Dr. Spencer Wells provided me with additional information on Geno 2.0 again today, including a link to a recently published interview with him in BioArray News on GenomeWeb, "National Geographic to Use Illumina Chips in Next Phase of Genographic Project". You must register to read the article, but it is free to do
so.
In the article, Dr. Wells discusses the community aspect of the new Geno 2.0
and emphasizes that although Geno 2.0's focus is on learning about one's ancestral origins, the test will support genealogical goals:
While National Geographic's project is focused on offering
participants the ability to learn more about their deep ancestry, it
will support genealogical activities, Wells said.
As it has done to date, National Geographic will allow Genographic
participants to transfer their results to Family Tree DNA for free,
where they will be able to network with other researchers. Additionally,
they can opt to join a National Geographic-sponsored online community
of Genographic participants to share their results. And, Wells noted,
National Geographic will make participants' results free to them to
download.
He also clarifies Family Tree DNA's role:
Wells said that testing will be done at Family Tree DNA's Genomics
Research Center in Houston. He noted that while Family Tree DNA helped
design the chip and is processing the samples, Geno 2.0 remains a
National Geographic project.
Perhaps, most importantly, the story quotes Dr. Wells' restating his belief that the raw data should always be returned to the customer:
"Your data belongs to you," he said. "We feel that this is a cornerstone of ethical DTC genetic testing."
I took this opportunity to ask him a couple of questions that I have received from readers:
Q: Will the Walk Through the Y customers whose samples were used for vetting the new chip receive their results?
A: Yes, the WTY and whole-mtDNA genome customers used in the validation process
will receive their results when the results section of the website goes
live for all Geno 2.0 participants this fall. As I said in the story,
your data belongs to you.
There will be no charge to them for this, and we hope that they enjoy
the new Geno 2.0 experience and will become cheerleaders for the
project.
I am so happy to hear this news that the participants whose samples were used for
vetting, including the mtDNA full sequence samples, will receive their results in concordance with Dr. Wells' belief that your data belongs to you.
Q: Can you comment on the inclusion of Native American samples in your research for Geno 2.0?
A: We have genotyped lots of Native American samples, though most are admixed to
various degrees. The reference populations were drawn from 1000 Genomes
samples, as well as samples collected by the Genographic team in
Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America, and
we'll be expanding our reference set over the next year. I don't want
to discuss the analytical methods in detail until we finish writing the
papers, but we have developed an innovative way of analyzing admixture
that is capable of distinguishing Native American
ancestry very accurately.
This is all for now, but I have no doubt, we will be hearing more about Geno 2.0 very soon.
Discover the fascinating world of genetic genealogy! Written for the non-scientist, YGG is a source of unbiased news on the major genealogy DNA testing companies. Written by CeCe Moore, an investigative genetic genealogist and television consultant.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
A Short Update from Spencer Wells on Geno 2.0
This morning I received an email from Dr. Spencer Wells who leads the Genographic Project. He asked me to share some information with the community regarding the sources of the Y-SNPs included on the chip that will be used for Geno 2.0. He also commented on the role that he envisions for our citizen scientists within the genetic genealogy community in partnership with Geno 2.0.
To be absolutely clear, I will quote his email, as follows:
"...the Y-markers on the Geno 2.0 chip come from a variety of sources. The majority are entirely new, and are drawn from the work of our team and collaborators:
To be absolutely clear, I will quote his email, as follows:
"...the Y-markers on the Geno 2.0 chip come from a variety of sources. The majority are entirely new, and are drawn from the work of our team and collaborators:
~3500 from Chris Tyler-Smith, drawn primarily from 1K Genomes data
~3500 from Li Jin, discovered by deep sequencing in East Asian populations from a variety of haplogroups
~5000
from Paolo Francalacci and Sergio Tofanelli, discovered by deep
sequencing in Sardinian populations from a variety of haplogroups
The rest are drawn from the ISOGG tree, FTDNA,
Hammer and other available sources*. The final number of working assays
for the rare markers (and thus those most likely to be of interest to
the genealogical community) is yet to be determined, as we simply don't
have access to all of the the positive controls necessary. This is
where the genetic genealogy community can really help, by vetting the
rare markers in samples with known phylogenetic positions... I see this as an opportunity for the community
to take an active role in helping us to build the definitive
Y-chromosome tree. It will also likely yield many markers with
extraordinary specificity for family-defining lineages that will be
important for genetic genealogy."
