FTDNA Offers

[Juras]

BLACK FRIDAY OFFER - Save $40 on FTDNA Family Finder, and receive an extra $5 off when you buy a bundle... and more...

[paul*]

I've just ordered an FTDNA Family Finder test for $39 which comes out to $48.95 including p+p.

https://www.familytreedna.com/products/family-finder

[Juras]

Discounts are

valid for ALL kits...

Major discounts are available on Y-test of course.

[sugarfizzle]

The offer is very good in purely financial terms and should hopefully give you good results.

However, for autosomal DNA testing, it may not be the best first choice.

Here are some comparisons from DNA geek.

https://thednageek.com/black-friday-sales-2018/

https://thednageek.com/dna-tests/

Ancestry has the largest database and you can upload your results elsewhere.
  However, with incompatibilities with Ancestry's chip, you won't get more distant matches at familytreedna.

So if you want your speculative matches at FTDNA, you do need to test with them.  As for the other tests, it is probably a good buy.

Regards Margaret

[paul*]

Thanks for those links Margaret, it's very interesting to see that the number of people tested at Ancestry has reached 10 million, and conversely that the amount of tests on GedMatch is so low.

As most results can be uploaded to GedMatch, and the matching tools available seem to be the best available, I would've expected more take-up, although GEDCOMs are quite sparse, possibly to deter those pesky name-collectors.

[dublin1850]

For those researching Irish connections, FTDNA seems to have a lot of 'still in Ireland' folk.
They are (even without discounts) considerably cheaper than other kits in Ireland, which makes them popular.

[Juras]

Hot FTDNA holiday offers are still valid until the end of the year ... if someone does not know  . My experience suggests that the order is better to do before December 15 ... I had problems with delivery when I made an order after the 20th of last year.