Every time I see that commercial on TV, the New Geico Spy commercial, it makes me think of AncestryDNA.
How you say?
The mom tells her super spy son on the roof of the building fighting the bad guys, "The Squirrels are back in the attic and your father won't call an exterminator – He says it is personal this time."
Well the AncestryDNA Squirrels are back. they are driving my crazy and it is personal this time. It is well known among my local genealogy students the accounts of my constantly fluctuating leaf matches on all the test I manage. Now Ancestry has taken it to a whole new level - the constantly fluctuating DNA circles and NADs. The sad part is it isn't just me, my all the students I have queried so far are experiencing the same thing.
So dear reader let me document the latest AncestryDNA issue below, among the many we have seen over the last four years. I maintain a spread sheet on all my testing results (AncestryDNA, FTDNA, GedMatch, 23andMe and DNALand), and because of this my statistics do not lie. I have/had the following DNA circles/NADs for my various family testers over the last two weeks.
Testers #1/2 are for my spouse's family and #3-6 are for my family.
Tester #1:
Middle March - 24 DNA circles and 20 NADs
March 26 - 14 DNA circles and 16 NADs
March 30 (Today) - 17 DNA circles and 16 NADs
Tester #2
Middle March - 14 DNA circles and 16 NADs
March 26 - 11 DNA circles and 10 NADs
March 30 (Today) - 12 DNA circles and 15 NADs
Tester #3
Middle March - 16 DNA circles and 2 NADs
March 26 - 8 DNA circles and 1 NAD
March 30 (Today) - 11 DNA circles and 1 NAD
Tester #4
Middle March - 6 DNA circles and no NADs
March 26 - 4 DNA circles and no NADs
March 30 (Today) - 4 DNA circles and no NADs
Tester #5
Middle March - 10 DNA circles and 8 NADs
March 26 - 4 DNA circles and 5 NADs
March 30 (Today) - 7 DNA circles and 6 NADs
Tester #6
Middle March - 4 DNA circles and 7 NADs
March 26 - 0 DNA circles and 7 NADs
March 30 (Today) - 2 DNA circles and 7 NADs
As has been the past leaf matches go up and down sometimes several times a day for my testers. Honestly, I am not sure what the heck they are doing out there in Provo. I have seen NADs and DNA circles go up and down on individual test but not by that much and that many testers (including my students).
So AncestryDNA what is your story this time? You still haven't fix some issues with my testers that I submitted before last Thanksgiving. I really do not want to have to put you in the corner with 23andMe. I understand that these products are in Beta but the wild swings I have seen over the last 15 days has me wondering how much we can trust with either product.
So has anyone else seen this issue? Sure would like some answers Ancestry!
