Which tests?

[GaryStebbins]

A female friend would like to know a bit about her family background, and has two specific questions:

1) Does she have any African-American or Native-American blood (and likely how far back, if so)?

2) Do her two brothers have the same father?

What test(s) will be the most accurate? Will Family Finder answer the first question? How about the Genographic test? Will Family Finder answer the 2nd, or would yDNA tests be better? How accurate will the results be?

Thank you.

[jsarnacki]

Genographic won't help with those questions, so go for Family Finder

Genographic starts 10,000 year back and goes back 60,000 or so years... it just shows the migration trail. It is interesting, but I haven't found it useful for ethnicity or genealogy in the least.

Family Finder will produce "MyOrigins" results to predict ethnicity, and then you can also download and re-upload to Gedmatch (for free) and see their ethnicity calculators there.

As for paternity... Family Finder will most likely help with that if you are testing yourself and your siblings. It would help even more clearly if you test your parents as well.

mtDNA is not useful for what you described. yDNA can be useful if you are tracking the paternal line, but not necessary for what you described as your matches will be further up the paternal line than just 1 or so generations that you are looking at.

[jsarnacki]

By the way, a female cannot test yDNA. Not sure if you were asking about that test for the female or the males!

Family Finder is pretty accurate for close matches. There can be confusion if there are other genetic connections (such as someone being a sibling and a cousin the person, they would likely have more matching DNA segments than someone who only has one genetic connection. ) It is the further matches that you have to scrutinize more.

[prairielad]

A female friend would like to know a bit about her family background, and has two specific questions:

1) Does she have any African-American or Native-American blood (and likely how far back, if so)?

2) Do her two brothers have the same father?

What test(s) will be the most accurate? Will Family Finder answer the first question? How about the Genographic test? Will Family Finder answer the 2nd, or would yDNA tests be better? How accurate will the results be?

Thank you.

As to confirm whether or not 2 brothers have the same father, a YDNA test will tell you this (unless fathers are of the same paternal line, ie brothers, male cousins who share same surname, ect). Two male siblings should have identical yDNA (a few exceptions to this rule as STR mutations can happen at any time)
It will also give you an idea of paternal surname based on matches. Most surnames have their own unique yDNA.

Family Finder will only give you a relationship range of Full sibling, half sibling, cousin, ect.

[dna]

A female friend would like to know a bit about her family background, and has two specific questions:

1) Does she have any African-American or Native-American blood (and likely how far back, if so)?

2) Do her two brothers have the same father?

What test(s) will be the most accurate? Will Family Finder answer the first question? How about the Genographic test? Will Family Finder answer the 2nd, or would yDNA tests be better? How accurate will the results be?

Thank you.

Let me add to the answers already posted.

Y DNA test alone would not be enough, as males carrying the same Y DNA cannot be distinguished by standard Y DNA testing. So siblings in fact could be children of two very distant cousins carrying the same Y DNA.

Family Finder would be able to tell them whether they share the same father. Even if the suspected fathers were brothers (but not the identical twins!).

As far as their heritage is concerned, due to the way autosomal DNA (tested with Family Finder) is inherited, any individual has ancestors from whom she or he did not receive any DNA, not just traceable DNA. So it could be that a particular heritage would not show in autosomal DNA testing. For males, Y DNA testing would show the patrilineal heritage, but not how distant it is (centuries or thousands of years). For females and males, mtDNA testing (FMS test at FTDNA) would show the matrilineal heritage, but not how distant it is (centuries or thousands of years).

Thus all three should take the Family Finder test. If all three have the same mother, any of them can take the FMS test (the one that is testing mtDNA), but one should take it . If they are not half-siblings, but brothers, one of the brothers should take Y-DNA67 or Y-DNA37 test.

If both their parents are available for testing, they should take the Family Finder tests, instead of their daughter.

W. (Mr.)

P.S.
If more information were available, possibly even more detailed test advice could be offered.