"Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." - DNA in the Tenth Episode

Last night, the final episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. featured Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez. Although the three guests share Spanish Colonial ancestors, Dr. Gates noted that it is interesting that these celebrities who have such similar family trees each have a different view of their own identities: self-identifying as mixed-European, Native American and Hispanic. I was pleased to see that Dr. Gates "turned to two of America's top genetic research firms, Family Tree DNA and 23andMe" to assist in exploring their multiracial ancestries.

Exploring multiracial ancestries on "Finding Your Roots"

In the DNA portion's introductory voiceover (starting at 44:50), Dr. Gates explains, "DNA Analysis can tell us many things about our families, from where our earliest ancestors originated tens of thousands of years ago, to their ethnic and geographical distributions over the last five hundred years." In the first part of this statement, he is referring to the deep ancestry revealed through our Y-chromosome DNA and mitochodrial DNA haplogroups and, in the latter, to our admixture results like 23andMe's Ancestry Painting and FTDNA's Population Finder. In this episode, Dr. Gate's team utilizes both to find and confirm evidence of  the guests' ancestry.

Linda Chavez' Population Finder chart from FTDNA

For Linda, who considers herself a mix of European, there was a very interesting surprise. DNA admixture results support suggestions from early paper records and memories of symbolic traditions that Linda's family from New Mexico were likely part of the Crypto-Jewish community. Her Population Finder pie chart from Family Tree DNA reveals that she possesses 73.31% European, 5.82% Native American and 20.87% Middle Eastern ancestry.  Dr. Gates explained to her, "According to our researchers - the geneticists - your Middle Eastern result is strongly suggestive of Semitic or Jewish ancestry." Linda was surprised at just how much Jewish ancestry she appears to have. Prior to this type of DNA testing, she would have never known how significant this part of her ancestry really is.

New Mexico's Crypto-Jewish roots

Adrian had grown up strongly identifying with Native American culture, but the genealogy research of Dr. Gates' team had raised some questions about his claim of significant Native American ancestry. Adrian's eyes lit up with pride when his direct maternal line's Native American descent was confirmed by his mitochondrial haplogroup C12b. (A person can discover his or her mtDNA haplogroup by taking either a 23andMe test or Family Tree DNA's mtDNAPlus test.) 

Adrian beamed with pride when learning about his Native mtDNA

Dr. Gates explained that "C1b2 is recognized as one of the four haplogroups found among Native Americans." I think he is referring to mtDNA haplogroups A, B, C and D, but this statement is a bit of an oversimplification, especially since sub-haplogroups of X have also been found exclusively in Native Americans. The 2008 academic article The Phylogeny of the Four Pan-American MtDNA Haplogroups states:

As for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), it has been clear, since the early nineties, that mtDNAs of Native Americans could be traced back to four major haplogroups of Asian origin shared by North, Central and South American populations [3]–[7]. These were initially named A, B, C and D, and are now termed A2, B2, C1 and D1 [8]. Afterwards, a fifth haplogroup – now known as X2a – was described in Native Americans, but in contrast to the four “pan-American” haplogroups, its geographic distribution is restricted to some Amerindian populations of northern North America [8]–[12]. Later, two more haplogroups – D2a and D3 – were identified: D2a in the Aleuts and Eskimos [13], [14] and D3 only in the Eskimos [15], [16]. Most recently there were two further (uncommon) additions – D4h3 and C4c [14], [17] – bringing the total number of Native American haplogroups to nine.

Adrian looking at the frequency map of his C1b2 mtDNA

Dr. Gates stated that Adrian's admixture percentage for Native American was not "especially large", however from working with many people who have oral traditions of Native American ancestry, I felt that his 8.44% Native American was relatively significant, as Dr. Gates said "the equivalent of one great grandparent". (A great grandparent would be expected to contribute an average of about 12.5% of your DNA.)

