FTDNA is introducing a new autosomal DNA test they are calling "Family Finder" which can be taken by both men and women. The new test will cost $249 and will be offered to the general public in March. The Family Finder test requires an untouched vial of DNA. If you have previously been tested by FTDNA and your kit does not have an extra vial on file, FTDNA will mail a new collection kit to you.
Here is a description of the new Family Finder test from FTDNA:
While the Y-DNA matches men with a specific paternal line, and the mtDNA finds potential relatives only along the maternal line, Family Finder can look for close relationships along all ancestral lines. You may now match to male and female cousins from any of your family lines within five generations. The science behind it uses linked blocks of DNA across the 22 autosomal chromosomes and matches them between two people. Based on this concept, our bioinformatics team has worked extensively to develop the calculations that would tell you the closeness of the relationship.
Here is a link to Terry Barton's blog at World Families that describes the test in more detail.
Here is a link to a page on our website that explains more about autosomal DNA.
