Looking for Father

[cmbearly]

Male looking for bio father - want to test presumed father's brother, since presumed father is deceased. Is it better to use the basic Family Finder test, or the Y Dna test? The uncle is older, so does Family Finder use the swab method?

[J Honeychuck]

Family Finder is the one you want.

An elderly person should be able to use a swab with no pain or problems.

[cmbearly]

Thank you !!

[formax]

I think you need to weigh the pros and cons of both.

Y-DNA: If you take a test and your presumed father's brother take the test, you will for sure find out if you are both in the same haplogroup. And it will be 100% right. Black or White. At the same time, if they are different, then you will get some idea of what your surname might be. Do the 37 or 61, or 111 markers test. The 12 and 20 are not accurate enough.

Family Finder or atDNA. Well, all you will get will be the number of centiMorgans you share. Then you will have to draw some conclusions, of whether he's an uncle, or some other family member.

I did the Y-DNA test with suspected nephews of my suspected dead father. It was VERY conclusive they were not.

[cmbearly]

So this would also work with testing nephews of the deceased father?

[prairielad]

So this would also work with testing nephews of the deceased father?

Providing they are the sons of deceased fathers brother (Father and his brother also have to have the same father).

Any males which shares the same yDNA inheritance line, all male line back to common ancestor, will share the same yDNA and haplogroup.

yDNA is passed on virtually unchanged father to son, generation to generation.

yDNA12 for $59USD maybe enough of a starting point. (Available through upgrade button and some projects or by phoning FTDNA )
If match one can upgrade, if different haplogroups no need to spend more money.

[travers]

If you are doing Y-DNA on the uncle you would have to do autosomal as well. As a Y-DNA match as mentioned will just confirm the two men are from the same paternal tree it won't give you an idea of the closeness of the relationship where an autosomal test (Family Finder) will. So both would need Y-DNA and autosomal.