Genealogy gets more Precise

From _Technology Review_:

Tracing your ancestry via DNA is becoming a popular pastime, thanks to a growing number of consumer tests available over the Internet. At least two-dozen companies sell tests ranging in price from $100 to $900, and public interest is thriving. Most of these tests, however, paint a very rough picture of an individual's ancestral origins: they're limited to the direct maternal or paternal line. But that is beginning to change.
New technologies are allowing scientists to search for markers across the genome that can more precisely predict ancestry. Much of that data is being poured into public databases, supplying much more accurate and detailed information to genetic-testing companies and new consumer tests.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21204/?a=f

Discount Y DNA test opportunity

DNA Heritage has lowered their price for a 43 marker YSTR DNA test by $20 through August 31. Potential DNA Project members may find this discount an inducement to purchase a test. Anyone who ordered a test kit but did not return it can also obtain the discounted test price. http://www.dnaheritage.com/dnapatent.asp

FTDNA discounts for Y DNA upgrades

FTDNA has announced a discount on the pricing for Y DNA upgrade tests. Elligible participants should have received an email announcing the discount. In the 10 projects I admin or co-admin, there are a large number of returned undelivered emails. If you are part of an FTDNA DNA study, go to your personal web page at FTDNA and make sure your current email address is entered there.

Ajay Royyuru's Genographic Project lecture in Melbourne

From the ISOGG discussion List:
Ajay Royyuru gave a Genographic Project lecture at the Alfred Deakin Lecture Series in Melbourne on 7 June:
http://www.deakinlectures.net/program/index.html
Direct link:
http://www.thedeakins.com.au/deakin/01%20The%20Body%20&%20the%20Machine%20-%20 Part%201.m4a

Coriell Institute for Medical Research free medical genetic testing

Yesterday I went to the Coriell Institute, http://www.coriell.org/ in Camden, New Jersey, where I attended a lecture on their free medical genetic testing program. Part of the lecture was a review of their informed consent form, which I had previously received via an email attachment. At the end of the review I answered a few questions on the form and signed up for the testing. At that point I went to their lab and donated some saliva, and received a bar code to be used to retrieve results sometime around September of this year. Since this is a medical test, results will only be given for medically informative markers that have a treatment or lifestyle option for mitigation. If there is no cure or no effective lifestyle change to avoid the problem, then we will not be informed of that medical condition. The testing chip is the Affymetrix GeneChip, Genome wide Human SNP Array 6.0, http://www.affymetrix.com/products/application/genome_wide_snp_6_ad.affx As you can see at that page it does contain X and Y chromosome and mtDNA SNPs. I'll be lobbying for release of those results as well as the medical results. I do not believe we will receive the raw results of these tests.

If you are anywhere near Camden, I strongly urge you to consider this testing opportunity if you are interested in your genetic medical profile, http://www.coriell.org/index.php/content/view/92/257/

Color, Controversy and DNA

Color, Controversy and DNA
By Henry Louis Gates Jr. | TheRoot.com

A conversation between The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nobel laureate and DNA pioneer James Watson about race and genetics, Jewish intelligence, blacks and basketball and Watson's African roots.
Video
Transcript of the conversation.

What I have learned from doing Genetic Genealogy

1) It is easier to get Y DNA donors than to get mtDNA donors. 2) The person you want to test will not test. My two maternal Uncles refuse to test. This means I can't verify my Mother's paternal line. My half-cousin will not test. This means I can't verify my Father's maternal line. 3) Creating lists of mtDNA bearing descendants of target females is difficult to do. 4) I believe I know 14 Y DNA signatures from my 16 GGG-Grandfathers. I only know 3 mtDNA signatures of my 16 GGG-Grandmothers. 5) At 12 markers, three of my Y DNA lines are exact matches. They vary considerably when taken out to 37 markers. 6) My line of Perkins ancestors is closely related to the line of Somerled, King of the Isles. 7) Genetic Genealogist need to be more careful in the methodology used to support the assignment of a haplotype and a haplogroup to an ancestral line. 8) By itself, genetic genealogy, can not prove a relationship, but it can definitely prove that two people of the same surname are NOT related.

