Hi Cynthia,
You need to define your objectives. Are you most interested in finding
relatives, in discovering something about specific ancestors, or learn
something about deep, ancestral origins?
Mitochondrial DNA will tell you something only about your mother-line,
just as you dad's Y-test told you something about your father-line. The
full mtDNA test through ftdna can show the uniqueness of your line over
the last five generations. Their $49 mtDNA test will match you to far too
many people to be that helpful.
The Family Finder samples your autosomes--those chromosome that are not
sex chromosomes (X and Y). Unlike the Y and mtDNA, it doesn't have a
specific pattern of inheritance. Instead, your autosomes are a mixed bag
of 50% of your mom's autosomes and 50% of your dad's autosomes. Your
siblings inherited a different combination. The test might find a match
between you and a third cousin but a sister's test might not have the same
match. In other words, it's a gamble. For example, you know that your
dad's Y came from his dad's, dad's dad's dad, etc. My Y came from John
Cooley. That's a given. No such prediction of descent exists for the
autosomes. I, for example, match to no Cooleys at both 23andMe and ftdna.
To understand why you match to another person, you have to know the
genealogy already.
FTDNA's Family Finder tests only autosomes. 23andMe tests autosomes, the X
and mtDNA (plus the Y for males). They also provide the results of tests
on medical markers. I have three times the number of matches at 23andMe
than I do at FTDNA. So, if you want a "starter" test at good prices, my
personal recommendation is to go with 23andMe. You can later transfer the
results to ftdna (for a price!). I don't think you can transfer the other
way. And (as many of you know), I personally *never* recommend
Ancestry.com for anything at all.
-Michael
> I'm going to buy myself a belated birthday gift! I want to do the MtDNA
> tes=
> ting or Family Finder=2C but I am not sure which to go with and through
> whi=
> ch company.
> Does anyone have opinions about the best company to work with? Hopefully
> wi=
> th he most "active" participants (i.e. people who actually upload their
> .ge=
> d files and such).
> My father's Y-DNA was done through FTDNA and I uploaded it to
> Ancestry.com=
> =2C so I am familiar with both of their systems. I haven't done anything
> wi=
> th 23andme.
> Any help is appreciated!
> Thanks :) =
>
> --
> <a href="http://newsummer.com/distlist">distlist 0.9</a>
> See http://ancestraldata.com/listarchive/johncooleylist/ for list
> information.
>
--
Second VP, the Cooley Family Association of America
Administrator, the Akins DNA Project
Administrator, the Ashenhurst DNA Project
Administrator, the Bishop DNA Project
Administrator, the Eldridge DNA Project
Administrator, the alt-McDowell DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the Cooley DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the McDougall DNA Project
Instructor "Genealogy and Family History," the Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute (OLLI)
B.A. Humboldt State University, History
Received on Fri Sep 13 2013 - 20:12:51 MDT