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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2010-09 > 1285076639


From:
Subject: Re: [DNA] DNA testing company for British customers
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:43:59 +0000
References: <mailman.11111.1285009737.5572.genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com><9CCAFC3A-4ED0-45F3-B5E4-E58F31CD20E6@stnectan.demon.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <9CCAFC3A-4ED0-45F3-B5E4-E58F31CD20E6@stnectan.demon.co.uk>


SUPER suggestion !
Best,
Richard Huestis
Bridport, Vermont, USA
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: John Ritchings <>
Sender:
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:46:09
To: <>
Reply-To:
Subject: [DNA] DNA testing company for British customers

Greetings

Debbie makes some very valid points to which I would wish to add two
more which I have made before on the list but which have not been
mentioned in the current discussion.

If our US friends and family members are attempting to build bridges
and develop family relationships with their British counterparts, it
would help if the relationship was approached on the basis of equality
and not one that appears to assume that enlightenment is being
extended to a primitive island race, who have only recently discovered
the light bulb. An even bigger turn off is to be lectured by people
on the subject of British and European history who, quite simply, have
no idea what they are talking about. So, you Colonists, just get your
facts right and have a bit more humility and you may find different
reception.

Now, if you scuse I, its going to be a cold 'un tonite so I need to
bring in the cow and goat with some fresh straw before us turns down
the paraffin light. Night all.

Regards


John




Message: 1
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:04:57 +0100
From: "Debbie Kennett" <>
Subject: [DNA] DNA testing company for British customers
To: <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset="us-ascii"

It seems to be a common myth that Brits are for some reason reluctant to
take DNA tests. Brits are apparently the second largest group after
Americans in the FTDNA database. Over half a million Brits have handed
over
their DNA to the UK Biobank Project, which I believe is the largest of
its
kind in the world:

http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk

The Jobling and King Viking study at Leicester University was
overwhelmed
with responses:

http://www.le.ac.uk/ge/maj4/NewSurnames.html

The reality is however that most people will not even have considered
taking
a DNA test to help with their genealogical research. Most of the UK
participants who have joined my Cruse/Cruwys project contacted me first
about their family history research. Once a dialogue has been
established I
can then tell them about the DNA Project and encourage them to
participate.
All but one of these contacts have found me either through my profile
page
on the Guild of One-Name Studies website or through my blog:

http://www.one-name.org/profiles/cruwys.html

http://cruwys.blogspot.com

My latest recruit in the UK wrote to me and volunteered for testing
after
reading one of my blog posts about a brick wall on one particular Cruwys
line. I mentioned in the post that the only hope of finding out more
about
this line was getting someone to take a DNA test. There are only four
living
males left from this line so I was very pleased to find him!

When I analysed the visits to my various websites I found that my FTDNA
website was getting mostly hits from the US, whereas my Guild page and
my
blog, both of which have primarily UK content, attract hits mostly
from the
UK.

I am also fortunate that some of my project members have very generously
provided donations which have enabled me to fund tests for those
people who
would not be willing or able to pay for a test themselves. I've found
that
some people are happy to take a DNA test and others will simply ignore
my
e-mails. The nationality of the correspondent has no bearing
whatsoever on
the decision, though African Americans seem to be particularly
reluctant to
test. Quite often I've had contact with several members of the same
family.
One brother simply doesn't want to know and the other brother is quite
happy
to hand over his DNA. Curiously it's the ones who've done the most
research
who are often the most reluctant to test.

If people are going to stump up money for a DNA test they will however
need
to have a good incentive for testing. Sadly very few American-led DNA
projects currently provide this incentive (the Phillips project is a
notable
exception). Apart from the fact that the projects are dominated by US
testees, too often the project websites will have only US content. There
will be information about the XXX surname in Virginia or Maryland, or
links
to a website for the XXX surname society of America. Distribution
figures
will quote from US censuses. There is often barely any acknowledgement
that
the surname actually exists outside of America. It is therefore not
surprising that such projects do not attract recruits from the UK. If
every
project admin could take a good look at his or her DNA project website
and
try and present a global, balanced picture of their surname it would
make it
much easier for us to persuade people to participate in their projects.

Debbie Kennett



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