misleading mtDNA advertisement

[mabrams]

The current FTDNA mtDNA ad, as seen in an ad emailed to me, shows daughter to father to grandmother. Not exactly a matrilineal pattern.

The ad doesn't explicitly say daughter, father, grandmother but that is how I read it.

Skylar Anderson, 1984-
Lawrence Anderson, 1954-
Ruth Helen Anderson, 1929-2016

This ad was also shown in the recent DNA Day sales as well.

Misleading at best. Suggests you can track your paternal grandmother.

[keigh]

A individual can do some tracing of a paternal grandmother's mtDNA if they can get their father's mtDNA run as a man inherits his mother's mtDNA but he
can't pass it on to his children. His children would get their mother's mtDNA.

[Jim Barrett]

The ad shows all three people have mtDNA, which is correct. It does not have a line connecting Skylar to Lawrence. In fact it doesn't show who any of the people received their mtDNA from.

[KATM]

Although I hadn't noticed it until mabrams pointed it out, I can see how the image could be interpreted as the three individuals being generations of the same family. They share the same surname, the dates given for each seem to be for three generations, and both Skylar and Lawrence show an "mt" tab above their images. Why does Ruth have a checkmark? It seems to indicate that she has the "Confirmed mtDNA Haplogroup" shown. The "mt" tabs for the others seems to imply that Skylar and Lawrence have done mtDNA testing (that is how it would be shown in a tree at FTDNA). So the image is confusing.

If FTDNA didn't intend for them to be seen as mother, son, and his daughter, they should have given them different names and/or birth years, so it would be clear they are not generations of one family. FTDNA needs to be careful about such things, since many people are new to DNA and may not understand the inheritance path of mtDNA.

I agree it would have been even more obvious if FTDNA had put a line between the generations to imply inheritance, but I still think it's misleading as it is.

[raspchide]

Oh! I have little knowledge in detecting misleading mtDNA Advertisement. This is something I should work on. Good thing someone posted this.