FamilyTreeDNAReviews of familytreedna.com

I like the provided mtDNA and Y DNA , especially since there is no real alternative for these types of tests. The databases for this types of tests are the biggest in the world, and can give new genealogical insights. Also the their site UX is good. However the good things stop there. Customer support is terrible. Test delays are virtually all throughout the year. They never give any deadlines or any concrete information whatsoever. The only answer is like ChatGPT generated version of "patience is a virtue". Currently FF results are taking more than 3-4 months.. many times longer than the advertised processing times. Autosomal transfers are not working at all .. again. Bugs I reported on some of my kits that were acknowledged by the support have not been fix for many months, even after repeated requests. And there is the issue with even sending a kit back to the USA. Since the Trump tariffs of 2025 virtually you cannot mail your kit from anywhere outside of the USA. The only option is to send with a private carrier, which charge more than 100$ per envelope.. Most of the competing companies have a post box in Europe, where you send your kit, and than they mail them in bulk to USA. It works fast and efficient. Not FTDNA however, they do not care. Even receiving the test in the first place is challenging, some are sent with ridiculously slow mail, arriving in more than 2 months, than they are held by customs and etc. And one post box per continent could solve all of this... All these things also make very hard to recommend to someone to take a test. And this is crucial for genealogy.

I ordered a full sequence MtDNA back in early December, sent off my sample and on January 7th, told that my sample was being analyzed. It is now 15 weeks later and I have been given nothing more than canned answers regarding a backlog with various dates that didn't math out. I am very surprised, as customer service was very helpful in getting my kit to me. I am disappointed in being given the run around with no clear date in sight.

Logged in online to check for progress. It showed the tests as completed, but did not show any results, link, or message as to where I could see the results. I called and got a voicemail. Left a message. Then, I logged in and it showed the tests as still being analyzed. It also gave a message saying it's very important I input my earliest known ancestor's last name and city where born. If I knew that, I wouldn't need the ding dang test. It also urged me to link to myheritage.com.I suspect that they are dependent upon whatever results myheritage comes up with. Coincidentally, before I knew they were associated. I ordered tests from both companies. And when I mailed in the samples, even though they were testing for different things, they went to the same address. I think that when I did as they asked and linked my two accounts, they saw that my heritage test still had one week to complete. Then, they changed my "complete" status to "still analyzing". I don't understand why they can't just give me the test results that I ordered from them. It definitely leaves me feeling like they are not competent enough to complete the tests they advertise. Either they can read DNA or not. Either way I have no answers and unfortunately, I did not do enough due diligence beforehand, because they were referred to me by an entity I trusted. So that's my fault. It's hard to know if anyone is legitimate these days. I feel like I paid hundreds of dollars and I can't even trust the results if I ever get them.

EDIT: The bug in the "Home Person" settings for the family tree has finally been fixed. Changing review from 1* to 3*. Purchased Big-Y-700 + mtDNA-full + Family Finder (autosomal) for myself in August 2025. My biggest gripe is the inability to set the Home Person for the DNA test in the linked MyHeritage family tree. On the front page (Dashboard) it has action items for me to complete, and linking the Home Person is marked there as "IMPORTANT". Yet it is not possible to do this due to a bug in their software (confirmed by customer service). If it's important (and I absolutely agree that it is) - then why on earth don't they fix it?! I paid a lot of money for this DNA test and I expected a far better experience.

We started with NO STARS kit. not arriving and lost. It took hours with the courier company here in NZ to find out what happened, but finally when I did send the info to Family Tree, Michael in Houston did really try to help. He sent the kit out again, and it did get here finally, though again(the Fedex did not sync well with a local company). The whole time I dialogued with Michael in Houston, he really seemed to care. They did get the kit at headquarters but now hear it is many many weeks before finding the reality of the DNA tests, so that is why it is a three. That is a long time to get the results. But I will say, Michael, is a wonderful customer service person. We await to see the fulfillment of our original order already 10 or so weeks ago.

Only a 3 star rating currently as I’ve had some challenges in the beginning with lack of responses. Once the admin team engage, then issues get resolved. Still waiting for my kit to be sent. I think familytreeDNA need to review their processes / capacity in admin to provide a better response time

Cons: 1: In app group projects activity feed. No way to communicate with other members. Or notifications if someone answers in the feed. Not big deal but would be nice. Pros: New MTDNA Mitotree. Finally an update from scientific community for mitochondrial dna. Hopefully this will bring to a halt all the naysayers of mtDNA being helpful. Staff is friendly and helpful. They have some admin issues in their corporate social media groups. Hope the best for this company. They are leaders in industry now.

I'm waiting for a response I'm told that everything has to be by email which if you call them,and the chat is with a chatbot not a person. I don't know if it takes weeks or longer to get a response. Now if you are in a group project,and you ask a group Administrators about anything that doesn't have anything to do with the purpose of why people pay for what the company claims to offer you will get a quick response. In group projects the necessary information to confirm a DNA Match is listed on charts. With the Big Y 700 DNA Test it only lists 101 Y STRS which those Y STRS are used to confirm DNA Matches. If you know anything about Y DNA Testing you can Google the Haplogroup of people in your Group Projects to confirm if you share any SNPS. Don't expect anyone that works for the company, or that runs group projects to be able to explain anything about the products and services that the company offers. To know and understand how to know what a Y DNA Match is as well as how to know if you have any Y DNA Matches you have to find blogs mainly on Facebook or Reddit where it will be explained with diagrams as well as examples. I have had my Big Y 700 results since 2019,and I have only had 1 DNA Match. The website which is why I contacted the company has told me that these other people whom I Match 95 Y STRS Identically,and the other 6 Y STRS each are only 1 deviation of difference also that I share Identical SNPS with within the lessthan the last 1,500 years that's Matching both ways to confirm a Y DNA Match the Website is telling me that they aren't DNA Matches? I'm hoping that they are taking me seriously,and if the information that I know to be true explain to me how much closer the DNA needs to Match to confirm a Y DNA Match if there isn't an issue with the Website which if so could take years before it's fixed?OK it's Monday November 13th after posting the information to the owners of the Y DNA Test in my Group Project as well as contacting Customer Service nothing to complain about taken care of 👍