Haven’t Gotten Survey from FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA) – April 12, 2021

I noticed some have reported getting a survey from FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA). I checked a few hours ago and I have not received one yet. I saw where The DNA Geek received one about a week ago – The Future of FTDNA. Dr.Larkin made some excellent points in the article. Others received them recently. It seems that the new owner of FTDNA – myDNA: https://www.mydna.life/ is too focused on things that aren’t genealogically DNA related. That’s going to hurt them in the long run. Worse, it will hurt FTDNA in the short-term. It will be interesting to see if myDNA will allow FTDNA to continue processing its autosomal kits and the kits for MyHeritageDNA. The questions from the surveys I read are more about focusing on “Health & Wellness Discovery Survey.”

I will make it clear if I get a survey that I am not interested in Health and Wellness, more about the autosomal results I get from FTDNA. I see this as an opportunity for MyHeritageDNA to step up in a big way if FTDNA does away with autosomal testing. Not only that, FTDNA is one of a handful of companies that offers Y-DNA and mtDNA testing. It sounds like FTDNA isn’t abandoning the genealogy DNA tests they offer, but it sounds like they are going to be on the back burner for a while.

The problem is most of the companies doing health and wellness DNA testing are focusing on a handful of markers to test. A great example is BRCA; there are over 1,000 known markers, but the handful of companies testing for them only look at a small fraction of those markers. Some DNA companies may look at more, but I haven’t run across many that do.

As I previously posted, having a marker doesn’t mean you will get a medical condition. It increases your risk by a small percentage in most cases. But other things – environment, diet, etc. also play a role in determining if you get a medical condition.