Adrian's admixture results reveal 8.44% Native American

The fact that his results revealed 91.56% European DNA appears to support Dr. Gates' contention that the majority of the ancestral mixing between Natives and Spaniards took place early in Colonial times and was short lived. However, we must not forget that Adrian's father, John Dunbar, is primarily of Northern European ancestry, so his mother most likely has significant Native American ancestry, probably about 17%. (The admixture test used is 23andMe's Ancestry Painting or Family Tree DNA's Population Finder which is included with their Family Finder product.)

Next, Michelle Rodriguez was "appalled" to discover that she is primarily European - 72.4%.

Michelle learning that she is genetically primarily European

Her admixture results also revealed what seemed to be a more welcome surprise - 21.3% African.

Michelle's admixture result reveal substantial African ancestry

She was very disappointed to learn that she only possesses 6.3% Native American exclaiming, "I wanted to be Native American!" From my experience, she joins many Americans in this often repeated desire. As Adrian expressed at the end of the episode, DNA testing can be a life-altering experience, sometimes leading one to reinterpret their self-identity. He said that it would definitely change how he sees himself and how he represents his ancestry to others in the future.

Sadly, this brings us to the end of Dr. Gates' miniseries. I have been disheartened that both of the genealogy series aired their last episode this weekend, so I was extremely pleased to hear Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems interview with Dr. Gates (33:00) where he discusses the fact that his team is already in pre-production for the next season of this series. Please hurry up, Dr. Gates, I can hardly wait!

Let's not forget that we all have the continuing opportunity to discover more about ourselves through genetic genealogy. I encourage you to start or continue this fascinating journey. Now that the show is over, I will have a chance to write more about my own DNA research. I hope you will keep reading.


I have been writing a review of the DNA testing used in each episode:
Week 1- Episode 1 & Episode 2 - Harry Connick Jr. & Branford Marsalis; Cory A. Booker & John Lewis
Week 2- Episode 3 - Barbara Walters & Geoffrey Canada
Week 3- Episode 4 - Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick
Week 4- Episode 5 -  Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl & Yasir Qadhi
Week 5- Episode 6 - Robert Downey, Jr. & Maggie Gyllenhaal 
Week 6 - Episode 7 - Condoleezza Rice, Samuel L. Jackson & Ruth Simmons 
Week 7 - Episode 8 - Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho & Dr. Sanjay Gupta 
Week 8 - Episode 9 - Wanda Sykes, John Legend & Margarett Cooper

"Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." - DNA in the Sixth Episode

The sixth episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., investigating the mixed ancestry of Robert Downey, Jr and Maggie Gyllenhaal, aired last night on PBS. These two actors not only share a profession, but both have a mixture of Eastern European Jewish ancestry as well as deep American roots. Because of these commonalities, I thought their stories worked well together. I was thoroughly entertained by this episode for three reasons: 1) I love Robert Downey, Jr., 2) I discovered that Maggie is my cousin through our shared 10th great grandfather John Lothrop and 3) The appearance of Bennett Greenspan, President of Family Tree DNA (or as Professor Gates called it "FamilyTreeDNA.com", which I am sure was much appreciated).

Bennett Greenspan on "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr."

Unfortunately, the DNA portion was only about five minutes long again this week (starting at 43:00), nevertheless it felt a bit more substantial to me than last time. I was happy to see a number of different tests featured: 23andMe's Ancestry Painting, FTDNA's Population Finder and mtDNA testing.

Robert Downey, Jr.'s "Ancestry Painting" from 23andMe

First, Robert Downey, Jr., whose father is half Jewish, was presented with a pie chart of his 23andMe Ancestry Painting, which breaks down a person's genetic ancestral origins into three populations - European, African and Asian. (Note - this test is included in the 23andMe Personal Genome Service and is presented as a chromosomal chart rather than a pie chart.) Dr. Gates has repeatedly stated that this test reveals "European, African and Native American ancestry", however I would like to remind readers that the Asian reference population simply "stands in" for Native American. 23andMe does this because the genetic makeup of the two populations is similar, but in reality, this is not quite the same as having reference samples from Native Americans and the two should not be confused with each other. For instance, a person could show Asian DNA on their Ancestry Painting, but one should not automatically reach the conclusion that they have Native American ancestry because they may have ancestors from China, Japan, Korea or any other Asian region. If a person has reason to suspect that they possess Native American ancestors and knows of no other Asian ancestry, then this test is useful for that purpose. As is typical of most people, RDJ guessed that his ancestry would be more "interesting" than it was and seemed disappointed to learn that his Ancestry Painting showed 100% European ancestry. As I have mentioned before, this actually encompasses all of Europe, including the Middle East, so it doesn't rule out RDJ's Jewish ancestry.

