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A good start by FTDNA

An opt-out system for police matching It’s never easy to step back, take a deep breath, and admit you’ve made a mistake. So The Legal Genealogist will give Family Tree DNA full credit for taking the first big move towards stepping up to the plate and doing...

No magic wands

New tools are hints only The buzz at this past week’s RootsTech conference was all about new tools for analyzing DNA results at AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA. Ancestry announced its ThruLines: “ThruLines™ shows you the common ancestors who likely connect...

New MyHeritage DNA tools

Two new tools for DNA matching analysis As RootsTech continues in Salt Lake City, MyHeritage DNA has joined in the fun of major announcements by launching its Theory of Family Relativity — a DNA matching analysis tool that uses family trees and records to...

Ancestry advances at RootsTech

Cool new tools for DNA analysis As the massive RootsTech conference gets underway in Salt Lake City this morning, Ancestry went public with major advances in its DNA product to make it easier to see, sort and analyze DNA matches — plus a bonus change to add more...

Commercial researchers gain FTDNA access

Bode Technology using FTDNA matching system The news about police access to the DNA matching system at Family Tree DNA just keeps getting worse. First, it was that, under an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a few crime scene samples had been run...

Looking at the alternatives

DNA companies take a stand on police access The news that Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) had allowed law enforcement to submit crime scene samples into its testing database to search for the identities of suspects without a court order has rocked the genealogical community....

The logical fallacy

In response to FTDNA The Legal Genealogist doesn’t usually write about DNA day after day. But I surely will when the issue remains hot — and there are reasons to do so. Today, there are two reasons to do so, both stemming from the disclosure late last week...

A letter from Bennett Greenspan

Read it for yourself: https://mailchi.mp/familytreedna/letter-to-customers Here’s my take: Family Tree is still allowing law enforcement use of its DNA matching services (which provides access to data on thousands of matching customers’ names, emails,...

One little change

Enable us, Family Tree DNA! The furor over the unilateral decision of the genealogical DNA testing company Family Tree DNA to change its terms of service and open its customer database to law enforcement for use in criminal investigations comes down in the final...

Opening the DNA floodgates

FTDNA database now wide open to law enforcement The Legal Genealogist has long been one of the biggest fans of the DNA testing company, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), part of the Gene by Gene companies of Houston, Texas. A company established by genealogists for...