Will we be able to cite FTDNA's new Family Finder Y-haplogroup estimate?

Question

Since FTDNA just announced they will be reporting Y-DNA haplogroup estimate based on the Family Finder test,  I was thinking this could be a great asset for my Name Study.  Even a rough estimate of haplogroup will be enough to figure out which lineages you don't belong to within a Name Study.

I heard that FTDNA will still require a Y test in order to join one of their projects (rumor only), and if this turns out to be true then testers will need another way to collaborate with other Y testers.

Answer 1

I don’t see why not.   From their press release :   While the haplogroup you’ll receive with an autosomal test is better than a broad haplogroup from the Y-37 or Y-111, only a test like the Big Y-700 will provide you with the complete story of your direct paternal line and properly place all testers from the same direct paternal line on the haplotree.

Answer 2

You can do this for yourself with any autosomal DNA test using the Morley Y-DNA subclade predictor https://ytree.morleydna.com/extractFromAutosomal

In my opinion this is worth doing before investing in any Y-DNA test comparison. Because so many more men have autosomal tests than Y tests, a failure to match can be very informative without any additional expenditure.

Answer 3

Yes, it should work the same way it currently does with 23andMe haplogroups.  The DNA test to choose in Wikitree is "Other yDNA".

Answer 4

"I heard that FTDNA will still require a Y test in order to join one of their projects (rumor only), and if this turns out to be true then testers will need another way to collaborate with other Y testers."

You can join an FTDNA YDNA project with only a FamilyFinder. HOWEVER, the test taker's YDNA info will only show up in the YDNA results tables if they have taken a YDNA test. That probably won't change, since the YDNA tables are designed as tables for comparing STR results from FTDNA's 12-111 STR tests (and the STR results produced by its BigY test), I don't think FamilyFinder yields.