“Parkinson's Voice Initiative”

There is a research project at http://www.parkinsonsvoice.org that is trying to record voice calls from 10,000 people both with and without Parkinson's Disease, to refine an algorithm to detect Parkinson's via a simple voice test. Go to the page and view the video of Max Little at his TED presentation. Telephone numbers are given there for a number of countries. Record the number at the end of the call if you want to check for a response.

Was Susannah, wife of Mareen Duval, a Brassieur?

When Barack Obama was running for President, a Duval descendant posted a line for then Senator Obama from Mareen Duval and his wife Susannah. The poster opined that he believed Susannah was one of the daughters of Benois Brassieur, sometimes shown as Benjamin Brashear, of Maryland. I was interested in that since I have two lines of descent from Benois Brassieur.
 

I now have a DNA match with an individual at 23andme.  In comparing our pedigrees, we have one possible connection, Mareen Duval and Susannah. While not a definitive match, we could have other Maryland ancestry in common, I do think this does support the identification of Susannah as a daughter or other close relative of Benois Brassieur.

That link leads to Presidents Barack Obama and Harry S. Truman, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and to entertainers Ellen Degeneres and Robert Duval.

FTDNA Super Summer Sale

Dear Family Tree DNA Project Administrator,

It seems that every time we run a super sale that a few people email us days later that they were traveling, sick or just hadn't looked at their emails in time, so for all of you who have wanted to entice a friend, neighbor or reluctant relative to get involved in Genetic Genealogy here's one more opportunity, but it will last for only 72 hours. These are the only two options on sale, and they are geared specifically for newcomers. This sale will end on Saturday, August 25, at 11:59PM.

New Customers Only Current Price SALE PRICE Family Finder + Y-DNA 12 $339 $249 Family Finder + mtDNA $339 $249

As with all promotions, orders need to be placed by the end of the sale and payment must be made by end of this sale. Learn More

Astronomy Picture of the Day: DNA video

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video on DNA:

scccp has shared a video with you on YouTube:

Molecular Visualizations of DNA — 

The incredible mechanical form of Dna and its Friends. made by Walter Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Various DNA molecular visualizations derived from x-ray crystallography and other data sets, and imbued with dynamic movement that suggest brownian motion.

Full Identical by Descent match with a 3rd Cousin

Normally, one expects to find either Half Identical by Descent (HIBD) or Full Identical by Descent (FIBD) matches with your genetic relatives. Generally only close relatives through double 1st cousins are expected to have FIBD matches. I have a FIBD with one of my multiple 3rd cousins. The Family Inheritance chart from 23andMe is below:

The FIBD segment is on Chromosome 19. I do not have an FIBD match at that location with my multiple 1st cousin who has a similar relationship to the 3rd cousin.

I am interested in learning of any other FIBD matches with cousins beyond the 1st cousin level.

Invite for AncestryDNA came today

I received my invitation to the AncestryDNA test today, two and one half months after receiving notice that I was on the list for the invitation.  Hopefully I'll have results in another month.

This will be the sixth autosomal DNA test I have had. I have already tested with the Coriell Institute, Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, and DeCode Genetics. I was also tested by Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation but the autosomal results were never released.

I do not expect to have any new ethnicity results, but I do expect to have many more verifiable genealogical connections tied to the pedigree trees at Ancestry.com.

So far I have similar results from Family Finder at FTDNA and Relative Finder at 23andMe with 15 verified connections in each where I am sharing genomes with around 400 people in each database.

GeneTree Closing Notice

Dear GeneTree Customer,

You may have recently heard the exciting news that GeneTree has been acquired by AncestryDNA™ ( http://corporate.ancestry.com/press/press-releases/2012/05/ancestry.com-dna-launches/ ). As we redirect our efforts to the integration with AncestryDNA it will be necessary to discontinue the GeneTree.com website. However, as a valued GeneTree customer, you will be able to access GeneTree.com through the rest of this year, until January 1, 2013. Following this date, access to your account will no longer be available through the GeneTree site, so we recommend that you download your DNA results and pedigree data while the site is still available.

If you’d like to learn more about how to download and continue using your information and family tree outside of GeneTree, see click here To help answer some frequently asked questions, please visit our FAQs. We greatly appreciate you being a part of GeneTree and hope that you continue with your genetic genealogy and family history research.