Robert Downey, Jr.'s "Population Finder" from Family Tree DNA

Next, Dr. Gates presented RDJ with what I believe was his Population Finder admixture from Family Tree DNA. (The PopFinder feature is included with the Family Finder test.) This test broke down RDJ's ancestral origins a bit more, showing that he is about 20% Middle Eastern or Jewish.  That is slightly under what we might expect for him with a father who is half Jewish, so his one Jewish grandparent may have had a little something else mixed into his/her ancestral origins.

Later, Dr. Gates sat down with Maggie to discuss her mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is inherited straight down the maternal line, passed from mother to child as far back "as you can think" enthused Maggie. Maggie's mom is Jewish, so it makes perfect sense that Maggie's mtDNA has been inherited from one of four Jewish founding mothers who lived thousands of years ago. The voiceover explained, "Scientists have concluded that 40% of Eastern European Jews share genetic lineages that reach back two to three thousand years, remarkably to just four women...today about 3.5 million people descend from one of these four maternal ancestors." Haplogroup Project Administrator and genetic genealogist Vince Tilroe points out that Bennett Greenspan and Professor Gates were most likely speaking of mtDNA Haplogroups K1a1b1a, K1a9, K2a2a, and N1b when referring to the four Jewish maternal lines. These were identified in the 2006 study by Dr. Behar, "The Matrilineal Ancestry of Ashkenazi Jewry: Portrait of a Recent Founder Event".

Bennett Greenspan of FTDNA explaining Jewish DNA to Dr. Gates

Bennett further explained that Maggie had "hit the jackpot" with about 150 exact matches in Family Tree DNA's mtDNA database.  Bill Hurst, Administrator of the mtDNA Haplogroup K Project and a leading expert on this haplogroup, theorizes that if Maggie's mtDNA haplogroup is K, she likely falls into the K1a1b1a ancestral haplotype. Hurst explains that this haplotype's match numbers most closely coincide with the those that Bennett cited from FTDNA's database. At the HRV1/HRV2 level of testing, this haplotype now has 194 exact matches, but at the time of filming may have had closer to 150. He also notes that K2a2a is now called K2a2a1 due to recent discoveries. (There are three levels of mtDNA testing offered by Family Tree DNA which you can read about here.)

At the end of the episode Professor Gates discussed the question of "nature versus nurture" with his guests and asked Robert Downey, Jr. if he feels that his ancestral past has shaped who he is today. In answer, RDJ insightfully commented, "I don't see how it couldn't...it's informing you whether you're conscious of it or not, so probably better to be conscious." The episode ended with RDJ expressing his feelings about this experience with Dr. Gates, explaining that he felt that this was just the beginning of his journey of self-discovery.

I hope this show has also inspired all of you to begin (or continue) the journey into your ancestral roots. See you next week when we review the genetics of Samuel Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons. The television listing says that the show will be using DNA to "determine which parts of Africa their ancestors came from." That sounds promising!


I have been writing a review of the DNA testing used in each episode:
Week 1- Episode 1 & Episode 2 - Harry Connick Jr. & Branford Marsalis; Cory A. Booker & John Lewis
Week 2- Episode 3 - Barbara Walters & Geoffrey Canada
Week 3- Episode 4 - Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick
Week 4- Episode 5 -  Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl & Yasir Qadhi

"Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr." - DNA in The Third Episode

Last night PBS aired the third episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. which featured journalist Barbara Walters and educator Geoffrey Canada. The episode revolved around investigating the guests' paternal roots by tackling the challenges of discovering the original surnames of their fathers' ancestral lines. Geoffrey's was obscured mostly due to his extremely limited knowledge of his father's family. Although Barbara had previously had her family tree researched, her immigrant ancestor's name change had not been discovered.

