Just to let everyone know. I contacted Billie right away and has already been added to our Walsh project. Kim Coleman Admin Walsh DNA Project -----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