CD, Louisville, 2008-04-25

I know there are critics of autosomal testing, as there will be of any human endeavor that advances human knowledge or awareness. Just wanted to drop Dr. Yates a short note as a testimonial, as it were. My mother's parents came from a small, agricultural community in Eastern Poland (then Austro-Hungarian Empire). The DNA Fingerprint Test I took, and you interpreted, gave me (4) Polish listings in my top 10 Omnipop Matches, giving me results at #'s 2, 7, 9 and 10. That's a fairly persuasive result, in my opinion. Macedonia, a Southern Slavic group, came in at #12. ENFSI, while it didn't list Poland for me, gave Slovenia ad Crotia at #'s 5 & 10, respectively. Either I'm mistaken, or that's a fairly accurate assessment. Good job, and thanks,

Cary S., Detroit Area, 2008-04-25

This is the newest test to look at ALL your family lines, not just your mother's mitochondrial type and father's y chromosome. As far as I can tell, no one quite knows why it works. But it does. It confirmed the Sephardic Jewish in my family and narrowed down our Native American to the right region. It also gave me some insight on where one of our African ancestors came from. Kudos to the company for developing it!

N. B. Sullivan, Florida, 2007-10-17

Tierra Life, the young woman in the picture, was born in 1967 and given up for adoption. All information about birth father was provided by birth mother, who was Caucasian of Czechoslovakian/German heritage. The parents met in the air force and were friends. The birth mother stated the father was very light-skinned African American. My family adopted her in 1968 and she’s been my best friend and sister ever since.

The last dozen years or so, Tierra has questioned her ethnicity. She has been asked repeatedly if she is African American, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Latin of various types, East Indian, Middle Eastern, Jewish, Greek, or Armenian. Some people have said she looks Russian, Native American Indian, Hawaiian or even Asian. We were told she was mixed African American and Caucasian and that was good enough for me. But slowly I became intrigued and wondered about her ethnicity. After a conversation with our mother who had read an article about DNA findings, I researched it further on the Internet. It was hard to choose which company to pick, but I chose DNA Consulting because of the extensive European database, as well as the world data. They helped me choose the best testing option and we were off and running.

I received the results in December 2007 and presented them to Tierra on Christmas day. The “Analysis and Conclusion” part of her report showed Hispanic (Spanish/Portuguese) and Scottish/English/Welsh with Middle Eastern and American Indian admixture. Also, it said, there may be Slovenian/Polish/Gypsy, Italian, and Southeast Asian/Austronesian with a medium match to Sephardic Jews. There was no Sub-Saharan African or East Asian.

Imagine our surprise to find out she had NO Sub-Saharan African (black Africa/African American). I was more shocked than she was. This is what I had always believed. Her deep ancestry was all Mediterranean, North African Arab and/or Berber, Portuguese and Middle Eastern. In my own ignorance, I had not realized that other groups of people also had this markedly curly hair. It was so much fun finding pictures of Berber/North African Arabs with my sister’s hair and nose.

Then it appeared that whenever her father’s line migrated to the America’s, they married into the Latin American/Mexican and American Indian culture. The DNA results also gave us this information. In addition, her mother’s heritage showed up in the Slovenian and English countries, as expected.

As a passionate Christian, Tierra loves Israel and Jerusalem. She is delighted with her Mediterranean roots. She had a medium match with Sephardic Jews. While we will never know if she has Jewish ancestors, she might. She was not as surprised as I was with the results. It is as if her spirit bore witness to the truth for years before this testing was even possible. It settled her. I would love to ask her birth father what his own report about his ethnicity was. And while that question will never be answered, it has been both a fun and valuable experience. It gives her a settled identity, not a presumed identity. It has opened my eyes to the beauty of many people in the world I had never paid attention to before. It gives us both prayer targets for a politically-charged region of great unrest and importance to all of us.

Thanks for your service!

Nanci L., 2007-12-28

The DNA Fingerprint report matches very nicely my known ancestral components and confirmed several assumptions. I started with the genealogical knowledge that my paternal ancestry was divided between “PA Dutch” (which was composed of documented German, Alsatian, Swiss, Austrian, Bohemian, Scots, Irish, and claimed Native American components) and “Danish” (which was itself composed of known Scandinavian as well as Low Countries and German elements). My maternal line was even more complex having stemmed from southern Italy, principally from a mountain village whose historic population elements should include ancient Anatolian and Greek, Carthaginian (Phoenicians from Tunisia), Roman Jews (ancestors of Ashkenazi), Egyptians (Roman era as well as refugees from Islamic advances of the 7th century AD), Lombards (Germanics possibly originally from Sweden), Saracens (North African Berbers from Tunisia mixed with Arabs and possibly Sub-Saharan Africans and Palestinians), Byzantines (Greek peoples including Armenians and possibly even Persian settlers originally from India), Normans (Scandinavians mixed with French, and possibly including some English and Irish), “Anjou” French (from various parts of France), Spanish, Portuguese, Sefarditi (Jews from Spain and Portugal), and Albanian refugees. All of these would have been prior to about 1450 AD. The trouble is that records generally begin AFTER this time so it is very difficult to sort out ancestry and ethnicity when all of the people in the first records have Italian names and are Roman Catholic. Some lines, particularly noble ones yield some clues or proof of ancestry, but these are rare. I was aware of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Norman, and French ancestral lines which were documented and I strongly suspected some of all the rest with particular emphasis on the North African and Middle Eastern ancestry. There was a strong suspicion of Judaic ancestry for much of the village. With such a diverse ancestry I was not sure what if anything might emerge in the test and analysis. My top 20 population matches identified many of my maternal ethnicities including Chueta (descendents of Spanish Jews), Spanish, North African, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Arab, and even one Sub-Saharan match to Rwanda. It also identified some generic Caucasian matches that I am sure point to my paternal line, as well as Swiss and Native American. Examining the Caucasian matches more closely in another study for just European populations revealed the expected Spain, Swiss, Austrian, Scots-Irish, Low Countries and Scandinavia, as well as pointing to Poland which in the analysis was linked to my Jewish heritage. Interestingly the German ancestry was not as pronounced, but was no doubt accounted for by populations in the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe. I know that these regions all contributed to repopulating many parts of the Rhine valley of Germany where so many of the Pennsylvania Dutch ancestral families were seated before coming to America. The Swedish and Polish were a bit of a surprise but make sense in retrospect; Sweden is sometimes given as the original homeland of the Lombards who swept into Italy, and Poland is associated with my Jewish ancestry. There is also a chance in both these cases that some contribution came from each side of my family. The match to Rwanda was a real surprise, but again fits with known history of the Berbers of North Africa which make up one of the components of my ancestry (assumed until now and confirmed by various matches to Berbers and other North African populations). It is amazing how complete this report is and how well it matches to a very complex known heritage. I am surprised that some of the components were identifiable. I did not imagine that Native American or Sub-Saharan African could be determined in my DNA, even though I was sure that historically these components existed in my family tree. More importantly it has confirmed to me the tradition of Native American and also the assumption that we had some Judaic ancestry from southern Italy. The report actually suggests Sephardic (through the Chuetas) and Ashkenazi ancestry which fits nicely with known historical populations in and around the village where my maternal ancestry originated. The report was everything that I hoped for. It has helped me recapture part of my heritage.

