DNA Data and Ancestry.com

Today I received an email from FamilyTreeDNA.com.  I am not sure if I had been notified of this before but according to FamilyTreeDNA.com, Ancestry.com is getting out of the DNA database business.  They are no longer doing DNA testing AND  the Ancestry.com DNA data will no longer be available to me after Sept 2014. Yecks...Wow... Really...I never guessed that would happen several years back when I did the DNA test. Ancestry.com was such a big site.  Oh shoot...that means I had better do something about preserving my data.

I never really got the results I was hoping for through Ancestry.com.  I got a few emails from people  with inquires but no real Smith matches... All my matches were for people with other surnames! I think what happened was that most people used different sites for their testing or did no testing at all.  As far as Ancestry.com was concerned, the DNA database was an under-utilized ancestry.com option so they decided to get out of it all together.

SO...I had mine done in 2010.  NOW what?   Back in 2010 and early 2011, I was able to add my results to several other DNA databases but not to FamilyTreeDNA.com without having to have the test rerun.  Well I was not going to ask my brother to that so I just dropped it.  I learned today that FamilyTreeDNA.com is letting you transfer you data...of course for a fee! A few years ago I was able to enter my data in another site called http://www.smithsworldwide.org.  And through this site I did get a match.  Joseph Smith...which was very helpful. I think I also added it to the National Geographic DNA site too.  I need to verify that ASAP.

So after getting the email today, I went ahead transferred my data...for a fee.. Not wanting to loose access to it and to have it available in a database somewhere so it can help me and other family members in our search. I realized that I really needed to sort this out tonight so I went in search of the other databases that I had entered my data in.  Going back through old emails which I had saved....I found the login information for http://www.smithsworldwide.org and several correspondences with a Deb Harper. After logging on there it appears that they may be an affiliated to or somehow connected to FamilyTreeDNA.com site ...Oh I hope I did not spend money I did not need to spend...

OK, one thing is for sure...I will have more work to do here.  I need to do some genealogy house cleaning and sorting.  This mess is my own fault.  I should have been more organized from the beginning but I never thought this would become such a large life long project!  I have to write these databases down somewhere after I get this all sorted out. I also realized that I had saved much of this kind of info in old emails in folders in an my local email account.

I have had the same email now for nearly 20 years now.....quite a number of years ago I added an @yahoo.com account  and tied the two account together because of my genealogy work...I don't want to lose this information.. I have been advertising my @yahoo account when needed ever since but the original @ameritech.net account will be the one that will go away when I move one day and it is that account that I have saved all this data to...Since my house is currently on the market and we have had a few potential buyers come to look at it....the move could be sooner rather than later.  I will be moving to an area that ATT does not provide service for... So I am not sure what to will happen with my email ID... I had tried to prepare for this event because I knew would happen some day, but now I am wondering if I did the right thing.  I guess I need to call ATT to find out what will happen..... sooner rather than later...like tomorrow.

What a headache this could turn into! Stay tuned and I let you know how it all works out!

Happy Hunting