OK, by the looks of my inbox, people are confused! I'll still try to answer you individually, too.
About 10 years ago, the only DNA that could be used for genealogy was the Y-DNA or the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). A little over a year ago, autosomal DNA (Family Tree DNA calls it the Family Finder test) came into the picture. So now there are 3 types of DNA tests for genealogy. I'll try this analogy (hope it works). Your DNA is like a box of spaghetti. Have you ever opened a box of standard spaghetti to find a stray piece of the flatter noodle one (fettuccine or linguine)? Or maybe a random macaroni snuck in there. The box of spaghetti represents the 22 pairs of your autosomal DNA. There is only one other pair - the 23rd pair which are the sex chromosomes (where the Y makes a man a man). You can pretend that's the fettuccine or linguine that snuck into the box. And you can pretend that the macaroni is the mitochondrial DNA. You can look at that lost piece of fettuccine or linguine and know EXACTLY where it came from. It looks different than the regular spaghetti. That's like the Y-chromosome which men have. We know EXACTLY where a man got his Y from: his father, who got it from his father who got it from his father. It's the top of your pedigree chart. Since I'm not a man, I made my dad test his Y-chromosome. So I got George to Manuel to Jose to Vitorino to Antonio de Mello, etc. You get the picture. So when my dad gets a match, I'll know which line it is on. On the other hand, we can pretend that the piece of macaroni that found its way into the spaghetti box is the mtDNA. Both men and women inherit that and we know exactly how that's inherited: the mother's mother's mother's line or the bottom of the pedigree chart. The mtDNA is usually better used for anthropology type research more than genealogy, but we've had a couple of mtDNA matches in the Azores project. But the rest of that box is just spaghetti. They all look the same. Suppose you went to the store and bought your favorite brand, Rozoni (I have no idea how well known some of these brands are, so bear with me). As you start to cook for this dinner party, you realize you need more spaghetti. So you send your significant other to the store and the end result is Barilla brand. It's all spaghetti, so you throw it in the pot and cook it up. And none of your guests know that you used two boxes, each a different brand. Autosomal DNA (Family Finder) is spaghetti from Rozoni, Barilla, De Cecco, Prince, etc. Unless you are some kind of spaghetti connoisseur, you can't tell the difference. You inherit half of your DNA from your mom and half from your dad. Each one of your parents got half from their parents. But it's not labelled. And it actually recombines (Rozoni breaks off and fuses together with Barilla). OK, I know that spaghetti doesn't do that in real life, but hopefully, it will help you get the picture. So when my dad and Shirley Allegre matched with their Family Finder results (the spaghetti or autosomal DNA), we didn't know where. It's just a tangle of spaghetti. Since my dad and Shirley both have Antonio de Mello in their tree, we knew some of the matching was coming from there. Marge Perry also matches both my dad and Shirley. It was more distant and we don't know exactly how, but we have an idea it has something to do with Vila Franca. More research will tell. So, if you are an existing FTDNA customer, you can upgrade to more Y-DNA markers (the fettuccine or linguine) which is the father's father's father's line. You can also purchase the Family Finder (spaghetti) at the reduced rate (you'll match people, but it'll take some work with your tree to figure it out). The only 2 tests on sale for NEW customers would be the Y-12 marker with Family Finder (for men) or the mtDNA basic with Family Finder (for men or women). Or you can wait and see what they put on sale in December. If you are an existing customer, the announcement read that the sale ends at a certain time. I'd rather not wait until the very last minute to see if IT programmed the computers to stop the sale at the right time. So I state that the sale ends 1 minute earlier than it really does. It ends at 11:59pm CDT, today, June 21st. I would think that if IT has their act together that the sale won't go through if you wait until 12 midnight on June 22nd (only 1 minute later). Hope this clarifies a little bit! Cheri Mello & Rick Pimentel Family DNA Co-Admins Azores DNA Project -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
