Overseas Marketing

[djknox]

Anyone know why the big 3 do not more aggressively market overseas? After all, America IS THE NEW WORLD and limited in our collective genealogical potential... I'm already reaching boredom with N American autosomal & Y DNA matches only!

Most people I connect with in the British Isles don't have a clue about genetic genealogy.

Is this just typical American introversion... or are there real roadblocks to Europe?

[gtc]

There are reportedly some issues in Europe. For instance in France only a court may order a DNA test for the purposes of establishing paternity and I'm told that this has the effect that the average guy in the street has the idea that means a ban on all forms of private DNA testing.

Other Europeans have told me privately that have a general suspicion/reluctance about handing over their DNA and especially sending it to another country. This stems from their experiences historically with ethic cleansing, etc.

Nonetheless, quite a number of Europeans have taken the plunge. Let's hope many more do in future.

Re Britain, I get the impression that things are on the move. The annual "Who Do You Think You Are? Live" event reports that attendance numbers are growing every year in leaps and bounds. FTDNA has a booth at that and I gather it runs out of kits each year.

http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/

Also, the People of the British Isles project has been getting plenty of publicity and once it releases its data, derived from more than 4500 participants into the public domain, BGA tools will be able to use that data to get better references on British Isles origins.

http://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/

The Republic of Ireland is in the process of running a similar project:

http://blackfriary.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/irish-dna-atlas/

[Earl Davis]

There have been quite a few articles in UK newsstand family tree magazines mentioning the main US testing companties. Of course in the UK there are our own domestic DNA testing companies in operation that people can order from.

[1_mke]

Earl, do you have a recommendation on what is the best UK DNA company? My mother was adopted and born in the UK and I'm trying to figure out who her birth family was. Getting closer to the source couldn't hurt my chances of finding a close enough match to solve this mystery.

[djknox]

GTC thanks for the links... let's hope it does take off! And yes Earle I'd be interested in accessing UK databases...

Merry Christmas!

[Earl Davis]

I have not looked in detail at UK companies since I made the decision to test with Family Tree DNA in 2007. At the time I looked into UK providers the following company appeared to be the market leaders in the UK...
link removed

[Solothurn]

I am UK based and got hooked on DNA testing a few years ago

I have tested at Ancestry, SMGF, 23andMe and FTDNA.

I have also had my wife, mother and m in law, to try and break a few walls. I wanted to test Geno 2 but shipping put me off! I will wait and see what FTDNA offer as I have DNA stored with them anyway.

I wanted to test a cousin at 23andMe as it may help my research. $99 is a great price, sadly $79.95 shipping is not.

I did try ship kits privately once and one went walkabout on return for over two months!!

[1_mke]

Thank you! Looks like they only do mtDNA and Y. I'll have to think about this.

[NYMark]

There's also Igenea: http://www.igenea.com/en/ which is linked to FTDNA. It's been the source of two Swiss matches for me.

From what I understand, there are a variety of reasons for the relatively low number of Europeans who do DNA testing. Genealogy is one of the leading (if not the leading) hobbies in the U.S. It's a lot less popular in Europe, in part because it used to be the province of the aristocracy (this per a New Yorker article I read some months ago and some other forum discussions.) I understand there are also some legal obstacles to testing in some countries – Switzerland, France, Portugal, and (I think) Germany. While these are not insurmountable, and may just involve having an MD sign off, they are a disincentive. One of my Swiss matches also told me that cost is a factor.

It's too bad, as my paternal ancestry appears to be recently European, and I only have around 20 matches on that side, most of them quite distant.

Thank you! Looks like they only do mtDNA and Y. I'll have to think about this.

[Yaffa]

are there real roadblocks to Europe?

Besides other reasons people posted the answer to roadblocks is yes. I have known UK ancestors, Y-DNA reflects this and we have matches on Y-DNA to Europe but paper is missing on several lines. People don't leave wills or estates naming their children. A lot of them lost their education when they came over here. Some of the poor that came over here may have never had education or the skills of reading and writing. Usually if you find a will here you can tell who was educated and who was not. People who are educated will leave very detailed wills naming all their children and what each one is to inherit. The ones who are semi educated, know to leave a will however the will,will just state wife (no names) and children (no names). It is very general, non specific. Then there are many who own things that leave no will and their estate winds up in probate. These would be your uneducated. Then you have people who own nothing and dont need a will.

[fbirder]

There's also Igenea: [.

With whom I originally tested. Until I found that all they were doing was charging me extra for acting as a middle-man between me and FTDNA. Since then I've dealt directly with the organ-grinder and ignored the monkey.

[vinnie]

GENO2.0 international orders

Here's a list of countries that GENO2.0 can be shipped to at the same price as the U.S., with $20.00 shipping.

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/html/catalog/popup/genoShippableCountries.html

[NYMark]

Good to know. I figured it would be cheaper for non-US folks. Didn't really look at the pricing, etc.

With whom I originally tested. Until I found that all they were doing was charging me extra for acting as a middle-man between me and FTDNA. Since then I've dealt directly with the organ-grinder and ignored the monkey.

[djknox]

yeah... but just because it can be shipped doesn't mean there's a demand. This thread is about the lack of marketing of genetic genealogy overseas, and participants thereafter... not whether geno 2.0 it can be shipped to Estonia!

I live in the Far East. Yes the product is shipped there but have never heard of anyone even knowing about such a study or service.