I would be interested in knowing how Family Finder and other DNA ancestry tests are helping other people in investigating their ancestry. Here are some of my experiences:
Here is a comparison between my PF and an autosomal DNA fingerprint test I did about 2 yrs ago. There are definitely some similarities between them indicating the "Heinz 57 varieties" in my ancestry. My known ancestry, from a fairly extensive family tree: Colonial Quebec, Colonial New England, Colonial Southern (AL, TN, GA), English (1870's) and Cherokee. The main piece of information in PF that is missing is the Native American. I was hoping PF would give me a more accurate percentage of Native American than my crude estimate of 1/8, but instead it completely overlooks it. I would say that the PF takes a very shallow, blurry look at ancestry and the fingerprint takes a deep, sharp focus but is not very thorough. The fingerprint test I found very useful in providing clues to my tree. For example, it found gypsy heritage that I didn't know of, and on investigating I found out one of my great aunts was a "famous" fortune teller and psychic in the 1890's in Boston and San Francisco. The PF results are not very useful so far except in giving an overall impression of my heritage, but it seems to fit well with the other test in a general way.
I'm getting a lot of matches (two 3rd and many 4th cousins). All of the 7 people I've communicated with have responded. So far I have not been able to identify any definite connections to any of them, although there are some hints that surnames and localities are similar. I'm suspecting there are a some disconnects between legal and biological parents in my tree. I did notice that one of my GGGrandmothers in the south had a child 6 months after marrying, and that husband left her at that time. She later married another man, and I seem to have matches with his surname of Cross, but his ancestry is unknown. I hoping to sort this out when more matches come in. So far I'm happy with the matches and it should help given some time for FF to mature.
Here is a comparison between my PF and an autosomal DNA fingerprint test I did about 2 yrs ago. There are definitely some similarities between them indicating the "Heinz 57 varieties" in my ancestry. My known ancestry, from a fairly extensive family tree: Colonial Quebec, Colonial New England, Colonial Southern (AL, TN, GA), English (1870's) and Cherokee. The main piece of information in PF that is missing is the Native American. I was hoping PF would give me a more accurate percentage of Native American than my crude estimate of 1/8, but instead it completely overlooks it. I would say that the PF takes a very shallow, blurry look at ancestry and the fingerprint takes a deep, sharp focus but is not very thorough. The fingerprint test I found very useful in providing clues to my tree. For example, it found gypsy heritage that I didn't know of, and on investigating I found out one of my great aunts was a "famous" fortune teller and psychic in the 1890's in Boston and San Francisco. The PF results are not very useful so far except in giving an overall impression of my heritage, but it seems to fit well with the other test in a general way.
I'm getting a lot of matches (two 3rd and many 4th cousins). All of the 7 people I've communicated with have responded. So far I have not been able to identify any definite connections to any of them, although there are some hints that surnames and localities are similar. I'm suspecting there are a some disconnects between legal and biological parents in my tree. I did notice that one of my GGGrandmothers in the south had a child 6 months after marrying, and that husband left her at that time. She later married another man, and I seem to have matches with his surname of Cross, but his ancestry is unknown. I hoping to sort this out when more matches come in. So far I'm happy with the matches and it should help given some time for FF to mature.
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