FTDNA fails at Matching

[daragon24]

I've taken Y-DNA 111, full sequence MTDNA, and family finder through FTDNA. I've also taken tests elsewhere like Ancestry. Here at FTDNA my matches don't have common relatives or common surnames. I've done alot of research and there were no adoptions or anything like that. But when I go over to Ancestry all my matches DO have common ancestors and it matches me with people of common last names. My last name is Thompson, here at FTDNA I get matched with Hills and Smiths over at Ancestry I get matched with Thompson. So I dunno but it seems to me there is a flaw in FTDNA's matching or assignments. I do know my test kit was delayed for like 6 months, and the MTDNA portion failed at one point.
I tried to contact FTDNA about it several times and have yet to hear a response to get them to double check my results.

[N43154]

Whenever 2 or more people share more or less the same segment on the same strand of the same chromosome, they have the same common ancestor -- IBD (identical by descent or identity of descent) The first task of any serious user of autosomal DNA for genealogical purposes is to define an IBD cluster -- a group of matches who meet the above definition.

Only then does one begin to look at pedigrees and surnames -- but only for those people within a particular IBD cluster.

None of this can be done on Ancestry because it doesn't provide the basic tools.

[ec1970]

As soon as Ancestry dropped it Y-DNA testing I knew they were not a serious consideration for me.

I still don't see the value of general purpose autosomal testing. But I'm still new at this.

[dna]

I've taken Y-DNA 111, full sequence MTDNA, and family finder through FTDNA. I've also taken tests elsewhere like Ancestry. Here at FTDNA my matches don't have common relatives or common surnames. I've done alot of research and there were no adoptions or anything like that. But when I go over to Ancestry all my matches DO have common ancestors and it matches me with people of common last names. My last name is Thompson, here at FTDNA I get matched with Hills and Smiths over at Ancestry I get matched with Thompson. So I dunno but it seems to me there is a flaw in FTDNA's matching or assignments.

Positive matching is only possible if someone related has tested. If nobody did, there would be no matches.

It could be that your ancestor was trying to change his identity or may be the entire family (brothers) did that and they had chosen popular surnames. For a single male (one of your male ancestors), a change in a surname could have happened for very many good reasons, one of them being taking his wife family name (yes, that was not unheard of before surnames were fixed by bureaucracy ).

Did you try Family Finder?

I do know my test kit was delayed for like 6 months, and the MTDNA portion failed at one point.
I tried to contact FTDNA about it several times and have yet to hear a response to get them to double check my results.

These events do not influence matching in any way.

Good luck in your search!
W. (Mr.)

[k.martin]

But when I go over to Ancestry all my matches DO have common ancestors and it matches me with people of common last names. My last name is Thompson, here at FTDNA I get matched with Hills and Smiths over at Ancestry I get matched with Thompson.

I hope you are not assuming that Ancestry's surname matches are DNA matches, because they are not. They are just hints, bringing your attention to the possibility of a match, since the tree you are looking at has a Thompson line. I have several Thompson lines in my tree & see Thompson as a surname hint all the time. I have yet to find a common Thompson ancestor at Ancestry.

At FTDNA we have tools to explore our matches. At Ancestry there are none - just over-the-top marketing that borders on untruth. We must download our Ancestry raw data and upload to FTDNA or GEDmatch to determine our matches.

[rmm0484]

As soon as Ancestry dropped it Y-DNA testing I knew they were not a serious consideration for me.

I still don't see the value of general purpose autosomal testing. But I'm still new at this.

Autosomal can fill in the close gaps by providing cousins. I have found several this way, it confirmed some other relationships.