- > From: roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On > Behalf Of Joan Young via > Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 5:39 PM > To: suziejazzaroo@gmail.com; ROOTS@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] DNA > > Autosomal test with AncestryDNA is the place to start for a variety of > reasons: 1) their database contains more than 2 million others who have > tested so they have by far the largest database for finding matches. 2) more > people there have trees online attached to their DNA results making it > easier for you to connect with your cousins and figure out how you are > related. > > ===== > If you would prefer digest mode to mail mode, drop a note to roots-admin@rootsweb.com and ask for the digest... > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

There may be more than one reason why people do not reply. As much as I like the Ancestry DNA process overall, the message sending procedure does not work very well if people do not consistently log on to Ancestry and look at their messaging system. Also, it is not real easy to use. If I find someone willing to correspond at their request or mine, I ask them to correspond by regular email. Frequently I can help someone without spending much time by sending them a pedigree chart of someone in my database, and then pointing them to my large shared database on WorldConnect which has all my notes and sources. I simply do not have the time to type out long messages with information I have already posted online, but I am almost always willing to help if I am able. I am bewildered when I write to the people with locked databases that have actual "shared ancestor results". You would think it would not be difficult to look at those and simply respond with the name of the individual or couple involved. I also wonder why many lock their databases in the first place. They are hurting themselves from people like me who often write to offer people information they don't have posted online or provide correct information if their data is incorrect. As for the distant cousins -- often there is nothing in the person's online database that gives someone a clue as to how the two of you might connect. It takes a lot of time to try to track most of these down. However, I had an interesting thing happen. I kept finding all these French Canadian names posted in the databases of others with no apparent matches. Eventually I discovered several generations of my Barcume/Berthiaume direct line ancestors. When one is dealing with more than one language, it is easy to miss information that is actually useful. Anther issue is that with a relatively large database, one may have thousands of distant cousins. I have asked Ancestry for some additional filters for their results, that might help us navigate some of these distant cousins. Initially, a filter by the database name would be helpful to me. I may have the database name from someone, with no way to actually find their results. For most of the results of our family's kits, I have only gone through the first 15 pages or so of perhaps an excess of 250 pages or more. At about 50 results, per page it is so time consuming to go through them one by one. A final comment -- some people have download much of the content of their databases from a variety of online sources. They may know little if anything about many people in the trees they have posted. We all need to find a way to connect with serious researches with some level of expertise. Like Lori, a 10% response rate is not uncommon. But I share the frustration when I think someone might actually have the clue I cannot find myself. Margaret -----Original Message----- From: Lori via Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 6:49 PM Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] DNA You mention connecting with cousins. I have sent out numerous notes to people who show to be cousins. I have only heard back from one person. Naturally I am disappointed. I can't imagine why someone would go to the trouble to pay for the DNA test and have a public tree and then not respond to a message. Is it possible the these folks just don't know someone has sent them a message? I know people are busy and this is a hobby for a lot of us. But you'd think I'd get more than a 10% response.