After discovering that Geoffrey Canada's paternal line was descended from Thomas Cannaday, a slave owned by a Charles Cannaday of Franklin County, Virginia, Geoffrey's Y-Chromosome DNA was analyzed to determine if his great-great grandfather Thomas may have been fathered by his slave owner. Not surprisingly, Canada does possess a European Y-Chromosome Haplogroup. In fact, he apparently shares his haplogroup with Kevin Bacon, Robert Downey, Jr. and Harry Connick Jr.  Since the majority of men in the Bacon DNA Project, the Downey DNA Project and the sole man in the Conrick DNA Project (possibly a variant of Connick) possess the R1b1a2 Y-Haplogroup (the most common in Europe), it is likely that Geoffrey's Y-DNA Haplogroup is also R1b1a2. This piece of information is not enough to solve the puzzle though, since there is no way to know for sure when that European ancestor entered Geoffrey's direct paternal line, so Dr. Gates' team identified two great grandchildren of Charles Cannaday and asked them to take an autosomal DNA test to determine if their great grandfather is the same man as Geoffrey's 3rd great grandfather. If the working theory was correct, that would mean that these Cannaday descendants are Geoffrey's 2nd cousins twice removed and would be expected to share about .781% of their DNA (the same amount as third cousins). In this case, there is a chance that the autosomal test could be ineffective due to the fact that only about 90% of third cousins have enough shared DNA to be detected by this kind of test. Although it would certainly be worth a shot, this scenario could be stretching the capabilities of autosomal DNA testing just a bit. Even if they were to have a small amount of shared DNA, without extensive testing of other descendants, it might be difficult to say with certainty that the DNA came from this potential shared ancestor rather than another, especially since we know both families' ancestors lived in the same geographical area. In my opinion, a Y-STR DNA test on Charles Cannaday's direct paternal descendants (or his father's, uncle's or brothers' direct paternal descendants) would be more conclusive because it would determine if Geoffrey is carrying a Cannaday Y-Chromosome or not. Unfortunately, the theory did not get to be tested anyway because, in the end, both of the Cannaday descendants identified by Gates' team declined to participate in DNA testing. Dr. Gates, with deadlines looming, was probably forced to leave the question unresolved for now. Many of us genetic genealogists know how it feels to track down the perfect candidate to test out a genealogical theory, only to find that the person identified is unwilling to take a DNA test. It is always disappointing, but given the luxury of time, perhaps his team wouldn't have stopped there. Since the local Cannaday researcher said that she had 3200 Cannadays in her database and that it was still a very common name in the area, the team could have either looked for descendants of Charles Cannaday's father or asked his great great grandchildren to test. (I have found the younger generations are often more willing.)  In either case, the potential relationship to Geoffrey would have been one more step removed, thus decreasing the chances of a match even further, but still worth investigating.

Obsessive genetic genealogist that I am, I just couldn't let the Y-STR idea go, so I searched for a Canada/Cannaday DNA Project to try to determine if there were any Cannadays already tested, against whom Geoffrey's Y-STRs could be compared. I was initially surprised to find that no project of this name exists, however I did find a Kennedy DNA Project that lists variants Canaday and Canady. Upon further investigation, I found that there are 15 Canadas, 12 Canadys, six Cannadys, seven Canadays and one Cannaday who have tested at Family Tree DNA (they may not all have taken a Y-STR test). If you look at the Kennedy DNA Project's Results Page, you will find some of them there. There are seven participants of interest - four named Cannady, one Canady, one Canaday and one Canada. Six of these seven fall into the haplogroup R1b1a2. (The one who does not is identified as being descended from a Charles Canaday, but there is no information supplied as to birth or location.) It may be that none of these are directly descended from the direct paternal line of Charles Cannaday of Franklin County, Virginia, but just for kicks, it would be interesting to see if Geoffrey's Y-STRs match any of these participants. I wonder if Dr. Gates' team investigated this avenue.