I am confident that I can speak for the community when I thank Dr. Wells for his willingness to engage our community and to share further details on this exciting project with us.
I will continue to update my readers as I receive additional information on Geno 2.0.
*Among these sources are citizen scientists and FTDNA customers: Gregory Magoon, Richard Rocca, David F Reynolds, Bonnie Schrack and Peter M Op den Velde Boots who assisted in these discoveries by mining public sources (like 1000 Genomes). The many admins and individuals who have worked toward WTY SNPs and, of course, Dr. Hammer also deserve mention.
*Among these sources are citizen scientists and FTDNA customers: Gregory Magoon, Richard Rocca, David F Reynolds, Bonnie Schrack and Peter M Op den Velde Boots who assisted in these discoveries by mining public sources (like 1000 Genomes). The many admins and individuals who have worked toward WTY SNPs and, of course, Dr. Hammer also deserve mention.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
National Geographic and Family Tree DNA Announce Geno 2.0
Today we have some news that is incredibly exciting
for our citizen scientists and for all those who are interested in determining
their ancestral origins through DNA testing.
National Geographic is entering the next phase of their
Genographic Project in partnership with Family Tree DNA and the genetic genealogy community.
Continuing to move toward their goal of mapping the pattern of human genetics,
they are introducing the new GenoChip 2.0. This chip is specifically designed
for ancestry testing and includes SNPs from autosomal DNA, X-DNA, Y-DNA
and mtDNA. The design of the new chip was a collaborative effort between Eran Elhaik of
Johns Hopkins, Spencer Wells of National Geographic, Family Tree DNA and
Illumina. The testing will be done at FTDNA in Houston.
Dr. Wells explained that "off-the-shelf chips are not
good for studying ancestry" for the simple reason that they are skewed in
favor of medically relevant SNPs and are not focused on detailed inclusion of
the sex chromosomes and the mtDNA. As a result, this team started from scratch
choosing SNPs for the Illumina iSelect HD chip platform one and a half years
ago. The resulting chip includes approximately 146,000 SNPs, avoiding all known
medically relevant markers and exclusively concentrating on ancestry
informative ones. This new chip will be used for both the research and the
public participation component of the project.
The new funding structure for the project will be announced in September.
The new funding structure for the project will be announced in September.
[Caution ahead: Some of the following is quite advanced, so if you are new
to genetic genealogy, please skip over the unfamiliar portions. I am including
as much as I can from my notes for the more advanced in our community who may
want specific details.]
BASICS
The Geno 2.0 test will be offered for $199.95 with free
shipping within the US on the National Geographic site and will only
require a cheek swab. All resulting data will be downloadable. They will begin accepting pre-orders today for a fall shipping date (10/30/12). In the future, orders will also be accepted through the Family Tree DNA website (no date is set for this option). Although this is not a traditional relative finder matching tool and is not meant to replace Family Finder, it will cluster you to your closest genetic matches and you will be able to send an anonymous email to correspond with them (not functional at launch). These circle clusters will demonstrate how you connect to people one thousand years ago.
Y-DNA SNPs
The chip includes just over 12,000 Y-DNA SNPs. Ten thousand
of these are completely unique and have “never been published before”. First, the team created probes for all of the 862
Y-SNPs from the current YCC 2010 Tree. Next, they contacted research centers
all over the world and asked them to provide a list of all the Y-SNPs that they
had data mined or discovered, including the L SNPs, the Z SNPs and “private
Hammer” SNPs, and created probes for those. Y-SNPs discovered by citizen
scientists were also included.
More details:
- Many new terminal branches will be gained and, according to
Bennett Greenspan, this will completely replace the deep clade test currently
offered by Family Tree DNA.
- Y-SNPs were vetted against Family Tree DNA’s “Walk Through the Y”
samples.
- 862 SNPS from YCC 2010 Tree vs. 6,153 SNPs on the New Tree
- About 200 SNPs from 2010 failed with ~160 SNPS from 2010
unconfirmed
- Most failures were at roots
such as R, P, A2 and F. Many have synonymous SNPs.
- 115 SNPs from YCC 2010 Current R-Tree vs 550 SNPs on the New
R-Tree with ~200 more potential
- 31 SNPs from 2010 failed with 25 more unconfirmed, but in
progress
- Rebekah Canada wrote and/or performed comprehensive rewrites
of 182 different Y-DNA stories based on approximately 1000 peer reviewed publications and information
from the genetic genealogy community.
