Two people, in the last hour, have asked me offlist about the FamilyFinder test,
so I thought I would give a general reply on the list as others may be curious,
too.
In all honesty, I haven't had enough experience with FF to have a real
"feel"
for what it can do. I've had just one person in my five surname projects with
FF results returned, and they were "ho hum," connecting him to 3rd and 4th
cousins whose surnames he didn't recognize. There are several more surname
project members with results still pending. We shall see...
On the other hand, I've had six members in my Danish Demes regional project with
results returned for the FF test. Five had "ho hum" results, again with 3rd
and
4th cousins whose surnames were unfamiliar. However, one had a close match with
his uncle.
Of course, this match was expected, as this individual had paid for the Y-DNA
STR and FF testing of himself and his uncle, but the point is the FF test
worked! That is, it accurately indicated these two individuals had a close
match (viz., uncle, grandfather, or nephew).
It seems clear to me that the FF test has great promise for adopted individuals
whose birth parents are unknown and for those with NPEs. It also appears it may
be helpful in placing individuals on the right "branch" of their family when
the
paper connection is elusive.
The thing about the test is that it can only detect relationships back to about
4th or 5th cousins. For many of us, the brick wall in our ancestry is further
back, so I don't see FF helping directly for connecting to distant origins, for
example, to an immigrant ancestor back 10 or 12 generations. It does appear
that it will be helpful in connecting to nearer relatives.
A Y-DNA STR test of the patrilineal line continues to be the most valuable test
for the genealogist wanting to connect to distant ancestors (e.g., the immigrant
or the European ancestor, "across the pond"). The mtDNA FGS (full genetic
sequence) will become more valuable in determining the distant matrilineal line
as more people take the test and the right search tools and database become
available. As more people take the FamilyFinder test, it promises to become
valuable to the genealogist working on near generations, especially to adoptees
and NPEs.
Hope this helps,
Diana