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Thursday, April 26, 2018

FTDNA

FTDNA (FamilyTreeDNA) is the lab I used to test my and my father's DNA.  The last tests we had done allow me to identify others with common ancestors and FTDNA gives you an indication of how you might be related.

I took me quite a while to figure out a few things about their services, much more to learn.  So now, when I look at my and my father's Family Finder matches, I sort them in 2 different ways to get a glimpse of what's what.

I sort them by relationship which puts all the closest related at the top.

I can also sort them by date putting the most recent matches at the top.  That way I see all the matches I haven't looked at yet at the top.  I usually only look at my matches about once a month.

This morning. I sorted by date and paged back to the beginning of March to see what new matches there might be.  A lot.

I guess people have their DNA tested for different reasons.  I had a couple of different reasons for testing my father and myself.  One thing I hoped to find was living relatives who might know something about my families that I don't.  So far that hasn't really happened.  It's still fun to find cousins.

You can fill in a family tree there.  I have not been doing family trees online much anymore because it's caused problems in the past, mostly with the companies that provide these services.  They are profiting from all this information and not compensating any of us providing the data.  Not everyone at FTDNA puts a family tree there.  I have a brief one going back to my great grandparents, both sides.

The relationship indicator gives a range of possible relationship.  I mostly look for the 2nd to 4th cousin range.  I also look at 3rd to 5th cousin range for people who have a family tree posted and look at their trees to see if I see any common surnames.

This morning I sent 26 emails to various people with accounts at FTDNA, mostly those who are indicated as 2nd to 4th cousins but a few who are indicated as 3rd to 5th cousins.

Usually we can't find the connection, which seems odd at the 2nd to 4th cousin range but that's mostly what happens.  Remember this is DNA, blood relationship; we're related somehow.

It's still fun even when we can't find the connection.



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