- New, updated Y haplogroup maps
mtDNA SNPs
The chip also includes over 3200 unique mtDNA SNPs. They
started by creating probes for the 3352 highest frequency mtDNA SNPs from
Family Tree DNA and GenBank. According to Elliott Greenspan, the level of difficulty
was greatly increased due to variability in mtDNA. It was necessary to create about
31,000 probes to cover all of the variation that can be found in the
surrounding flanking regions. Ultimately, they were able to detect about 3200
of those and, as a result, they can determine about 90% of the known
haplogroups at this point.
More details:
- All SNPs were vetted by running known samples.
- Rebekah Canada wrote new and/or performed comprehensive
rewrites of 248 different mtDNA stories based on ~1000 peer reviewed
publications and information from the genetic genealogy community.
- New, updated mtDNA haplogroup maps
Autosomal and
X-chromosomal SNPs
Over 130,000
autosomal SNPs and X-DNA SNPs were chosen
- AIMs harvested from literature
- AIMs identified using two methods
- Contributed by Family Tree DNA
- Identified at Random
Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs) are SNPs that show
substantial differences in allele frequency across population groups. Approximately
75,000 AIMs were chosen from approximately 450 populations around the world. About
half of these AIMs were collected from about two dozen published papers and the
rest were calculated from private and public datasets. Many of these populations
datasets had not previously been studied for this purpose, so they used two algorithms to develop
new and never before used AIMs: infocalc by Rosenberg and a private algorithm
developed by Dr. Elhaik called “AIMsFinder” (PCA approach). Dr. Elhaik personally
collected over 300 population datasets from which they had genotype data from thirty
thousand to over one million base pairs and did very exhaustive pairwise
comparisons between difficult-to-distinguish populations to build a unique
database of AIMs.
They also wanted to address the question of how much
interbreeding occurred between modern humans and ancient hominins. Once again,
they collected all relevant SNPs from existing literature on the subject and
included those on the chip. However, they wanted to go further so they used a
novel approach. They identified regions in which modern humans and Neanderthal shared
the derived allele where Denisovan and Chimp share the ancestral and then
repeated the exercise for derived alleles in Denisovan, but not Neanderthal and
Chimp. Ultimately, they collected about 30,000 such SNPs that they feel can
help identify interbreeding between ancient hominins and modern humans.
The team also included SNPs from underrepresented
populations such as Paleo-Eskimos and Aboriginal Australians. What they call “control
SNPs” came from 7,500 random SNPs that have high frequency in the HapMap
and 1000 Genome Project. They were included to facilitate future studies on
these SNPs and how they distribute in different populations. They excluded a
large number of SNPs that had high linkage disequilibrium (LD) in all
populations, excluding those found in the Hunter Gatherer and Papuan
populations because these are of special interest for future studies. (An
interesting side note, when these high LD SNPs are removed from the
commercial platform chips, only about half of the total remains.) The team only
included SNPs that were confirmed by both HapMaps and 1000 Genomes to reduce the
number of erroneous SNPs.
To ensure that the genetic results will not be used for
unethical purposes such as political ends, pharmaceutical ventures, etc… all
samples are anonymous, no medical or trait data is collected, and all SNPs are
non-coding and have no known function. In order to facilitate this process, the
team built a huge database that included all SNPs that were known, suspected or
implied to have associations with disease or traits. To avoid imputation, they
also removed high LD SNPs. They are confident that phenotype cannot be inferred.
More details:
- 23,962 Neanderthal SNPs
- 1,357 Denisovan SNPs
- 12,027 Aboriginal SNPs
- 10,159 Eskimo Saqqaq SNPs
- 998 Chimpanzee SNPs
- 975 X chromosome SNPs (the team is looking for more X chromosome
AIMs from citizen scientists)
- 76% of SNPs overlap with Illumina 660k array
- 55% of SNPs overlap with Illumina HumanOmni1-Quad and Express and Affy 6.0
- 40% of SNP overlap with Affy 5.0 and Human Origins Chip
- GenoChip is enriched for Common Alleles
- Heat maps
Summary
All of this adds up to an unprecedented effort by National
Geographic and Family Tree DNA to move genetic genealogy in an innovative new
direction. This is a very exciting time for all of us citizen scientists since
it appears that there is increasing opportunity to contribute to this advancing
field and recognition for those who do.
