Trace Your Past Reviews 236

DNA Academy was a very thorough, yet easily understandable, course. They provided many helpful forms and templates that will make my genealogy research easier.

I requested a one generation link from OH to VA(WV) in the late 1700's in then Augusta/Pocahontas Co. I was assured that they had 100's of researchers and they would solicit bids, collect them and present them to me. After paying $200 for that and waiting nearly 8 weeks I reached out after hearing nothing. They literally pulled one researcher out of a hat it seems, who didn't live in that region, they claimed she had expertise in OH, but the research was in VA. They wanted over $1500 to create a "Research Plan" without performing any actual research. I had existing research I submitted they must not have reviewed and even told them of 4 target ancestors I needed to confirm or eliminate as potential fathers.
UPDATE: Since your wrote your response, I clearly need an opportunity for rebuttal. You have 1000's of researchers, and found me ONE and only one. I can't imagine there's only 1 researcher who is familiar in VA research. You refused to tell me if the researcher resided in that region where the potential of having to also pay someone travel and perdiem for onsite research could exist. Regarding your response that the $1500 was cost of the research was NOT a miscommunication as I questioned this on the phone with Jeremy: Let me copy and paste your actual quote:
Research plan: Due to the detailed and complex nature of the information provided by the client, the first step of this phase of work will be to create a timeline of the details provided for the subject, his four potential fathers and other family members. These timelines can then be used to strengthen the case for and/or eliminate one or more of the paternal options. Subsequent phase(s) of research can build upon the timelines created in this phase of research. Please note any subsequent phases of research require separate research plans and budgets. It is not possible to accurately estimate the number of research hours that will be necessary. As such, this research is limited to 15 hours. If additional hours are needed to complete there search of the client’s objectives, research will be paused to obtain approval from the client. If research of the outlined objective(s) can be completed in less than 15 hours, any remaining budget will be credited towards a subsequent phase of research.
AGAIN: This proposal clearly states TWICE that this was only a preliminary cost and subsequent research would cost additional money. So yes, it is true. Regarding your response about not duplicating my work, this type of work almost always must be done onsite to find additional info beyond what is already available to an online researcher who is working somewhere other than at the site of the actual work. I have a database of 40K people, I have exhausted online sources. So unless you would like to re-do and re-quote and change the items you spelled out in your written quote, I will tell others that you not being factual and honest in your response to my review. Feel free to contact me offline if you still believe only one person could bid on or satisfactorily complete such a simple project request.

Always good! The lookup used to be good. Much new data was once received.

The research was very thorough and good follow-up report. I would have appreciated an opportunity to interact by phone or email at various intervals with the researcher. More importantly a followup after the research was presented to clear up any questions or loose ends on my continued search.

In December 2021 I sent Trace a little under $2,000 to find information about my great-grandfather's father and his parents. I received their report 7/12/22, which consisted of no new information. Essentially they followed up on the leads I had found and found nothing new. Granted, my great-great-grandfather apparently did not leave much of a paper trail, and nonentities cannot be proven. I just thought that professionals who advertise themselves as able to penetrate genealogical brick walls should be able to find something amateurs are unable to. Very disappointed, and I realize Trace will provide a paragraph explaining how they did their very best, but the fact remains that they now have my money and I've received nothing worthwhile in return.

Trace provided me with what I asked for and a little bit more. I asked for research on my Great Grandfather and his two wives, and their respective children. in addition to this information I was also given the names of his parents and the parents of his wives. This allows me to dig deeper on my own for now.

The DNA Academy course was very detailed, I could say "leaving no stone unturned". It was well organized and easy to go back to review previous lessons. Numerous hand outs are provided, which will also be helpful in the future. Definitely the course to do to learn about how to utilize DNA in family history research. Highly recommended!

I had to wait forever for my certificate. When someone finally responded they told me I had to redo this section. I have now done it twice. I was very happy with the course when I completed it but all this nonsense with the certificates has been demoralizing thus no 10.

