Black Friday is a concept that's been imported from America. It's the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday and traditionally the day when Americans start their Christmas shopping. The retailers often provide special deals to lure everyone to the shops. Lots of shops and websites are now trying to do the same in the UK and, whether we like or not, Black Friday is here to stay. For genetic genealogists benefit of this gimmick is that the DNA testing companies are jumping onto the bandwagon and offering DNA kits at reduced prices not just for their US customers but for people in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other countries too.
I was going to do a blog post summarising all the current Black Friday offers but Michelle Leonard has already beaten me to it. If you want to find out about all the special deals make sure you check out Michelle's blog post Black Friday DNA Sales 2017. She will update the page with new offers as they become available. Note that many of these discounts are for a very limited period only and will expire on Monday which is now known as Cyber Monday – the day when many people (though not me!) start their online Christmas shopping.
For full details of all the Family Tree DNA sale prices, including all the discounted upgrades, see my previous post FTDNA's 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conference and the FTDNA sale.
If you've not yet had your DNA tested or want to test additional family members or you want to get your DNA into a different database now is a great time to test.
Thursday, 23 November 2017
Monday, 13 November 2017
FTDNA's 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conference and the FTDNA sale
At the weekend Family Tree DNA held their 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conference for group administrators. You can see the full programme here. I've been following the news from the conference on Twitter by checking out the hashtag #FTDNA2017. Thank you to Katherine Borges, Lisa Janine Cloud, Louis Kessler and Marilyn Souders for all the tweets and photos.
Some of the conference attendees have blogged about the conference. I've provided a list below which I will update if further articles become available.
Conference reports from Jennifer Zinck
Jennifer always writes wonderfully detailed notes from the conference and I recommend reading her articles in their entirety. It's almost like being there in person!
- 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conference – Saturday
- 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conference – Sunday
Louis Kessler is a first-time conference attendee. He provides an interesting perspective and has also shared a selection of photographs.
At the close of the conference FTDNA announced a sale which will run until the end of the year. Upgrades are also included in the sale. Here is a chart showing the sale prices.
Note that, in addition to the above prices, FTDNA charges $12.95 for shipping. Kits for customers in the US are sent out by DHL and the cost includes return shipping. Customers in other countries will need to pay the return postage separately.
There is also a 15% discount on SNPs and SNP packs for the sale period.
FTDNA have given existing customers discount codes (coupons) which can be used to get a further reduction on the sale price. You'll need to log into your FTDNA account and click on the Holiday Reward to see your offer. As always, a number of people have taken the initiative to set up collaborative spreadsheets where unused coupons can be shared and exchanged.
A spreadsheet is available from this link that was shared on the Haplogroup Facebook page.
There are also other spreadsheets being maintained by specific groups such as the U106 group on Yahoo.
- FTDNA’s 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conf, Day 1
- FTDNA’s 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conf Day 2
- FTDNA’s 13th International Genetic Genealogy Conf Day 3
- FTDNA's 13th IGG conference lab tour
Conference report from Judy Russell
- What's not in our genes An overview of Michael Hammer's talk
Conference report from Rob van Drie
Presentations
The slides from some of the presentations will be made available to project administrators.
Maurice Gleeson has shared his two conference presentations on his YouTube channel:
FTDNA sale
At the close of the conference FTDNA announced a sale which will run until the end of the year. Upgrades are also included in the sale. Here is a chart showing the sale prices.
| Individual Tests | Sale price | Regular price |
Family Finder
(FF)
|
$59 | $89 |
mtFull Sequence (FMS)
|
$169 | $199 |
Y-37
|
$129 | $169 |
Y-67
|
$229 | $268 |
Y-111
|
$299 | $359 |
Test Bundles
|
Sale price | Regular price |
Family Finder + Y-37
|
$178 | $238 |
Family Finder + Y-67
|
$278 | $337 |
FF + mtFull Sequence
|
$218 | $268 |
FF + Y-67 + mtFull Sequence
|
$442 | $536 |
Upgrades
|
Sale price | Regular price |
mt/mtPlus to
FMS
|
$119 | $159 |
Big
Y
|
$475 | $575 |
Y-12 to Y-37
|
$69 | $109 |
Y-25 to Y-37
|
$35 | $59 |
Y-37 to Y-67
|
$79 | $109 |
Y-37 to
Y-111
|
$168 | $228 |
Y-67 to
Y-111
|
$99 | $129 |
Note that, in addition to the above prices, FTDNA charges $12.95 for shipping. Kits for customers in the US are sent out by DHL and the cost includes return shipping. Customers in other countries will need to pay the return postage separately.
There is also a 15% discount on SNPs and SNP packs for the sale period.
FTDNA have given existing customers discount codes (coupons) which can be used to get a further reduction on the sale price. You'll need to log into your FTDNA account and click on the Holiday Reward to see your offer. As always, a number of people have taken the initiative to set up collaborative spreadsheets where unused coupons can be shared and exchanged.
A spreadsheet is available from this link that was shared on the Haplogroup Facebook page.
There are also other spreadsheets being maintained by specific groups such as the U106 group on Yahoo.
Wednesday, 8 November 2017
23andMe passes three million milestone
The 23andMe database stood at two million in April 2017 when it was announced that they had received FDA approval to provide health reports for their US customers. That means they have tested one million people in the last seven months.
It was announced in October that 23andMe had "launched an advertising blitz to dramatically expand its customer base to 10 million people". How long will it be before they reach that goal?
