Special price on 23andme Ancestry or Complete Edition autosomal DNA test

Mar 9, 2010
The Oprah Winfrey Show and a special promotion
We wanted to share some exciting news and alert you to a special promotion starting today.

Airing this afternoon, The Oprah Winfrey Show will feature celebrities discovering their family roots. The show will feature a segment about the PBS documentary, Faces of America, by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. As you may know, Faces of America used 23andMe’s Ancestry Edition to test the DNA of the guests featured in the series.

To promote the Faces of America segment on Oprah.com, 23andMe is offering viewers of The Oprah Winfrey Show our Ancestry Edition for only $199.00 until 3/31/10.

As members of our valued community, we wanted to make sure you heard about this special promotion. If you know people that may want to take advantage of this significant discount, please direct them to the Faces of America page on our website to order the Ancestry Edition at this special price (this is the only place on the site with this discount, so you need to order from this page). There is no set limit on the number of kits that can be ordered for , but you'll want to act quickly since the offer expires on 3/31/10.

So check out the Oprah show and feel free to spread the word about this special offer!

23andme has said you can get the discount on the Complete Edition by selecting both in your cart, then removing the Ancestry Edition leaving the Complete Edition at a discount.

Oprah.com article on Ancestry:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Dr-Henry-Louis-Gates-Jr-Start-Your-Ancestry-Search

23andMe Faces of America promotion:
https://www.23andme.com/partner/foa/

Faces of America on PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

An explanation of Autosomal DNA

Here is a video from Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation that explains autosomal DNA.

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.

FTDNA announces Family Finder

FTDNA will be starting an autosomal test called Family Finder in mid-March. Some details are available at this link: http://www.familytreedna.com/landing/family-finder.aspx Pricing information is not currently available nor do we know if new samples will be required. Pricing has been announced as $249.00 and new samples will be needed if you do not have an unused sample on file.

At this time the only other comparable product is Relative Finder from 23andme: http://spittoon.23andme.com/2009/11/19/introducing-relative-finder-the-newest-feature-from-23andme/

New NBC series "Who do you think you are?" premieres in April

NBC is set to premiere the new reality TV series, Who Do You Think You Are? on April 20, 2009. Former Friends star, Lisa Kudrow is the executive producer of the series. The first celebrities exploring their family histories on the U.S.reality TV show are; Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon, NBC revealed on Tuesday. Additional celebrity names are expected to be announced soon.

Who Do You Think You Are? is produced by Wall to Wall productions in association with Is Or Isn’t Entertainment. Alex Graham and Lucy Carter from Wall to Wall and Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky and Don Roos from Is or Isn’t Entertainment are the executive producers. Bryn Freedman, the producer of Intervention is the co-executive producer of this historical series. The new show is based on the hit, award-winning BBC television documentary series created and executive-produced by Alex Graham.

Continued at http://realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com/blog/2009/01/30/new-nbc-series-who-do-you-think-you-are-premieres-in-april/

Faces of America

Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. airs on Wednesdays, February 10 – March 3, 2010 from 8-9 p.m. ET on PBS.

Eva Longoria, Meryl Streep, Mario Batali, Stephen Colbert, Malcolm Gladwell, Yo-Yo Ma, Mike Nichols, Kristi Yamaguchi, Elizabeth Alexander, Queen Noor and Louise Erdrich have all submitted DNA tests for a new PBS television series FACES OF AMERICA.

Faces of America

Dr Henry Louis Gates new television program, Faces of America will run on PDS on February 10th. See the trailer here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

New firm, Pathway Genomics has first results

A short article on Pathway Genomics by one of the first people to receive results from their testing system is located at http://www.bio-itworld.com/news/12/08/09/pathway-and-me-consumer-genomics-results.html.

Blaine Bettinger previously reported on this firm at his blog, http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com.

CARTaGENE project in Quebec

Press release on the CARTaGENE project for a genetic map of Quebec: http://www.cartagene.qc.ca/images/stories/pdf_en/cartagene_forum_pressrel.pdf.

3000 people have been tested.

23andMe to split Ancestry from Health

23andMe has been in a Beta of a new feature, Relative Finder, which will allow people to find links on their chromosomes that they share with other people who have tested at 23andMe. This has the potential to be of great use to genealogists who are limited in tracing their own DNA ancestry to Y DNA and mtDNA if a male, or to mtDNA if a female. While through the judicious selection of other relatives you can extend your Y DNA and mtDNA ancestry to other parts of your pedigree, it is not easy to do so.

With Relative Finder you can look at all of your chromosomes and use links found there to extend or verify your pedigree. I have already made one fairly definite connection and I have several others I am trying to verify. Many people were looking forward to using this new program once it was out of Beta. Now there is a problem.

23andMe has decided to split their service into three editions, an ancestry edition for $399; a health edition for $429, and a complete edition for $499. This pricing is exactly the opposite of what people expected. While some genealogists are interested enough to spend these sums on testing, my experience with Y DNA and mtDNA projects tells me the majority are not. 23andMe will need to make a very strong case about why a genealogist would want to purchase their service at this price.

One service currently available to all 23andMe testers is the ability to browse and download your complete genetic information, This can then be analysed by you or your proxy to obtain additional ancestry or health data. This will only be available to Complete Edition customers after 19 November. It will remain available to all current 23andMe users.

While there have been sales at the Holidays in the past, my recommendation would be to purchase the 23andMe test by 19 November to be sure you will get access to the ancestry, health, and genetic data.

See their announcement here: http://spittoon.23andme.com/2009/11/13/get-just-the-information-you-want-23andme-to-offer-separate-health-and-ancestry-editions/