One deal not to pass up
The Legal Genealogist generally avoids Black Friday as if it were the Black Plague.
Shopping is my least favorite chore under the best of circumstances, and the phrase “best of circumstances” really can’t be used in the same sentence — or even same paragraph — as “Black Friday sale.”
Except maybe today.
Because there is one Black Friday sale that I’m going to take advantage of today big time.
It’s the Black Friday sale on Family Finder autosomal DNA test kits at Family Tree DNA.
Now first a reminder: autosomal DNA is the kind of DNA that exists everywhere in our chromosomes except in the gender-determinative X and Y chromosomes. So out of the 23 pairs of chromosomes we all have, the autosomes are 22 of those 23 pairs. Men and women alike have this DNA so gender doesn’t matter, and what we get in terms of results are matches to cousins we may not have any other way of knowing about.
So my own personal reason for testing is to try to break through brick walls by locating cousins who may have that family Bible no-one can find, or that piece of the paper trail that’s escaped me.
It’s got limits — it won’t take you back as far in time as YDNA will (that’s the kind of DNA men have and that gets passed down in the direct male line from father to son to son through the generations) or as mitochondrial DNA will (that’s the kind we all get from our mothers and that gets passed down from mother to child in each generation so it helps us prove the direct female line, to our mother’s mother’s mother’s mother and so on).
Realistically the cousins we can hope to find will be descendants of our fourth great grandparents or nearer.
With those limits in mind, it’s a great test — and that’s the test that’s on sale.
The Family Finder test is normally $99. Today, if you buy two or more kits, it’s 10% off, so each kit will cost $89.10, and with each kit you get a restaurant coupon valued at $100 from Restaurant.com.
And that’s a deal too good to pass up.
Let’s see. Uncle Jerry hasn’t tested yet. And my brother. And that second cousin in that one line I’m working on. And…
FOLLOW-UP: The website is having trouble handling the orders. There are two work-arounds for two problems. First, if you order multiple kits, and want them sent to separate addresses, then you need to order them initially to be send to one address (yours) and as soon as the order goes through, change the addresses on the kits. Second, if you’re ordering kits as add-ons to existing kits (say, folks who’ve already done YDNA tests and want to do Family Finder), then:
1) Order 2 or more new kits for the 10% discount.
2) Write down the new kit numbers from the confirmation message/e-mail.
3) Use the Feedback form to send a message to customer support,
http://www.familytreedna.com/feedback-form.aspx.
3a) Make sure the subject in the Feedback for is “SPLIT FF ORDER.”
3b) Include the kit numbers of the new FF orders.
3c) Include the kit numbers of the exiting samples you wish to use.
Let me share a similar story. Different holiday, different “cook” left in charge. My mother was also pre-occupied and it was Christmas 1958. She had just delivered my youngest brother, Hans. He was actually born on December 23rd. Mother wanted to come home so badly to see my 18-month old brother, Alfred’s reaction to Christmas that she conned the doctor into letting releasing mother and infant early. Mother wasn’t allowed to lift even a finger to make dinner. So I was left in charge of a full turkey dinner, just like your Diana.
My initiation into holiday cooking went well until everyone was sitting around the table and took their first bite of turkey. Ugh, flavor flat… from that moment on any time I am in charge of roasting a turkey, family and friends will all chime in with the question, “Darlene, did you salt the bird?”
Thanks for the memory.
LOVE it!!
The DNA kit sounds like a good deal but don’t be fooled into thinking the Restaurant.com gift certificate is a good deal. It is complicated to use and I believe you have to preorder the certificate for a specific restaurant and then you have to spend significantly more than the certificate is for in order to be able to use the certificate. I “won” one at an open house and it was no bargain.
If you go to this website
http://www.haplogroup.org/family-tree-dna-coupon-gedcom/
and follow along, it explains how to upload your GEDCOM file (well I uploaded a part of mine) to FamilyTreeDNA and get a $10 coupon, which you can then apply to the above mentioned deal – I’ve just done it, and got the FamilyFinder test for $89, AND got the $100 Restaurant.com gift card.
Cheers
Roger
Good info, Roger, thanks!
Thanks so much for letting us know about the Black Friday deal. I ordered two FF kits – one for each sibling. Yesterday I upgraded one and added the YDNA67 at the Xmas sale price. If you do this just be sure to let accounting know through customer feedback. If you are female and ordered the kit/s as a gift you will also need to go into the kit and edit the gender to male to add a YDNA test.
Ok – my siblings are not enthused – my brother said it sounded more like his gift to me. My sister asked if I thought she wasn’t really my sister – something my brother teased her about as a child because of her dark complexion. Oh well. They can’t do a return!!