DNA Testing Company Caught Working With The FBI

Source: YouTube

Yesterday someone sent me a video by the YouTube channel The Young Turks called DNA Testing Company Caught Working With The FBI:

If this is true then Family Tree DNA lied to me and others, I had my genealogical autosomal DNA test done by Family Tree DNA specifically because they had the best privacy policy out of the big three genealogical DNA testing companies and I wanted to reduce the risk of something like this happening, and so I took a risk finally and I chose them over possibly better options because of their supposed better protections of our DNA / data.

If you are curious here were my results in a post called: John Jr’s Family Tree DNA Family Finder Genealogical DNA Test Results 😲.

Last year I heard about law enforcement using DNA data from one or more DNA testing companies, two of the other big three DNA testing companies claimed to not be involved, but I never heard anyone mention Family Tree DNA so I hoped that they were not involved in that; but if this is true then we were betrayed, and I am not happy about this at all.

If this is true then Family Tree DNA has lost me as a customer over this betrayal, I was cautious and worried about something like this possibly happening so that is why I waited so long before finally taking a risk and trying a DNA test, and I did some research before finally choosing the company with the best privacy policy only to have something like this happen to me.

Thank you The Young Turks for bringing this to our attention.

*Update*

Family Tree DNA released an oddly titled press release about this issue called PRESS RELEASE: CONNECTING FAMILIES AND SAVING LIVES.

If what they are saying is true then the situation is not as bad as reported, but I still have questions and concerns about this situation.

-John Jr

New Neighbors And New DNA Test Results?

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Dream 1

This dream was probably partly inspired by me looking at some forums posts and a blog post about trace results on genealogical DNA test results before I went to sleep.

All that I can remember of this dream is that I was on a computer checking my email, and I got an email from Family Tree DNA informing me that my Family Finder (autosomal DNA) genealogical DNA test results had been updated.

The email included three or more links at the end but it did not specify what each link was for, I glanced at the links for clues about what they possibly led to but there was not enough information in the URLs, and so I clicked on the first link or another link to see what it linked to.

To my surprise and confusion the link that I clicked on led to a video that probably started to autoplay, and the video was a short clip of a threesome between an attractive woman with light-color skin with long red hair having sexual intercourse with two men with light-color skin.

They were having sex on a bed I think, the video was probably barely a minute long or shorter, and after the video I was still surprised and confused and I assumed that maybe someone at Family Tree DNA had put this link in there by mistake.

There were still several other links so I wondered if they were mistakes too and / or if one of them led to my updated DNA test results, but I was afraid to click on any of the other links because I was not sure what they led to.

I started trying to investigate this, but that is all that I can remember of this dream.

Dream 2

All that I can remember of this dream is that I was walking outside in the back of my parent’s yard as my brother GC was doing his usual outdoor routine, and the weather was strange like there was a storm that was slowly building up and there was a sepia-like tone (color) to the sky and environment.

I noticed that there were automobiles at the semi-abandoned house, possibly an automobile on all sides of the house except for maybe the back, and the back door to the house was open.

From the open back door it seemed that maybe some people were cleaning out, maybe remodeling, and maybe moving into the house.

I hoped that I was wrong, but I woke up.

In the real world I decided to walk outside briefly for some fresh air, and a white truck driven by an older man with dark-color skin drove up to the semi-abandoned house and blew the horn on his truck.

After several seconds an unknown woman with dark-color skin with black hair walked from the front of the semi-abandoned house to the truck, she got inside the truck, and then I heard her telling someone or something to stay in the yard.

They drove away, and I saw a dark-colored dog sit in the driveway so that is who the woman was talking to.

So it seems that my dream was possibly correct, someone is possibly moving into the semi-abandoned house.

The end,

-John Jr

John Jr’s Family Tree DNA Family Finder Genealogical DNA Test Results

myorigins-map.png

To my surprise I got my Family Tree DNA Family Finder (autosomal DNA) genealogical DNA test results yesterday, I was not expecting to get my results this soon, especially because this company is based in The United States in Houston, Texas which was recently devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

If you are interested I already did a post called, John Jr Does The Family Tree DNA Family Finder Genealogical DNA Test, where I briefly mention getting the kit and sending it back by mail.

Yesterday I got an email from Family Tree DNA with the subject New Family Finder Results, and this is what it said:

Family Finder results have been uploaded for your kit, John Jr.

Family Finder uses autosomal DNA to connect you with relatives descended from any of your ancestral lines in approximately the most recent five to six generations.

The myOrigins tool also provides analysis of your ethnic percentages.

Accessing Your Matches

You may view your Family Finder matches on our website by following these steps:

Sign in to your myFTDNA account.

On the top menu bar, find the Family Finder menu.