Like last week, geneticist Joanna Mountain from 23andMe appeared on the episode - this time to explain the Y-DNA analysis. Interestingly, in this segment there appears to be two spots where there are inaccuracies in regard to this DNA test. The first one occurs starting at 41:15 when Dr. Gates asked Dr. Mountain, "So a Y-DNA analysis, in other words, is what people in the barber shop talk about the paternity test?" and she (appears to have) answered, "It sure is."  The exchange seems awkward and I believe this mistake was made in editing. I am sure that Dr. Mountain would never imply that a Y-DNA test is the same thing as a paternity test since it unquestionably is not. (I think what happened is that her comment was not actually in response to that questions, but was pasted in from another part of the segment.) A traditional paternity test is based on autosomal STRs markers, like CODIS . While it's true that a Y-DNA test could informally be used as such, in reality it cannot tell us if two people are father and son, only that they come from the same direct paternal line. (They could actually be brothers, uncle/nephew, first cousins, second cousins, etc...) The second mistake was probably merely a slip of the tongue on the part of Dr. Gates, but still worth clarifying since genetic genealogy is so new to many of the viewers. Starting at 43:35, Dr Gates explained what the results of this Y-DNA test mean for Geoffrey, "We do know without a shadow of a doubt that a white man fathered your female slave ancestor [bold mine] and entered your family line." I'm sure he meant to say "impregnated your female slave ancestor" since it was actually Geoffrey's male ancestor that was fathered by a white man. We know this because the Y-DNA only follows the direct paternal line. By definition, women cannot be introduced into this line because they do not inherit a Y-Chromosome. I don't mean to call anyone out on these mistakes, but I do think it is important to explain and clarify in an effort not to confuse any viewers new to the concept of genetic genealogy.

The next time DNA was mentioned in the episode was when Dr. Gates asked Barbara what percentage of her DNA she thought was of Jewish origin and she guessed 99.9%. An admixture test, which appeared to be FTDNA's Population Finder (included with the Family Finder test) revealed that she is actually ~91% Middle Eastern (Jewish) and ~9% European (non-Jewish). Dr. Gates noted that this exercise with Barbara illustrated that DNA analysis is revealing that "our family trees are more diverse than we had assumed."

This concept is proving true for African Americans as well. "In the African American community, genetic evidence of our rainbow-colored roots is challenging long-held assumptions about what it means to be black," Dr. Gates explained.  To illustrate this, reminiscent of last week's scene in the barber shop, Dr. Gates asked several students from Geoffrey's school to estimate how much of their DNA is African, European and Native American. After swabbing their cheeks, the students were surprised to find from their admixture tests (which appeared to be from 23andMe) that their ancestry was more diverse than they first imagined.  After learning that a portion of her DNA was European one student said, "I didn't know that I was European.. now I don't consider myself just black." Gates emphasized that these tests "deconstruct the notion of race" and reveal that "we are all mixed up".

I'm very pleased that DNA was again a vital component of this episode, but a little disappointed that they weren't able to use it more conclusively to determine Geoffrey's paternal ancestry. I guess that is realistic though and better than implying that genetic genealogy is always easy. By the way, can you believe Barbara Walters is 82?! She must have some pretty darn good DNA! I thought it was kind of funny that her family's original surname Waremwasser sounded an awful lot like Gilda Radner's Baba Wawa. I look forward to next week's episode with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. I hope they perform autosomal DNA tests on the couple to see if Kyra's fear is true and they are indeed "kissing cousins". See you then!

Genetic Genealogy News from FinnFest

I attended several interesting genetic genealogy presentations at FinnFest yesterday. Some of the information was brand new to me and may be to you too.

Jane Buck from FTDNA treated us to an entertaining lecture that included a few interesting tidbits:

1, FTDNA currently uses 62 subpopulation reference samples for Population Finder. Every time they update Population Finder with a new reference sample, they will rerun every customer's results.
2. FTDNA removes SNPs that have medical relevance from Family Finder raw data, but they do utilize them for matching purposes.
3. Customers of National Geographic who transfer their results to FTDNA receive a reduced rate on upgrades for 15 days following the transfer. (The transfer is free.)
4. As of August 12th, FTDNA has 343,022 unique DNA records, 102,880 distinct surnames and ~6,500 surname projects.
5. FTDNA will be partnering with Elise Friedman's Relative Roots to offer genetic genealogy webinars.

