I've done both the Family Finder test by FTDNA and the Relative Finder test with
23andMe. Outside of close relatives (2nd cousin and closer), the predicted
relationship is quite often wrong, no matter which company does the testing.
This is based on my own experience and comments in the forums at each site.
It's better to ignore the predicted cousin relationship and instead look more at
the range of the predicted relationships - in most cases, the actual
relationship is going to be closer to the more distant relationship in the
range.

In my opinion, the biggest obstacle one faces when coming from doing YDNA
testing to autosomal testing is getting to the point of understanding that NOT
matching someone with atDNA testing does not mean that your tree is wrong and
you're not related to that person after all. It usually means that each of
inherited different bits of DNA from your ancestors. Of course, it can also
mean that there's an NPE in somebody's background. But, just based on cases
where my maternal uncle has matches that I don't (and I've read posts from
others on the various forums about this), I think it's more likely that the NPE
issue, while real for some people, is not the norm.

atDNA testing really requires the testees to have trees that are as fully filled
out as possible, and it can also lead you learning things you never knew before.
I was a history major in college, but I'd never heard of the colony of New
Sweden until I ended up with some predicted cousins who had ancestry in Sweden
and Norway - most of my lines were in North American before 1800, and a good
portion of those were here before 1700.

Cathy Roberts


--- In Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com, "craig" <craigpgaston@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> That's my experience too, Jim. I have about a dozen matches on the same range
of SNPs on chromosome 1 (111:150 or so) (some listed as close as 4th cousins).
One of them has done a heroic job of trying to find what ancestor(s) we all have
in common but no luck so far. I suspect that the match is more distant than
FTDNA estimates because of marriages between close relations. Probably a healthy
percentage of the US and UK population would match us on this segment :-)
>
> One thing about this test is that it forces you to look more closely at your
other ancestors than those in your paternal line.
>
> Craig
>
> --- In Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com, Jim McKnight <mcknight77@> wrote:
> >
> > I have many 'cousins' found on Family Finder, but have yet to establish a
paper trail to any of them.
> >  
> > Jim
> >
> > From: "Enrique Treat Gleason, Esq." <treatgleason@>
> > To: Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com
> > Cc: treatgleason@
> > Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 3:54 PM
> > Subject: RE: [Beatty_Byrnes_DNA] Family Finder
> >
> >
> >  
> > You won’t regret it at all!  I think it is the best investment in that
you will accomplish more with FTDNA’s Family Finder than with any other
genealogical service on the market.  I’ve been able to connect with 2nd, 3rd,
4th, 5th, and beyond fifth cousins from all over the world!  It will take about
4 to 5 weeks for you the get your results.
> >  
> > From:Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Vinny
> > Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 1:41 PM
> > To: Beatty_Byrnes_DNA@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [Beatty_Byrnes_DNA] Family Finder
> >  
> >  
> > Okay so I havent done much latley with my DNA and family stuff.. But I just
ordered Family Finder today. Im excited to see the results...
> >
>