Yesterday Stuart received the results of his Family Finder DNA Test. This autosomal test matches with any cousin within five generations.
The FamilyTree DNA website explains:
The Family Finder test is designed to trace all of your ancestral lines (all 16 of your great-great grandparents) using your autosomal DNA in order to confidently identify relationships for five generations. This is different from our mtDNA and Y–chromosome DNA tests, which are intended to clearly trace exclusively the direct maternal or paternal lines.Stuart matched 11 people - all unknown. Unsure quite what this meant, I wrote to our friend Debbie Kennett, who is very experienced and knowledgeable on the subject of DNA. She replied:
While a Surname Project seeks to document the Y–chromosome DNA of males with a common surname, a Family Finder Project is focused on tracing the DNA of all descendants of a single ancestor or a single ancestral couple.
I think with the Family Finder we are all going to end up with an awful lot of matches. We're matching on all lines, and we're nearly all descended from the same few million people who lived in the British Isles in the 1600s. Don't forget too that with the Y-DNA Stuart is quite a rare R1a haplogroup. With R1b12 and I1 people can sometimes have hundreds of matches, at least at 12-markers.
The Family Finder is going to be something of a long-term investment but it's quite exciting to see it from the beginning ..
If you are interested in doing an autosomal (applicable to be both males and females), or a Y-DNA test (males only), do contact us and we will help you through the process. Alternatively for more information see Family Tree DNA Family Finder FAQs.
