This morning Family Tree Magazine sent announcement that MyHeritage is offering their autosomal DNA test for $30 for a few days. I had spent several minutes answering a query from a woman who lives .....probably in London.....who has Hawkins maiden name. She has three brothers and a sister or two. Here was my answer to Sally:
Great to hear from you, Sally. This is a good time of year to ask about dna tests as there are always sales at Christmas. I have no way of knowing how much you know….but there are three kinds of dna testing that one can do: yDNA, autosomal, and mtDNA. If you are a beginner with usual questions, you do not need to buy mtDNA as it is the dna passed from mother to all of her children….thus the surname changes with each generation as a woman usually gives her children the surname of their father.yDNA is offered from only one company at this time for genealogy purposes….that is FTDNA. It is the dna passed from father to son and only males can take the test because only males have yDNA.
Everyone can do autosomal testing. There are five major companies and each has different bells and whistles. Ancestry has the largest data base and their bells and whistles are pretty wonderful…..however, they do not tell you on which chromosome your match matches you nor which segment. However, you can upload your Ancestry results to gedmatch to get that information for free. MyHeritage probably has the next biggest data base and they do not only give you which chromosome and which segment ….they do some triangulation for you as well. FTDNA calls their autosomal test Family Finder and it is quite good, but not as large of a data base. I have used 23 and me very little….I did test there but have very little experience so am not a good source of information. And Living DNA has a few bells and whistles that the others don’t offer. Last year they let me buy an inexpensive test that told me about my Viking ancestors which I found fascinating!
Here is a link to the Black Friday deals: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-dna-testing-kits
However, I suggest that you go to their sites for the prices being offered today. And I highly recommend going to you tube and watching a few videos. Ancestry’s spokesperson is the Barefoot genealogist, Christa Cowan. FTDNA has made their own videos that can be found on you tube….as has MyHeritage….The videos are really helpful.
Our project is ongoing. (This would be the Hawkins yDNA surname project for which I am adminstrator that she was asking about) I suggest that you test one of your brothers….Choose the one most likely to have absolute assurance that he is the son of your father. 37 marker test is quite likely to be adequate to show if there are other Hawkins males who your family connects to….if you are going together and budget is not an issue, go for the 111 marker or Big Y. You may not be ready to interpret the extras that you get, but it is possible that you will get extra information.
I maintain a blog site for our group. It is a kind of easy newsletter format that lets others share information with the world….
Take a look. The search engine is excellent since it is hosted by google. I suggest that you geographical places and women’s maiden names to see if there are posts of interest to you.
FTDNA hosts a website:
Then I would buy at least one autosomal test…if you are paying, I would do the test for you….I can not tell you which place to do this testing, but if your budget allows, I would personally buy at Ancestry, FTDNA and MyHeritage…..A google search using these three names as search subject will show the price being offered today. If your siblings are interested and willing to buy tests, buy from different companies so that you get as much information as possible. You are relatively sure that each of you will match each other and you can use your siblings test to look around at each of the sites.
Let me know if you have more questions. marsha hawkins moses
