Family Tree DNA sale extended

The Family Tree DNA summer sale has been extended for a further week and will now end on 30th June 2009. If you've been away on holiday and missed the sale you will now have a chance to place an order. The offer is only available through surname and geographical projects such as my Cruwys/Cruse DNA Project and my Devon DNA Project. I have also recently set up a new DNA project for the Kennett surname. Please help to spread the word.

If anyone wants advice on deciding which project to join to qualify for the special promotional price do get in touch. I've copied below for information the relevant details from the e-mail I received from Family Tree DNA.

Dear Group Administrator,

In the last few days we have received several e-mails from group administrators asking us to extend our "Unparalleled 50% Promotional Discount" Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $119 (the regular project price is $248 – a reduction of more than 50%!!), as many people are only now becoming aware of the promotion.

We have decided, therefore, to extend it until June 30th, 2009. Kits must be paid by July 7, 2009.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Max Blankfeld
Vice-President, Operations and Marketing
http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

DNA news

Family Tree DNA have announced a special summer promotion for a limited period starting today and ending on 24th June 2009. They are offering a combined Y-DNA 37-marker test and mtDNA HVR1 test for the bargain price of $119 (approximately £74). The normal project price for a 37-marker Y-DNA test is $149 (£93), and the normal project price for the two tests combined is $248 (£154). FTDNA are therefore in effect offering the Y-DNA test at a discounted price and throwing in a free mtDNA test. If you have been considering participating in the Cruwys/Cruse/Crewes DNA Project and have been put off by the price, now is the ideal opportunity to buy a kit at this very special price. Note too that the pound/dollar exchange rate is currently much more favourable than it has been in recent months for those of us in the UK.

In addition to my Cruwys/Cruse/Crewes DNA Project I have also recently set up a new project for the English county of Devon. Further details about the Devon DNA Project can be found here. If you have friends or relatives with roots in Devon it would be much appreciated if you could encourage them to join this new project.

If you are interested in testing a different surname and you don't have Devon ancestry, Family Tree DNA now have over 5,400 surname projects, so there is a good chance that your friends or relatives will find that their surname is already represented. If not, then to take advantage of the special promotion they should join one of the geographical projects. There are projects for Hampshire, East Anglia, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There is also a catch-all project for the British Isles. You can find a full listing here.

If you do not yet understand how DNA testing works then I recommend that you read my short article from the Berkshire Family Historian which can be found online here.

I have copied below the letter from FTDNA with full details of the special promotion.

Dear Family Tree DNA Group Administrator,

Last summer we offered a pricing special that was the most successful offering of its kind in our company’s history.

Many project administrators strongly supported our recruitment efforts and both their projects and our database grew significantly.

This year we will offer an early summer special with an unparalleled promotional discount.

Offer summary:

• Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $119. (The regular project price is $248 – a reduction of more than 50%!!)
• The promotion will begin on June 9, 2009 and will end on June 24, 2009
• Kits ordered in this sale must be paid for by June 30, 2009

This is your new members’ opportunity to skip past the Y-DNA12 and Y-DNA25 tests and get the best Y-DNA Genealogical test on the market in addition to an mtDNA test for an extremely reduced price!

I should also mention that according to one of our competitors’ method of counting markers our 37-marker test could also be called a "41-marker test" as we do test and report markers 464e, 464f, 464g, and DYS19b. Though we test them, it is very rare that individuals have results for these markers. Therefore, by our conservative counting method, our competitor's "33-marker test" is actually a "29-marker test". We mention this to make sure that you understand the difference between these tests and are able to compare "apples to apples".

So... I hope that with this promotion your project can gain many new members.

As always, that you for your continued support.

Max Blankfeld
Vice-President, Operations and Marketing
http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com
"History Unearthed Daily"

If you have any questions about my DNA projects or DNA testing in general do please get in touch.

William Henry James Cruwys (1942-2009)

The sad news has arrived from Canada of the death of William "Bill" Henry James Cruwys on 2nd June 2009 at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Bill was the son of Lloyd Cruwys and Helen Gertrude Ferguson. He worked for most of his life at the Ajax Downs horse racing track in Ajax, Ontario. He was involved in a tragic accident in May at the race track where he was run over by a horse. His family will be able to take comfort from the fact that he died doing what he loved best. His obituary in the Toronto Sun newspaper can be read online here. A Facebook group has been set up in tribute to Bill Cruwys which can be found here.

Cruwys Morchard wills and inventories

I have added another set of transcriptions to the pages of Genuki Devon. The latest transcriptions are abstracts and catalogue entries for the wills and inventories which are held in the Cruwys family archives at Cruwys Morchard House in Devon. The transcriptions can be found online here. Some of the wills in the Cruwys Morchard collection are now the only surviving copies. As Devon researchers will know, the Exeter Probate Registry was bombed in World War II and all the wills stored there were lost. It is unfortunate that the original Cruwys Morchard wills are still in private hands and are therefore inaccessible to the public. I hope that one day it will be possible to have these records digitised or microfilmed so that they can be made available to interested researchers. I would be particularly interested in seeing the two original Cruwys inventories.

My latest contributions to Genuki Devon were in response to the announcement of the new Devon Wills Project. This resource is now growing very rapidly, and if you have any ancestors from Devon it is well worth checking out. I have already transcribed a number of Cruwys/Cruse wills along with a few wills for some of the other Devon surnames I am researching such as Dillon, Westcott and Acland. The links to these transcriptions are now all included in the new consolidated index.

Denys Crews obituary

Guild member Audrey Town has kindly sent me another obituary which she spotted in the Yorkshire Post:

CREWS Denys
Died peacefully on May 13th 2009 aged 95 years. Loving Husband of Gundred, Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Friend of many. Memorial Service at St Mary's Priory Church, Old Malton on June 4th at 2pm. Family flowers only. Donations to R.N.L.I.

I've established that Denys was born in the June quarter of 1914 in the Brentford Registration District in West London. He was the son of Ernest Kingwell Crews and Louise J Pilgrim who married in Kensington, London, in the June quarter of 1913. This seems to be another West Country Crews line as Ernest Kingwell Crews was born in the December quarter of 1886 in Stoke Damerel, Devon.