I found this to be a thorough course. It provides you with tools to start working with your own dna matches. I am excited to put clustering to good use!

The research was good. Much new information was received.

It is difficult to write a complete review since I have not yet received any results or products after agreeing to the work in October 2020. Initially I received monthly updates that said the researcher did not have access to Archives because of COVID - and I certainly understand that problem. (Of course they likely knew that was the case when they took my money in October...) Later the messages changed to "limited access" to the Archives. And then the updates stopped in March 2022. I finally queried them in June 2022 and then I received an update - that they were "assessing" access to the records. Not exactly sure why they just didn't return my money after the first year with no effort on my case. If you want this organization to do some work carefully assess what and when they will perform the research and break the work into smaller portions to limit your financial exposure.

Excellent experience with Trace. The research quality was impressive, and they didn't over-promise. They were able to deliver on Project goal, which was to identify my biological father! We will definitely use them again.

I actually hired Trace to find information I could not for over 20 years. Their conclusion made me understand why I couldn't find my information AND suggested my next move. I decided to do a second project with Trace since my first project was a life changing experience! I was ask to do a second DNA test which proved the man who raised me was NOT my biological father. Trace did my test and found my biological father.

This is the worst firm I have ever dealt with. I hired them in August of 2021 to trace 4 lines of my family back 4 generations, they told me it would take 40 weeks, and they told me they would be happy to provide bound copies of my report at the end, as presents for my family, who I was giving them to as a present. The work was not complete until spring of 2022, twice as long as projected. I was not given any communication along the way except for rote emails saying the work was in process, I spoke to the researcher on my project exactly once in over a year and a half, and when the project was completed they sent me an email with the data they compiled and zero explanation. When I tried to schedule a follow on phone call or in person meeting with the researcher, it was heavily resisted, making it not worth pursuing any longer. No bound copies of the report were provided. The “report” appears much more like a “data dump” than a professional report. In fact, much genealogical information my family had already secured I provided to this firm, which ignored most of it. I paid for all of this up front. I have never had a more unprofessional, unsatisfactory commercial experience in my life. Please avoid this company, its salespeople, its researchers, period, at all costs. Thank you.

I was very pleased with this online course that I could follow at my own pace.The course was very detailed in helping me learn all about DNA so I can become confident in my search for my paternal side of my family. I'm a visual learner and had plenty of handouts to study and videos to help me.

Paid a lot of money. Report was incomplete. Documents were not translated so I could not verify the information reported. Sources were incomplete and not to NGS standards. You get one (1) review and when I asked about what I received, that was considered my review, although my second request I was told they may answer but will take a long time. Stay away, I am not sure their researchers are true professionals, they may just be people willing to look up information for whatever Trace pays them. Totally dissatisfied with their service.or lack of. Report was 5 pages of scrambled information. Not even a professional report.

I was stuck with a great grandfather x 2 in either England or Scotland. Trace requested copies of information I had already found. Once they had that I got a call, as promised where the researcher clarified everything, told me what the research plan was and promised a call back within a few weeks. When I got the call back, the researcher had broken through the brick wall and found my answers. I received an envelope shortly after with the records I needed to prove their findings. The cost was VERY reasonable and I was thrilled with the result.

This course is an excellent introduction to genetic genealogy. It will help you direct your efforts should you choose to use DNA in your research. Be prepared to be challenged!

This course is very informative. The Facebook support page was helpful. The course is well organized and methodical in layout.
To me, it's worth the cost. I feel like I am equipped to help people with their DNA matches to find common ancestors.
The written material could use a review for misspelled words, etc. Some of the quiz questions were worded in ways that made the answer confusing, but you can go back and retake the quizzes.
Very well done overall. I recommend this course.

The course was informative & well designed. The features of being able to go back and review information was very helpful This is an excellent way to be able to add knowledge of DNA into your tool box and use with traditional genealogy.