On 12/05/2010 01:19 AM, Diana Gale Matthiesen wrote: > SMGF (the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) is a non-profit organization > backed, at least in part, by philanthropic donations. It was never the > intention of the foundation to make a profit. But it's a fact of life that you > do "get what you pay for," and most genealogists find the limitations of being > tested at SMGF unworkable. Hence the market for commercial DNA testing, despite > the fact that someone's giving it away (or at least was). > I know I said I wouldn't bore you with the details but.......... About fifteen years ago the Church of Latter Day Saints put out a call for subjects to donate a blood sample and at least a five generation tree. It was an experimental project to gather subjects for DNA genealogical research. There was no promise of the results ever being made available. Sorenson was the lab that did the work. [ I think they are connected to the LDS in some way, but that's just my opinion ] A few years ago I saw that Sorenson was in the "business" of doing testing so I contacted them. At that time they weren't releasing any of the original subjects results. Every so often I would get an email about their services because I had gotten in their mail database. Then about a year or so ago I got an email that for just a few dollars I could "buy" my mtdna results. I figured what the heck, why not. Several months later I got the e-mail that said they would "sell" me my Y results for a few more dollars. Best I can recall I got a 37 YDNA and my mtdna results for about fifty dollars total. With the possibility that they "might" give more findings in the future, probably for a small sum of course. This also included a membership in Sorensons website, Genetree. My original intention when I made my "donation" was not so much to get my results as to further the science of DNA genealogical research in it's infancy. The fact that I did get my results was more of a bonus than anything else. > <snip> > > If you have a match with one or more persons in the table, you can email the > project admin and ask them to let the member(s) know you would like to be in > touch. If they want to be in contact with you, they will respond. Also, given > that the WALSH project is based at WFN, they can accept results from labs other > than FTDNA, so as long as your a male surnamed, WALSH, I can't see why they > wouldn't let you join. These are their instructions for joining: > http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/walsh/order > I've been in contact with the manager of the WALSH group and intend to send my data this morning. AND, it WILL include family information. I'm willing to share information that helps me find "my" family, or those that aren't "mine" for that matter. Even negative information is valuable. Keeps one from spending time on searches that don't have anything to do with your line. > Given my earlier messages, I obviously couldn't agree with you more that sharing > results (and lineages) is the point, but there's more than one way to do it. > I've just described two avenues that should work for you: Ysearch and the WALSH > project at WFN. I recommend doing both. > > Hope this helps, > Diana > -- "A good moral character is the first essential in a man." George Washington _ _... ..._ _ _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._

Definitely not boring. We all owe the "pioneers" who tested early at SMGF our gratitude. I am pleased that they instituted GeneTree. I suspect it's creation was in part due to what turned out to be a short-coming of SMGF: that there's no way to contact a test subject. The charges to move results from SMGF to GeneTree are nominal and, I presume, serve to maintain the web site. AFAIK, SMGF no longer does free testing. If you want to join the SMGF database, you pay for it via GeneTree, as indicated on the SMGF Home Page http://www.smgf.org/index.jspx >From what I understand, the Sorensons are Mormons, hence the dedication to genealogy, but that there is no official connection between SMGF and the LDS. They give a brief history here: http://www.genetree.com/history and their early press releases pretty much spell out who they are and what they're about: http://www.genetree.com/pressroom It's not clear to me whether GeneTree is for profit or non-profit, but I suspect the former or they'd be touting the latter. One nice thing about the SMGF search engine is that you can save searches, so you don't have to re-enter the test results. I have all the modal haplotypes from my projects as saved searches, making it easy come back periodically and do a new search. You can also use their search engine to convert markers between lab standards, at least for the markers they test. If you have not registered on the site, you are missing a lot. You don't need to have tested there to register. Diana > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Billie Walsh > Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:12 AM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] The view from the outside looking in. > > On 12/05/2010 01:19 AM, Diana Gale Matthiesen wrote: > > SMGF (the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) is a non-profit > > organization backed, at least in part, by philanthropic donations. It > > was never the intention of the foundation to make a profit. But it's > > a fact of life that you do "get what you pay for," and most > > genealogists find the limitations of being tested at SMGF unworkable. > > Hence the market for commercial DNA testing, despite the fact that someone's giving it > away (or at least was). > > > > I know I said I wouldn't bore you with the details but.......... > > About fifteen years ago the Church of Latter Day Saints put out a call for subjects to > donate a blood sample and at least a five generation tree. It was an experimental project > to gather subjects for DNA genealogical research. There was no promise of the results > ever being made available. Sorenson was the lab that did the work. [ I think they are > connected to the LDS in some way, but that's just my opinion ] A few years ago I saw that > Sorenson was in the "business" of doing testing so I contacted them. At that time they > weren't releasing any of the original subjects results. Every so often I would get an email > about their services because I had gotten in their mail database. Then about a year or so > ago I got an email that for just a few dollars I could "buy" > my mtdna results. I figured what the heck, why not. Several months later I got the e-mail > that said they would "sell" me my Y results for a few more dollars. Best I can recall I got a > 37 YDNA and my mtdna results for about fifty dollars total. With the possibility that they > "might" give more findings in the future, probably for a small sum of course. This also > included a membership in Sorensons website, Genetree. > > My original intention when I made my "donation" was not so much to get my results as to > further the science of DNA genealogical research in it's infancy. The fact that I did get > my results was more of a bonus than anything else. >

SMGF are still actively looking for people in a few key countries. From their website: http://www.smgf.org/get_involved.jspx Other Areas of Interest Reaching the 100,000 participants milestone was just one of the objectives of our project. We are still working to enhance our dataset by actively seeking participants for our database with ancestry from a number of countries and lineages (listed below). If you have genealogical information linking you to one of these areas or have connections that could facilitate collections in these areas please contact SMGF at info@smgf.org. Ireland Japan Sweden France Germany Belgium All Eastern European countries Lebanon Syria Jordan Egypt North Africa Switzerland Denmark Spain Portugal Debbie Kennett