GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 15, No. 6, May 20, 2013
A
Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all
Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations
Worldwide
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Copyright
© 2013 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
**
General Comments
**
DNA Day Was April 25
**
New Pricing Policy From Family Tree DNA
**
Different Types of mtDNA Tests From Various Companies
**
Importance of Using and Supporting GEDmatch.com
**
Training Videos and Other Resources From Family Search
**
DNA Testing for Native American Ancestry
**
New Tools to Find Irish Roots
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
This
issue of the GF Bulletin has more of the miscellaneous articles that I find
interesting. I hope you find some
of the information helpful.
===============================================
DNA DAY WAS
APRIL 25
According
to Wikipedia: DNA Day is a holiday celebrated on April 25. It commemorates the
day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind
Franklin and colleagues published papers in the journal Nature on the structure
of DNA. Furthermore, on that day in 2003 it was declared that the Human Genome
Project was very close to complete.
In
the United States, DNA Day was first celebrated on April 25, 2003 by
proclamation of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, they
only declared a one-time celebration, not an annual holiday. Every year from
2003 onward, annual DNA Day celebrations have been organized by the National
Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). April 25 has since been declared
"International DNA Day" and "World DNA Day" by several
groups.
The
AncestryDNA Blog published the following:
“Happy
DNA Day! Once a year, the scientific community takes time out to recognize some
amazing achievements in DNA science. Two keystone events are the discovery of
the DNA double helix structure in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson and
the declaration 50 years later, in 2003, that the Human Genome Project was
complete…well, close to complete. Only a few small gaps still remain in
sequencing and mapping the entire human genome.
We
have some additional reasons to celebrate on DNA Day 2013. Our science team has
been hard at work on some breakthroughs of their own that we hope to share
later this year. They include an update to the DNA ethnicity predictions
available to all AncestryDNA customers, even those who have already taken the
test.
AncestryDNA
is growing fast. As part of our
DNA celebrations, we’d like to share some exciting accomplishments AncestryDNA
has made with the support of our members in the past year.
·
AncestryDNA has grown its database to more than 120,000 DNA samples
since the product’s BETA launch in May 2012.
·
7.7 million ancestors are now available to discover through family
trees linked to DNA results.
·
More than 3.3 million fourth-cousin DNA matches have been surfaced to
customers, meaning they potentially share an ancestor in the mid-1800s.
·
Over 1 million people have been connected to each other by AncestryDNA,
along with a shared ancestor identified from Ancestry.com family trees. This
represents the perfect culmination of DNA science and family history research.
How
you can celebrate DNA Day: Take the AncestryDNA test. Start exploring your
family story in your own DNA.”
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NEW PRICING
POLICY FROM FAMILY TREE DNA
The
following DNA test pricing update was sent May 2, 2013 by Family Tree DNA to
group administrators.
“With
the end of the DNA Day promotion, we (Bennett and Max), considered how to
continue offering the best prices, yet keep control in the lab to avoid delays
from high volume. Since demand is directly related to prices, we decided to
implement a temporary price rollback whenever lab capacity allows us to do so.
Despite
an extremely successful sale, we believe that with our increased lab capacity,
we are able to continue offering reduced prices on several tests. While the
prices are not as low as they were for the DNA Day promotion, you will notice
that these temporary reductions are extremely attractive, and should be a real
incentive to anyone that did not take advantage of the sale to order now, while
the prices are reduced. With this system in place, prices may go up on
different tests at any time based on lab volume.
Additionally,
on April 1st when we permanently reduced the price of the Y-DNA12 to $49, we
mentioned that our R&D team was working towards a price reduction for the
equivalent mtDNA basic test. Good news! Not only did we manage to achieve this
goal, but we did it for the mtDNAPlus test that covers both HVR1 and HVR2.
Therefore, we're discontinuing the HVR1-only test. Our basic mtDNA test will
now be the mtDNAPlus (HVR1+2) at the $49 price point! We hope that with the
basic Y-DNA and mtDNA tests very reasonably priced, a whole new group of people
will be tempted to begin their own DNA experience and increase the size of your
projects!” See the full range of
prices on their website.
The
new lower prices include:
Full
Mitochondrial Sequence |
$199 |
Family
Finder: |
$199 |
Y-DNA37
+ Full Sequence |
$368 |
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DIFFERENT
TYPES OF mtDNA TESTS FROM VARIOUS COMPANIES
In
a recent
blog article, Debbie Kennett explains some of the exciting advances in
mitochondrial testing, the variety of testing now available, and how the price
has continued to drop as the completeness and value of the test has
increased. The article includes
many links to references that will increase your understanding of this
important DNA test.
===============================================
IMPORTANCE OF
USING AND SUPPORTING GEDMATCH.COM
One
of the greatest online DNA service providers is GEDmatch.com. I have discussed many times how
desirable it is to upload autosomal DNA test results and GEDCOMS to GEDmatch so
that comparisons can be made and common ancestors can be found. Not only does this website provide many
types of analysis not available anywhere else, but there is no charge for using
it. Apparently at least partly
because of operating with minimal financial resources, the site has
occasionally had problems, as discussed below. Financial support is needed.
A
recent notice on their website said: “Please support our effort to purchase
additional backup equipment.
Donations are appreciated and may be sent to
GEDmatch, c/o Curtis Rogers,
710 First Avenue South,
Lake Worth, FL 33460,
or by clicking the ‘Donate’ button below.”
