Monday 9 June 2014

Criticism of Ancestry's DNA plans

Judy G. Russell, the 'Legal Genealogist' based in the US, has an interesting blog post concerning Ancestry's announcement about its discontinuation of Y-DNA and mtDNA tests - specifically the fact that samples of DNA that it holds will be destroyed:

"Ancestry has flatly stated that it will make no effort whatsoever to preserve any of the samples that it may still have in its possession... It has, instead, announced that it will destroy any samples it has that are associated with any of the YDNA and mtDNA tests people have taken at Ancestry over the years."

The comments posted after are equally interesting - particularly one from Donn Devine concerning samples previously donated to the not-for-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogical Foundation on the basis that they would be for scientific research (yours truly was one of those who submitted a sample in 2007). Ancestry acquired the facility some time ago - does it not have an obligation to preserve these also?

The full post is available at http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2014/06/08/why-ancestry-why/ - well worth a read.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

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