The difference between FTDNA and Ancestry is mostly nomenclature. Take the marker that the geneticists call 464. It's a multicopy maker. Most men have 4 copies of it. The geneticists call it 464a, 464b, 464c, and 464d. Since there's 4 copies of it, it gets counted 4 times. Some men have an extra rare copy or two of that maker. (The geneticists call it 464e and 464f). If FTDNA finds it, they report it to the testee. Because it's rare, they don't label it in their count. Ancestry counts it and reports it back as a 0 or null.
>From Max Blankfeld, Vice President, Family Tree DNA: A "37-marker test could also be called a “41-marker test” as we do test and report markers 464e, 464f, 464g, and DYS19b. Though we test them, it is very rare that individuals have results for these markers. Therefore, by our conservative counting method, our competitor's “33-marker test” is actually a “29-marker test.” We mention this to make sure that you understand the difference between these tests and are able to compare “apples to apples.” Different companies will test a couple of different markers than the competition. Family Tree DNA is the oldest and largest DNA testing company. Its sole focus is DNA only. They have things set up in projects (I think Ancestry may have that feature finally) and FTDNA makes it easy for admins to manage the projects. FTDNA has live help in Texas too. The Azores Project, housed at FTDNA, has 178 members with 164 kits returned. Portugal has 183 members, but I don't know how many kits returned. Madeira has 59 members and Cape Verde has 47. If you are in the Azores (or Madeira or Cape Verde) you can also join the Portugal project, if you like. You can have your DNA compared against only those members in the project or against the entire FTDNA database (249,503 members). You can have your DNA uploaded to a public database (YSearch.org or MitoSearch.org) to compare against other companies (Ancestry.com, Oxford Ancestors, etc). A comparison chart of the various companies for Y-DNA can be found here: http://www.isogg.org/ydnachart.htm A comparison chart of the various companies for mitochondrial (mt) DNA can be found here: http://www.isogg.org/mtdnachart.htm Cheri Mello Family Tree DNA Adminstrator Azores DNA --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