This blog post is really just a start. There will be much more to report in the coming weeks, including a product review. So, be sure and check back!
This blog post is really just a start. There will be much more to report in the coming weeks, including a product review. So, be sure and check back!
Friday, July 20, 2012
Known Relative Studies at FTDNA: Third Cousin Comparison and More Random atDNA Inheritance
I don't write about Family Finder very often for my known relative series since most of my close relatives have tested at 23andMe. Fortunately, my Travis third cousin recently decided to take the Family Finder test at Family Tree DNA. As a result, I have a new third cousin comparison to report.
Our only (known) common ancestors are our great great grandparents Abraham and Ruth (Stolebarger) Travis, so any matching DNA that we share is inherited from the Travises. Abraham's father Asa and Ruth's parents John and Sarah are two of my major genealogical brick walls, so it is really interesting to be able to isolate DNA that came from those lines.
My Travis third cousin and I share 45.96 total cM of DNA with a longest block of 14.84 cM. This is on the low end for third cousins and the most likely relationship suggested by FTDNA is actually fourth cousins. Only about 25 cM comes from segments longer than 5 cM, so just including those in my calculations (to keep it consistent with my 23andMe comparisons), that means we only share about .37% of our total DNA. Since third cousins are expected to share about .781% of DNA, this is a bit low, but it is in line with my other third cousin comparisons so far (averaging .39%). That's random atDNA inheritance for you!
Family Tree DNA offers a unique perspective on these comparisons, so I will share how this match looks on the different settings that are possible on their Chromosome Browser tool. In the chart below, the blue bars represent my twenty-two autosomal chromosome pairs. The orange bars are the sections where my Travis cousin and I have stretches of matching DNA. This chart is displaying the lowest setting in order to show all matching segments over 1 cM. Many of these are probably false positives, but it is still interesting to be able to see them.
The next image is set to show only matching segments over 3 cM. As you should be able to see, our main matches are on Chromosomes 2 and 14. The only other match that didn't drop off is the one on Chromosome 6. This match falls under the threshold of what you would see at 23andMe, so over there we wouldn't have known about it at all. Remember, this could be a "false positive" since a pretty large percentage of segments this size prove to be, but I will reserve judgment until I am able to compare it to my chromosome map (when it is more fully developed) to confirm if this segment falls in an area that I can positively attribute to my Travis ancestral line. That should help determine whether this is an authentic matching segment or not.
The final chart shows only the two largest matching segments. You can see them signified by the orange on Chromosomes 2 and 14. When you scroll over these spots, a window will open (as above) describing the exact starting and ending points of the matching segment(s).
To summarize, I compared a known third cousin to myself to identify the portions of our DNA that match each other. Due to the sizes, we can be confident that two of the matching segments are authentically inherited from our common ancestors. What this means is that I can now attribute those larger segments as originating with Abe and Ruth Travis.
If my Travis cousin were to upload his data to Gedmatch, I could compare him to my mother, sisters and some of my other cousins who have tested at 23andMe. It would be very interesting to see the variety of inheritance patterns. Hopefully, I will be able to do so in the future.
On another note, I actually have four matches on Family Finder who are predicted to be more closely related to me than my Travis third cousin. I have not found a common ancestor with any of these people mainly because, with the exception of one, they do not respond to my emails. It does make you wonder what would happen if everyone responded with great family trees, ready for comparison.
This should give some hope to those of you who are struggling to confirm common ancestors with your matches. We tend to focus on the larger matches, of course, but some of these seemingly lesser marches could still be quite significant. As I have often emphasized, autosomal DNA inheritance starts getting pretty unpredictable at about the third cousin level. This comparison is a good example of that because we wouldn't usually expect a .37% match to have such a (relatively) recent connection. So, take a closer look at your match lists and give it another go. You just might be surprised by what you find!
*Another third cousin comparison: I found my third cousin today at 23andMe!*
Our only (known) common ancestors are our great great grandparents Abraham and Ruth (Stolebarger) Travis, so any matching DNA that we share is inherited from the Travises. Abraham's father Asa and Ruth's parents John and Sarah are two of my major genealogical brick walls, so it is really interesting to be able to isolate DNA that came from those lines.
