Comments on: DNA Direct Introduces Ancestry & Ethnicity and Paternity Testing

By: The Genetic Genealogist - » DNA Direct Now Offers Genetic Genealogy Testing

The Genetic Genealogist - » DNA Direct Now Offers Genetic Genealogy Testing — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:05:05 +0000

[...] DNAPrint Genomics to offer the autosomal tests. For more information about this announcement, see Eye On DNA – Hsien was one of the organizers of this new project at DNA Direct. Related Posts: Genetic [...]

By: Barry Starr

Barry Starr — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:09:59 +0000

Somehow the thought of a web developer in despair gave me a bit of joy–schadenfreude at its best. Although considering the difficulty I once had in getting an apostrophe to work in Safari, Mozilla and IE perhaps I shouldn’t smile so much.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:56:54 +0000

Barry, You running Safari is driving our web developer to despair. heh

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:40:58 +0000

I’ll let them know your running safari/mac.

I see the ancestry testing now. Pretty subtle!

lol Well, you know DNA Direct’s specialty is still medical genetic testing!

By: Barry Starr

Barry Starr — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:18:58 +0000

I clicked on the two Y tests but nothing happened. Maybe a safari/mac issue?

I see the ancestry testing now. Pretty subtle!

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:10:14 +0000

DNA Direct offers the genealogy DNA tests at the same cost as Ancestry.com and AncestryByDNA.com. I’m not sure what goes into calculating the prices – I’m guessing R&D, lab costs, explanatory materials, etc.

As for accessing the ancestry testing through DNAdirect.com, can you tell me where you were clicking? On the main DNA Direct homepage, if you click on Ancestry & Ethnicity Testing under Tests & Services and it should take you there.

Also, in the FIND tool, if you click on the button for Y-DNA 33 or Y-DNA 46, it will give you more information about each test. Sorry that’s not so clear. I’ll let the team know.

By: Barry Starr

Barry Starr — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:03:17 +0000

I was pretty surprised at how expensive it was (although as a tightwad I always am). Is the cost in the analysis? Is it more expensive if I go through DNA Direct instead of Ancestry by DNA directly?

I tried to get to the ancestry testing through the DNA Direct front page and couldn’t do it. Is there a separate page?

I liked the Find although I found I wanted more information. For example, when I wanted to trace my paternal line, two tests came up–33 and 46 marker Y tests. I wanted to know the advantage of each so I could pick the right one.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:44:50 +0000

I should also mention that our FIND tool is the first of its kind anywhere so at the very least, come visit DNA Direct and try it out! It’s almost as good as having a live person take you through the steps of deciding which genealogy DNA is right for answering your specific questions about ancestry.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:41:56 +0000

Thanks, Barry! We’re actually partnering with Ancestry.com and DNAPrint (makers of AncestryByDNA) to offer these tests. Please see here for details on why we’ve picked them as our preferred providers. In a nutshell, we went through all the companies offering genealogy DNA testing and concluded that these two companies (thus far) have specific testing expertise that consumer will find valuable.

By: Barry Starr

Barry Starr — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:09:12 +0000

Congratulations Hsien! I often get asked at Ask a geneticist about which ancestry testing company is a good one. Why should I recommend them to DNA Direct instead of AncestrybyDNA or any of the other companies out there?