any recommendations?

Ancestry.com is not owned, nor operated by the Mormon church. It is German owned, my non-Mormons. They do good DNA testing.

thnx...but..mmhh..ancestry.com..please correct me if i'm wrong.

still has headquarters in utah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry.com

and the mormon church is involved in one way or another.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865595778/LDS-Church-members-will-get-free-access-to-more-family-history-records.html?pg=all

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56830408-79/ancestry-records-com-online.html.csp

thank you though.

Ancestry.com has offices in Provo and DC. They also negotiated access for its members exchange for access to the church's genealogy records. They also are doing the same to some other company's records I understand, just not complete yet. It's not exclusive between ancestry and the church. But whatever if you have an prejudice to ancestry or pretty much atheist Germans for some reason, I have personally also used 23&me. They have a very good explanation of results on their webpage for the non-scientist.

We tested with Family Tree DNA. I have no idea if they are connected to anything LDS.

I do know they work with National Geographic on their Human DNA project.

I received a print out of the DNA sequences on both sides of my family.

Also a map showing the connection going back 100,000 years plus.
I also get emails when a match is found to my DNA within 64 sequences.

I am R on my fathers side and D on my mothers.

Paid a one time testing fee 10 years or more ago.
Never received any religous or other spam from them.

who has access to the results? Insurance companies? What happens to this data? Who owns this information, and who can use it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2014 12:29PM by Beth.

We had DNA testing done on our son because I have Celiac Disease, a disease that has an increased risk of being passed down genetically. My son doesn't show signs of Celiac now and has been negative on the blood tests for it, but that doesn't mean he won't develop it later in life.

Insurance wouldn't pay for DNA testing until after he had a blood test confirming he had the disease, at which point the genetic test would be useless because if the blood test came back positive, he obviously has the disease and therefore has the gene. It was sad because when I called insurance to see if they would cover the test, I actually understood more about the whole process than the person I spoke to.

We decided to go ahead and do it anyway, for my peace of mind. It was expensive (about $600) but I am glad we did. Since we paid for the test, we own the information and insurance does not have a copy of it. The information is not published anywhere and besides us only the lab has a copy of it. In fact, I am pretty sure I have to sign a release before the lab can use the data for anything. I am not sure how the information would be used if Insurance had paid for the tests.

My son did test positive for the Celiac gene - on both sides. (He's a HQLA Double 8, for those who understand that kind of stuff.) So we are monitoring him to see if he develops the disease. I'm glad we paid to have the testing done.

My wife and I used 23andME. Easy, painless, but it takes several weeks for the results. Please note: Women only get their mother's line because they don't have a Y-chromosome. I found it fascinating. Also I have 2.9% Neanderthal DNA. I may have a T-shirt printed announcing my hairy heritage.

What kind of DNA test are you interested in taking and what do you hope to learn?
http://www.isogg.org/wiki/List_of_DNA_testing_companies

For y-DNA testing, which is testing the straight male line, there is only one company you should test with, and that is Family Tree DNA. Ancestry discontinued y-DNA testing.

For autosomal DNA testing, there are three companies commonly used. Family Tree DNA, 23andme, and Ancestry. 23andme is the only one that includes any medical results, which some people want, and others want to avoid. All results for those companies may be uploaded to gedmatch.com, and the results compared with those who tested with other companies, and also uploaded their results.

Here's a blog that does some comparisons:
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/07/28/update-more-bang-for-dna-test-bucks/

not sure what product/service/company would offer what i'm looking to tell you the truth.

as somebody else aluuded, i don't want governments, religions, insurance companies get access to it. i want something between me, the company doing the dna analysis, and the nsa of course. ;)

i'm from a family of immigrants from europe. they took off during the war, they didn't bother taking with them any paperwork especially genealogical. from europe, they went to other countries for a few years, more records such as journals were lost (and people along the way), until they settled. remember that to many europeans, running away from the war anything was better than bombs over your head and lunatics in power.

the idea of where i'm really from was passed on verbally from my grandfather to my father then to me. not the most reliable source all things considered.

so i need to know what my roots are. please advise.

I'd recommend Family Tree DNA. Several of the senior management are highly reputable human geneticists.

thnx much...i'll go for family tree as the two of you suggested.

Maury Povich. The downside is that you only get results for one generation, but it includes a free trip to Stamford, CT.