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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: deledge on Tuesday 18 July 17 15:08 BST (UK)
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Hi All,
Any views on which company (of the many that are out there) do people feel is most worthwhile to use.
I have read most of the spiel and my current view is 23andme anyone add their two pence please.
Planning to pay for both parents to be tested (not against their will).
Del
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Hi,
I, and various members of my family including, my parents have tested with 23andme, FTDNA and Ancestry. Of all of them I find FTDNA the most useful because the matches are more responsive and less likely to be anonymous. Many of my Dad's 23andme top matches seem only to have tested because of the health reports - which is so frustrating!
Potentially Ancestry should get better but a lot of people still have no tree attached to their result and there are not so many British people there - but that's true everywhere still.
Finally, it depends on the type of test because FTDNA is the only company that will do Y-DNA tests and I was very keen to get both my Dad, and Mum's brother, tested to give me both Y haplogroups.
I'm sure others will have different opinions though. The most important thing is to decide before taking a DNA test whether you are prepared for whatever the outcome might be - I thought my family were the most straightforward imaginable - how wrong was I - part of my tree had to be culled and the surprises keep coming!
Liz 8)
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If your parents are elderly then the method of obtaining the DNA might be a factor. My elderly mother could not have coped with producing a third of a test tube of saliva as in the Ancestry test but was happy to provide a cheek swab as in FTdna.
Don't know what method 23andme uses.
Pheno
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Don't know what method 23andme uses.
It's a saliva sample.
Liz
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Hi All,
Any views on which company (of the many that are out there) do people feel is most worthwhile to use.
I have read most of the spiel and my current view is 23andme anyone add their two pence please.
Planning to pay for both parents to be tested (not against their will).
Del
Which company is best will depend on what your objectives are. As you have not said what your objectives are you are asking people to basically guess.
What would be best is to look at a comparison chart such as
https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart
hope that helps
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There is first a big fork in the road that you appear to already taken: atDNA vs. YDNA testing. If you are looking for all of your lines and you are willing to accept that the test will not catch all of your ancestors prior to 1800, atDNA is the way to go. If you do not have a very robust pedigree chart, just starting out with adding relatives or have a recent NPE event (post 1800), atDNA tests from FTDNA, Ancestry.com or 23andme are your primary choices. Two tests are better than one - but many people are much more proactive and test many cousins and uncles/aunts as well. So, it is not as inexpensive if you are proactive and plan on testing many relatives.
If you want to concentrate primarily on only two or three lines and want to brick through brick wall prior to 1800, YDNA testing is your choice for this type of project (start with a 67 marker test from FTDNA). You can take both paths in parallel as well - both atDNA and YDNA. I do not recommend mtDNA as this DNA is only 16,000 base pairs (vs. 18 million base pairs now readable via YDNA) and has very minimal genealogical application.
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I have been considering DNA test for some time
Though I am of a scientific bent, I do not claim to understand that much, though I do understand the concepts of autosomal, mtDNA and yDNA.
I am stuck on my paternal line in about 1730, I would hope to link up to other Douglases - not expecting too much. yDNA I presume
The rest is really fishing.
To me it seems that FTDNA offer a good range of tests.
I was also consuering mtDNA as well as autosomal. From what was said above, this may not help. I had though it migh help along the female line
Any thoughts?
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If the time frame is 1730s, YDNA is your best bet. atDNA only works very well on more recent connections between 1800 and 1850. As you go prior to 1800, most of your ancestors randomly can no longer be detected unless you start testing all of your lines via uncles/aunts, cousins, etc.
mtDNA has very little genealogical application. This is due to the size of this particular piece of DNA which is not part of the nucleus and is only 16,000 base pairs long. Since it is so small, this is really only an ancient history test to develop how womankind settled the earth. Currently, YDNA is now being used for 18,000,000 base pairs (getting pretty close to the maximum that will be readable). Eventually, YSTRs (500) and YSNPs will allow us assign several mutations to each male on our pedigree chart. Unfortunately, it will require testing costs to come way down (the best YCHR discovery test is still $2,950 which cover almost twice as much as the Big Y test) and it will require the number of testers to increase by at least ten fold (we currently have only a 30 % growth per year). Eventually, YDNA will probably replace atDNA testing in the next 10 to 20 years. atDNA will still remain a good tool to get started with though.
For YDNA, you need to always start out with 67 markers from FTDNA - 111 markers is not really needed unless you get lucky and have a very large surname cluster (500 markers from Whole Genomes Sequencing tests will start being used in the next year or so). The next step would be order any appropriate YSNP pack (some of these are getting down the 1,500 year time frame down to even 100 to 200 years in a very few cases where extensive testing is being done).
