Expanded DNA testing for American GIs MIA and KIA: Opportunities to identify war dead abound as DOD overhauls troubled recovery efforts

From Stars and Stripes:

http://www.stripes.com/news/opportunities-to-identify-war-dead-abound-as-dod-overhauls-troubled-recovery-efforts-1.285323

By Travis J. Tritten
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 25, 2014

Excerpt:

More than 83,000 servicemembers are still listed as missing from War World II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq and other conflicts, according to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

Advances in DNA analysis, the use of global positioning software and aerial drones, and clues gleaned over decades from historical records are already pointing the way toward closure for scores of those servicemembers, speakers at the POW-MIA Awareness Conference said.

FTDNA's revamped Population Finder is now myOrigins

If you have taken the Family Finder test at FTDNA, one of your result sets has been Population Finder. This has been renamed myOrigins. It is found as a link on your Personal Page (MyFTDNA) at FTDNA. I looked at my FTDNA myOrigins results and they are in line with what I have at 23andMe and at AncestryDNA.

So now all three show:

The British Isles;
France and the Low Countries;
Scandinavia;
Portugal and Spain over to Greece and the western Balkans.

Missing is Finnish and Yakut.

I believe Finnish should be there since I'm 90% sure of my Finnish ancestor in New Sweden. The Yakut, maybe not, though it could be Native American.

In 23andMe Counties of Ancestry I match people with all grandparents from Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Armenia, as well as the more western European countries.

For me, myOrigins seems to work.

First and Third Cousin matches at 23andMe

Here is a chart of where my three 1st cousins and I match genetically:

1st Cousins

On average 1st cousins are expected to match at 12.5% of their genome. In order of these matches the percentages are 17.9; 15.9; and 12.5. The first line of matches (green)is from a 1st cousin who is related to me on both the paternal and maternal sides of our families. We shared 6 of 8 Great Grandparents. Our mothers were sisters and our fathers were 1st cousins. The blue line is from a 1st cousin where her father and my mother were siblings. The same is true for the purple line but her father was a different brother of my mother. There is no known paternal relationship in the latter two cases. I am waiting for results from one 1st cousin and a 2nd cousin on my father's maternal line (Walker and Manning). I would also like to test a second cousin on my mother's maternal line (Swain and Kidd).

Here is a chart of matches to my two 3rd cousins and three 3rd cousins once removed:

New 2014 Y DNA SNP tree from FTDNA and National Genographic

Today, FTDNA released the new 2014 Y DNA SNP tree based on results from the GENO 2.0 SNP tests from the National Genographic Project. This has changed most SNP tested individuals' designations on their FTDNA Personal Page. It will also be propagated to the SNP designations on the surname, geographic, and haplogroup pages.

At the same time FTDNA is giving a list of SNPs that are recommended for testing by each individual. CAVEAT: If you tested negative for a SNP in GENO 2.0, check for the SNP in your GENO 2.0 results before ordering it from FTDNA. FTDNA did not include the negative SNPs in their result for you so they may be in the Recommended SNP list even though you have already tested those SNPs.

Before testing contact your Y DNA Haplogroup Administrator for guidance. For more details see, The new 2014 Y DNA haplotree has arrived by my genetic cousin, Debbie Kennett.

A webinar on the Family Tree DNA Feature Launch: Y-DNA Haplotree Update was held today and is expected be available from the FTDNA Learning Center within the next 24 to 48 hours.

There is a Sale on the 37 marker Y DNA test See this post by Debbie Kennett for more information.

Ancestry.com to Present Jermline on DNA Day at the Global Big Data Conference

Posted by Jeremy Pollack on April 9, 2014 in Big Data, Data Science, Development, DNA, Science

Interested in genealogy? Curious about DNA? Fascinated by the world of big data? If so, come check out my talk at the Global Big Data Conference on DNA day this Friday, April 25 at 4pm PT in the Santa Clara Convention Center! I’ll cover Jermline, our massively-scalable DNA matching application. I’ll talk about our business, give a run-through of the matching algorithm, and even throw in a few Game of Thrones jokes. It’ll be fun! Hope to see you there.

http://blogs.ancestry.com/techroots/jeremy-pollack-to-present-jermline-at-the-big-data-innovation-summit-on-april-10th/?sf2685301=1

VH1's DNA Show "Swab Stories" Call for participants

Doron Ofir Casting, Robert Mazza Casting and Powderhouse Productions are searching nationwide for people with the most compelling stories who want to have their double-helix hunches answered for an all-new television series on a major cable network.
Do you need help unlocking the biggest mystery in your life? Put your most life-changing question to the ultimate test – DNA test!

• Do you have suspicions about your blood relation to a family member?
• Have you ever thought that maybe you were switched at birth?
• Did you ever think you look more like your father's best friend than your own father?
• Are you suspicious that you might not be related to any of your relatives?
• Would you ever get a DNA test to prove your theory?

If you want to know who your parents are, who your siblings are or who you are, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.

If you’re ready to make your last strand, and are at least 18 years old, then we want to hear your story! If selected, your search for answers may finally come to an end with a trip to New York or a visit by our genetic team where you will participate in a DNA test and be compensated for your time in doing so.