My Travis third cousin and I share 45.96 total cM of DNA with a longest block of 14.84 cM. This is on the low end for third cousins and the most likely relationship suggested by FTDNA is actually fourth cousins. Only about 25 cM comes from segments longer than 5 cM, so just including those in my calculations (to keep it consistent with my 23andMe comparisons), that means we only share about .37% of our total DNA. Since third cousins are expected to share about .781% of DNA, this is a bit low, but it is in line with my other third cousin comparisons so far (averaging .39%). That's random atDNA inheritance for you!
Family Tree DNA offers a unique perspective on these comparisons, so I will share how this match looks on the different settings that are possible on their Chromosome Browser tool. In the chart below, the blue bars represent my twenty-two autosomal chromosome pairs. The orange bars are the sections where my Travis cousin and I have stretches of matching DNA. This chart is displaying the lowest setting in order to show all matching segments over 1 cM. Many of these are probably false positives, but it is still interesting to be able to see them.
My third cousin comparison showing all matching segments over 1 cM |
The next image is set to show only matching segments over 3 cM. As you should be able to see, our main matches are on Chromosomes 2 and 14. The only other match that didn't drop off is the one on Chromosome 6. This match falls under the threshold of what you would see at 23andMe, so over there we wouldn't have known about it at all. Remember, this could be a "false positive" since a pretty large percentage of segments this size prove to be, but I will reserve judgment until I am able to compare it to my chromosome map (when it is more fully developed) to confirm if this segment falls in an area that I can positively attribute to my Travis ancestral line. That should help determine whether this is an authentic matching segment or not.
![]() |
My third cousin comparison showing all matching segments over 3 cM |
Third cousin comparison showing only matching segments over 5 cM |
To summarize, I compared a known third cousin to myself to identify the portions of our DNA that match each other. Due to the sizes, we can be confident that two of the matching segments are authentically inherited from our common ancestors. What this means is that I can now attribute those larger segments as originating with Abe and Ruth Travis.
![]() |
Abe and Ruth Travis |
If my Travis cousin were to upload his data to Gedmatch, I could compare him to my mother, sisters and some of my other cousins who have tested at 23andMe. It would be very interesting to see the variety of inheritance patterns. Hopefully, I will be able to do so in the future.
On another note, I actually have four matches on Family Finder who are predicted to be more closely related to me than my Travis third cousin. I have not found a common ancestor with any of these people mainly because, with the exception of one, they do not respond to my emails. It does make you wonder what would happen if everyone responded with great family trees, ready for comparison.
This should give some hope to those of you who are struggling to confirm common ancestors with your matches. We tend to focus on the larger matches, of course, but some of these seemingly lesser marches could still be quite significant. As I have often emphasized, autosomal DNA inheritance starts getting pretty unpredictable at about the third cousin level. This comparison is a good example of that because we wouldn't usually expect a .37% match to have such a (relatively) recent connection. So, take a closer look at your match lists and give it another go. You just might be surprised by what you find!
*Another third cousin comparison: I found my third cousin today at 23andMe!*
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Family Tree DNA Adds New RSRS Reporting for Mitochondrial DNA
STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME
Family Tree DNA is staying on top of the latest advancements in genetic genealogy, adding a new way of reporting our mitochondrial DNA.
PAPER
In April of this year a paper by Doron Behar (et al) was published proposing a new method of reporting mtDNA. This method uses mutations referenced to a Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence (RSRS) instead of the traditional revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS). In the author's own words:
In this study, we propose a “Copernican” reassessment of the human mtDNA phylogeny by switching to a Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence (RSRS) as the phylogenetically valid reference point. We aim to trigger the radical but necessary change in the way mtDNA mutations are reported relative to their ancestral/derived status, thus establishing an intellectual cohesiveness with the current consensus of shared common ancestry of all contemporary human mitochondrial genomes.
NEW RESULTS
In line with this proposal, FTDNA has added the new RSRS values in a tab next to the rCRS values that we are used to seeing. Here is what it looks like in my account:
rCRS Values (old mutation list) |
RSRS Values (new mutation list) |
IMPROVEMENT OVER rCRS
This new method is an improvement over the old method (based on the 1981 sequence which is now being classified as belonging to the haplogroup H2a2a1), in part, because it uses the root of the tree as the base from which to count mutations rather than the differences from the random sample that has been used in the past. More from the authors:
Mutational events along the human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) phylogeny are traditionally identified relative to the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS), a contemporary European sequence published in 1981. This historical choice is a continuous source of inconsistencies, misinterpretations and errors in medical, forensic and population genetic studies. Here, after having refined the human mtDNA phylogeny to an unprecedented level by adding information from 8,216 modern mitogenomes, we propose switching the reference to a Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence (RSRS), which was identified by considering all available mitogenomes from Homo neanderthalensis.
mtDNA Phylogeny - found under "Resources" tab |
NEW SITE
mtDNACommunity.org is brought to you as a free public service, aiming to facilitate the further understanding of the human mtDNA phylogeny.
