GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2008-06 > 1213890669


From: "Lawrence Mayka" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] A Perspective on YSearch (was: Ysearch now almost useless)
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:51:09 -0500
In-Reply-To: <edd1bea30806190819r22007d88wd03d6d64794cc090@mail.gmail.com>


The percentage of Ysearch entries not from FTDNA or the Genographic Project
is so small as to be almost irrelevant.

Ysearch's primary value, in practice, is to make up for the many
inadequacies of the regular FTDNA account matching. FTDNA account matching
was designed for heavily represented populations that have undergone recent
rapid expansions. It focuses almost entirely on very close matches--no more
than a GD of 7 at 67 markers. If all we had were FTDNA's regular account
matching, most customers outside a few heavily represented ethnic groups
would quickly give up on the field entirely.

Up until now, Ysearch has rescued this inadequacy by providing a way for the
less represented ethnic groups to cast a wider net for near-matches, in
order to interpret their results in some reasonable way.

> [mailto:] On Behalf Of Gene Geek
> Sometimes it amazes me that
> people tend to forget that YSearch is a FREE service...a
> philanthropic effort if you will by FTDNA. They didn't have
> to create the service to help bridge the gap in the community
> between the different services.

> Sure, some could make the argument that YSearch helps drive
> business, but I beg to differ. The amount of business that
> FTDNA may see from YSearch almost undoubtedly does not cover
> the costs of their maintaining the site.


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