Thanks to Ritchie Hansen for alerting me to the USA Today story in the Genetic Genealogy Tips and Techniques group on Facebook.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
AncestryDNA updates – six million customers, a new DNA Story layout and changes to the consent process
There have been a few changes at Ancestry DNA in the last few days. They've started to roll out a new presentation for their "ethnicity" reports and Genetic Communities. The two features are now integrated which makes them much easier to use. This is what my new home page looks like. The admixture percentages have not changed but I am encouraged to click through to view my DNA Story.
Here is my new DNA Story page. By default the low-confidence regions are not shown, but I've expanded them in this screenshot.
I currently have one Genetic Community for Southern England. That is now nested inside the Great Britain region.
The admixture component that was previously labelled Ireland has now been renamed as Ireland/Scotland/Wales. However, this component actually covers much of England as well, and overlaps with the Southern England Genetic Community, as can be seen below.
The timeline is now conveniently located at the bottom of the page. It's easy to click through and read the historical detail for the different periods. Here's my timeline from 1850 which shows the migrations of the people in my Southern England community. This is the era of peak emigration, particularly to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America, and it's fascinating to see how these connections are showing up in the DNA.
Some people are also seeing Migrations listed below their "ethnicity" report. This only applies if the person's genetic community is not part of their admixture regions.
AncestryDNA database now at six million and changes to the consent process
AncestryDNA have also announced that their database has reached six million. They had five million people in their database at the beginning of August 2017, which means they've added one million to their database in less than three months. The good news is that much of that growth has taken place in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
At the same time AncestryDNA have also made some changes to the DNA cousin-matching service, as described in this blog post. Most importantly, customers now have the ability to opt out of cousin matching, and new customers have to actively consent to participate in the relative-matching database. This is what the test settings now look like for existing customers.
This is the message you get if you want to change the settings for your DNA matches.
Here is the page in the activation process for new testers where you have to consent to "see and be seen" by your DNA matches.
This is what the home page now looks like if the tester decides not to opt in to matching. (Many thanks to Michelle Leonard for these two screenshots.)
This is a very welcome change, and I'm just surprised that it didn't happen sooner. This brings AncestryDNA into line with 23andMe and Family Tree DNA, both of whom require the tester to opt in to be included in the matching database.
I always warn my fellow genealogists to be prepared for the unexpected. With the growth in the DNA databases we are finding many examples of surprise DNA matches. Some people are getting unexpected matches with previously unknown close relatives, and sometimes even with unknown siblings and parents. Much of the focus of the AncestryDNA marketing campaigns has been on the admixture percentages, and this has helped to bring in a whole new demographic to DNA testing, many of whom have then been inspired to start researching their family tree. However, many of these people don't realise that the test also has a direct genealogical application and can be used for cousin matching. I've personally come across a couple of instances of people testing to get the admixture percentages and then finding by chance that they had an unknown parent or child in the database. These discoveries were made in the most inappropriate circumstances and the embarrassment could have been avoided if there had been a proper consent process in place at the time. It's important that everyone who participates in the DNA matching database understands what they are doing and that they are forewarned about the implications so that they can make their own choices based on their individual circumstances. Not everyone is willing or ready to discover unknown relatives and their wishes should be respected.
Further reading
Here is my new DNA Story page. By default the low-confidence regions are not shown, but I've expanded them in this screenshot.
I currently have one Genetic Community for Southern England. That is now nested inside the Great Britain region.
The admixture component that was previously labelled Ireland has now been renamed as Ireland/Scotland/Wales. However, this component actually covers much of England as well, and overlaps with the Southern England Genetic Community, as can be seen below.
The timeline is now conveniently located at the bottom of the page. It's easy to click through and read the historical detail for the different periods. Here's my timeline from 1850 which shows the migrations of the people in my Southern England community. This is the era of peak emigration, particularly to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America, and it's fascinating to see how these connections are showing up in the DNA.
Some people are also seeing Migrations listed below their "ethnicity" report. This only applies if the person's genetic community is not part of their admixture regions.
AncestryDNA database now at six million and changes to the consent process
AncestryDNA have also announced that their database has reached six million. They had five million people in their database at the beginning of August 2017, which means they've added one million to their database in less than three months. The good news is that much of that growth has taken place in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
At the same time AncestryDNA have also made some changes to the DNA cousin-matching service, as described in this blog post. Most importantly, customers now have the ability to opt out of cousin matching, and new customers have to actively consent to participate in the relative-matching database. This is what the test settings now look like for existing customers.
This is the message you get if you want to change the settings for your DNA matches.
Here is the page in the activation process for new testers where you have to consent to "see and be seen" by your DNA matches.
I always warn my fellow genealogists to be prepared for the unexpected. With the growth in the DNA databases we are finding many examples of surprise DNA matches. Some people are getting unexpected matches with previously unknown close relatives, and sometimes even with unknown siblings and parents. Much of the focus of the AncestryDNA marketing campaigns has been on the admixture percentages, and this has helped to bring in a whole new demographic to DNA testing, many of whom have then been inspired to start researching their family tree. However, many of these people don't realise that the test also has a direct genealogical application and can be used for cousin matching. I've personally come across a couple of instances of people testing to get the admixture percentages and then finding by chance that they had an unknown parent or child in the database. These discoveries were made in the most inappropriate circumstances and the embarrassment could have been avoided if there had been a proper consent process in place at the time. It's important that everyone who participates in the DNA matching database understands what they are doing and that they are forewarned about the implications so that they can make their own choices based on their individual circumstances. Not everyone is willing or ready to discover unknown relatives and their wishes should be respected.
Further reading
- Your DNA has a story to tell - the official blog post from the Ancestry team
- Donna Rutherford has written a nice blog post about her new DNA Story feature at AncestryDNA.
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