We’ll finally unlock the answers and put your suspicions to rest.
Send your information to: DNACasting2014@gmail.com

Genetic mixture in the USA

An interesting post at the 23andMe blog:

March 4, 2014
DNA USA*
Published by ScottH under 23andMe Research, Ancestry

Scientists have long used DNA to inform our understanding of big epochs of human change and migration. But what about the smaller changes, can DNA tell us something about recent human history? diversity photo

23andMe researcher Katarzyna “Kasia” Bryc, who is also a postdoctoral research fellow in David Reich’s lab at Harvard Medical School, gathered anonymous aggregated data from our customers to look at the mix of African, European and Native American ancestry in the United States. What she discovered was an illuminating genetic portrait of the U.S. that both confirms some of what we know about America’s social history but also other things that are surprising and new.

“Perhaps one of the greatest discoveries stemming from recent advancements in genetic genealogy is that previously held assumptions about race and identity are being brought into question,” Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. wrote recently. “It was always known throughout American history that there was at least some intermixing of races, but only now, through DNA testing, can we see the extent to which this actually occurred.”

Continued here.

Looking at Countries of Ancestry (formerly Ancestry Finder) at 23andMe

23andMe has a survey, Where Are You From? that asks people who test where their four grandparents were born. If you take it and agree to let people who match you know the information, the results are placed in the Ancestry Finder database.  The pictures below show the results of looking at my Ancestry Finder matches without and with colonial (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) matches included.

Chromosomes 1 through 22 and the X chromosome are shown. In the application you can select the number of grandparents who must be from the same country and the size of the match in centiMorgans (cM). You can also mouse over a match and see where their grandparents are from, the length of the match, and, if a public match, the name of the person.  Other data can be downloaded in a spreadsheet format for further examination.

The default view is of all 4 grandparents from the same country and a match of at least 7 cM in size and no Colonials.


The first picture below shows the results of looking at my matches with the grandparents matching or non-matching and the size set to the smallest length of 5cM or larger with no colonial matches. You can see that some chromosomes have greater coverage than others. Chromosomes 14, 21, and 22 have no matches. The large gold match on chromosome 1 is with someone with all four grandparents born in Norway.

The second picture has the same parameters but it includes Anglo-American Colonial countries.

Steven C Perkins' Ancestry Finder matches, 1gp, 5cM+, no Colonials

Steven C Perkins' Ancestry Finder matches, 1gp, 5cM+, with Colonials

Debbie Cruwys Kennett on The Big Y results

Posted today by Debbie Cruwys Kennett is an analysis of early results from the Big Y test at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA):

http://cruwys.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-big-y-roll-out-snp-tsunami-is-on.html

Big Y results starting to come out at FTDNA

At the FTDNA Administrators Conference FTDNA announced the Big Y test. This test sequences the Y Chromosome and returns millions of results. As others have written, it will greatly increase the definition of the Y Tree. Results were expected in December 2013, then a series of delays occured and 28 Feb was announced as the release date. As it happened, only 100 results were released on 28 Feb. Other results will be released over the next month. This has caused a number of people to complain that FTDNA has been cavalier in it's treatment of customers with unrealistic release dates. Today FTDNA sent out the following email:

Dear Valued Customer,


Yesterday, February 27th, we began releasing results for the Big Y orders. We have received some incredibly positive feedback and this is much appreciated.

We are also hearing the frustrations from those who have not yet received their results, and we would like to address the matter publicly in the form of a sincere apology. The entire FTDNA team has been working very hard over the last few months with high determination and many late nights. Launching a new product is always a challenge with many moving parts, some more predictable than others. Unfortunately we ran into some surprises beyond our control when one of our suppliers ran out of certain reagents we needed for running the Big Y product. However we recognize that it is our responsibility and duty to meet our deadlines and keep our customers informed when problems arise.

With the Big Y launch, we failed to properly manage the expectations of our customers. This was an honest oversight, in which we internally had a target to release first results in February, but we didn’t pay close attention to the dates being communicated on the status pages for those orders. Big Y was a new product and the status entries were updated automatically. We should have manually adjusted these dates earlier on as needed. So while we were thrilled to release the first results in February, we failed to realize that everyone expected results this week. I personally take responsibility for this miscommunication and mishap with the website delivery dates and hope you accept my sincere apologies.

I am well aware that as a company we have a bit of a history in missing deadlines. A big contributor to that is that we have typically been very ambitious in taking on difficult projects while still wanting to deliver information quickly to customers. The Big Y product is a great example. It was a cutting-edge project that pushed us deep into next-generation sequencing and advanced data analysis. Our ambitious, risk-taking attitude has won many of you over and delivered incredible thought leadership and leading products over the years. Unfortunately, our poor estimates and turnaround time expectations have frustrated many of you along the way as well. We are committed to continuing to be the company that is willing to push the envelope and take risks to bring you the best in genetic genealogy, but moving forward we will strive to be more careful in setting accurate time expectations.

Again, we are sincerely sorry for any frustration we caused with the delays and miscommunication of turnaround time. We are very proud of our achievements with the Big Y and feel confident about the high quality product we are delivering! We hope you will let the wonderful product we produced make up for delays that were needed to refine it! We have updated expected results dates on customer pages and will work around the clock to beat them.

Regards,

Nir Leibovich
Chief Business Officer
www.FamilyTreeDna.com
Gene by Gene Ltd.

Thanks to Tim Jansen, M.D. for the notice.