Vicki, I'd start with Y-DNA then do Family Finder. His vials are stored for 25 years. So order a test, any test. The Sizzling Summer Sale should be soon. Last year, it was the week after the 4th of July.
The Y-DNA would be your Madeiros/Medeiros line (top of your pedigree chart). Just that one line only. A 37 or 67 marker test will yield more genealogical type results once matches are made. The mtDNA would be your dad's mother's mother's mother's line. Bottom of his pedigree chart. Just that one line only. The results are more anthropological in nature. The Family Finder would be your dad's entire pedigree going back about 200 years from your dad's birth. So if your dad was born 1925, you could find matches with others where your common ancestor is born the 1720s or more recent (FTDNA says it's only 5 generations, but that's more for people who aren't trapped on islands where we all married cousins!) Because of your dad's age, here's what I'd do and why. NOT mtDNA right now. mtDNA is very hardy and most people have an abundance of it. So if you wait 25 years to do your dad's mtDNA, they'll still probably be able to extract it. Y-DNA: Here's my story. I did 37 markers on my dad. No problem. A few years later, they had an upgrade sale so I decided to go out to 67 on him. When they pulled his vial, there were very few Y chromosomes in his vial. The ones that were left were broken off at markers 38-67. They couldn't get markers 38-67. So they sent me more vials and I had my dad rescrape. No problem, he had LOTS of Ys in that sample and they had no problem. But if I waited 25 years, my dad would be 96 by then. Not sure if he'll be around then. So you don't know what you get when you are scraping. FamilyFinder: There is 1 list member whose dad has passed on and they had problems getting the autosomal DNA. They sent her another kit, not knowing her dad had passed. But I think they tried again and got it. I need to follow up with her, but this was finals week here and I've been going crazy with everything here in real life. What percent of the time do they encounter problems? I think they say something like 2-3%. I'd have to look up the statistic. Not much, unless it's your DNA. Cheri Mello Family Tree DNA Admin (volunteer) Azores DNA Project -- For 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." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
