FTDNA announces a $39.00 US 12 marker Y DNA test (SALE EXTENDED, ends 5 March)

The sale now ends on 5 March.

See the FTDNA home page: http://www.ftdna.com or the press release here.

Genetic Genealogy course from the National Genealogical Society

From

What’s Happening at the 

National Genealogical Society, 13 June 2012:

New NGS Course: Genetic Genealogy, The Basics

NGS proudly announces the release of its newest American Genealogy Studies course, Genetic Genealogy: The Basics. The course was developed by Dr. Thomas H. Shawker who is a physician with the National Institutes of Health, a nationally recognized lecturer on genetics, and chairman of the NGS Genetic Genealogy Committee.

Dr. Shawker shares his medical expertise in this six-lesson self-paced course. Topics covered in the course include

·    the structure of the DNA molecule, how it is organized, how it replicates, and how it functions;
·         human chromosomes and how the Y chromosome is inherited;
·         the two types of DNA markers used in genetic genealogy;
·         haplotypes and haplogroups;
·    evaluation of a Y chromosome surname project and a discussion on how to evaluate the test results of the participants; and
·    the structure of the mitochondrial DNA molecule, how it is inherited, and how it can be used in genealogy. 

Genetic Genealogy, The Basics is designed for independent study. Students check their work with an answer key that immediately follows each self-test. The course is available on a PC- or MAC-compatible CD in a PDF format. The tuition is $45.00 for members and $70.00 for non-members.

Please visit the course web page at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/genetic_genealogy for more information and to register for the course.

Comparison of 23andme Relative Finder, Ancestry Finder and FTDNA Family Finder results

I'll repeat a post I made at 23andme on comparing success rates at both:

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Colonial American ancestry: Jamestown, Boston, Cambridge, Hartford, New Haven Colony, New Amsterdam, New Sweden, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Then spread out to North Carolina, South Carolina, both pre-Rev War; then Tennessee and Kentucky, post-Rev War.

• at 23andme I have 1050 RF matches and have confirmed 7 of those.
• at FTDNA I have 175 FF matches and have confirmed 10 of those.
• Two of my confirmed matches have tested both 23andme RF and FTDNA FF.
• I have 20 separate X Chromosome matches in RF and AF. That counts repeated people only once.
• I have no immediate matches at FTDNA. I have 54 close matches and 121 speculative matches. My closest confirmed matches are two 4th cousins.
• I have two known 1st cousins at 23andme and two unresponsive 2nd cousins. My closest confirmed match at 23andme is with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter.

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If you haven't done any tests I recommend starting at 23andme and then, when FTDNA opens the program, transferring your results to FTDNA. That way you get genealogical matches from both companies, you get mtDNA haplogroup and if a male, Y DNA haplogroup, and X chromosome matches at 23andme plus health info.

At FTDNA you get genealogy matches and when they get it ready, X chromosome matches. You have to pay separately for the Y DNA haplotype and haplogroup and the same for mtDNA. So from a cost perspective it is lower cost to start at 23andme and transfer to FTDNA UNLESS you also want detailed Y DNA /mtDNA readings.

Genetic Genealogy testing: Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation

We often focus on the commercial DNA testing companies and forget about the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, http://smgf.org/ They were the first organization to use DNA testing for genealogy. They began with testing of blood and then moved on to testing with a mouth-wash method. One of their goals was to build a collection 100,000 samples. This was reached a few years ago. These samples have been tested for Y chromosome DNA, mitochondrial mtDNA, and autosomal DNA from Chromosomes 1 through 22 and the X chromosome. At this time the Y DNA and mtDNA results are available for searching by entering your results or by using a surname to search the genealogical charts the participants sent with their samples. The autosomal database has not yet been released for searching.

Did I mention the test is free of charge?

One drawback to the testing is that there is no guarantee that your results will make it into the public databases where you can retrieve them at no charge. However, you can get your results from GeneTree, http://www.genetree.com for a nominal charge.

At this time SMGF is accepting samples from the following populations:

Other Areas of Interest
Reaching the 100,000 participants milestone was just one of the objectives of our project. We are still working to enhance our dataset by actively seeking participants for our database with ancestry from a number of countries and lineages (listed below). If you have genealogical information linking you to one of these areas or have connections that could facilitate collections in these areas please contact SMGF at info@smgf.org.

• Ireland
• Japan
• Sweden
• France
• Germany
• Belgium
• All Eastern European countries
• Lebanon
• Syria
• Jordan
• Egypt
• North Africa
• Switzerland
• Denmark
• Spain
• Portugal

Family Finder, Relative Finder, deCODEme, SMGF

In my capacity of running 9 DNA studies and advising people on testing, I have been looking at the information on Family Finder from FTDNA in comparison to 23andMe's Relative Finder Ancestry Edition.

Family Finder is only looking at the non-sex chromosomes and it does not include mtDNA testing. If we include the minimal testing of Y dna and/or mtDNA at the Genographic Project (to get the lowest price) a female would undercut the price of the 23andMe Relative Finder Ancestry Edition test, but would still not have the X chromosome tested, and a male would pay more than Relative Finder Ancestry Edition and still not have the X chromsome tested.

My ancestry is mainly Colonial American from the British Isles with some French, German, and Norwegian. My experience with Relative Finder is that of the 30,000 plus people in the project, I have matches with 307. I have sent out 106 sharing requests with 5 declines, 69 contacts accepted, and 32 contacts with sharing. Of the 32 sharing I have found the common ancestor for 6 of them. 3 of them share on the X chromosome. Hopefully as the database grows I'll have more matches and shares.

I think the companies should require a 5 or 6 generation pedigree chart from the people testing which would be shared with their matches. I think that would really help with the process of finding common ancestors.

This also brings up the question of what happened to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation's plans to release an autosomal database which would be linked to the pedigrees they collected. Does anyone have any information from SMGF?

While I am getting the Family Finder testing, and have done the 23andme complete edition, exchanged with deCODEme, and the SMGF testing, I am somewhat disappointed in the results so far, and will have to really see some improvements before I can recommend these tests to any but the most dedicated genetic genealogists.