Noob error?

[jglencross]

I've been working on family trees for about four years now, first my wife's and then my own. We don't have any children so this was mostly in aid of increasing knowledge of living relatives and ancestors.
I have two cousins, both females, one on my paternal side, the other on the maternal. They have both been working on family genealogy for much longer than I have, one has had dna tests done and the other is likely to. They both have inquired if I had any interest in having mine tested.
After a bit of reading, I took the plunge, Family Finder kits for both the wife and I, and a Y-37 kit for myself, just ordered a couple of days ago.
With continued reading over the past couple of days, I'm suspecting that I didn't need to order two separate kits for myself, that both tests could have been done with one kit.
What's the verdict, what would you suggest my next steps should be?

[KATM]

It sounds like you ordered the two tests separately, and didn't order the second test from within your existing account, so you have two account numbers for yourself.

Contact FTDNA, either by phone (see at bottom of this page), or by using the Customer Support link at top right of this page. Check the hours when you can phone at the Customer Support page - they are not open after 12:00 noon CST on Fridays.

They should be able to combine your two tests into one of your accounts. Each person has one account at FTDNA, and any tests done for that account should be ordered from within that account. You should keep the account number (and password, of course) private, for security reasons.

[jglencross]

I actually ordered them all at once, which may be part of my problem. As much as I had read beforehand, I hadn't come across a basic guide with a good explanation of those first few steps, and the ftdna order page isn't clear on the one account for all of one person's tests with them.
Ah well, sounds like it's easy enough to solve. Perhaps I will end up with an extra family finder kit that my sister could be convinced to use, or maybe a Y-37 for my wife's brother.
Going forward, I don't see projects with either my wife's maiden surname, or my surname, at what point does one take on administering surname projects?

[KATM]

I actually ordered them all at once, which may be part of my problem. As much as I had read beforehand, I hadn't come across a basic guide with a good explanation of those first few steps, and the ftdna order page isn't clear on the one account for all of one person's tests with them.
Ah well, sounds like it's easy enough to solve. Perhaps I will end up with an extra family finder kit that my sister could be convinced to use, or maybe a Y-37 for my wife's brother.

Since you just ordered the kits a couple of days ago, and haven't received them, you have time to phone and get it straightened out. I agree that they need to provide simple step-by-step directions for new test-takers, to make the ordering process very clear, and to avoid mistakes.

I don't think you'll have any extra kits, if you and your wife intend to use the two Family Finder and one Y-37 tests you ordered. If you change your mind and would rather that your sister and/or your wife's brother should use those kits, you can have them do the swabbing and fill out the cards, but get the extra account number situation straightened out first. You have to be careful about the right kit being associated with the right person, and gender.

Going forward, I don't see projects with either my wife's maiden surname, or my surname, at what point does one take on administering surname projects?

You may want to wait a bit, see what turns up in your results, and get more familiar with your accounts first. There is a Project Application process, and some information in the Learning Center about Project Administration. Make sure you have the interest and time to be a project administrator.

[jglencross]

Understood, and thank you for the answers and information. Any real thoughts on surname project administration won't happen until our test results are in and I'm happy with the way I've got our accounts set up, just trying to get a better grasp on the general direction ahead.
I've already got a pretty good family tree built offline, have been using FamilySearch pretty steady to fill in a lot of the blanks. We're back three or four generations for both my wife and I.

[jglencross]

After speaking with Alissa at ftdna this morning, it's all sorted out.
Rather than just transfer the one FamilyFinder test onto my Y-DNA kit number and dispose of the extra kit, I opted to pay for another FamilyFinder test on my Y-DNA kit and keep the extra FamilyFinder kit for my sister, who had expressed just yesterday that she would like to be tested.
She'll reimburse me for the kit so I'm well pleased with the resolution.

[KATM]

Glad to hear it all worked out well for you!