The big news last week were the hearing held on Direct to Consumer (DTC) DNA tests by the FDA and by Senator Hatch. Katherine Hope Borges of the ISOGG made a statement at the FDA hearing which is reproduced at the Huffington Post by Megan Smolenyak. Katherine was the only speaker to address genetic genealogy issues. The rest of the speakers discussed various medical aspects of DNA testing.
Links to follow.
Today I have the following results:
23andMe:
FTDNA:
Dear Family Tree DNA Customer
Over the last several years, due to the unmatched growth of our database, numerous people have confirmed and found new connections with others of their surname, and adoptees and descendents of adoptees have even found their biological surname.
These successes are due in large part to the size and quality of our database, which, with your help, has achieved critical mass. We have made tremendous progress, but we feel that we can do more. If you have tested 12, 25, or 37 markers, an upgrade to 37 or 67 markers could provide the relevant connection that you or your matches have been waiting for.
Family Tree DNA is dedicated to supporting this effort. From July 8th through July 19th, we will reduce all our Y-DNA upgrade prices.
Current Group SALE Price
Y12-25 $49 $35
Y12-37 $99 $69
Y12-67 $189 $149
Y25-37 $49 $35
Y25-67 $148 $109
Y37-67 $99 $79
To order this special offer, log in to your personal page and click on the special offers link in the left hand navigation bar. A link to the login page is provided below. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MIDNIGHT JULY 19th TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICE.
http://www.familytreedna.com/login.aspxA notice of this sale has been sent to those customers who qualify for these Y-DNA upgrades.
We would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that registration has begun for The 6th Annual Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Group Administrators, which will be taking place on October 30-31, 2010. You can find more about it here
As always, we appreciate your continued support.
Bennett Greenspan© All Contents Copyright 2001-2010 Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd.
I have tested my autosomal chromosomes at both 23andMe and FTDNA.
At 23andMe in Relative Finder I have 464 people with matching chromosome segments. My largest match is with my 1st cousin at 19.79% of our DNA. Most 1st cousins will be around 12.5% but we share 6 of 8 Great Grandparents so we have more matching DNA than most 1st cousins. The lowest amount of DNA I have with someone is .08% and that was the first person I was able to find a match with as 10th cousins once removed. 106 people are currently sharing genomes with me which allows us to see on which chromosome we have a match.
The majority of my matches are on one or another of chromosomes 1 through 22. However I have 9 people who have 10 shared segments with me on the X chromosome which, as a male, I inherited from my mother. By mapping the start and end locations of the shared segments I can see who may share a common X ancestry with me or with each other. In this case my 1st cousin shares 2 segments with me and 1 of those segments with me and two brothers. I partially share a segment with a mother and daughter and 3 other persons. And one of those persons shares half a segment with another person.
When males share an X segment it means they are related through their mothers' ancestry. When a male shares an X segment with a female they can be related on his mother's ancestry and on either her mother's or father's X ancestry.
Unless one or both of your parents also takes the 23andme test, it can be difficult to "phase" your results, in other words, to be able to assign a segment to your mother's or father's ancestry. Until this can be done, you can't know if two people who match you at the same location match your segment strand from either your mother or your father. This means that you can't say that it means they have the same ancestry to each other as they have to you. If your parent's are deceased, you may be able to phase your results by testing siblings of you or your parents.
I have definitely identified 6 relationships at 23andMe. Over 50,000 people have tested at 23andme in the past two years.
At FTDNA in Family Finder I have 53 matches. Because FTDNA didn't start Family Finder until recently, the number of matches is much smaller than at 23andMe. However, since Family Finder only tests for ancestry, it is believed that the people testing will be more knowledgeable about genealogy than those at 23andMe. So far I have also identified 6 connections at FTDNA, the same as at 23andMe but twice as many per number of sharing matches. At this time FTDNA does not show matches on the X chromosome but it has said it will do so in the future.
I have also had autosomal testing done with Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation but they have not yet released their results. They have tested over 100,000 people and have pedigrees attached to most of those.
There is a new beta program at 23andMe called Ancestry Finder. This program uses the information from the survey on "Where are you From?" to map segments of your autosomal chromosomes to various nationalities. No time line has been given for rolling this out beyond the beta testers.
Some questions have been raised on whether this will be of practical use for Native American or African American testers since the number of persons from each group participating in 23andme is low. There is also some concern from European Americans who have long lines of ancestors born in America that the program will not give them much of interest.
It is hoped that those who have already completed the survey will be allowed to edit their replies to add information on ethnicity to supplement the location information.
A review has been posted at the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.
To get the prices mentioned below, you MUST ORDER through a SURNAME PROJECT at FTDNA. If you are not already in a surname project, you can search for a project using the search box on their web page at http://www.ftdna.com/
Dear Family Tree DNA Group Administrator
Last summer we offered a pricing special that was the most successful offering of its type in our company history. Project administrators got behind the recruitment efforts and for those that did, their projects grew and our database grew, so we'd like to offer a summer special again.
Here are the details:
Recently a friend asked me, "What DNA tests should he or his brother take?"
Here is my reply.
http://www.misbach.org/pdfcharts/pedigree_chart.pdf
If he/you can fill that out he/you should take one or both of the autosomal tests (chromosomes 1-22 and the X chromosome), Relative Finder or Family Finder.
If I were starting out now and had a budget of $1000.00
Total cost, $949.00 plus shipping. The tests can be taken in stages if cost is a problem.
This why I recommended the 23andme test for $99.00. It was a fantastic deal and cut $400.00 off the total cost.
Because you are not twins, if you and your brother took the tests you would probably not match all the same people since each conception shuffles the chromosomes.
That chart above is important. The more people he knows there the greater is the chance to confirm relationships with the DNA testing.
He needs the Y DNA 37 marker test so he gets his Y DNA haplotype to match against others in the surname project and the FTDNA database so you can confirm the line you belong to.
I no longer recommend taking the mtDNA tests at FTDNA unless you are trying to determine if certain females are mother and daughter or maternal sisters or that a male and a female had the same mother.
I have taken all of these tests. They are best for confirming relationships from 1st through 5th cousins, although I have confirmed a 10th cousin once removed through 23andme.
