"I had a great experience with Trace"

I had a great experience with Trace. I'm not one to typically write reviews but had to in this case. My father is turning 85 and I really wanted to surprise him with a family tree. We only know roughly where his father and mother came from. I spent HOURS trying to research on my own and got nowhere!

"The research was very thorough. Customer service good"

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.

"Nothing new from Trace"

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…"

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 extremely thorough!"

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…"

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"

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"

The research was good. Much new information was received.

"Be wary before you send any money"

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"

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.