Robin, Royalty makes no difference with DNA. Most of what we call vital records (birth/baptism, marriage, death) began in the Middle Ages. So potentially, researchers might be able to reach the Middle Ages in their genealogy research. Reality though is fire, floods, pirates, worms, Mother Nature, etc., damaged the books or destroyed them for many people on many branches. So most researchers only get a few lines back to the Middle Ages. Some royal lineage goes back further than the Middle Ages. So if a researcher is real lucky and hits a royal line, there's potential to go beyond the Middle Ages. I didn't mean to confuse the Middle Age stuff with DNA. (and I don't know what they call the Middle Ages now in school. Ice Age is now called the Last Glacial Maximum and A.D. (for Anno Domini) is now called C.E. (for Common Era)).
Depending on who you are testing and which test you are choosing, it is best to go go with the oldest person, generally. Your Mom: 1) mtDNA will test her strict maternal line (her mother's mother's mother's mother) - all women, all the way back. The bottom of her pedigree chart. The results are generally anthropological in nature. Is this the line you are after? If so, then you might want to test her mtDNA. If not, you can do Family Finder with your mom. 2) Family Finder: This tests all of her lines within about 5 generations of her (possibly 6 or 7 if there's intermarriage in there). She needs to have a pretty good pedigree with not too many unknown maiden names though. Your Brother: 1) Y-DNA will test his strict paternal line (his (and your) father's father's father's father) - all men, all the way back. The top of his pedigree chart. If his surname is Borba, you are getting your Borba line. 2) mtDNA: This will be his mother's mother's line. It is the same as your mom testing her mtDNA. 3) Family Finder: This is withing 5 generations of him (or 6 or 7 with intermarriage). So the matches would be a little weaker with him on his mom's side. But he's all you've got for the Portuguese side, unless you forgot to mention an uncle Borba. Yourself: 1) mtDNA: Same as your brother or mom testing. 2) Family Finder: Almost the same as your brother testing. Roughly you and your brother should have 50% genetic material from each parent. That's the statistics talking. However, reality may be that one of you is 51% dad and 49% mom or vice versa. Siblings will have slight differences on this test. Your son: 1) Y-DNA will test his strict paternal line (his father's father's father). Whoever the father of your baby was (don't know if your married to him or not), it'll test that line. So if you are interested in the top of that pedigree, you'd test him. However, if your son's father (or grandfather) are still alive, you want the oldest person to minimize the mutations. 2) mtDNA: Same as your brother or mother testing. 3) Family Finder: He will only show about 25% of your mom's genes if he's the testee. If your goal is you mom's side of the family, don't use him for this test. However, if he's the only available for his dad's side of the family and that is what your interest is, use him. But if his father or grandfather or uncle is available, use one of them because that have more genetic material available. You choice of who will be the testee will probably be guided by which line you want to explore. FTDNA runs a sale in June and one in December. Or they have in the past. No guarantees for 2011. I have both my parents alive. I did my dad's Y-DNA maybe 5 years ago. I'm still playing wait and see on that. I just did his Family Finder in December because it was on sale. I haven't bothered with his mtDNA yet. Well, not with FTDNA. That's another story. I did my mom's mtDNA in the fall. They had some mini-sale I think. Then they put Family Finder on Sale in December. So I did her Family Finder then too. Based on how my parents (divorced) care for themselves, my mother will die long before my father. I wasn't going to test my mom, but after the last mishap, I just decided to do it. Cheri Mello Azores Genealogy FTDNA Administrator -- 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."
