Ancestry DNA Toolbox

Rating:
Summary: A toolbox for genealogists
Review: Edwin M. Knights, MD, Director of GeneSaver® ...: The Toolbox contains a swab kit and the book "How to DNA test our family relationships." The book contains much valuable information for those who have concerns or problems related to the use of DNA technology in genealogical and forensic applications. It is well presented and to the point. The book certainly provides a useful background for someone who would like to know more about genomics. It does include some good discussions of the practical applications with balanced consideration of the controversies, although it may be too technical for many genealogists and for many others right on the money. The paternity discussions are excellent.

Rating:
Summary: A toolbox for genealogists
Review: Edwin M. Knights, MD, Director of GeneSaver® ...: The Toolbox contains a swab kit and the book "How to DNA test our family relationships." The book contains much valuable information for those who have concerns or problems related to the use of DNA technology in genealogical and forensic applications. It is well presented and to the point. The book certainly provides a useful background for someone who would like to know more about genomics. It does include some good discussions of the practical applications with balanced consideration of the controversies, although it may be too technical for many genealogists and for many others right on the money. The paternity discussions are excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Very informative starter for studying family relationships
Review: Excellent and concise starter to study family relationships. I obtained the book and the kit. The DNA servics described are supported by GeneTree, Inc. ... They have a toll free number and are available! I understood how they performed the tests from the book. I do recommend it!

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Summary: Hopes dissolved
Review: I purchased this book in hopes, I suppose, of finding more about DNA testing than is available at this time.

This book appears to be for people to read who are contemplating having their parentage tested. Or for people who have decided to have a paternity test and need to understand the process of testing by use of DNA evidence. It has that very limited scope. Which is legitimate, of course, but the title of the book might have made that more clear. There is an Appendix (II): 'DNA testing resources for your family.' It amounts to three advertisements from GeneTree Inc., 1-800-Paternity, and eneGene/ Genetic Services LLC. I can't tell if these companies have underwritten the publication of the book or not. In this appendix the following phrases are included: 'Paternity Testing, GeneCard Identification, Grand-parentage, Y-chromosome, Mitochondrial DNA, Siblingship Analysis, DNA Banking Services, Worldwide Drawsites, Motherless & Fatherless Testing, Family Studies, Court Qualified DNA Experts. Author contact information is given in the front of the book.

I'm sorry to report that this book, which came with a kit of swabs and some envelopes, is one of the worst that I have ever encountered. Note that even the title is ungrammatic - when the question mark is included. It is from all standpoints that I criticize this book. The layout, the writing, the editing, most of the illustrations, are poor. A few illustrations are of some value in themselves and the printing quality is not bad. That is, there is no smearing of the ink or breaks in the images. Many words are run together. There are at least three places in this book where at the bottom of a page, a sentence is broken off and never picked up and completed. I can't tell whether a phrase or a page is missing. If I were Sherlock Holmes I would say that this book was written in an Eastern European language and then translated into unsatisfactory English by a person who's first language was not English. There are 160 pages of large print. Besides the authors there are three contributing authors: Ed Grotjan, Robert Allen and James P. Reape and a text editor: Emily Balestrini. There is a bibliography and a glossary. I'm not in a position to judge the bibliography. But some of the poor grammar continues in the glossary. The last chapter is by Dr. Allen and I find none of my negative notes there. On nearly every other page I find some kind of question or problem.

Besides all of the production and structural problems of this hastely produced book, the content is really garbled. The mixture of technical jargon with over repeated layman's introductions makes for a difficult reading. There seems to be no development in the book. Perhaps it was much longer and has been condensed and truncated to the point of non-intelligence. Perhaps the editor was not allowed to be more brutal in her work. Much needed to be explained in more detail and much redundancy needed to be removed.

Another disturbing thing is the use of the term 'racial.' I am not adverse to the idea that there may be 'races.' This is a delicate subject. But in this book, race is never defined and yet is referred to often in the article by Grotjan. For instance: "For most calculations, the frequency of a particular allele is taken from accumulated data corresponding to a specific racial group (the reason that race will usually be noted at the time of specimen collection)." p 87. Now either we have races or we don't. And if we do, then how do we define them? For instance are people who are 3/4 'Caucasian' and 1/8 'African' and 1/8 'Amerind' defined as African, or what?

I cannot recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: extremely useful toolbox
Review: I was reading about the DNA tests performed in relations to the September 11 attacks in New York. I was interested to learn more about the techniques that are used in such tests. The toolbox gave me all I needed. The book by Mr. Carmichael is very informative and detailed for a reader like me. The kit provided me with the possibility to send samples and have my DNA banked. Great source! Highly recommend it!

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Summary: DNA mapping is unraveling the mystery of human origins
Review: In the January 29, 2001 issue of U.S. News you can find an article "Tracing Your Genetic Roots". This Toolbox has all the information and resources to do exactly this. The kit provided by GeneTree, Inc., mentioned in the article too, allows you to get samples for DNA extraction and send them to the company for genealogy studies. A powerful approach.

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Summary: How to use the "Ancestry DNA Toolbox"
Review: The toolbox can be used by any geneaologist to study distant family relationships. The box contains the book "How to DNA test our family relationships?", which is a detailed guide to molecular biology techniques and resources. This toolbox also contains a buccal swab kit, which is easy to collect samples from family members. The kit has a return envelope to be submitted to a designated geneaology laboratory. Technical support is available by telephone and e-mail. Additional kits can be obtained free from the kit provider.

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Summary: DNA family relationships from the basics: paternity testing
Review: This book takes a very practical approach - delve into complicated family relationships by starting with the very basics, i.e. paternity and maternity testing. These tests are not clear to many people in terms of technicalities and Carmichael explains everything. The toolbox includes sources for further family DNA analysis and a free specimen collection kit from GeneTree, Inc. The kit is a key to unlocking mysteries of your family history as I did with mine. Although very technical in some chapters and very basic at others the book deserves a place on your shelf if you are interested in persuing DNA studies on your ancestry.