Book Review: The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA

Roberta Estes. The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2024.

The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

If you have a DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA (also known as FTDNA), you should consider getting a copy of this newly published book (2024). The author is Roberta Estes, who is one of the foremost experts on genetic genealogy.

Why do I recommend this book?

• FTDNA offers 3 types of DNA tests (Autosomal, Y-DNA and mtDNA), plus they show matches from your X-Chromosome. Other direct-to-consumer DNA testing companies only offer autosomal tests. As a result, people have less experience interpreting these other tests.

• FTDNA is more “science-y” than the other testing companies. They give us more tools and more detailed results than the other companies. This is a good thing, but when I was new to the site, I was pretty overwhelmed, and ignored a lot of the information that now I make use of. While the tools have become more user-friendly over time, it is still nice to have a guidebook to follow along with.

• This book is useful for both those people who have just tested for the first time, and those who tested a while ago, but aren't making full use of their results.

It’s surprising how many people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on DNA tests, and then don’t spend a few moments to learn how to set their kit up properly. The only conclusion I can come to is that they don’t realize what they are missing as a result. The book has examples of how to use FTDNA’s tools, and case studies from Ms. Estes own research, and includes step-by-step instructions with colour screenshots.

You may ask: Can’t I just read the FTDNA website to learn how it works? Sure– they’ve added a blog in recent years and so there is a lot of helpful information right there. But the website doesn’t want to overwhelm you by giving you a book’s worth of information.

Roberta Estes is also a long-time blogger, and her book’s footnotes link, in many cases, back to her own blog, to posts providing further examples and more in-depth information. Robert Estes’ blog is a must-read, and that won’t change, even once you own one or more of her books. But what I like about having a book is:

• I know everything is up-to-date as of a certain moment (2024). When you read a blog post that’s a few years old, you always have to wonder if things have changed over the interim.

• After reading the book start to finish, you can be confident in your learning. Reading blog posts here and there can leave gaps.

• I am old-school! I learn better by reading books, underlining and writing notes in the book (gasp!) as I go. Sometimes I’ll read a blog post somewhere online and can’t find it again when I want to revisit the information.

Now, the downside to a book on DNA especially compared to reading a blog, is that it will become out-of-date. Even since this book was written, a couple of things have changed at FTDNA. That is the nature of the DNA industry– it moves quickly, which is why you need to invest some time into continuous learning, or you end up missing out.

Although I think the book does an excellent job simplifying a difficult subject, there are places where it might be confusing, particularly to someone new to DNA. But the way Ms. Estes writes is very comfortable, just like in her blog.

This excerpt from p. 59 shows the accessible writing style. I love this type of tone in a technical book.

It is best to read this book as recommended in its early pages: with your FTDNA results open beside you. There I was in Chapter 5, book in hand, computer on my lap, trying to format a spreadsheet to colour code my match data by maternal and paternal side! Here is an example of the types of notes I made as I followed along.

Yes! I write in books. They are a tool, and that is how I learn!

Did I just lose you at “spreadsheet”?  Don’t worry, that part is optional. My point is, even if you’ve been a long-time user at FTDNA, I bet you’ll learn something useful if you follow along with your results open, and apply the lessons as you go.

Important points to mention:

• This is NOT a generic DNA book. Don’t buy it unless you have tested at FTDNA, or intend to test or transfer your results there.

• Ms. Estes gives several case studies and examples from her own research. She has tested MANY relatives though, so she has an excellent dataset to work with. I have tested some known cousins, and have others who have tested themselves, but I have a lot fewer close matches at FTDNA than she does. This impacts my ability to fully bucket matches, track X-DNA inheritance etc.

Part of what this book provides is inspiration. What could I do, if I recruited the right relatives to test, as Ms. Estes has done? That inspiration has already triggered some actions. Have I upgraded a test since I started reading this book? YES! Have I started a fanchart, showing the ancestors who I have Y or mtDNA information for? YES! Am I more motivated than ever to try to get cousins to test or transfer their results to FTDNA from the other testing companies? YESSSS!

Note: Read the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy of the company before testing or uploading your DNA anywhere. Be aware that FTDNA allows law enforcement to upload kits to their system, although you can opt out of law enforcement matching.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.