Sincerely, The GeneTree Team

GeneTree Logo

http://genetree.com/ | genetreesupport@ancestry.com | +1.800.694.6805 | FAQ | Privacy

2480 South Main Street, Suite 200 Salt Lake City, UT 84115 USA

Family Tree DNA's Sizzling summer Promotion

info@familytreedna.com ✆ noreply@familytreedna.com

Dear Project Administrator, Last summer, we offered special pricing to attract new members to your projects. This was the most successful offering of its type in our company’s history. Our project administrators that got behind the recruitment efforts saw their projects grow, and, thus, our database also grew. With this in mind, we’d like to offer a summer special again this year. Special Summer Prices NEW KITS Current Group Price SALE PRICE Y-DNA 12 $99 $59 Y-DNA 37 $149 $129 Y-DNA 67 $239 $199 Family Finder $289 $199 mtFullSequence (FMS) $299 $219 FF+ Y-DNA 37 $438 $328 FF + mtDNAPlus $438 $328 Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-DNA 67) $797 $617 SuperDNA $518 $428 UPGRADES     12 to 37 $109 $70 25 to 37 $59 $35 25 to 67 $159 $114 37 to 67 $109 $79 37 to 111 $220 $188 67 to 111 $129 $109 mtHVR1 to Mega $269 $209 mtHVR2 to Mega $239 $199 You are welcome to blog about this, or send an email to your distribution list, but when it’s over, it’s over. Orders must be in and paid for by 11:59PM on Sunday July 15th, to receive this offer. Order An Upgrade Order A New Kit

Best Regards, Bennett Greenspan President Family Tree DNA www.familytreedna.com "History Unearthed Daily"

More information on the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation )SMGF) databases and Ancestry.com

Dr Tim Janzen has been running a Low German Mennonite Project at SMGF since 2006.  I am one of the participants in the study. In that time he has sent about 2000 test samples and genealogies to SMGF for their DNA project.  He has received two communications from SMGF in the past month giving more info on what is happening to the SMGF databases and genetic samples.  CeCe Moore has just published Dr Janzen's writup on the situation on her Your Genetic Genealogist blog. You can read it here: An important update on SMGF from Dr Tim Janzen. I also wrote about SMGF in this post: Status of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, SMGF, genetic genealogy DNA Databases and GeneTree

Multiple cousin relationships and shared DNA: Endogamy and Consanguinity

I have read a number of posts about endogamy and shared DNA in regard
to the Ashkenazi "Jewish correction" used by 23andme and how it keeps
Ashkenazi Jews from seeing their non-Jewish cousins. Because of the
many intermarriages among European Jews the genetic relationship
predicted is often greater than that expected from the documented
genealogical relationship. These predicted higher or closer relations
push out the genetically smaller but documented higher genealogy
relations.

Many of the Ashkenazi cannot determine the relationships being shown
since the predicted range is too close and their pedigrees are not
detailed enough to make the connection. Below I'll give a non-Jewish
endogamy example where the relationships can be determined.

Last night I received a predicted 2nd cousin at 23andme.  The per cent
of shared DNA is 3.02 in 13 segments for 226cM. He (call him A) is
actually one of my multiple cousins. We (I am B) are 3rd cousins, 3rd
cousins once removed, half 3rd cousins once removed, 4th cousins, 5th
cousins, and triple 6th cousins.

Compared to my multiple 1st cousin (C) they share 10 segments for 151cM.

Compared to my and my 1st cousin's maternal double 3rd cousin once
removed (D) they share 1 segment of 0.9cM.

A is related to B and C on both maternal and paternal lines and to D
through his paternal grandmother.
B is related to A and C on both maternal and paternal lines and to D
on 2 maternal lines.
C is related to A and B on both maternal and paternal lines and to D
on 2 maternal lines.
D is related to A on one maternal line and to B and C on 2 maternal lines.

In all of these cases the predicted relationship, based on DNA shared,
was one generation closer than the documented relationship mainly due
to the high degree of endogamy and the resulting consanguinity.

Now I am waiting for A's wife's results, she is my 3rd cousin once
removed and, yes, we share multiple lines of ancestry. ;^)