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Family Tree DNA has its big end of summer sale on
it's like buying a big appliance ... always wait for the sales!
but this one won't last long ... it started on August 28 and it ends on September 3
https://www.familytreedna.com/y-dna-compare.aspx
if you are considering testing your male surname line ... father's father's father ... the test you want is Y-67 which is now $199 US and is regularly $268 US
(or you can test your mother's surname line by testing a male rellie of your mother ... her father, paternal uncle, brother or brother's son for example)
anything lower than 67 markers will not allow you to make meaningful matches
(I have many matches at 25 markers that are proved to be quite remote once compared at 67 or even 37 markers ... going from the original 37 I did up to 67 enabled me to confirm a close match when it held very steady at that level)
you can check at FTDNA to see whether your surname has a project underway
https://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx?
if you have any questions about possibly broken links in your paternal chain ... 'non-paternal events' where a child was given the surname of his mother or of a man who was not his biological father ... testing could possibly find a match with the surname of the child's real father
since it is still the case that most people who test are in the US, you might also find distant cousins who don't know what part of England their ancestors came from (the reason many people there do the tests)
it is even possible that someone who was a 'war baby' could find a link to family in the US (there are not so many Canadians involved in these projects yet)
and if the idea of DNA for understanding human ancestry and history interests you, you can join projects for your 'haplogroup' that are tracing migration patterns and developing a picture of when various groups of humanity branched off into different clusters
I don't work for FTDNA :-) and I have my own quibbles with the company, but for matching purposes it is the best option
(remember that Ancestry is getting out of the business, so if you have tested at Ancestry, also consider transferring your results to FTDNA and possibly upgrading them to match the tests there -- I believe you might be able to order an upgrade now - at the sale price that is - if you order a transfer at the same time, just email the company to find out)
if anyone is interested in the sale, I can also give you advice about protecting your privacy at the FTDNA site, since in my opinion too much information gets disclosed to project administrators and matches, and it is easy to scrub your account info to prevent this if you don't want to disclose your name or location for instance
and fellow women, you can't do the test ... but you can get one of your male rellies to do it, as I did (one on each side of my family)
your father or brother or brother's son can test for your father's surname line
your mother's father or brother or brother's son can test for your maternal grandfather's surname line
the YDNA (male line DNA) tests are the only ones that are on sale now, but others may go on sale at Christmas (like family finder, which both men and women can do to try to locate relations up to the fifth cousin level)
happy to answer any questions the best I can :-)
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