Something I wish I had known about FT DNA is that
if you do the Y test, your only matches will be others who did the Y test, which
may not be a lot of people. It took about 3 months for my cousin's Y67 results
to come back, and he has only 3 matches--very far off. In other words, you
won't be matched with anyone who did the Family Finder test. We ended up paying
for a Family Finder test on his sample---a month for any results and after 2
more weeks, the chromosome browser still doesn't work for his FF
results.

I'm on both Ancestry and FT DNA---both have
advantages and disadvantages.

Pat

Hmmmm. Well, that throws a monkey wrench in the machinery. I really need a son> father>grandfather>gr grandfather for one of my brick walls. Back to ancestryDNA, I guess, and move it to the GEDMatch site and the FT DNA site. I don't want to give ancestry any more money!! Their matches are a joke. I would like to know how they come up with their matches. And suck another bunch of money out of you to see them!

Too bad it's not as easy as the ads would lead us
to believe! I sometimes get frustrated with Ancestry, but then I remember how
hard it was to try to do genealogy with nothing at all online.

I went to FT DNA trying to break down an 18 year
brickwall using my only, male cousin with the family name. So far, the wall is
as strong as ever, but at least cousin's DNA is on file. FT DNA has different
tools including a chromosome browser, but finding matches is still very
difficult for me. I use GEDmatch too.

Best of luck----to us both.
<smile>

Pat

That's what I'm thinking, too. I'll pay for the test just to be able to have the DNA. I have my victims chosen ;-) Now to convince them it will be OK to do it. I had such high hopes for the only surviving daughter>mother>grandmother>great grandmother but she knows it's "not safe" to do it. ??? How do you teach new technology to someone who refuses to listen? I really, really need her DNA! So now I've chosen two male cousins; one on each side who I hope will do it. I really don't have that kind of money but time's a wastin' and I am afraid to wait.

At least there's a possibility of finding someone at FT DNA and GEDmatch. Ancestry spends their money on programming fluff that no serious researcher wants or needs. I'm really curious as to what they do 2 years from now. I won't be a part of it but I'm curious. I HAD budgeted a substantial amount of money for them but not now. Thank goodness I saw the new site before I spent it.

Oh, one other thing---be sure you're the administrator of the test if you use FT DNA. My cousin wanted to be his own administrator, which would be fine if he'd forward any emails to me. He intends to forward the emails but never gets around to it--grrr. I love the man, but grrrrr.

I have the same problem on FT DNA that I do on Ancestry---my matches won't write me back and/or they have no tree. Or---their tree is garbage.

I've been lucky so far but I've only been contacting them for a couple of days. I'm still learning where to find stuff on the sites. I now have a folder for log in, matches and home page for each of the new sites I joined! I should have done them one at a time over a few months instead of joining all of them the same night!

Some of my matches are so far back I have to get the tree out to find the person. My knee jerk is they aren't mine but if I look................there they are. I wanted to find a brick wall on each side. I don't know if I ever will.

One thing I found that was more help than the DNA matches at ancestry was to look at the trees that also put my documents and photos on theirs. I can easily go to the specific person I am hunting under every rock for and see who else is hunting them. If they've added something from my tree it's a good bet we are related somehow.

Good advice. Thanks, I'll try your plan.

I have been doing genealogy for about 3 years now. Both my husband and I have done the autosomal test on ancestry and he has done a Y test with FTDNA and I uploaded his results from ancestry to FTDNA and both of ours to GEDMATCH. I was lucky - I traced down an ancestor from a man with the same surname whose line is proven back to the 1640's. He paid for and did the Y test for us to see if my husband's line connected with his. We had felt sure it would as there are several other family surnames in the same area and some even moved on to where hubby's family did in the 1700's. When that didn't pan out, I found a 4th cousin of hubs and he did the Y test. They do match closely and it proves the line back to the late 1700's.

Right now I am trying to prove a connection of my husband's family to my family! Found out that his mother's father's family lived in the same area as my mother's family and that my mother's father's line actually at one time lived in the same county as my father's family. I have even found someone who showed up on my husband's autosomal match list that shows up on my list!

It is frustrating when you try to contact someone and they don't respond. I keep my trees private but I always answer when I get a request and try to find a common ancestor. If I feel comfortable doing so, I share my tree then.

I would love to have my brother do a Y test but its pricey and when we did my husband's we only did the 37. Now I am told you should do at least a 67(?) one to get results. Problem is - there have only been a dozen or so others with the same last name who have been tested. He does match a group of men with another last name and there are hundreds of them tested.
Not sure what is up with that!

mboston, did you join the projects at FamilyTreeDNA? I haven't but might someday. Right now I'm still sorting out all the sites I've discovered and trying to keep track of all the people who've contacted me. Overwhelmed in a good way!

Yes, my husband's Y test is on the Boston Surname Project. As I said, there are only about a dozen or so Boston males who have been tested. The closest match he had was to the German Bostian group with 32 out of 37. Not all that close. However, in his list of closest matches, he has several men with last name Byrne or Burns and several Reid, Reeds. Interestingly enough, these all come from the same part of Scotland - Leinster.

When his 4th cousin tested, he matched with all but 2 chromsomes and the two he did not match on are ones that mutatate more quickly. So, they are considered to be closely related. We already knew how they were related so that helped.

The fartherest back we know is a Major John Boston, 1737-1810. He had a son named James, 1767-1837. James had 10 children and two of his sons are the lines for Terry and his fourth cousin. We also know of another line that gives another 4th cousin. We think that perhaps at Major John Boston or prior to that , perhaps a woman married a Boston man and he raised her children with his last name. Could have been a Reed or Burns, who knows.
Anyway, we are certain that the 3 -4th cousins are all from sons of James.

I asked the adminstrator of the Byrnes and Reeds Surnames Group to add my husband's test results to their projects. One did, only for comparison purposes, as he says that he really should have a 67 cm test to get better results. The other wouldn't do it at all.

It doesn't cost to join and sometimes, they will help you with the cost of the testing IF they are trying to build their project numbers up.

Check it out, who knows.

Mary

Lucky you! At least you have a suspicion of where to go next. I'm standing here beating my head against the brick wall looking for MY Bailey ancestor. There must be thousands of them. Maybe millions!