26 July 2013

Price reduction at Family Tree DNA

Go to www.familytreedna.com and you'll see that the sale prices in effect for the past month have now been made permanent.

FTDNA now offers their autosomal (Family Finder) test for $99 which has become the industry standard - the same price as 23andMe and AncestryDNA.

Your DNA is significant genealogical evidence the value of which can only increase as more people test and the science advances. As highly respected US genealogist Helen Leary wrote in 1998:

"Science and the law are in agreement: there is only one way to prove kinships beyond reasonable doubt — DNA"
Knowledgeable genetic genealogists see issues with the Ancestry product as presently available, and it's not yet available in Canada anyway.

How to choose between FTDNA and 23andMe?

FTDNA charge considerably less for shipping outside the US. With their focus on genealogy matches (DNA cousins) are more likely to respond to contacts.

23andMe offer more finely grained results on the regional and sub-regional origins of different segments of autosomal DNA as well as results for Y and Mt haplogroups.

If you're interested in health-related information 23andMe offer that too as part of the service. It's claimed that an average user receives at least one or two results that may help with proactively managing health.

FTDNA have also made permanent reduced prices for their other tests.

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