But some geneticists say the company is more interested in giving satisfying answers than properly explaining the uncertain character of the results. If a customer’s DNA has multiple matches, says Bert Ely, a geneticist at the University of South Carolina who isn’t affiliated with any genealogy company, the scientifically appropriate response is to tell the customer about every match. Listing only a few matches to make the results appear more precise than they really are “would be cheating,” says Peter Forster, the British geneticist who correctly traced Gates to Europe.
Kittles said that listing all results would be “confusing,” and that he feels customers are seeking his “best guess” as a scientist. He has recently started to list more matches on the company’s Certificates of Ancestry, but still doesn’t list every ethnic group a customer matched with.
--Associated Press
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