New mtDNA Community Website |
Its stated goal is:
This website is committed to the support of the "Copernican" reassessment of the human mtDNA phylogeny and to the establishment of computational tools meant to facilitate phylogenetic analysis and comparison of complete mtDNA sequences.
It appears that Dr. Behar will be actively involved in the site:
TOOLS TO EASE THE TRANSITION
There are two new tools to help us ease into the transition:
To facilitate data transition from an rCRS to an RSRS based nomenclature we release the tool "FASTmtDNA". Additionally, the tool "mtDNAble" automatically labels haplogroups, performs a phylogeny based quality check and identifies private substitutions. These noted features are fully supported in this website or as standalone versions, which can be freely downloaded from the website including their manual and example files.
MORE DETAILED HAPLOGROUP
On FTDNA's website, I am still listed as haplogroup U5b1, but on mtDNA Community, my full U5b1b2 Haplogroup is reported. That is the same haplogroup reported by 23andMe for me and my matrilineal relatives, so it is nice to see it confirmed here.
More detailed haplogroup |
OUR CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
MATCHES
**Update - Ann Turner shared the following information in a comment below. I thought it was important enough to add it to the body of this post:
mtDNACommunity is indeed restricted to full mitochondrial sequences. I agree that upgrading would not be informative in terms of finding matches, but you would learn a more detailed haplogroup assignment if that is of interest to you.
All who have tested at 23andMe: you can learn your differences from the RSRS by going to Ancestry Labs / Haplogroup Tree Mutation Mapper. 23andMe doesn't test every position, but all the positions listed will be differences from "mtEve." I did a quick check, and it looks like 73 and 16311 would be the only positions missing along the route between the RSRS and the CRS. Thanks Ann!
And Bill Hurst (the same William R above) posted on the ISOGG list this new info: FTDNA has listed your "NCBI Number" or GenBank accession number beside your haplogroup designation on your personal page. For me it wasn't there because I submitted to GenBank through Ian Logan, but for anyone who submitted through FTDNA, you should be able to see it. Thanks, Bill!
This is as new to me as it is to the rest of you, so we will learn together as we go. Rebekah Canada has kindly posting an extremely informative "tutorial" on the ISOGG Facebook page, so follow along to learn more.**
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Latest News from Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation and GeneTree
I received the following two emails from SMGF and GeneTree this evening and wanted to update my readers. For emphasis and easy scanning, I bolded the very important sentences regarding the continuation of the "freely accessible" website SMGF.org and the limited continuing availability of the Genetree.com website.
The Sorenson database is an extremely valuable tool for the genetic genealogy community, so I am happy to hear that that it will continue to be available to all researchers for the "foreseeable future". Let's hope it stays that way for a very long time! I'm also pleased to see that Tim Janzen's earlier report that new results would soon be published on SMGF.org has, indeed, come to fruition.
The GeneTree website will be available only through the end of the year, so please don't forget to download your results!
Dear Friends of SMGF,
SMGF is happy to announce the addition of new haplotypes and genealogical records to the Sorenson mtDNA and Y-chromosome databases. We invite you to search these updated databases to find new family connections at http://www.smgf.org.
From the time it was founded in 1999 by molecular genealogy pioneer, James Levoy Sorenson, the mission of SMGF has been to support an important public purpose, namely the advancement of DNA-based genealogy research. Thanks to the continued philanthropic support of Mr. Sorenson and his family and the generosity of enthusiastic SMGF participants, SMGF has built the most comprehensive database of linked DNA and pedigree information in the world. Additionally, SMGF has contributed greatly to the emerging field of genetic genealogy in other ways, such as providing online DNA databases to the public and publishing numerous scientific articles detailing new discoveries.
In order to remain a leader in this rapidly growing and dynamic field, SMGF's resources and capabilities would have to be substantially increased. Therefore, SMGF has decided that AncestryDNA is better positioned to provide the benefit to the public that is central to SMGF's mission. For this reason, SMGF's DNA-related assets were acquired by AncestryDNA in March 2012 (link to press release). SMGF is very excited to join AncestryDNA, and we are confident that the pioneering work begun at SMGF will continue to grow and have an even greater impact on the future scientific understanding and public outreach of genetic genealogy.
