Dear List Membership, Recently, Mary Hall queried this forum about yDNA testing. I am reading the digests all at one late date here and the thread has moved on. However, I would like to do a follow up about Greg's message in a roundabout way without making any judgement. In one of the FTDNA yDNA projects that I admin and happening on the new My Groups part of the project, posts were made by some group members advising people to test at ySEQ. One lady took the advice of the forum writers and tested yDNA at ySEQ. Some time later she writes that she cannot join FTDNA yDNA groups. After checking all this out we found that the lady paid almost $200.00 to ySEQ for yDNA testing with the expectations of being able to join the FTDNA yDNA groups. Well, needless to say for all those who are well versed in how this process all works, the lady was not able to join yDNA groups at FTDNA. Period. End of story as far as I know. Linda McKee

Thank you for sharing your experience on this subject Linda. In spite of it's being no more perfect than any business entity in the world, FTDNA is the only choice - certainly the only wise choice - for Y-DNA (STR) testing. Loretta -----Original Message----- From: genealogy-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:genealogy-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of McKee via Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2015 4:21 PM To: genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com Subject: [DNA] Where to yDNA Test Dear List Membership, Recently, Mary Hall queried this forum about yDNA testing. I am reading the digests all at one late date here and the thread has moved on. However, I would like to do a follow up about Greg's message in a roundabout way without making any judgement. In one of the FTDNA yDNA projects that I admin and happening on the new My Groups part of the project, posts were made by some group members advising people to test at ySEQ. One lady took the advice of the forum writers and tested yDNA at ySEQ. Some time later she writes that she cannot join FTDNA yDNA groups. After checking all this out we found that the lady paid almost $200.00 to ySEQ for yDNA testing with the expectations of being able to join the FTDNA yDNA groups. Well, needless to say for all those who are well versed in how this process all works, the lady was not able to join yDNA groups at FTDNA. Period. End of story as far as I know. Linda McKee ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Linda, What you note about not being able to join FTDNA groups/ projects is technically correct if you have not tested at FTDNA..... mostly. In the past sometimes for a fee some transfer of information Y-DNA information to FTDNA from specific other test companies was allowed, which enabled joining projects at FTDNA. But that probably does not include YSeq currently. However I administer 3 projects through FTDNA, and those projects exist concurrently in two different formats. All have separate private web sites run by me, but also use FTDNA web pages and tools to varying degrees. Many other FTDNA projects likewise have concurrent separate existences as provided by the project managers. The management and energy of the projects comes largely from the project manager, and learning about your surname often comes down to the energy of the project manager of that surname project. In all of my projects, my private web sites include results from as many as perhaps 6 or 8 different DNA test companies which have existed or still exist. The FTDNA web sites have not always admitted information from different test companies, so some of my project results tables have perhaps up to twice the number of results which are on the "official" FTDNA project. So I would say that for my projects, and many other projects, learning about your surname Y-DNA is more related to what the project manager is doing than what the raw FTDNA shell of the FTDNA project is doing. But having said that, FTDNA tools provided to project manages, and customers generally are very useful and I rely on them a lot. YSearch allows all comers from all companies, and in some ways offsets the problem of not being able to directly join FTDNA projects. I tend to use different test companies for different things where they each have their market advantages. YSeq has advantages for some types of testing, and indeed are the only practical choice for many tests. Personally I wish all my project participants had DNA samples at both FTDNA and YSeq, so that I could fully use the best of both companies. Now that FTDNA have stopped testing individual STR markers, including ones they have tested in the past, but currently now do not offer even in 111 marker tests, YSeq is the only option. Not being able to officially join a FTDNA project can be a disadvantage, depending on surname, and who is actively managing that surname. But not being able to join a narrow scoped FTDNA project is not necessarily the end of the world. You can often learn about your surname Y-DNA without formal membership of the "FTDNA" project. Anyone tested at another company can at least contact the manager of actively run FTDNA projects, and a manager can often find work arounds to help people who contact him. John. Sent from my iPad > On 6/12/2015, at 10:21 am, McKee via <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Dear List Membership, > > > Recently, Mary Hall queried this forum about yDNA testing. > > I am reading the digests all at one late date here and the thread has moved > on. > > > However, I would like to do a follow up about Greg's message in a > roundabout way without making any judgement. > > In one of the FTDNA yDNA projects that I admin and happening on the new My > Groups part of the project, posts were made by some group members > advising people to test > at ySEQ. > > One lady took the advice of the forum writers and tested yDNA at ySEQ. > > > Some time later she writes that she cannot join FTDNA yDNA groups. > > > After checking all this out we found that the lady paid almost $200.00 to > ySEQ for yDNA testing with the expectations of being able to join the FTDNA > yDNA groups. > > Well, needless to say for all those who are well versed in how this process > all works, the lady was not able to join yDNA groups at FTDNA. Period. > End of story as far as I know. > > > Linda McKee > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Recruiting others to test, project and results sharing systems is critical. This is the essence of genetic genealogy as comparisons between people and sharing of results are needed. If possible, it is good in Y DNA testing to recruit get your most distant male cousin to test so you can estimate the DNA information for the family's most distant known ancestor (MDKA). However, it is hard to recruit people on the other side of your genealogical brickwalls and you may not want to pay for someone's tests you may not be related too. Ideally, you want people who are inclined towards DNA testing to find you or for you to find them through a matching database. The importance of a consistent set of test results available in a large matching database can not be understated. This is FTDNA's most dominant advantage for Y DNA, the largest accessible database. There hundreds of thousands of Y DNA records already available in FTDNA's database. These are records of real people, not just anonymous results. For more details, please read this web page. https://www.familytreedna.com/why-ftdna.aspx Cost is a factor, but when you get your Y STRs tested with FTDNA you are also getting a ticket into that large database and project management system with all of those surname projects. FTDNA allows you to join projects without cost and there is no annual subscription fee for support in their database and matching systems as well. Genetic test results data without the accompanying web based project and matching systems is not as useful and may not live on for prosperity. When you order STR and SNP tests from FTDNA your data is supported by a growing company with a 15 year, self-sustaining operation. You don't have to send your DNA sample to multiple labs. You and your recruits' samples all go to Houston's lab and are stored there subject to published privacy policies. This is particularly important if you think you only have one shot to get a DNA sample from a recruit. The central lab and DNA storage support is complemented by a full product line. Besides Y DNA testing up to 111 STRs, there is Y SNP testing and even Y Next Generation SNP discovery testing (Big Y) along with an array of autosomal and mitochondrial DNA tests. You have "one stop shopping" for your DNA sample. I'm not known for political correctness and we do not want to scare you off newbies but it is important that we acknowledge - It is very, very likely that 37 Y STRs is not enough. I recommend you starting with a minimum of 67 STRs. Most of the male large haplogroup branches of Europe started their great expansions during the Bronze Age. That means that it is very hard to discern who fits where at 37 STRs. 67 may not even be enough. Probably many of the people posting here, even those who prefer niche vendors, have 67 and even 111 STRs tested with FTDNA. Regards, Mike W