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Some questions about the testing, as well as some drawbacks of the project...
First, please understand that this is not meant as an insult or criticism of anyone heading up the project. It's merely being objective about one's personal information and allowing individuals who are total strangers and not professionals in this field access to personal information. And it's being objective about why individuals have chosen not to participate or to suggest that members of the National Allison Allanson) Family participate, including the Hancock County WV branches of the family as well as our family in all parts of the nation.
Is it also possible that individuals concerned with their privacy use the same testing facility, but without getting involved in a project that shares data with lay personal who are total strangers operating this project? In other words, if the intention here is only to connect people who are related, is there any reason why those individuals have to be connected through you instead of being connected direct to one another by the testing facility? Wouldn't the testing company do that for all it's customers? And in doing that, wouldn't they connect any of your project participants who are their customers with our family members? That would achieve the same goal.
Several of us in the ALLANSON/ALLISON family have already discussed possible participation in this project and everyone who discussed it had strong objections to participating. I even discussed with several members of our board of directors of the National Allison (Allanson) Family Association and they were opposed to the project. I don't know of single member of our family who wanted to participate in the project, even though several were curious about testing independently and even said that was a possibility that seems to afford privacy and confidentiality not offered in your project. I personally chose not to participate under the project being offered, nor to personally suggest that anyone in the National Allison (Allanson) Family Association participate.
To get around those privacy objections, would it not be possible for the testing company to directly connect individuals who connect without having a group of other genealogists, such as the group doing this project, having access to testing results and other personal information? In other words, could one of our family members be tested independently, with no involvement from your group as middlemen, and then connected DIRECT with anyone who matched? I think that approach would be more acceptable to many in our family who have qualms about the project's approach.
Of course that might defeat your own purpose of acquiring the data on all of us, but it could also get over the hurdle of those of us who see no need to have a group of total strangers involved in rather personal affairs. And that is a concern to me personally. It's the reason why I chose not to participate.
Several family members expressed strong concerns about allowing other genealogists who are total strangers and with no professional experience in the medical field with established ethics for handling patient information, no licensing or professional ethics rules requiring confidentiality as with a medical practice, handling what many feel to be personal information.
I would consider participation myself, but under different circumstances without involvement of "middlemen". Perhaps this could all be accomplished, the mysteries solved, but without involvement of others in the middle of it all.
In fact, I think I would participate, but only if I am connected DIRECT to my own family members, without any third parties involved in the connection. If we took that approach, then more members of our particular Allison might consider participation.
Michael Allison, President
National Allison (Allanson) Family Association
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