Roots Into the Future: New Project at 23andMe for African American, Black, and African research

Roots Into the Future:

10,000 FREE DNA Test kits for persons of Sub-Saharan African Ancestry

A recent article in Wired Magazine highlighted how the genome revolution has been skipping most people in the world: 96% of participants in recent genomic studies trace most of their ancestry to Europe. Why? Statistical analysis is simpler in groups tracing ancestry to just one continental region so fewer individuals are needed to make discoveries. Although African Americans typically trace about 20% of their ancestry to Europe, studies to verify previous findings in this population have not been done for many diseases. Our understanding of how DNA influences disease risk in people with mostly non-European ancestry has a lot of catching up to do.
23andMe hopes to bridge this growing divide through Roots into the Future, a research initiative addressing the needs of the African American community. Our partners in the research initiative include Dr. Henry Louis Gates and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard, as well as advisors from academia, industry and the 23andMe community. Our goal is to enroll 10,000 participants who self-identify as African American, Black, or African in order to rapidly accelerate genetic research in the African American community.

Continues at http://spittoon.23andme.com/2011/07/26/roots-into-the-future/

See the Roots Into the Future website: https://www.23andme.com/roots/

23andColm: Some analysis you can do with your 23andMe result file

Colm O'Dushlaine, a genetics researcher, has been documenting his use of various tools to analyze his 23andme results. See this web site: https://sites.google.com/a/codushlaine.com/colm-o-dushlaine/23andcolm

The entry for Day 11 has a link to his EthnoAncestry Total Genomic Ancestry Classification report for those wondering what one looks like.

You can do the same analysis he is doing if you have access to UNIX/LINUX or can find a variant of the programs used for your operating system.

Update on 23andMe and FTDNA DNA matches

Today I have 160 matches at FTDNA in the Family Finder autosomal DNA database.

I have 998 matches in the 23andMe Relative Finder autosomal DNA database and around 700 unique matches in the Ancestry Finder database. 23andMe includes X chromosome matches which are not yet posted by FTDNA.

While I have more matches in the 23andme database, I have made more identifications of the ancestral couple in the FTDNA database. Testing with both companies remains the optimum strategy for finding genealogical connections.

Even though I have 10 surname projects at FTDNA, for autosomal and X chromosome DNA testing I recommend using 23andme first, and when they make it available, transferring your genome results to FTDNA to get matches against their database. This will cost the least for people in the USA.

The only other company I currently recommend is the Sorensen Molecular Genealogy Foundation, http://smgf.org/ They test Y DNA, mtDNA, autosomal DNA and X chromosome DNA. You can get tested for no cost if you meet their research requirements and submit a pedigree chart. However, there is no guarantee they will post your results on their system. They have made the Y DNA and mtDNA databases freely accessible on their website. It is anticipated they will do the same for autosomal and X chromosome DNA. They also sell access through GeneTree, http://www.genetree.com/ People who do not qualify for free DNA testing at SMGF, can pay for testing at GeneTree.

At this time, I am using DNA testing to verify my documented genealogy. I think it can be a very good check against one's paper genealogy.