In an article on The Legal Genealogist blog titled "DNA: good news, bad news"
, I quote:
"Let’s get the bad news out of the way first:
"There isn’t going to be a chromosome browser at AncestryDNA.
"This very simple tool for comparing autosomal DNA — the type we all inherit from both of our parents and that helps us find cousins to work with on our family histories1 — is a staple of the features of two of the genetic genealogy DNA testing companies (23andMe and Family Tree DNA) and perhaps the single most commonly used tool by genetic genealogists.
"Now this is not exactly a surprise that we’re not going to get one at AncestryDNA. Their staff has never been sold on it, has hemmed and hawed when pressed on it, has offered all kinds of arguments why it poses problems.
"But finally somebody came flat out and simply said no. And it’s somebody who’s in a position to know.
"One of the speakers at the Association of Professional Genealogists’ Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City this past week was Howard Hochhauser.
"His title at Ancestry: Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
"He offered some of the usual reasons AncestryDNA’s team offers when asked about the chromosome browser, and echoed science officer Catherine Ball’s privacy concerns — the argument that if you and I match, and you know what segment we match on, and you know that segment carries the marker for a disease, you know I have that marker. (Apparently the notion that I might be perfectly willing to allow that level of disclosure by opting in hasn’t occurred to the AncestryDNA decision makers…
"But Hochhauser went beyond where AncestryDNA usually goes when asked about this and simply said no. It isn’t going to happen. The resources they’d need to devote to making a chromosome browser available are resources they want to spend for other things, like growing the database. ( -- and supposedly refining their stupid tool that they claim is better than a chromosome called the DNA circles? These have to be the dumbest asses I have ever seen associated with this hobby in over 40+ years and in the almost 15 years I have been a subscriber to Ancestry.com-LVH).
"No surprise, and frankly I’d prefer getting a flat-out truthful answer rather than the hemming and hawing — but it’s still disappointing. "
"There isn’t going to be a chromosome browser at AncestryDNA.
"This very simple tool for comparing autosomal DNA — the type we all inherit from both of our parents and that helps us find cousins to work with on our family histories1 — is a staple of the features of two of the genetic genealogy DNA testing companies (23andMe and Family Tree DNA) and perhaps the single most commonly used tool by genetic genealogists.
"Now this is not exactly a surprise that we’re not going to get one at AncestryDNA. Their staff has never been sold on it, has hemmed and hawed when pressed on it, has offered all kinds of arguments why it poses problems.
"But finally somebody came flat out and simply said no. And it’s somebody who’s in a position to know.
"One of the speakers at the Association of Professional Genealogists’ Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City this past week was Howard Hochhauser.
"His title at Ancestry: Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
"He offered some of the usual reasons AncestryDNA’s team offers when asked about the chromosome browser, and echoed science officer Catherine Ball’s privacy concerns — the argument that if you and I match, and you know what segment we match on, and you know that segment carries the marker for a disease, you know I have that marker. (Apparently the notion that I might be perfectly willing to allow that level of disclosure by opting in hasn’t occurred to the AncestryDNA decision makers…
"But Hochhauser went beyond where AncestryDNA usually goes when asked about this and simply said no. It isn’t going to happen. The resources they’d need to devote to making a chromosome browser available are resources they want to spend for other things, like growing the database. ( -- and supposedly refining their stupid tool that they claim is better than a chromosome called the DNA circles? These have to be the dumbest asses I have ever seen associated with this hobby in over 40+ years and in the almost 15 years I have been a subscriber to Ancestry.com-LVH).
"No surprise, and frankly I’d prefer getting a flat-out truthful answer rather than the hemming and hawing — but it’s still disappointing. "
So there you have it. I won't bore you with the supposedly good news of some DNA standards being released by a self appointed committee of genealogy DNA experts - yawn! You can read about that at http://legalgenealogist.com/blog/2015/01/11/dna-good-news-bad-news/.
Bottom line -- dump the stupid DNA circles and spent some more time, energy, money and thought on how we can get a better result when comparing our DNA results at Ancestry.com. Your DNA circles are, well frankly, juvenile and a dumbing down of genetic genealogy research, which is something that you folks are well known for (can you say new search engine). This is the stupidest thing I have seen you do in 14+ years of our association. To my students make sure you upload your results to GEDMatch where you do have use of a chromosome browser.
