The best choice is always obvious with the benefit of hindsight. The choices available today, both in terms of the number of labs offering genetic testing for genealogists and in the number and kinds of tests available, are very different, now, than they were, for example, back in 2004 when I started my first projects. SMGF was the leader in gaining acceptance of DNA testing and, as a free alternative to commercial labs offering fewer markers at considerably higher prices than today, being tested at a commercial lab was by no means the obviously better choice. For one thing, the shakedown that has occurred in the industry -- leaving FTDNA and Ancestry as the major competitors -- had yet to happen, and it wasn't clear, then, which labs would survive. In 2004, Ancestry wasn't even in the DNA testing business and Ysearch didn't exist, yet. In fact, your decision on where to be tested was based largely on which company had a project for your surname, not which company was "better," because there weren't remotely the number of surname projects, then, that there are, today. Thousands of people made the decision to test at SMGF, and thank heavens they did, because their testing played a large part in establishing the legitimacy of DNA testing -- and it continues to be a useful database. Back when the testing at SMGF was still free, I even advised my FTDNA project members to also test at SMGF, just to pick up the nine extra markers without having to pay the $65 to test them as "Advanced" markers from FTDNA. Diana > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ralph Taylor > Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 2:22 PM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] Y-DNA-PROJECTS The view from the outside looking in > > Diana's response to Billie was thorough & accurate and gave good suggestions to a > person tested by a provider that doesn't provide as much support as others. I'd like to > give a little different context though. > > To me, Billie's complaint arises from not having had the information needed to make an > informed choice at the time. (It's not that SMGF is bad; it's that the choice isn't meeting > Billie's needs.) Hopefully, we can steer other beginners in a direction that helps them > achieve what they want. > > I was recently asked by my local genealogy & history society to give a presentation on > "DNA genealogy", forcing me to look at it from the absolute beginner's perspective. It's > necessary to explicitly say things more expert folks might take for granted and to put > those things into an easily-grasped framework. > > The presentation describes genetic genealogy as a process, with several steps to it. The > first step is choosing which type of test or tests (Y-STR, mtDNA, etc.) will meet your > genealogical needs. The very next step is the choice of a test provider. ("Provider" means > who you order from -- FTDNA, Ancestry DNA, 23andMe, SMGF, etc.) Once you've chosen a > provider, you'll likely have to live with the choice a while. > > There are many providers to choose from; lab accuracy is pretty much a "wash" and price > shouldn't be the main concern. Almost all providers restrict access to their results > databases; in general, paid customers get better access than the public. > > IMHO, genealogical DNA test providers' major differences are in three areas: > > 1. Size of the databases (Bigger is better.) 2. "After-market" service -- what's available to > you after the provider has your money and has reported the results. Some providers > have more service, some less. (These costs are built into your test price.) 3. Projects -- > joining a suitable project has many benefits. > > The Y-STR section talks about test results being mostly meaningless in isolation; they > take on meaning only in comparison with others'. The purpose of a Y-STR test is to find a > match or matches, in order to communicate and share information -- hopefully leading to > identification of the common male ancestor. Some providers make that easier, some > don't. > > So, the advice to the beginner is "Look before you leap" and consider the impact provider > choice may have on realization of your desired outcome. > > However, there are alternatives if your provider doesn't facilitate match-finding. There > are a few free public (or semi-public) online databases that accept results from multiple > providers and allow searches. Two are www.ysearch.org and www.ybase.org. You > establish an account, agree to the terms, manually enter your results (converting them to > a common reporting > protocol) & then search for matches. These may not be as satisfactory as some provider- > hosted services, but they give you an "out". > > Or, check on www.worldfamilies.net & see if they have a Walsh (or other > surname) project. Then check with the project to see if your Sorenson results can be > included. > > -ralpht_/) > > PS to Billie -- HTML analogy: If you put many 3MB images on your web page, the slow > loading is a consequence of the image choices. > _ _... ..._ _ > T B V T > _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._ > K A 5 (H?) L S U > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to Y-DNA-PROJECTS- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject > and the body of the message