Family Tree DNA Reviews

(based on 42 reviews)

352 of 690 people found this review helpful

I wanted to find out who the heck I was, and only had sketchy family information to go on. They ask for most distant known relative (its a trap!). I'm not certain who my father is but my I used the name on my (supposed) birth certificate. I purchased the major test and soon received hundreds of matches.
After some consideration and upgrade fees, I thought to ask the question of whether the results were DNA or surname related. I edited my profile and removed the relatives' names and suddenly I'm only related to 1 person in the whole world.
So all the previous results were based simply on the name given. I could do the same just by opening a phonebook and highlighting everyone with my last name - because I must be related to all of them right?

And the information the provide is EXTREMELY scientific and overly complicated. Nowhere can you easily see how much of any racial or ethnic group you are, and you have to buy a separate test to see if your a Native American.

Their excuse for hazy results and complicated explanations is that the technology is still new and innovations are constantly taking place.

All I want... (Read the full review)

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

349 of 661 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.

345 of 663 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.

338 of 661 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.

355 of 669 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.

378 of 722 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.

367 of 747 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.

388 of 728 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.

368 of 717 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.

364 of 655 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.