Family Tree DNA Reviews

(based on 41 reviews)

143 of 270 people found this review helpful

A reply to a query just never gets an answer

try another company don't waste your money

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

154 of 298 people found this review helpful

This firm failed to deliver the results promised. I have been waiting for almost 14 weeks on the results and just received another delay notice due to "lab volume & quality control". They have all the trappings of "high" science with tons of supporting documentation but this firm fails to deliver results within the promised time frame. Furthermore, it appears that my results were confused with someone else and never corrected.

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

134 of 287 people found this review helpful

It appears that the experience with this vendor is consistent - poor. I ordered 3 tests: Y-DNA, MtDNA and Family Finder. After waiting months for results, all three delivery dates were constantly pushed out. Results on Y-DNA came back inconclusive and had to be rerun. Family Finder finally came back (with clearly erroneous results) and MtDNA has been delayed again. I have very little confidence in the results as my Y-DNA Halogroup was basically guessed at based on where my Dad came from, with no conclusive results displayed. I was told that if I wanted more accurate results, I would have to upgrade testing to a higher level. One would think the 37 marker sufficient.

While the representatives have all been pleasant, they really are not well trained and lack sufficient knowledge to provide adequate support for interpretation of results (in other words: they guess). You basically receive a data dump without any interpretation. If you are lucky enough to find a close relative (I have none) the matches may perhaps be useful, although I haven't found that to be the case. On Family Finder, you are also matched off with... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

160 of 306 people found this review helpful

Everything about the service is just to continue to extract
more fees for the service. They slowly process your DNA which you pay
a high price for an initial generic report. Ok, then they have you hooked and hold
useful information hostage. If you want useful information, you
have to continue to pay and pay.

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

162 of 313 people found this review helpful

I'm from the UK we decided to get my husbands DNA done to discover a little bit about his Ukrainian background ..his Father was Ukrainian his mum Welsh..and paid the top fee of several hundred pounds,it gave him a hundred percent British ancestry apart from a supposed less than one percent Orcadian DNA , none of the followup services like connecting him with others with similar DNA were ever provided nor was a complaint ever followed up when we said we weren't satisfied .

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

178 of 344 people found this review helpful

Did the Family Finder. All the results are generic and could apply to anyone. To get any meaning, at all, you need to identify the people on the list of other people who have been tested by them; that you have marked, as known to you, as relatives. If you use the product, as delivered, you get very little if anything!

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

188 of 364 people found this review helpful

My first attempt at a review timed out, so this is attempt #2. I received my FF results in Nov. 2014. After about 2&1/2 months all my matches went away. I messaged them to file a complaint and they said they were having a problem with some of the files and that I should wait and not contact them. So I waited for some time and messaged them again. No answer. One more message to them. No answer. Around April I started receiving some new matches. It is now July 2015. I only have 9 pages. Just a fraction of what I had before. My two best matches are gone along with many more 2nd to 3rd cousin matches. They haven't found my older ones. Why can't they just give me a status update? Plus the chromosome compare button doesn't work for all matches, just some. The people I had just started to message with to compare info. disappeared and I imagine I disappeared from their files also. I also purchased MtdnaPlus and it is OK. I will wait a bit longer then tell BBB I want a refund.

In summary, I would recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

180 of 355 people found this review helpful

I had tried FTDNA three years ago and was very happy. Their help desk was extremely supportive and knowledgeable. But two years ago they changed their business model to one of a big marketing push. The help desk has completely changed. They are not available to anyone who works. The are there strictly for marketing and taking your money. You cannot talk to anyone in charge. The real experts are part of another company and only want to focus on the scientific research (grand picture). The worst part is:

Their data is really inaccurate over the past two years. None of the interfaces agree with each other. the results are SO inconsistent it is WAY OVER THE TOP. Two to three years ago it was wonderful but the past two year performance is in the TANK.

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

138 of 255 people found this review helpful

Yes I would recommend FTDNA. Simple reasons: It is the only company testing the whole mitochondrial dna, and keeping abreast of new SNP discoveries for Y chromosome haplogroups. It is reasonably cheap.

Geno 2.0 was a bad joke, waste of money and totally non supportive. FullGenomes is very expensive and the data found will take time to work out where the new found SNPs fit in the haplogroup phylogenetic tree. 23andMe does mediocre haplogroup SNP testing and what it does is outdated. AncestryDNA is a money sucking leech.

Problems with FTDNA are slowness in processing dna samples and their website is not user friendly. The Origins test is not worth doing, better go to 23andMe or AncestryDNA for ancestry or finding your Cherokee princess.

In summary, I would recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.

144 of 274 people found this review helpful

Save your money as these guys are as phoney as
can be. It took 5 months to get results and the
results were ...TA DA ...on there best test. And then
I only got the SO CALLED results after I had my
credit card company reverse the sale and return my money.
A week later they sent me some phoney results and they
sent a letter to my credit card company with some
juiced up history saying they had kept me informed
the whole time I was waiting and that they completed
their obligation. They had told me my results are taking so long
because they were over whelmed with orders but told my
credit card company the delay was due to having to retest
over and over again due to testing failures. After paying
over $600 I have no useful information and the site on
partially works. It's been a total rip off. Save your money.

In summary, I would not recommend Family Tree DNA to a friend.