Project Administrator Lauri Koskinen shared the findings from the Finland DNA Project:

1. There are 2,494 Finns in the project, making it the third largest geographical project at FTDNA. (The Polish Project is gaining fast, currently at 2,320!)
2. There are 250 Finns in the Family Finder database.
3. In the Finland DNA Project, Y-DNA results are as follows:
Haplogroup N = ~60%, male lines migrated from the East to Finland
Haplogroup I1 = ~30%, male lines migrated from the West to Finland
Haplogroup R1a = ~3%, male lines migrated from Slavic areas to Finland (common in Germany and Sweden)
Haplogroup R1b = ~3%, male lines migrated from Middle and Southern Europe to Finland
Haplogroups E, J, Q = ~3%, male lines migrated from the Middle East and Asia to Finland
It is interesting to note that Hungary does not have a significant number of males with Y-Haplogroup N, therefore the majority of Finnish Y-DNA lines did not come from that area even though the Finnish language shares an origin with the Hungarian language. (Hungary has mainly Slavic Y-DNA.)

4. In the Finland DNA Project, mtDNA results are as follows:
Haplogroup H = ~40%, female lines from European source
Haplogroup U = ~30%, female lines, including the Saami type (U5b1)
Haplogroups D, I, J, HV, R, T, V, W, X, Z = less than 10%
Worldwide Haplogroup X = 1.4%, Worldwide Haplogroup W = 1.6%. In Finland these run 3%-5% in some areas. The only other known hot spot for Haplgroup W is the Himalayas.
Lauri interprets the breakdown of the mtDNA haplogroups above to mean that most of the men who migrated from the east to the area that is now Finland did not bring wives with them, but rather married European women and Saami women enroute and/or when they arrived.
5. Currently 40%-50% of all members of the Finland DNA Project with Full Sequence mtDNA results have found matches.

I will try to post the slides from my panel presentation "The Unique Finnish DNA" tomorrow.

[Disclosure - My company StudioINTV has an existing production agreement with FTDNA that has no bearing on the opinions I express. I also receive a small commission from FTDNA on non-sale orders through my affiliate link, which I use to fund DNA tests. I receive no other compensation in relation to any of the companies or products referenced in my blog.]

News from 23andMe and FTDNA at SCGS 2011 Jamboree

I attended the lectures of 23andMe's Joanna Mountain and FTDNA's Bennett Greenspan at SCGS 2011 Jamboree, as well as participated in the ISOGG meeting's panel discussion. Below are some interesting tidbits that I learned while there.

23andMe News and Tidbits: 
23andMe recognizes Relative Finder as the company's most engaging feature. This is good news for customers interested in Ancestry tools. In the coming weeks at 23andMe, Relative Finder will undergo the following key improvements:
1.  23andMe will be launching a new interface for Relative Finder. It will display the birthplaces, current locations and ancestral locations (if provided) of anonymous matches. (I am told that I will be a beta-tester, so I will post screenshots when/if that happens.)
2.  23andMe customers will be able to sort their matches by mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups, most likely by the end of the month.
3.  23andMe customers will be able to report confirmed relationships for their predicted matches.

23andMe just had a paper on their Parkinson's Disease research accepted for publication in PLoS Genetics. (No news on publication date yet.)

23andMe's total number* of individuals likely to self-identify as:
1000 African American
3500 Latino/Hispanic
5500 East Asian
3400 South Asian
4900 Southern European
6200 Ashkenazi Jewish
56,000 Northern European
1,000 First generation from two continents
*These numbers are as of April 2011 and, obviously, approximate. JM-"In general, these are non-overlapping sets, but there are some individuals who do not fall into any of these categories."

Slide presented on June 11 at SCGS  Jamboree 2011
Courtesy Katherine Borges

Joanna is "very optimistic" about the future of full sequencing for the Y-chromosome and expects it to happen "very soon", however 23andMe has no plans to offer a separate Y-chromosome sequencing product.

