I never bought into 23andMe though lots of people were gung ho about it. I sent them an inquiry about the privacy of my info and never got an acceptable response which made me suspect of their intentions.

I don't know why my radar went off about them back when I was testing and uploading. I guess I'm glad it did. But ancestry has its own drawbacks. I can't think off the top of my head that I was alarmed about FamilyTreeDNA. I used the site so I must not have found the bad stuff if there is some.

It's a crap shoot. You pay the money and the companies use your information. Why is that? It's the only time I ever bought anything and it still didn't belong to me. Oh, wait. Everything I have uploaded to my tree at ancestry now belongs to them. Ditto all the information I have added there. You have to opt out of ancestry sharing your info. And you have to look for the email address to send them an email to opt out. No button to push, no check box to uncheck.

When I asked my 94 year old aunt to do a DNA test I emphasized the lack of privacy and tried to think of any way her results could impact her. I didn't want her kids to think I had bamboozled her. My aunt's response: "There is no such thing as privacy. How do I do this?" And so she did.

And last week our Bailey cousins increased by one more! Thanks to the DNA tests we've all done and matching at GEDmatch and FamiyTreeDNA, I think/hope I have the answer to the brick wall which was the cause of the DNA tests in the first place. It wasn't instant and I'm still not 100% sure but now I have something to work with. We're waiting on results from one more cousin. If we all match (and I expect we will) then I am going to say that brick wall has fallen.

Thanks for posting - my neighbor asked me about the test last week. She knew I had done Ancestry and asked my opinion on 23 and me. I'll pass this on to her.

maire, did you upload to GEDmatch, too? And FamilyTreeDNA? Much better matching and the people there will answer you. Plus the tools to see where you match.

Imhappy - I haven't done that yet - it's on my project list - along with trying to figure out Ancestry's new web site. I'm fairly new to genealogy and I had finally achieved some competency - then they go and change everything. I honestly liked the old format better.

Last year I did my DNA and both of my brothers. When Ancestry had their test on sale for $69 earlier this month I bought 2 more - one for DH (who doesn't understand my fascination with digging up dead ancestors) and one for my DD.

If I had know about 23 and Me's $99 price I probably would have done it then. I wouldn't pay $199 and after learning more about them i probably won't do it at all. I'm not at all interested in the health aspect - while it's an interesting feature I don't think they've developed it enough to be that accurate.

Ancestry's new web site is a fright. Once it's mandatory on the 15th I won't be using it any more.

Imhappy - what site do you use the most? Ancestry was great when i first started - I didn't even realize that I could use the old site - maybe I should hop on and update things while I can use the familiar format.

The DNA matching has been a big disappointment. Obviously I need to upload to GEDmatch and Family Tree. I don't mind the fact that there aren't many matches - it's probably because few people have done the test in my family - but it's annoying to get all of these DNA matches and there isn't one single surname in common

From the article, I am going to guess a lot of people are going to lie to get to their info. Which will invalidate any scientific research they might want to conduct on those who voluntarily give out info.

maire, I still keep my tree at ancestry but I also have the software. I use Macavo for the search. Whatever comes up there I google using the title Macavo used. That works almost every time. Most of their stuff is out of copyright books and old newspapers. Google has a bazillion old history books and newspapers. Sometimes you have to get real creative with search terms. familysearch sometimes is a gold mine. Sometimes not. I subscribed to findmypast when they ran a $49 special a month or so ago. It hasn't proven as helpful as I had hoped. I read a lot of blogs and those people seem to know where to look for stuff so I follow any link they talk about. Individual states sometimes have good historical societies and/or the state itself sometimes has good genealogy information. Ethnic sites might have what you need. My ggrandmother who died in the hospital at Castle Garden was in the German Genealogy Group web site http://www.germangenealogygroup.com/records-search/deaths.php

It takes a lot of practice, trial and error and just plain luck to find stuff, especially for free. I did send for the death certificate and paid for that but often the information is indexed on the web site. The death of my great grandmother in S.D. was indexed on their web site. I did send for it. Sometimes it's as little a a couple bucks and sometimes $25 for a mailed copy. If the index is good enough proof, don't buy the copy. But I do like to read the information on the original. Even originals have mistakes though.

One place I don't think gets enough scrutiny is the original page of the census. Don't just read the index. Open the original page and read everything all the way across the page. Compare it with all the census you can find for that person. Be aware that the people in the census might have told the census taker anything. Some didn't think the government needed to know anything and answered accordingly. And sometimes the neighbors or whoever was at home answered the questions and might not have known where the people had been born so keep that in mind. I've found people I wasn't even looking for by reading the page before and the page after, too. Some historical societies and GENweb states have a limited amount of census on their site.

the ancestry message boards and any other message board might connect you with someone who can help. I have the same problem as you. Either there isn't anyone else out there looking for our ancestors or they aren't looking the same places I'm looking. Finding them is a bit like pulling hen's teeth. In the long run, I've found better "cousins" by looking at the trees that my documents have been linked to. At least that way I know they are in my family. Or MIGHT be in my family. I found one a couple of days ago that uses all my ancestors for their person but that person never was in that family. They've assigned her to the wrong family. I don't know how much work they did, apparently not enough or they would have discovered there was no link. But otherwise, I have connected with cousins by following my own documents to other trees.

Update http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2015/12/06/now-and-not-now/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheLegalGenealogist+%28The+Legal+Genealogist%29

http://ancestoring.blogspot.com/p/toolbox.html

http://www.nekg-vt.com/submenu-newspapers.htm

http://www.nekg-vt.com/index.htm