Originally posted by darroll
The results they do get from your DNA sample take over a year to show up on their website. Since you don't get your results directly from them, you have to go through a tortuous trial and error process to find out the results for each marker. (You yourself wrote, "all of their results are hidden.") For each marker, you make a guess, based on your haplogroup or whatever, at what STR count they got for you. If your guess was right, it will be a match, including your family tree. If your guess was wrong, guess another STR count for that marker, until you get it right. Imagine how long this takes to get 43 markers, which is what SMGF tests, right! If you don't already have marker results from FTDNA, it could take you 2 or 3 hours to get all your marker results by this trial and error process.
So, do you still think that SMGF is a "competitor" of FTDNA? I can't see how it is. But it is a good database to do lookups for similar haplotypes to your own, to see geographical areas where your deep ancestry may be. This is because they have much better coverage of areas outside the British Isles. One problem with the FTDNA database is that it's heavily skewed toward British Isles ancestry. This may not mean much to you, but for someone whose ancestry is not in the British Isles, it is an important point.
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