FTDNA News and Tidbits:
1.  The 2011 FTDNA DNA Administrator's Conference will be held November 5th and 6th in Houston.
2.  FTDNA has found previously undiscovered mutations in ~10% of all new Full Sequence mtDNA samples.
3.  FTDNA sold 200 "Walk the Y" tests during their last sale. So far they have completed 100 of these samples and found 140 new SNPs. The "Walk the Y" tests take five times more plate space than the Full Sequence mtDNA tests. As a result, FTDNA can run only two of these tests per day.
4.  FTDNA is still planning to allow uploads of 3rd party data to their Family Finder database. (Very soon!)
5.  FTDNA has shipped out over 207,000 kits since inception and 406,000 kits have been sold by National Geographic. FTDNA has 208,000 unique Y-DNA results and 128,703 unique mtDNA results in their database.
6.  FTDNA's Population Finder uses 64 reference populations.

I hope you learned something new. I know I did!

[Disclosure - My company StudioINTV has an existing production agreement with FTDNA that has no bearing on the opinions I express. I also receive a small commission from FTDNA on non-sale orders through my affiliate link, which I use to fund DNA tests. I receive no other compensation in relation to any of the companies or products referenced in my blog.]

In Honor of DNA Day: Why I Won't Give Up On Autosomal DNA Testing for Genealogy

Many genealogists who tested with 23andMe for ancestry purposes have expressed their frustration with the low response rate of Relative Finder. Many of us have also experienced difficulty finding our common ancestors with our predicted cousins who do respond. I have a well-researched, fairly full family tree going back a number of generations on many branches and even I, as a big proponent of this service, have to admit it has been slow going.  However, I will not give up on autosomal testing for genealogy and here is why:

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!
We are all at the forefront of this emerging science. It will take time to sort out its best uses, but I already see glimmers of its potential. Those of us who have been able to test a substantial number of our relatives are already discovering useful information and emerging patterns. In my opinion, focused family studies are the future of autosomal genetic genealogy. I am confident that there will be a time when we will have successful projects for ancestral individuals/couples and are able to identify probable descendants of these people who had no previous knowledge of this part of their ancestry. Trail blazers like Tim Janzen with his Youngman Family study, Wayne Kauffman with his Anabaptist Project, David Faux with his Young Family study and Whit Athey with his phasing project are already showing us what can be accomplished.

Biogeographical ancestry analyses like 23andMe's Ancestry Painting and FTDNA's Population Finder will become more specific and meaningful in the future. The reference population samples will be greatly improved in time, thus allowing all of us to determine what region of the world specific portions of our DNA originated.

I have already had success with discovering unknown Ashkenazi ancestry through my paternal line. I may never know exactly which ancestor is responsible for that stretch of my 7th Chromosome, but I believe that there is a good chance that, eventually, it will become discoverable.

It is true that my overall response rate on Relative Finder is low, but with over 500 predicted relatives in my account and each of the other numerous profiles that I handle, I have more than enough acceptances to happily work with for many, many months. Of these, I have already found the common ancestor with a number of my matches. This will only improve with more people in the database. If I sustain my current acceptance rate of ~20%, as the database grows, I should have a tremendous number of "success stories" to report.

I find it fascinating to have the opportunity to discover which stretches of my DNA are from specific great grandparents. Researching genealogy has always made me feel closer to my ancestors, but there is something very satisfying and meaningful to KNOWING that I have little bits of them inside me.

This is a classic case of choosing to see the glass half-empty or half-full. I can understand how some have already become frustrated with the limited set of tools we currently have for working with this data, but I will not be one of them. As for me, I will wring every drop of meaning out of each and every ancestry DNA tool that is offered to me with appreciation. This is what I have been waiting for ever since I first read about genetic genealogy back in 2002. I hoped it would happen and now it is here. I can be patient a little while longer, but I won't sit back and wait for others to figure it out for me. I want to be among the individuals who help to realize this great potential, discovering what autosomal DNA can tell us about ourselves and our ancestors.

Stay tuned...