Dale Leppard, Pennsylvania, 2007-04-19

I took several other tests trying to validate my Cherokee ancestry. It must have been so long ago it "washed out." DNA Fingerprint was the first test to identify it. I am thrilled!

Katie Fields, Pascagoula, Mississippi, 2006-10-15

I had thought that I knew everything about my genealogy and my biological background. I had fourteen generations of research upon which to rely based upon family records. I knew of course that I was named after surnames Bradford, Gove, and Crandall: Bradford from William Bradford of the Mayflower; Gove from Oliver Cromwell's time with a link to Captain Cooke; and Crandall from Elder John Crandall, a founder of Rhode Island. Yet I had always been curious about my blond hair, green eyes and high cheek bones. This coupled with my tall height and slim long legged build, led me to wonder. My experience with DNA Consulting has been an eye-opener. I was amazed to find out that I have some Native American ancestors as well as Iberian Caucasian forebears, Argentinian Caucasian “cousins” and Scandinavian antecedents. The Native American Ancestry was a complete, yet welcome shock. It could explain the high cheek bones. I feel that as the tools of biological understanding grow, the possibilities of understanding one’s genetic heritage will only expand. Please keep me informed as to which further DNA tests are available in the future. I also feel that it is important to express how available and willing Dr. Yates has been in helping me to understand the meaning of my genetic results. When I received my second genetic test and found my Native American link, he very patiently explained that a French Canadian or Mormon link was probably responsible. I have found this experience very rewarding and if I can help others with their genetic journey of discovery, even better.

Bradford Gove Crandall, 2006-11-06

In my family I only ever learned about my Scottish, German, Swiss, and English ancestors. There was thought to be Native American ancestors, but it couldn't be verified. Most of my life people have asked me "So what's your ancestry?", or have described me as exotic looking, which was a polite way of stating that my appearance did not match the stated ancestry. The DNA Fingerprint test discovered Spanish, Greek, Portugal and Native American! This is really a great test for unearthing and honoring the ancestors who have been hidden and forgotten.

Kristy, 2007-11-17

I had the DNA Fingerprint Test done in order to determine the likelihood of Scottish and American Indian ancestry in my background, due to a "family story" I learned of 6 years ago. In those six years I spent several thousand dollars with genealogists, who told me I couldn't be, and acted like I was insane at times attempting to pursue the truth. Some gave me misinformation, others weren't aware of the full histories of either ethnicity I was trying assess for. I would have been satisfied had their results shown one or the other of my family story, but to be shown neither was strange to me. Then, a trusted person told me about Mr. Donald Yates and I learned of the DNA fingerprint test. I had heard of DNA testing before, but was not aware of autosomal DNA testing, which makes a great deal of sense when you don't have a strict male or female line of ancestors to check into. In my case, there was me (female) and three generations of males before me, to the most likely candidate, a female ancestor. That's about 150 years between me and the ancestor, with no known direct female lines to test in my family to see if the family stories were true. So, I decided to put this family mystery to rest once and for all and have the DNA fingerprint test done by Mr. Yates. I'll pause here to say that my career/training helps me to review research methodologies, and I really appreciated that DNA Consultants didn't take information from only Omnipop, but integrated information from that, the European database and their knowledge of DNA and migration trends. I thought I was impressed enough just reading their sample reports and website, but I was even more impressed with the finished product. They found a high probability linked to my results to both American Indian and Scottish ancestry, and gave me a surprise of finding high probabilities of Berber and SubSaharan African ancestries that helped me to think in a new way about another branch of my family. When I had questions, Mr. Yates was amazing and very helpful. When you do a search on autosomal DNA testing, there's a lot of scare tactic information out there, saying it will change how people view themselves, or could be "dangerous" depending on what people find or don't find. I think there's a danger in going to the wrong company to interpret the results, and I'm glad I chose the right one! I also think that whatever or whoever we are and where we come from is a deeply meaningful part of who we are to know. I also researched the lab that DNA Consultants use and was so impressed by them that I participated in their research study. It's nice to see such positive consistency between the quality and vision of DNA Consultants, their people, the lab that they use, all of it gives me great faith in what they do, and I've recommended them to several of my friends as the result of my good experience.

Marge in Illinois, 2008-01-07