My surname studies: Ball, Creekmore, Kidd, Manning, Parkins and Perkins, Phipps, Strunk, Swain, Whitecotton, and Wyatt.

I am the moderator or co-moderator of 10 surname genetic genealogy studies. The surnames are Ball, Creekmore/Crickmer, Kidd, Manning, Parkins and Perkins, Phipps, Strunk, Swain, Whitecotton, and Wyatt. These are all families of my direct ancestors. A goal of all these studies is to try to connect the immigrant families to their homelands in the British Isles or elsewhere.

Mike Ball and I both contacted FTDNA about starting a Ball Y chromosome DNA study. In this study we have established the Y DNA signature of Col William Ball of Millenbeck Plantation, a maternal grandfather of President George Washington, as being in Y haplogroup I. We have also been able to determine the Y DNA signature of several other Ball families, including that of John Ball of Fairfax and Stafford counties VA. Many people thought that John Ball was a relative of George Washington's mother, Mary Ball. The Y DNA testing has shown that this is not correct since they do not have the same haplotype or haplogroup. The results are on this web page: http://www.ftdna.com/public/Ball/

In the Creekmore Y chomosome DNA study, we have tested peple named Creekmore, Crickman, Crickmer, and Crick/Creek, in order to determine their possible genetic connections. The Creekmore subjects in America and the Crickmer subject from Norfolk Co., England match and are in Y Haplogroup R1a1. The American Crickman subject does not match them. The Crick/Creek subjects match eachother but none of the others. Edmund Crickmon of Norfolk Co., VA is the putative ancestor we are working from. He is believed to be the Edmund Crickman baptised at St Mary Coslany in Norwich, Norfolk Co., England, in the early 1600s, son of George Crickmer and Agnes Roo. That the Crickmer from England and the Creekmores of America match seems to lend weight to that belief. The problem is that the Crickman did not match. This family has been in Norfolk Co., VA since the 1600s and the person tested was born there. The Crick/Creek subjects were tested to see if there might be some connection between the Creek and Creekmore families. Results are here: http://www.ftdna.com/public/Creekmore/

The Kidd Y chromosome DNA study was started to determine the Y DNA signature of Thomas Kidd an immigrant to colonial Virginia supposedly from Soham Parish, Cambridgeshire, England. We have been able to determine connections between a number of Virginia Kidd families as well as confirm a non-paternity event for another family. One Kidd from Soham has been tested, but there was no match between him and the Virginia Kidd. My co-moderator in the Kidd study is Sandra Kidd. The results are here: http://www.ftdna.com/public/Kidd/

The Manning Y chromosome DNA study was started to determine if there are genetic connections between the various Manning families of New England, Maryland, and Virginia, and those anywhere else in the world. A number of names are under the Manning umbrella, Manin, Manon, Mannin, Mannon, etc. and there are a number of haplogroups represented in the results. The results are here: http://www.ftdna.com/public/Manning/

The Parkins and Perkins Y DNA study was started to determine if the two names are genetically related and to determine the genetic relationships among the various Perkins immigrants to colonial America. Judge Paul M. Perkins spent years researching various Perkins immigrants and published a study purporting to show how a number were related: Genealogy and history of one branch of the Perkins family in America, originating with Edward Perkins, immigrant to America and to New Haven, Connecticut, before 1646. There were several revisions which he deposited in a number of major genealogical libraries. The study has tried to find descendants from those families and compare their DNA results. The current results show that several of the families thought to be related based on documents and physical proximity, are not genetically related. The results are here: http://www.ftdna.com/public/Parkins-Perkins/

The Spitoon, a blog for 23andME

23andMe has a blog at http://spittoon.23andme.com/ It contains a number of good posts, including an explanation of what their kit is meant to do, and an interview by the 23andME founders with Dr Craig Venter. This looks like a good source for continuing information on 23andME.

African American Lives 2, 6 Feb 2008

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will present the second part of African American Lives, on the Public Broadcastiong Service stations on 6 February. There are a number of videos and papers on the series and the people to be profiled at the website above. The DNA and Genealogy section is at this link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/dna/index.html