Jeremy R, I'm not sure if you have to be a member of Ancestry to take their DNA test. But the price was good. FTDNA has been able to negotiate a price with the DNA chip manufacturer to meet the $99 price on the autosomal DNA test (FTDNA calls it their Family Finder test).
I'm not sure it's easy to confirm the matches with any company - and that would depend on your definition of easy. I find some are easier than others. And some are sort of falling into place. I think of it like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The 1000 pieces (all the DNA matches) are initially overwhelming. But I gotta start somewhere. For me, I like starting with the edges (in DNA it would be a very recognizable name with lots and lots of documentation). Let's say I am putting together a mountain scene with a bunch of trees and as I do the edges, I notice that one tree has a flock of blue jays in them. I would start looking for the tree pieces with the blue in them so I could attack those trees first. With the DNA, I noticed a couple of matches who seem to have my ancestors, Antonio and Constancia, in them. Initially, I need the paper trail to connect them. Now I can tell when my dad has a match with someone who has Antonio and Constancia. But without the numbers of people testing, I couldn't have made the match. Ancestry has the ethnicity estimate. FTDNA has the Population Finder. Ancestry just rolled out their new ethnicity estimate a week or so ago. FTDNA told us last year that the revised Population Finder was coming. I'm know it's pretty close to being unveiled. People who have previously tested with FTDNA will get the new results with the new break down of ethnicities with no additional testing. You can't triangulate your ethnicity matches with your cousin matches. It's a different thing that is going on. Your ethnicity or Population Finder information is your unique genetic make up based on population studies and comparing that strand of DNA to know populations who have that ethnicity in them. Your cousin or relative matches are what's in common between you and another individual. There's no comparing your cousins to the ethnic make up and finding what's in common between you two. I'm pretty sure FTDNA isn't going to come up with some type of component when the unveil their new Population Finder. As for the promotion of FTDNA, it's because that's the company that was chosen at the time (2005) to house our DNA project. I was not the one who founded the Azores DNA project. It was Katherine Borges. She recruited me as an admin and I in turn recruited Rick Pimentel and Nancy Jean Baptiste. In 2005, I think the only DNA testing companies were FTDNA, Relative Genetics (now defunct), and Sorensen (now defunct). I believe Oxford Ancestors existed, but they were based in London. Some of the reasons why Katherine chose FTDNA was because they were the first and largest DNA testing company. There were solely interested in DNA and DNA for genealogy only. They were allied themselves along with the geneticists for standards in DNA and follow the protocol of NIST. They had projects. And they recruited admins (we are all volunteer - none of us work or earn money from FTDNA). And they give us education in the form of a yearly conference. So if we don't live in the Houston area, we pay to fly there, we pay to stay in a hotel, and we pay the conference fee. To learn about DNA for this hobby of genealogy. As for what you get when you test with FTDNA, I can call you if you send me a private email with your phone number and time zone. I'll log you into my dad's page so you can see an actually DNA participant. FTDNA does have a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section with some screen shots of what you get. http://goo.gl/NJgwPo You should test your great-aunt. If you test her on Ancestry, you can transfer her results over to FTDNA for $69. You could also transfer your results over for $69. However, your physical DNA sample will still be at Ancestry or whatever Ancestry does with it. FTDNA stores your DNA sample for a minimum of 25 years. So in 20 years, if something new was going in DNA, you could have your aunt's sample pulled and they could run a new DNA test off her vials even though she may have passed away by then. But this is only if you physically test with FTDNA. The information is here (scroll down to the bottom where it says Third Party Transfers and click the link for Autosomal DNA or atDNA): http://goo.gl/3UudIJ Let me know if you have further questions! Cheri Mello FTDNA 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.
