More On the DNA Study

I'm confused!

I know that isn't an uncommon occurrence but I'm really confused now.  Why do people participate in DNA studies if they don't want to find matches?  Isn't that the whole point in participating?

This is the second - no, third - time I've gotten the brush-off from someone who participated in the Ancestry.com DNA study.  Two participants basically sent me "Dear John" letters stating that they don't want to be bothered, that they aren't interested in genealogy thankyouverymuch, and could I please just go pester someone else for awhile?  O-k-a-a-a-y.  

And the third person?  Oh, that person never answered my query in the first place which told me right off the bat that he wasn't interested in trying to find answers to our shared heritage.  Again, why bother participating?

I'm not complaining about Ancestry.com.  Really I'm not.  I am, however, complaining about people who seem to think this is some kind of a joke to participate in the DNA studies and then refuse to cooperate with others who match.  You did know that Ancestry.com is a genealogy service, right?

Let's get some things straight.   It cost money to do genealogy research.  I'm not a professional.  I've said on this blog that I'd be willing to pick things up in downtown Cincinnati for a few bucks, but let's be honest, I'm going downtown whether anyone hires me or not so my offer does little more than ask for help paying for the gas, parking fees (!!!!), and copy costs if you need something while I'm there.  I'm a hobbyist, but I do take my hobby pretty seriously.  (Golfers, bowlers, or crafters need not judge.)

Ancestry.com does cost money, potentially, lots of money.  DNA tests cost money, not fortunes, but not cheap either.  Some of us are female and can't even take the DNA test so we talk a male relative into taking the test for us.   We submit our kit and we wait to find matches.  AND WE'RE ELATED WHEN WE FIND THEM!

In both cases where our DNA matched another submission (and I got a response), I found out that the participant didn't have any genealogy information, didn't have anyone in the family who did genealogy, and wasn't the least bit interested in sharing notes with people who match.   Neither case was an adoption (and if it was wouldn't they be interested in hearing from a match?), and both seemed to have no clue as to how they could have blood relatives in the United States.  Well, a perfunctory knowledge of history would tell you that anyone whose paternal line is not Native American must have ancestry that goes back to Europe, Africa, or Asia within a couple of hundred years -which is not that many generations, by the way - so it isn't at all unusual that we should have common DNA with people on other continents.  Negotiations don't get far enough for me to explain this. 

 Ancestry.com provides a service for genealogists, including DNA testing.  One of the reasons they do this is to make money by making records and other researchers available.  Customers pay the fees to access those records and to make connections with other family researchers.  Participants should not be shocked when someone contacts them requesting more information.

I have to admit that I'm not very impressed with these "cousins" of mine.  And cousins they are.  The DNA says so.  It's true that you can choose your friends but not your family.