Trace Your Past Reviews 236

All in all, I give Trace a 5-star rating. This is based on the comprehensive documentation I received. And that I intend to take the recommendation to continue the research.

I find myself trusting the people at Trace after my experience with Austin Goodsell. The time taken to bring my project to a conclusion was over long. I don't expect that to happen again. And I want to be in touch with a representative of the researcher when I need to be. That finally happened, again with some difficulty.

Nancy Cooke McAllister

My research on a family ancestor had hit a brick wall. I decided I needed a professional genealogist help but had no idea how to start. Trace made the whole process easy for me. An easy questionnaire helped Trace pick the right genealogist, an expert in Canadian ancestry. I was given monthly updates on their progress and If I had additional questions they happily relayed them to my genealogist. At the end of the research I was provided a professional report on their findings, which was very extensive . In my case I was also provided with a GEDCOM file. I was very satisfied with their results and would recommend Trace to anyone who needs help breaking down an ancestral brick wall.

The Trace DNA course helped me understand how to use DNA results in my research in a way easy for me to follow and retain.

This was a great experience for me. I learned so much. I liked that you could work at your own pace. It was very thorough and easy to follow. The Skills practices were a great learning tool for me. It was also great to study the appropriate case studies. I feel I need to review and practice clustering and pedigree triangulation more to be more confident in these methods. It is good that I can refer back to this in the future. I am sure I will do so! Thank you for the concise and easy to understand course!

end results were organized,and easy to read. my end results were not met, but i did a good search. my subject parents were not found. my subject where about past 1885 was not found. the end result is i had completed a search. i turned it over to trace knowing they could do a better search than i did. trace found more documents than i did. bottom line trace did a good job double checking my work, and organizing the results. GOOD JOB TRACE

The course was very logical and one module definitely built on the next. I felt prepared to move on to more complex topics as we went. I'm very excited to use the taught methodologies combined with the worksheet tools given to us, to break down walls in my family genealogy! Clear, concise instruction, just wish there would have been more interaction with the educators with online questions.

Scary to see all the terms used and thought I'd never understand this, but I do now thanks to this comprehensive course, which admittedly was difficult at times. I did finish and my understanding has greatly progressed.

This is MUST course for someone who is into using DNA for genealogy research and someone who wants to go into genetic genealogy as a profession.

The DNA Academy has been a great learning experience. One is that you can do at your own pace but there is also a timeline laid out for you and other classmates to interact with if you want. The online software used for the class is truly wonderful, easy to use. The content itself really covers so much about DNA and using it for genealogy.

I am a beginner genealogist and I found this course extremely helpful. I feel like it equipped me with the basics of genetic genealogy so that I can apply what I learned to my own research. I thought the course format was intuitive and easy to navigate. The course instructors were responsive and helpful on the facebook group. I also found all of the downloads very helpful and I know they will be continue to be resources for me in the future.

Informative course with valuable information in an understandable format.

I have hired Trace for 3 projects and I have been very happy with all of their work. Each project was to find the birthplace of a GGF in Italy. Each project made substantial progress. The reports were very detailed and even gave tangential information. Now the 3rd project is complete. After over 50 searches they have now identified by GGF's birthplace. But even if that record had not been available, I would still have given this company 5 stars.

Exactly what I needed to better understand the principles of DNA and how to apply those principles to my research. Although I had a basic understanding of DNA, I learned how to better analyze DNA results. The cluster analysis method discussion and worksheets are especially helpful.

This course on DNA and genealogy was very informative. The tools and worksheets presented will allow me to take the next step in working through my DNA matches.

Well prepared lessons that are easy for non-science students to understand. Very thourogh with lots of reference material.

Trace was terrific and located my long missing 4times grandmother who was a major brick wall

Did not get the answer I was asking for, but fully expected that. Otherwise, the ease of getting started was great, as was the usefulness of the final report. The researcher did a fantastic job and would like to giver her many thanks for her time and effort, especially during this COVID-19.

I paid over $2,000 for Trace services, agreeing to Trace’s written research plan solely in agreement that the researcher would search records onsite at Alabama State Archives in person. Here is a copy/paste of the first sentence of the research plan: “Researcher will travel to the Alabama State Archives to conduct onsite research, as the client indicated that they have not been able to do so yet.”
I was shocked to discover when I received the final report nine months later that the terms of the plan were breached. In the nine months from agreement/payment to final report, I was not informed that the researcher was not going to do onsite research at the Alabama archives. In fact, in Feb. ’22, I had been led to believe that the plan was moving along as agreed. A monthly one-liner update dated 2/23/22 stated: “Researcher is making arrangements to travel to Alabama archives.” Yet the researcher never went, and no one ever informed me. I learned with the final report materials that the researcher had instead searched unindexed poor quality records available on FamilySearch. My research objective was not met, a risk I was aware of. What I wasn’t counting on was deviation from the agreement and Trace’s failure to communicate. I sent an email reply to the final report asking why I was not informed that the researcher would not go to the archives, and I never received a reply.
It gives me no pleasure to write this review about the company that states on its homepage “risk-free genealogy from the most talented professionals on Earth,” and “You choose the right research path for you,” and “Dedicated customer support team.”
There is no de-risking with Trace. Quite the contrary. Pursuing a research project with Trace was a total gamble. An expensive one which I regret.

Trace's DNA Academy offered a clear and engaging course with case study application. The course help me streamline my analysis of DNA data and concisely summarize findings.