GeneticVoyage.com

[Donna Cain]

Good Evening All,

I recently received an email from Peter Salenius form Genetic Voyage.com asking

if we would like to add the company to our state and county pages.  After our webmaster

Leon Moya looked over the email, we decided to see what all the other states think.  It looks

to be a free site and it does have a lot of tools for the amateur genealogist.

Your insight would be appreciated.

https://geneticvoyage.com/resources/free-genealogy-kit/

https://geneticvoyage.com/

Sincerely,

Donna Cain-Ruiz

New Mexico State Coordinator

[Dale H. Cook]

On 9/23/2026 1:58 AM, Donna Cain wrote:

> I recently received an email from Peter Salenius form Genetic Voyage.com
> asking
> if we would like to add the company to our state and county pages.

On my pages I do not use any links connected to companies unless the are
the commercial owners of a cemetery. I stick to nonprofit and government
sites.
--
Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS, AGS, MA Soc. of Mayflower Descendants;
Massachusetts State Coordinator for the USGenWeb® Project;
Administrator of https://plymouthcolony.net

[Nancy_Janyszeski]

Good morning - I think it is a slippery slope.  In addition..;

• Affiliate Links: If you click affiliate links (e.g., to AncestryDNA or MyHeritage), we may track clicks to earn commissions, but we do not collect personal data from these actions.

I don't think it is a good idea.

~ Nancy    

Nancy Janyszeski

 ~  PAGenWeb/

 ~  Bucks County PAGenWeb
 ~  Montgomery County PAGenWeb 
 ~  

Bucks County History   

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[norma...@gmail.com]

I, too, received an email from Peter. His DNA site sounded good to me. I asked John Schulte, and he said asked AI. This is want it came up with: 

Yes — I looked into geneticvoyage.com, and your impression that it looks legitimate is reasonable. I did not find evidence in the searches I ran that it is a scam, malware site, or obviously unsafe website.
There are, however, a couple of things I'd keep in mind.
What looks good
- The site has substantial, organized genealogy content rather than looking like a throwaway landing page. It has an "About" section explaining who operates it and its stated methodology. geneticvoyage.com
- It has a fairly extensive collection of genealogy resources, including links to established organizations such as FamilySearch, national archives, Riksarkivet, etc. geneticvoyage.com
- The site explicitly discusses DNA privacy and says its interactive tools operate client-side in the browser, meaning the GEDCOM/DNA information used by those tools is not supposed to be uploaded to their server. geneticvoyage.com
- It openly discloses that it uses affiliate links. That's actually a positive transparency signal rather than something I'd consider suspicious. geneticvoyage.com
- The material is unusually careful in places about not treating DNA matches or online family trees as proof. For example, it repeatedly distinguishes genetic evidence from documentary evidence. geneticvoyage.com
- I didn't see the usual obvious red flags such as requests for cryptocurrency, suspicious downloads, fake antivirus warnings, or pressure to surrender credentials.
One thing I noticed
The site appears to be fairly new/actively developing. Some pages are dated 2025, while many of the DNA Academy pages were published only recently in 2026. geneticvoyage.com
That's not inherently bad. It just means I wouldn't yet put it in the same trust category as an established organization such as FamilySearch, NARA, ISOGG, Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc.
Also, "GDPR-compliant" and "your DNA is completely private" are claims made by Genetic Voyage itself; I wouldn't treat those statements as independently verified security certification.

In my opinion, it is an exciting new, free service for family history research using DNA results. I have already added it as a resource to some of my sites. 

[As recommended on SC&CC Guidelines, I use "Links to web sites that are not part of the USGenWeb Project are provided for your convenience and do not imply any endorsement of the web sites or their contents by The USGenWeb Project." at the bottom of all my Resource pages.]

Norma

[NancyJanyszeski]

I am not aware of anyone who makes money off of USGenWeb.  I don't think we should start now.

Good morning - I think it is a slippery slope.  In addition. 

From their site.;

• Affiliate Links: If you click affiliate links (e.g., to AncestryDNA or MyHeritage), we may track clicks to earn commissions, but we do not collect personal data from these actions.

I don't think it is a good idea.

Nancy 

Nancy  Janyszeski. 🎄 

PAGenWeb,  SC

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[Norma Hass]

Nancy, 

I strive to help people find free clues to help them with their family history projects. It isn't important to me if someone manages to make some money along the way. I think it is admirable of them to let us know what would otherwise have remained hidden. It tells me that Genetic Voyage is honorable, legitimate.

Norma

[Kris Meyer]

I agree 100%.  I say no.

