Doreen CJ, Yes, FTDNA says that the Family Finder goes back 5 generations. But it's more like 200 years back from the birth of the testee.
Having the same people in your DNA make up will mess up the prediction. Shirley Allegre and I are cousins 12? different ways - something like that. Because we kept getting the same DNA over and over again, she was predicted as a closer cousin than she really was (I marked her as a 4th cousin because that's the closest). I did get a DNA match the other day from a 1696 ancestor (I'm born 1964). My DNA should go back to about the 1760s. The reason I got that match was that there was an American cousin marriage and my dad passed down most of that particular DNA intact. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by isolating the genes. Eventually, you'll be able to phase data if you have tested a person and their parents (or do partial phasing if you tested the person and 1 parent). If you meant by isolating the LINES, then you'd have to pick a cousin that does NOT come from ANY of the intermarried lines. You'd have to have that cousin's pedigree back about 200 years on ALL lines to make sure that cousin DOESN'T come from any of those intermarriages. If your goal is to balance out cousins on your dad's side versus your mom's side, you could do that. If you want to see how, say, a 4th cousin on paper plays out in the DNA world, then test that cousin. I don't know how much that helps. If it gives you any idea on clarifying your goal, then I guess I did help! Cheri Mello Family Tree DNA Admin (volunteer) Azores DNA -- 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.
