FTDNA Discover

[rmstevens2]

At the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, I have got to say that I love FTDNA Discover, especially Ancient Connections.

Man, the whole thing is fantastic!

Of course, the scary thing about it is the thought that we might lose it someday. I certainly hope not, and I have no real reason to think we will, but in the back of my mind I remember YSearch - a fantastic tool -, which FTDNA used to maintain. I really liked YSearch, too, and it went away (for various legitimate reasons).

(And I also remember Ancestry gobbling up the Sorenson database and shutting it down, but FTDNA had nothing to do with that.)

Anyway, I'm not saying Discover is perfect, but it's really really excellent. I use the heck out of it. It is a fantastic learning tool.

Probably some folks will complain about it, and that's fine. We all have our points of view.

[Riverman]

At the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, I have got to say that I love FTDNA Discover, especially Ancient Connections.

Man, the whole thing is fantastic!

Of course, the scary thing about it is the thought that we might lose it someday. I certainly hope not, and I have no real reason to think we will, but in the back of my mind I remember YSearch - a fantastic tool -, which FTDNA used to maintain. I really liked YSearch, too, and it went away (for various legitimate reasons).

(And I also remember Ancestry gobbling up the Sorenson database and shutting it down, but FTDNA had nothing to do with that.)

Anyway, I'm not saying Discover is perfect, but it's really really excellent. I use the heck out of it. It is a fantastic learning tool.

Probably some folks will complain about it, and that's fine. We all have our points of view.

I don't think it will go away unless FTDNA goes down and being not bought up by a company which cares for anything any more. Simply because ancient DNA comparisons gained a much wider audience in the recent years and will rather increase in importance, as long as that kind of DNA testing and business exists, rather than go away.
Marketing is a lot about presentation and the BigY results got way more presentable, to put it that way, with the Discovery tools than they were before. The recent increase in BigY customers speaks for itself.
It is very important that the results and tools are largely freely accessible, for people which haven't tested yet, but might consider it.

[Tolan]

I also love FTDNA Discover.
Even today, I learned a new fact.
A person with a planet as a country is one of the 9 BY145002.
Suffice to say that I know nothing about this person, and no way to contact him because he is not one of my matches.

Thanks to Suggested Projects, I found him on a surname project.
Now I know his last name, his most distant known ancestor, and his STRs haplotype.
I have already been able to take information like this for other people in my haplogroup...

[rmstevens2]

I wish there were a complete, encyclopedic list of all the ancient samples in Ancient Connections, along with their Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups, their dates and cultures, with links to the scientific papers in which they appear, or at least the names of the papers.

There isn't something like that already that I am overlooking, is there?

I mean a simple list with entries, not Ancient Connections itself.

[Mitchell-Atkins]

I wish there were a complete, encyclopedic list of all the ancient samples in Ancient Connections, along with their Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups, their dates and cultures, with links to the scientific papers in which they appear, or at least the names of the papers.

There isn't something like that already that I am overlooking, is there?

I mean a simple list with entries, not Ancient Connections itself.

Are you familiar with the Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR): Downloadable genotypes of present-day and ancient DNA data

 https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/allen-anci...t-dna-data

Last update was almost a year ago so they are overdue. V54.1.p1: Data release: Mar 6 2023
If you download the .anno 1240K file and open it in excel and delimit the files you get over 16000 samples including 10000 ancient ones.
Headers/columns are
Genetic ID
Master ID
Skeletal code
Skeletal element
Year data from this individual was first published
Publication
Method for Determining Date; unless otherwise specified, calibrations use 95.4% intervals from OxCal v4.4.2 Bronk Ramsey (2009); 
Date mean in BP in years before 1950 CE [OxCal mu for a direct radiocarbon date, and average of range for a contextual date]
Date standard deviation in BP [OxCal sigma for a direct radiocarbon date, & standard deviation of the uniform distribution between the 2bounds for a contextual date]
Full Date One of two formats.
Age at Death from physical anthropology
Group ID
Locality
Political Entity
Lat.
Long.
Pulldown Strategy
Data source
No. Libraries
1240k coverage (taken from original pulldown where possible)
SNPs hit on autosomal targets (Computed using easystats on 1240k snpset)
SNPs hit on autosomal targets (Computed using easystats on HO snpset)
Molecular Sex
Family ID and position within family
Y haplogroup (manual curation in terminal mutation format)
Y haplogroup (manual curation in ISOGG format)
mtDNA coverage (merged data)
mtDNA haplogroup if >2x or published
mtDNA match to consensus if >2x (merged data)
Damage rate in first nucleotide on sequences overlapping 1240k targets (merged data)
Sex ratio [Y/(Y+X) counts] (merged data)
Library type (minus=no.damage.correction, half=damage.retained.at.last.position, plus=damage.fully.corrected, ds=double.stranded.library.preparation, ss=single.stranded.library.preparation)
Libraries
ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENT WARNINGS (Xcontam interval is listed if lower bound is >0.005, "QUESTIONABLE" if lower bound is 0.01-0.02, "QUESTIONABLE_CRITICAL" or "FAIL" if lower bound is >0.02) (mtcontam confidence interval is listed if coverage >2 and upper bound is <0.

[rmstevens2]

Yeah, I'm familiar with the AADR. I use it frequently, but it's not as nice and neat and clear as what I had in mind.

[Nick1234]

There’s a new video from FTDNA which previews some of the work being done on the Discover features for mitochondrial DNA along with changes to the Mitotree:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstec...s?lang=eng

These features are still in development but they look pretty good. Seems to mirror much of what is available for YDNA.

[Geo]

I've found some of my approximately 500-700 ybp relatives only through https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna...4538/story
But cannot get in touch with them - I'm personally only on https://www.yfull.com/tree/I-Y353312/
They are not present in any project on Ftdna.
How could I connect with them? Or at least invite to yfull

[Mabrams]

I've found some of my approximately 500-700 ybp relatives only through https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna...4538/story
But cannot get in touch with them - I'm personally only on https://www.yfull.com/tree/I-Y353312/
They are not present in any project on Ftdna.
How could I connect with them? Or at least invite to yfull

You have to get into the FTDNA system, where you can get their emails (if they match you).

If you don't want to go to BigY, then try Y37 and see if they pop up at Y12, 25 or 37.  
(You can upgrade to BigY later from Y37.)