GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-03 > 1046542255


From: David Faux <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] DNA Testing
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 10:10:55 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <01bc01c2e002$c0bc0860$7c41fea9@z9z0k4>



Cockney Sparrow <> wrote:

Hi all

just re-subscribed to list

I've had my own DNA done twice but now a possible family link would like
theirs done.

Any suggestions as to who to use?

Mine was via Oxford Ancestors and Genetree in San Jose CA.

>>>>>>>> Sure do. I have had my Y - Chromosome tested by Oxford Ancestors, Gene Tree, Ancestry.com (Relative Genetics), and Family Tree DNA.. My goal was to compare the "offerings" of each firm - the pluses and minuses in relation to each.

And to date the winner is......................... FTDNA. They are associated with Dr. Michael Hammer's group at the University of Arizona, and their techniques follow the indisutry standards which were basically set by this team. In addition, FTDNA will put your 25 marker (recommend this rather than 12 marker) scores on a webpage that you acces by codes you are given. You can then click on other features available on their site and, for example, they will show you how many matches (exact, one step mutation, etc.) at the 12 and 25 marker level you have in their Recent Ethnic Origins database (submitted by their customers). You may find, for example that most of your matches are with those who identify Scotland as the earliest known home for their most distant male ancestor.

A new feature is the Haplogroup category. Click on this part of the site and you will be given the YCC (agreed upon standard) Haplogroup to which you belong - meaning that you can determine where on the Philogenetic Tree of humankind your early male ancestor fits. Certain haplogroups are much more common to (in some cases exclusive to) certain parts of the world. Even if your haplogroup is relatively common (e.g., "somewhere in Europe"), you can explore the University of Arizona 12 marker database on the site where you will see your matches with the samples collected by Dr. Hammer. In my case, despite a common haplogroup, I match only individuals from Norway, Iceland and France. This can provide, not definitive proof, but hints as to where to expect your, for example, English male ancestor may have originated before he was in England (although admittedly this is a stretch).

I spent over half an hour yesterday on the phone with Bennett Greenspan the CEO of Family Tree DNA. All I can say is that this company is composed of dynamic, energetic, committed and extremely knowledgeable individuals who are customer oriented and who are constantly anticipating the needs of consumers, and developing new products and services to meet the "demands". No they did not pay me to say this - I am simply a very happy customer.

Dr. David K. Faux.


Dr. David K. Faux, 4028 Larwin Ave., Cypress, CA, 90630, USA





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