'Maxing Out' Your Markers at FTDNA

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"Maxing Out" Your Markers at Family Tree DNA

NOTICE: As of 4 Mar 2011, FTDNA has ceased offering Advanced STRs in bundles at a discount. They are now available only a la carte (see Advanced Orders on your FTDNA member page). Even so, I will leave this page online, just in case it will make it easier to decide which markers to test or to place an order (by tiling this window with the order form).

Below is a list of tests extracted from the "Advanced Orders" menu at FamilyTreeDNA (as of 1 Dec 2010). These are the markers you can purchase to "max out" your STR testing there. With the exception of a few markers in the Palindromic Pack, none of the listed markers is duplicated from the FTDNA standared 67-marker set. (There is no point in cherry-picking the palindromic markers to eliminate duplications because, even if you do, the price for the whole bundle is still cheaper, so you might as well go ahead and order the entire panel.)

The markers below are grouped and prioritized in the order I am suggesting my project members take them. If you are looking for mutations to help differentiate lines in families, I recommend Groups 1 and 2 as having the most variability. Testing Group 3 will allow you to make full comparison with the huge database at SMGF (Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) and with individuals tested at Ancestry-DNA.

Until I get some speeds for Groups 4 and 5, I don't know what the prospects are for getting a mutation with them. I've had only four members take them, and just one had a mutation at one marker — on the other hand, we were desperate for markers to separate these cousins, so it was worth it.

I've only just begun filling in the relative speeds. If you want numerical "rates" with sources, please see my Excel spreadsheet including all of FTDNA's markers, but I've only just begun adding those rates, too.

Do feel free to link to this page, but please don't copy the table to your web site.

Priority	Panel	Marker	Price	Relative Speed
	Transfer Fee (one time only)		$9.50

1	New FTDNA Marker*
1	Y-STR Panel 1	DYS 710	$14.00
	*Scroll down past all the Y-STR DNA-FP panels; it's the last test on the list.
2	Pallindromic Pack	Bundled Price	$102.00
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 5	DYF 371X	20.00
		DYF 385	12.00
		DYF 397	12.00
		DYF 399X	16.00
		DYF 401	12.00
		DYF 408	12.00
		DYF 411	12.00
		DYS 413	12.00	medium
		DYS 464X	18.00	fast
		DYS 725	12.00
	Itemized Total		$138.00
DYS 413 is duplicated from the standard 38-67 marker panel.
3	SMGF - the nine Sorensen markers (also Ancestry-DNA)
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 2	DYS 463	7.20	medium
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 3	DYS 461	7.20	medium
		DYS 462	7.20	slow
		DYS 635 = GATA-C4	7.20	medium
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 4	DYS 441	7.20	medium
		DYS 445	7.20	medium
		DYS 452	7.20	medium
		Y-GATA-A10	7.20	medium
		Y-GGAAT-1B07	7.20	slow
	Total		$64.80

4	EA - the ten EthnoAncestry markers	Bundled Price	$65.00
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 9	DYS 494	7.20
		DYS 505	7.20
		DYS 522	7.20
		DYS 533	7.20
		DYS 549	7.20
		DYS 556	7.20
		DYS 575	7.20
		DYS 589	7.20
		DYS 636	7.20
		DYS 638	7.20
	Total		$72.00

5	the nine remaining markers
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 2	DYS 643	7.20
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 3	DYS 726	7.20
	Y-STR DNA-FP Panel 4	DYS 434	7.20
		DYS 435	7.20
		DYS 485	7.20
		DYS 495	7.20
		DYS 714	7.20
		DYS 716	7.20
		DYS 717	7.20
	Total		$64.80

Grand Total			$320.10

You would only take the Kittler test ($23) if your values for DYS385a and DYS385b are different. Once one member of a family has taken this test, the probability is that all family members would have the same result, so this test would be the last priority, if taken at all.

L69 ($29) is a Haplogroup I2 SNP with an associated STR: L69STR. It is listed among the SNP tests, not among the "Advanced" STR tests. You need to specify that you want the STR test.

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