Wren Kin

I just received a letter from Relative Genetics (the company handling our DNA surname project) containing the following announcement:

On June 18, we announced an exciting new partnership with the online genealogy leader, Ancestry.com, by way of our parent company, Sorenson Genomics. This new partnership will combine Ancestry.com’s unrivaled collection of online family trees and historical documents with Sorenson Genomics’ precision ancestral DNA testing. For more information about the benefits of this exclusive partnership and to view our FAQs, please visit www.relativegenetics.com/news.*

DNA testing and select genetic genealogy services formerly provided by Relative Genetics will soon be offered exclusively through Ancestry.com. At that time, your Relative Genetics information will migrate to Ancestry.com.

*Link updated 7/30/07 as Relative Genetics moved it.

The letter goes on to say that Sorenson will no longer offer the coupon discount I wrote about here, but it will redeem unused, unexpired coupon codes if you have them.

The good news is that Sorenson Genomics will still be the laboratory conducting the DNA analysis. Sorenson’s excellent reputation puts it head and shoulders above the many other DNA labs out there.

The bad news (if this IS really bad news) is that results of the testing will be stored and managed by Ancestry.com.

On one hand, Ancestry.com is indeed the “online genealogy leader” with perhaps the largest collection of online databases available to subscribers. I spent the first four years of my genealogy research using sources like Heritage Quest, and when I finally broke down and bought a membership with Ancestry.com I felt it was money well-spent because of those multiple databases, not to mention the “every name” indexing.

(And also because I happened to chance on a sale that gave me the annual World Deluxe membership for only $99. Since then it’s gone up to $300 or so.)

On the other hand, Ancestry.com’s customer service reputation is less than stellar, although I have no complaints so far.

So how will this change affect our DNA data mangement? I’m not sure.

Perhaps this move will provide us with more exposure to fellow W(R)en(n) researchers; after all, almost every genealogist has a subscription to Ancestry, or at least uses the library version of Ancestry. That’s got to be good, right?

If you have an opinion on this topic you’d like to share, please do so in the comment section below. I would love to hear what someone else thinks about it.