Is there a tombstone for this? There should be.

Maybe you too were shocked and horrified at the news that Ancestry was no longer offering it's Y-DNA or mtDNA products. OK, so maybe they weren't real profitable. Maybe it didn't fit into the big picture, or whatever. I get that. But when I heard the news that they were going to just destroy the database for these test results, I couldn't believe my ears. Why do that? And what does it say about their long-term commitment to any sector of the genealogy empire they own? Nothing good.

They told us that as of September 30th they would destroy the database for those two products... and now they have. I, along with many others, thought they'd find a last minute solution and maybe sell the database or at least offer the data with no support. But no. They did absolutely nothing that I know of.

That makes me sad. There is probably some family out there who trusted that Ancestry would be the very place to have their grandpa take that Y-DNA or  their grandma take that mtDNA in hopes of finding the roots of their clan. Or the grandmother of all their grandmothers. Now that chance is gone forever because not only is the database gone but the original samples are gone too. And by now maybe so is grandma or grandpa. What if they have passed and now the opportunity to keep their genes working to find family long lost is dead too.

I really dislike what Ancestry did here. It is grossly immoral and unethical. In my humble opinion.

Here's a link to Roberta Estes' truly excellent blog that covers all issues related to DNA, and a post about this very issue. Thanks, Roberta.

http://dna-explained.com/2014/10/02/ancestry-destroys-irreplaceable-dna-database/



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