From the Family Finder menu, select Matches.

The Family Finder – Matches page has two sections.

The top Filter Matches by: section is where you can change the testing level and filter for specific parameters.

The bottom Matches section is where you can view your matches.

To view all of your Family Finder matches:

In the Filter Matches section, change the Relations: field to Show All Matches.

By default, your closest matches will be at the top of the report.

If you come from a population where few people have tested, you may not have even distant matches right away.

As you get new matches in the “close” and “immediate” ranges, we will notify you by e-mail.

About Autosomal DNA

Autosomal DNA is DNA from one of our chromosomes located in the cell nucleus.

It generally excludes the sex chromosomes.

Humans have 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes.

You inherited your Autosomal DNA from both of your parents, all four grandparents, all eight great-grandparents, etc.

This is why Family Finder results generally include matches from all of your lines.

You get about half of your autosomal DNA from each parent.

They in turn received about half of their autosomal DNA from each of their parents.

Each time Autosomal DNA passes from parent to child, it is partly mixed.

This is called “recombination.”

The randomness of recombination means that after 5 to 6 generations you may have much less autosomal DNA from one line than another.

Random recombination means that while autosomal DNA and Family Finder matching are powerful tools, beyond 3rd cousins it is possible to have a cousin who does not show up as a match to you.

Therefore, Family Finder proves relationships, but failure to match does not always disprove them.

Learn & Understand

Our help pages have the answers to questions about Family Finder autosomal test results.

There are three relevant sections.

Begin with an introduction to Autosomal DNA Testing:

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/dna-basics/autosomal/

Then, you can begin learning how to use some of our Family Finder pages and tools:

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/?s=family+finder

Finally, you can look through our Expert’s Guide to interpreting your results:

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/autosomal-genealogy-matching

Accessing Your Raw Results

You may download your Family Finder raw data at any time.

Learn how to do so here:

Sign into to your myFTDNA account.

Under your Family Finder results icons, select the Download Raw Data link

Select the file type to download

The download file is in the compressed GZ format.

You can read about this page and file formats by clicking on the blue Page Help button at the top of the page.

Recovering Your Password

If you have misplaced your password, you may recover it by following these steps:

Go to the Forgot Password page.

Enter your kit number and e-mail address in the recovery form.

Click the Get Password button.

Check your e-mail for a message from Family Tree DNA.

Privacy

Family Tree DNA cares about your privacy; when you use our internal database your privacy is assured.

However, you should use caution if you are ever asked to export your results to other databases not endorsed by Family Tree DNA.

Be sure you have confidence in the privacy protections of whoever is requesting your data.

Under no circumstances should you share your kit number and password outside of Family Tree DNA.

Also, you can modify your privacy settings (this links to https://my.familytreedna.com/privacy-sharing.aspx) anytime to opt-out of showing your ethnicity breakdown to your matches.

Thank you for testing at Family Tree DNA,

Family Tree DNA
https://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com
“History Unearthed Daily”

Visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FamilyTreeDNA, and join by clicking “Like.”

The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG): ISOGG is dedicated to promoting the use of genetics for genealogy.

To learn more, visit the ISOGG website at https://www.isogg.org or contact isogg@msn.com.

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John Jr Does The Family Tree DNA Family Finder Genealogical DNA Test

Source: YouTube

Recently the Family Tree DNA Family Finder (autosomal DNA test) genealogical DNA test that I ordered online for $69 during their Friends & Family Summer Sale for the entire month of August 2017 arrived by mail.

I found out about the sale thanks to a post by Roberta Estes called Friends And Family Summer Sale At Family Tree DNA, I had been waiting for a sale so that I could buy the Family Finder test, and so thank you Roberta Estes for sharing that post.

The instructions to complete the kit had a link to a YouTube video by Brad Larkin for video instructions to go along with the text and image instructions, it linked to one of his old videos from when the kit used a different kind of swab, but fortunately Mr. Larkin had a link to his new video called How To Take A Family Tree DNA Test (Snap-Swab Version) that was about using the new kit with the new swab:

Family Tree DNA should update their instructions to link to his newer video instead of the old video now that they use new swabs, but I am glad that they shared a link to video instructions for those of us who prefer a video over text and images.

I am also glad that Mr. Larkin made both of those videos, and so thank you Mr. Larkin for sharing them.

Today I followed the instructions to complete the kit and the prepaid mailing package went to my local post office, and so soon they will ship it back to Family Tree DNA to be tested and one day I will get my results and I will probably share my results on my blog.

This should be interesting. 😀

*Update*

I got my test results, and I made about post about my test results called: John Jr’s Family Tree DNA Family Finder Genealogical DNA Test Results .

The end,

-John Jr