However, an alternative to SNP pack testing is testing private YSNPs at YSEQ if you have a close match with a NGS/WGS tester (Big Y, etc.). Of course NGS testing and recently WGS testing is your only option to reveal YSNPs that become tomorrow's branches of mankind. Prices are still pretty steep from $450 on sale, low resolution at $575, medium resolution from Full Genomes Corporation $775 (30 % more content for 30 % more cost) or high resolution with the long read FGC test (100 % more content but at a steep 500 % more cost - prices will fall though). Also, YSEQ now offers WGS tests as well. Over the next year or two, all NGS testing will be replaced by WGS testing since WGS will come down much faster (prices are almost the same now). You will get a free full mtDNA test included in the WGS (to me, not that useful).
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Thanks
I understand the basic idea but some of the newer test are over my head at present
I am likely to go ahead with yDNA, there are some people out there looking at my surname.
I might also get autosomal done, it might reveal something. I supppose I could go with Ancestry for the latter, though I have an inclination to use FTDNA.
Don't know what I am waiting for - perhaps to try to understan it a bit better
I have read up a bit but have already forgotten what SNPs are!
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To get up to speed, I suggest that you go to YouTube and search for "Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2016". The skill level required to absorb these presentations varies a lot, but these are the best presentations to get up to speed. You many have to watch them several times as your understanding increases, but these are best of breed presentations. For those who are Dal Cais (reside in Munster, Ireland), there are three presentations based on R-L226 (the largest haplogroup where 80 % reside in Munster, Ireland). The presentations by Dennis O'Brien, Dennis Wright and myself have a lot of information on southern Irish research (we are the three FTDNA admins for R-L226).
YouTube has a lot of presentations - but I only go with presentations at major conferences.
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stonechat
If you intend to do a Y test eventually then it would seem best to do the aut with ftDNA as once they have your sample (2 swabs) they can be used for several further tests as needed
If you use AncestryDNA you can transfer the Raw Data to ftDNA but not the sample.
Kim
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Well I will definitely get yDNA and maybe atDNA
Both parents are now deceased, Dad in 2012, and Mum last year
Will try and find enough time to do a bit of studying first
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Is it correct that FTDNA have a Y-DNA sale in August? Exchange rate is a bit high at the moment and hoping the sale takes the edge off
Am looking to do a Y67 test
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The postings re ftDNA Y sale on the forums, seem to think the next discounts will be "in the fall" - pre Christmas-last year it was mid Nov until end Dec but no one really knows !!
Kim
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Robert, for the uninitiated, are you suggesting that Y37 is a waste of time and everyone should start at Y67?
Could you please explain a bit more because I thought people had pretty good results from Y37, now I'm confused.
Thanks
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12 and 25 marker tests are definitely a waste of funds since the false hit rates are just too high. There are exceptions - if you just want a yes/no/maybe answer, 25 markers is probably enough. 37 marker tests are still reasonable tests but still have around twice the false hit rate of 67 markers. However, the biggest issue is that 67 markers is really required for YSNP prediction and charting of haplotrees. Due to these two issues and the decreased false hit rate, 67 markers has become the gold standard in most analysis. 37 markers still remain viable test - but at this resolution, most serious analysis will not using these testers. 67 markers has become the standard for YSTR analysis.
111 markers is also oversold for its cost effectiveness. It does reduce the false hits some but unless you have a very large genetic cluster, 111 markers is just not as useful as other YSNP testing options. Also, the number of 67 marker tests far exceed 111 marker tests and sample size plays a major role in accuracy - more than a smaller sample size with more marker values. Also, within the next year or so, the read length of WGS tests will be long enough to read all 111 markers that FTDNA tests which will eliminate the need to test YSTRs at FTDNA. Once this resolution of testing becomes available, around 500 YSTRs will become available for analysis after a year or two and will create a new standard of resolution.
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Thanks Robert, very interesting.
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I agree. Very informative. Based on that post next question that comes to mind is: should I wait to carry the test
Out if standards are going to improve so markedly over that time frame?
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Just like dropping prices for PCs, genetic testing costs will constantly come down if their is marketing pressure to warrant price reductions. YSTR prices are not coming down any time soon and neither are YSNP packs or ordering individual YSNPs. However, NGS/WGS testing will continually fall.
Also, if you really want to get a little extra off these tests, there are two ways: 1) if you are testing YSTRs at FTDNA for the first time, join a FTDNA project just prior to ordering and you will get five or ten percent off; 2) you can wait for the regular sale events - next one will start in late November and end in late December. Big Y goes from $575 to $475 or even $450 (it varies for each sale). This year, YSTR upgrades went on sale for the first time. YSNP packs have never been on sale except when they are first released (first two to four weeks only).
You can be proactive or wait for others to test and then order when prices drop. I was the first under R-L226 to order the NGS test at $1,350 - now costs $775 and covers 20 % more. However, I now have eight branches of mankind from my first test and will definitely get a couple more genealogical branches over the next year or so.