Cousin Shopping

I'm considering wading into the gene pool a little deeper. And why not? We have an unprecedented opportunity to do so this weekend. Even The Ancestry Insider said so. If anyone would know, that would be the one.

But who listens to people with no name? Fortunately, I don't have to. Thomas MacEntee, the guru behind GeneaBloggers, said it was so, too: this weekend has the best price for DNA testing at Ancestry.com.

So I'm going to try it. After hunting and pecking my way through my matches at Family Tree DNA for the past year, I've barely scraped the surface of my nine hundred plus fellow distant cousins. I keep vowing to find a quick way to upload all the surnames from each match onto a spreadsheet program and check for mutual surnames, but why do that? By virtue of coupling DNA testing with an already-provided family tree database program, Ancestry.com can do that searching for me.

Besides, adding AncestryDNA to my repertoire means I am now fishing in two ponds, not just one. I'm expanding my genetic horizons.

Of course, the downside is that people aren't always impeccable when it comes to adding ancestors to their collection. Some of those additions don't even make sense on the face of it—like the oft-repeated example of the "mother" who had to have been eight years old when her "son" was born. (Yes, I know that can happen—theoretically—but the only ones I heard of were listed in Guinness' Book of World Records.)

So, perhaps I'll be trading in reality-based genealogy for ease of handling. I've noticed, though, that each genetic genealogy company seems to have its down side—some crowdsourcing glitch in which the other participants don't seem to care quite as much as this customer does. It will have to be a price I'm willing to pay.

And, apparently, it is, for by the time the deal of this shopping season comes to a close on Monday evening, for every fellow researcher who asks me, "Haven't you tested on AncestryDNA?" I will finally be able to answer, "Yes."