[Vigilanteman]

Ancestry and other sites are being swamped by people that are clueless about genealogy and expect some magic DNA test to save them from the hard work of genealogy.

I have a cousin who works for ancestry. They have quite a useful and well-documented site for those willing to do a little work. The DNA testing product was introduced because they found so many people unwilling to do just a little work on their documentary site.

Once you've done a little work, the DNA test can be quite useful to fill gaps. Before then, it is mostly just for bragging rights.

[plain talk]

Definitely. The killer thing the mitochondrial DNA test results helps with is finding distant cousins and networking. If you get lucky you can connect with people who have spent their whole lives researching your family name. Doesn’t always work out that way of course. :-)