Family Finder Success! Family Found!

[Stevo]

I have only had my Family Finder results for a couple of weeks, and I have already confirmed a 5th cousin I did not know existed, and I was able to unzip my FF raw data and discover that I am genetically lactase persistent (the opposite of lactose intolerant). Of course, I knew I could drink lots of milk without ill effects anyway, but it was kind of cool to see that reflected in my dna.

My 5th cousin initiated our contact, which was nice. We share a set of 4th great grandparents, and we may be double 5th cousins. Her 3rd great grandfather and my 3rd great grandfather were brothers. They married women who shared a surname, and I suspect those two women were sisters. If they were, then we are 5th cousins on two lines.

My newly discovered 5th cousin has another of our lines traced to the 17th-century immigrant, who was born in Surrey, England. I did not have that information, so there's another benefit from the Family Finder test.

To my way of thinking, Family Finder has already more than paid for itself. Anything more is frosting on the cake, and I think the cake will eventually be piled high with frosting.

This test is worthwhile, very worthwhile.

I recommend it.

[Lee Hermes]

Unzipping raw data

How do you unzip the FF raw data file to discover such things as lactose intolerance, etc.? All of this stuff has me baffled. Thanks

[thetick]

How do you unzip the FF raw data file to discover such things as lactose intolerance, etc.? All of this stuff has me baffled. Thanks

Use a tool like Winzip or 7zip to unzip the zipped raw file. I recommend 7zip since it is free see http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Then you can look at the raw data in a text editor or Excel. In the case of lactose tolerance rs4988235 and rs182549. See http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Lactose_intolerance

You can get a pretty detailed report on you medical info with Promethease. See

http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease

[Earl Davis]

I tried GZip and 7Zip but no luck.

I go to....

https://my.familytreedna.com/download-files.aspx?Type=FFO

I clock on the Autosomal Results link.

A "Getting File information" box appears after a few seconds.

The box then never moves past 0% and no estimated time is ever populated on the screen

After about 5 minutes I get a box saying IE can not download the File and IE can not open this internet site which is either unavailable or not not be found.

[Stevo]

That sounds like a computer problem. I had no trouble downloading my raw data to my computer. I had to fool with 7-zip a few minutes to finally see my results unzipped, but that didn't take too long.

Wish I could tell you how to solve the problem, but I am not enough of a computer expert to do so.

[1_mke]

@Earl Davis, That sounds like you have a firewall between you and FTDNA. Are you doing this from work? Many companies have Firewalls that block the download of ZIP files.

[Darren]

Earl,

I have seen this before with Internet Explorer 7 and sometimes 8 but not IE9. If you can try upgrading to the newest version of IE, or try either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome (which are both free) and see if that gets you around this error.

-Darren Marin
Family Tree DNA

[Stevo]

I think I am on the verge of linking up with another Family Finder match. Of course, a lot depends upon whether I hear from this individual or not. Anyway, we are predicted by FTDNA to be 4th cousins. We share 38.31 cM of autosomal dna, with the longest block being 15.15 cM.

He and I share a surname in our surnames list, and if I am right, we share a 5th great grandfather on that line, which would make us 6th cousins. That's stretching back to a man born in 1723, but we share some dna somehow, and that looks like a firm connection.

Right now I am not sure of the source for the pedigree, since up until I saw this man's gedcom, I could not get this line beyond my 3rd great grandfather. I found the possible connection by searching pedigrees on the internet, to be quite honest. I'm thinking the information is probably pretty good, since this man and I have a genetic match, but I would feel better if I knew the source of the online pedigree I found.

Anyway, Family Finder is cool. I wish everyone would do it. At least the people who are already involved in genetic genealogy on the y-dna and/or mtDNA sides should do it.

[Stevo]

!

I heard from this latest match today, and the connection is pretty much confirmed.

The ancestor we share is my 5th great grandfather and his 6th great grandfather. That makes us 6th cousins once removed.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this ancestor, whose name was Edward Sparkman, was born in 1723 in Bertie County, North Carolina. This match nets me information on this line all the way back to the immigrant, who was born in England in 1635. Not bad!

So, Family Finder can stretch pretty far back. I've already confirmed a 5th cousin whose connection to me is an ancestor who was born in 1773.

This is pretty cool. Now if I could just get a connection like that on my y-dna line.

[Donald Locke]

Hey Stevo! Glad you are having some sucess!
I wish I could say the same!

[GayeSherman]

That's great! Thanks for posting the numbers as well. That helps a lot when trying to frame where to look.

I've got some potential connections (Ashkenazi no less!) back to the mid 1500s.

Gaye

[Stevo]

That's great! Thanks for posting the numbers as well. That helps a lot when trying to frame where to look.

I've got some potential connections (Ashkenazi no less!) back to the mid 1500s.

Gaye

Wow! That is cool!

Wish I could get that far back (especially on my y-dna line)!

[A1A]

I have only had my Family Finder results for a couple of weeks, and I have already confirmed a 5th cousin I did not know existed, and I was able to unzip my FF raw data and discover that I am genetically lactase persistent (the opposite of lactose intolerant). Of course, I knew I could drink lots of milk without ill effects anyway, but it was kind of cool to see that reflected in my dna.

My 5th cousin initiated our contact, which was nice. We share a set of 4th great grandparents, and we may be double 5th cousins. Her 3rd great grandfather and my 3rd great grandfather were brothers. They married women who shared a surname, and I suspect those two women were sisters. If they were, then we are 5th cousins on two lines.

My newly discovered 5th cousin has another of our lines traced to the 17th-century immigrant, who was born in Surrey, England. I did not have that information, so there's another benefit from the Family Finder test.

To my way of thinking, Family Finder has already more than paid for itself. Anything more is frosting on the cake, and I think the cake will eventually be piled high with frosting.

This test is worthwhile, very worthwhile.

I recommend it.

How did you determine your father's results from your mother's? I've been told that FF would give me a whole bunch of results that I would have to sort out. Secondly what advantage does FF offer that a 67 or higher marker test would not?

[madman]

I think I am on the verge of linking up with another Family Finder match. Of course, a lot depends upon whether I hear from this individual or not. Anyway, we are predicted by FTDNA to be 4th cousins. We share 38.31 cM of autosomal dna, with the longest block being 15.15 cM.

He and I share a surname in our surnames list, and if I am right, we share a 5th great grandfather on that line, which would make us 6th cousins. That's stretching back to a man born in 1723, but we share some dna somehow, and that looks like a firm connection.

Right now I am not sure of the source for the pedigree, since up until I saw this man's gedcom, I could not get this line beyond my 3rd great grandfather. I found the possible connection by searching pedigrees on the internet, to be quite honest. I'm thinking the information is probably pretty good, since this man and I have a genetic match, but I would feel better if I knew the source of the online pedigree I found.

Anyway, Family Finder is cool. I wish everyone would do it. At least the people who are already involved in genetic genealogy on the y-dna and/or mtDNA sides should do it.

38.31 cM is a 6th Cousin

[Everwaiting]

I have only had my Family Finder results for a couple of weeks, and I have already confirmed a 5th cousin I did not know existed....

Congratulations!!!!