Features
have been added to GEDmatch, including help features, and a login requirement
which provides a profile and personal information for each user. Although GEDmatch was not accepting
data uploads for several weeks, the site appears to be functioning again. It
would be very helpful for everyone who has taken an autosomal DNA test,
including tests from Ancestry.com, to upload their test data results to
GEDmatch.
===============================================
TRAINING
VIDEOS AND OTHER RESOURCES FROM FAMILY SEARCH
Through
its new website and millions of new records constantly being added to the site,
FamilySearch is a resource that can provide much help to genealogists. They recently announced that they have
reached a major milestone of one billion records indexed and arbitrated since
the launch of FamilySearch indexing in September of 2006.
To
view a list of currently available indexing projects, along with their record
language and completion percentage, visit the FamilySearch indexing
updates page. To learn more about individual projects, view the
FamilySearch projects
page.
According
to their website, “FamilySearch is a
nonprofit family history organization dedicated to connecting families across
generations.
Learning
about our ancestors helps us better understand who we are — creating a
family bond, linking the present to the past, and building a bridge to the
future.
FamilySearch
is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use
FamilySearch records, resources, and services each year to learn more about
their family history. FamilySearch provides:
·
Free, A service to all at no cost.
·
3 Billion Names from all over the world.
·
4,500 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.
·
Free expert phone support 24/7.
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called the LDS or Mormons)
is the primary benefactor for FamilySearch services. Our commitment to helping
people connect with their ancestors is rooted in our beliefs—that
families are meant to be central to our lives and that family relationships are
intended to continue beyond this life.
FamilySearch,
historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, which was founded in
1894, is dedicated to preserving the records of the family of mankind. Our
purpose is simple—help people connect with their ancestors through easy
access to historical records.
We
gladly join and partner with others who share this vision. We pioneered
industry standards for gathering, imaging, indexing, and preserving records.
Advances in technology and the emergence of our digital world now provide an
opportunity for us to share these resources with the world.”
Eastman’s Online Genealogy
Newsletter
for 22 April 2013 published an article about some learning videos from Family
Search.
The FamilySearch
Blog has announced some great tools that illustrate how to use the new
services recently added:
FamilySearch
is rolling out new product videos in conjunction with the launch of the new
FamilySearch website. These videos are less than 3 minutes long and show how a
new user can have success using each of the new features of the site. The
videos are available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German,
Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Look for these videos at their Learning
Center.
· FamilySearch.org Video Tutorials and Guides
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DNA TESTING
FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY
Many
of those in the U.S. and Canada are very interested in finding whether they
have Native American ancestry.
Many families have stories about such ancestry, some of which are true,
some partly true, and some false.
A summary of some of what is known and some of the DNA research that is
being done is in a recent blog
article by Roberta Estes. The
posting is called “Announcing the Native American Haplogroup C DNA Project.”
The
article (referring to Y-DNA in men) says: “Native American males who descend
from direct paternal ancestors who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia
some 10,000+ years ago fall into one of two haplogroups, or genetic clans. One is haplogroup Q and the other is
haplogroup C. Since both
haplogroup Q and haplogroup C are found among Asians, not everyone with these
haplogroups in the Americas are Native Americans – only certain subgroups
identified by specific mutations that occurred shortly before, during or
shortly after the migration process.”
“Native
Americans who carry haplogroup C are indeed quite rare and are identified by a
special mutation, a SNP marker, known as P39, within haplogroup C. This haplogroup subgroup is also known
by the name C3b. We would like to
invite all men who are haplogroup C and carry mutation P39, or anyone who is
haplogroup C and has a family history of paternal line Native ancestry to join
the project.”
It
further states: “Genetic advances and discoveries relevant to Native history
and genealogy are regularly covered on my
blog. It’s searchable -- just
enter the word “Native” into the search box. In addition, I maintain a historical focus on the Native
people through the Native Names project which is focused on extracting the
earliest names of Native people found in colonial documents. To date, they number over 30,000
individuals and over 8,000 surnames.
Adventures in this project and a wide range of Native history are
discussed on my [other] blog.”
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NEW TOOLS TO
FIND IRISH ROOTS
Ireland Reaching
Out (Ireland XO) wants to find the most local person in Irish communities,
defined as the person in the community who has the highest number of great-,
and great-great-grandparents in the area.
That person could be the key to developing the
parish Diaspora worldwide. In cooperation with its USA-based DNA partner,
23andme, Ireland XO is developing a database of Irish DNA which will allow
anyone abroad to find out what part of Ireland they come from, without ever
stepping on Irish soil. The Irish
Central website has this
story and more.
The
“most local person” is by default, a biological summary of all the blood types
and genealogies in an area and is a “marker” of the DNA of the local people. By
simply matching your DNA with the national Irish database, your own mix of DNA
will pinpoint to where your people most likely originated from. Using DNA is a
third way, in addition to genealogical research and oral history, that Ireland
XO is using to find out the parishes from where the Irish Diaspora worldwide
came.
Another
related story is about the Irish
Genetic Homeland Finder website.
According to their site, this “is a set of online tools for enhancing genealogy research by
geographically pinpointing the latitude and longitude of historical records and
events. If you would like to learn the specific geographical place where your
ancestors came from, try our web applications which enable you to generate data
maps in real-time to see the spatial relationship between multiple surnames and
datasets. Beyond just
geographically plotting historical records like tax rolls and censuses, we are
also digitizing and geocoding non-traditional locations like castles, clan
histories, and Y-DNA signatures. “
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ABOUT
THIS BULLETIN:
This
bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
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BULLETIN:
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