As we redirect our efforts to the integration with AncestryDNA it will be necessary to discontinue updates to the smgf.org website. Therefore, this will be the last update made to the Sorenson online databases. This update includes all of the Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplotypes that were generated by SMGF over the course of its operations.
The smgf.org site will continue to operate for the foreseeable future as a freely accessible tool for the genetic genealogy community, so we invite users to continue searching for family connections on smgf.org. We express our sincerest thanks to all those who participated in the SMGF project.
Sincerely,
The SMGF Team
and
The Sorenson database is an extremely valuable tool for the genetic genealogy community, so I am happy to hear that that it will continue to be available to all researchers for the "foreseeable future". Let's hope it stays that way for a very long time! I'm also pleased to see that Tim Janzen's earlier report that new results would soon be published on SMGF.org has, indeed, come to fruition.
The GeneTree website will be available only through the end of the year, so please don't forget to download your results!
Dear Friends of SMGF,
SMGF is happy to announce the addition of new haplotypes and genealogical records to the Sorenson mtDNA and Y-chromosome databases. We invite you to search these updated databases to find new family connections at http://www.smgf.org.
From the time it was founded in 1999 by molecular genealogy pioneer, James Levoy Sorenson, the mission of SMGF has been to support an important public purpose, namely the advancement of DNA-based genealogy research. Thanks to the continued philanthropic support of Mr. Sorenson and his family and the generosity of enthusiastic SMGF participants, SMGF has built the most comprehensive database of linked DNA and pedigree information in the world. Additionally, SMGF has contributed greatly to the emerging field of genetic genealogy in other ways, such as providing online DNA databases to the public and publishing numerous scientific articles detailing new discoveries.
In order to remain a leader in this rapidly growing and dynamic field, SMGF's resources and capabilities would have to be substantially increased. Therefore, SMGF has decided that AncestryDNA is better positioned to provide the benefit to the public that is central to SMGF's mission. For this reason, SMGF's DNA-related assets were acquired by AncestryDNA in March 2012 (link to press release). SMGF is very excited to join AncestryDNA, and we are confident that the pioneering work begun at SMGF will continue to grow and have an even greater impact on the future scientific understanding and public outreach of genetic genealogy.
As we redirect our efforts to the integration with AncestryDNA it will be necessary to discontinue updates to the smgf.org website. Therefore, this will be the last update made to the Sorenson online databases. This update includes all of the Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplotypes that were generated by SMGF over the course of its operations.
The smgf.org site will continue to operate for the foreseeable future as a freely accessible tool for the genetic genealogy community, so we invite users to continue searching for family connections on smgf.org. We express our sincerest thanks to all those who participated in the SMGF project.
Sincerely,
The SMGF Team
and
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
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
Monday, July 9, 2012
FTDNA's Sizzling Summer Sale through July 15th
Last summer, FTDNA offered special pricing to attract new customers and members for our projects. It was the most successful offering of its type in the company’s history. We all want the database to keep growing, so FTDNA is offering a summer special again this year. This sale includes both new kits and upgrades, so if you have been waiting to test or to expand on what you already have, now is the time! Orders must be in and paid for by 11:59PM on Sunday July 15th. You can order here.
NEW KITS | Current Group Price | SALE PRICE | ||||||
Y-DNA 12 | $59 | |||||||
Y-DNA 37 | $129 | |||||||
Y-DNA 67 | $199 | |||||||
Family Finder | $199 | |||||||
mtFullSequence (FMS) | $219 | |||||||
FF+ Y-DNA 37 | $328 | |||||||
FF + mtDNAPlus | $328 | |||||||
Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-DNA 67) | $617 | |||||||
SuperDNA | $428 | |||||||
UPGRADES | ||||||||
12 to 37 | $70 | |||||||
25 to 37 | $35 | |||||||
25 to 67 | $114 | |||||||
37 to 67 | $79 | |||||||
37 to 111 | $188 | |||||||
67 to 111 | $109 | |||||||
mtHVR1 to Mega | $209 | |||||||
mtHVR2 to Mega | $199 |
(Disclaimer - I have an affiliate relationship with FTDNA, however I receive no commissions on sale orders. I announce all sales on my blog as a courtesy to my readers and to encourage testing.)
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