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Woman Contacts NBC 6 Responds After DNA Test Results Delay

Old photographs from decades ago adorn Carol Ruocco's living room. They're a reminder of a past she wanted to learn more about.

"I'm a curious person," she told NBC 6. It was that curiosity that led the 77-year-old to order a kit from AncestryDNA.

"I was hoping to get something," she said. "I didn't know what I didn't know."

Carol paid $78.95 for the test in August 2017.

"I did get the kit," she said. "Sent away the kit after filling out all the paperwork."

But Carol said she didn't get the results. Months later, when she came across an old bank statement showing her purchase, it got her wondering what happened. So she said she called Ancestry and spoke to a representative.

"She just said I'm going to send you another kit and I said that's fine," she said. "Followed the instructions, registered and again, heard nothing."

In 2019, Carol reached out to NBC 6 Responds hoping our team could help her track down her results.

"Whatever information I paid for, I'd like to have," she said.

AncestryDNA confirmed Carol's results had been processed and told us they sent her an email August 9th of last year, "…letting her know her results were ready to view."

Carol said she didn't remember receiving that email but added it was possible she may have missed it due to health issues she was dealing with at the time. Still, she called the number NBC 6 shared with her and said an AncestryDNA customer service representative walked her through accessing her account, allowing her to see the results she had been waiting for.

The results, she said, were not necessarily surprising. She said they found she was 99% European Jewish and had less than one percent from Northern Africa in her ancestry profile.

AncestryDNA said results are not sent through email – they only send a notification letting customers know the results are available to view in their account. They also said it typically takes 6 to 8 weeks to receive results from the time a customer puts their saliva sample in the mail.

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