Kris Meyer NWPL CC

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[Cheryl Rothwell]

My first inclination is to say no as I have to such things for the last 28 years with GenWeb.

But Norma's arguments make sense too. In this case, WITH THE DISCLAIMER, I think it might be a good resource. If it turns out to be a bad thing the link can always be removed. 

Cheryl Rothwell

ASC, ILGW

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[Mary Schwanke]

I too received an email from him, reviewed his website, checked ICANN for info about the website, along with a general search for info on Peter himself... I didn't find anything to suggest this website was anything other than legit.  Genetic Voyage is primarily a resource for DNA research, which the USGenWeb as a whole barely addresses.

I think this would be a good tool & resource for those who choose to discover their ancestry through DNA research.

As for the bit about "Affiliate Links":  Ancestry     MyHeritage     Affiliate Marketing

Just because a visitor clicks on one of the links doesn't mean they will get paid for it (but they may), usually requires the visitor to make a purchase, then the affiliate gets a flat rate or percentage commission.

I will be adding a link to his site from the state links page, as a resource for those researching via their DNA.

MaryAlice

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[shari....@gmail.com]

I did a little digging into Genetic Voyage, and my feeling is that it probably is a legitimate site, but I’m not quite ready to give it the USGenWeb seal of approval, either.

 

Peter Salenius does appear to be a real person with a genuine interest in genealogy. I found genealogy postings under his name going back several years, and some of the family research he discussed then lines up with information on the Genetic Voyage site. The site also does contain quite a few genuinely useful free tools and articles.

 

That said, it is not simply a free nonprofit genealogy resource. The site is privately operated and contains affiliate links to commercial genealogy and DNA companies, so the owner can receive commissions when people purchase through those links. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, and the site does disclose it, but I think that is important for us to know.

 

What made my antennae go up a little more is the outreach to USGenWeb. At least one other state has already added Genetic Voyage after being contacted by Peter, so it appears he may be approaching states individually and asking for links. Links from long-established USGenWeb state and county sites would be quite valuable to a newer website from an SEO/search-engine standpoint. Again, that does not mean there is anything dishonest going on, but I think we should recognize that this may be as much a backlink campaign as a request to share a genealogy resource.

 

I also found some things on the site that I would take with a grain of salt. It makes some very strong claims about being “scientifically accurate,” “mathematically precise,” providing “absolute privacy,” and meeting the “highest academic and genealogical standards.” At the same time, the About page does not actually identify the genealogist by name or list professional credentials, publications, certification, etc. Some of the DNA information is good, but a few statements are more absolute than I would expect from an experienced genetic genealogist. For example, it describes some DNA relationships and methods with a degree of certainty that the established resources themselves do not.

 

My biggest concern would be the tools that ask users to load GEDCOM or DNA-related files. The site says those files are processed only in the user’s browser and are never uploaded or stored. That is certainly technically possible, but I have not seen anything independently verifying that claim, so personally I would not upload raw DNA or a detailed GEDCOM there without being very comfortable with how the tool works.

 

So, my own vote would not be “this is a bad site — don’t link it.” I don’t see evidence of that. I just don’t think we have enough reason to encourage every state and county site to add it simply because the owner asked us to.

 

If a coordinator finds one of the tools useful and wants to include Genetic Voyage on a general genealogy/DNA resources page, that seems reasonable. I would just treat it as an outside, privately operated resource rather than as something USGenWeb is endorsing. I certainly wouldn’t feel any need for us to start adding it across hundreds of county sites.

 

In short: interesting site, some useful free tools, probably legitimate, but I’d keep our usual healthy genealogist’s skepticism switched on. :)

 

Shari Handley

MDGenWeb ASC

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[Linda Ziemann]

Shari, thank you for sharing your research/digging into Genetic Voyage  — And you expressed your insight, well explaining to all of us in good depth. I agree totally, Shari — I received at least two of the initial email that was sent to our list of Coordinators of the USGenWeb introducing this site. 

Don’t anyone misunderstand, though.  I am very impressed with the results I have seen over the years since I personally have taken my own DNA test.  Wow, it has been quite a revealing journey since my DNA results became known, because my mother was an adopted child. 

SO, I do encourage DNA testing for anyone interested in doing so, but I believe it is best not to give Genetic Voyage the USGenWeb seal of approval either. 

My Best to All,

Linda Ziemann

SC for both ND and SD

Also, CC for many NWPL states and counties.

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[NancyJanyszeski]

Shari, thank you for such a thorough review.   I was thinking this may be something that could be shared on our FB/social media pages

Nancy 

Nancy  Janyszeski. 🎄 

PAGenWeb,  SC

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