Lorna, I have tested myself, my mother, my first cousin (her niece), and two second half cousins on my father's side.  I intend to buy FF  for a paternal first cousin on Black Friday--I assume the offer will be somewhat better than the Thanksgiving sale offer, perhaps the same price plus reduced shipping to compete with the MH offer with no shipping.   Although I won't be able to upload the new kit to MH,  four of them are already at MH and GEDMATCH. I haven't tried Ancestry because I don't subscribe.   I have access to Ancestry at a library five minutes from my house and access to Virginia records at the Library of Virginia.  Many of these records will never be available at Ancestry.   I am trying to decide before Black Friday whether purchasing Ancestry tests for myself and my mother would help me identify new ancestors.  I'm doubtful that it would because these ancestors lived in burned counties.  If the records had survived, I wouldn't need a single DNA test, but the fact that they didn't means that individuals who match me on these lines are unlikely to have much information to share.  In fact, many people don't try to research ancestors in burned counties: they don't know how much can be accomplished by gathering scraps of information from tax lists and the few records which chanced to survive.  All of those little, seemingly trivial pieces have a way of coming together to answer some big, important questions.  There are limits, however, hence my interest in DNA. Lindsey Most of my ancestors arrived in Virginia in the 17th century; only one arrived in the early 19th century.  He was born in Oxfordshire and I have traced many of his ancestors (all from Oxfordshire) to the 16th and 17th centuries.     -----Original Message----- From: LornaMoa <lornamoa@gmail.com> To: genealogy-dna <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> Cc: Lindsey Britton <lplantagenet@aol.com> Sent: Tue, Nov 20, 2018 7:10 am Subject: Re: [DNA] Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results Lindsey, I'm mining ALL of the match lists on all of the companies for hints for my current brickwall focus of my 2 greats grandmother and her father-in-law my 3greats. By now I have an extended family that we DO fit into somewhere for the 3greats, so I'm also mining all the trees I can find to see where I might find other tested descendants who have data to contribute to narrow this down. It doesn't change where I'd test from last time we discussed recommendations as long as data is on all of them to go fishing. For the price of two tests, FTDNA or MyHeritage, transferred to the other and to GEDMatch plus a test at Ancestry you have covered most bases. As to why retest FTDNA rather than transfer from Ancestry if you started with the latter? I believe that the matches that FTDNA doesn't report from the transfer in to FTDNA from Ancestry actually matter, particularly when exploring such things as your subject. The shared matches there are more complete from tests than from Ancestry transfers. I also rarely bother with 23andme although I have tested there along with a representative from each "side" of my family just to have toe in the water. I get too annoyed by the complicated sharing system, and complete lack of trees as so few people realise you can link to one in your profile Lorna Henderson http://LornaHen.com On 20/11/18 14:47, Lindsey Britton via GENEALOGY-DNA wrote: >     -----Original Message----- > From: Lindsey Britton <lplantagenet@aol.com> > To: genealogy-dna <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sun, Nov 18, 2018 7:25 pm > Subject: Where to get best autosomal results > > If you have used autosomal DNA to identify a 3rd great grandparent or a more distant ancestor, which testing company do you recommend?    Lindsey > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community