AncestryDNA at Back To Our Past

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I made a special effort at the Back to Our Past show in Dublin to attend the presentation by Mike Mulligan, International Product Manager of Ancestry.com, on "AncestryDNA - DNA testing for family history".

Before I discuss the presentation I just want to start off by providing some background on Ancestry's autosomal product and their entry into the marketplace which you can skip if you're already familiar with the situation in the US. Autosomal DNA tests look at thousands of markers from across your entire genome and can be used to find matches with genetic cousins on all your family lines. These tests are most effective at making connections within the last five or six generations. AncestryDNA is one of three companies which currently offer such a test. 23andMe introduced a cousin-finding feature to their autosomal DNA test in the autumn of 2009. The 23andMe test can be purchased online in fifty-six countries including the UK and Ireland. Family Tree DNA's Family Finder test has been on sale worldwide since February 2010. AncestryDNA began to roll out their autosomal DNA test in the US in the autumn of 2011. They kickstarted their autosomal DNA database by offering free tests to over 10,000 selected subscribers. The test was officially launched in the US on 3 May 2012. I filled out the form to register my interest and received an invitation to order a test in June at the special introductory price of $99. Although the test was at that time supposedly restricted to the US, I was still able to place an order from the UK. This loophole has since been plugged, though you can still circumvent the restriction by using a package forwarder. Tim Janzen has compiled a very useful autosomal DNA testing comparison chart for the ISOGG Wiki which provides further details of the different tests.

The AncestryDNA database has grown very rapidly in the last two years and they have now tested over 500,000 people. Ken Chahine, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AncestryDNA, revealed in a recent presentation that the company are currently selling an astonishing 30,000 to 50,000 DNA kits every month. If the growth continues at the existing rate, they are expecting the database to grow to one million probably by the middle of 2015. This is all well and good if you are American, but a large all-American database is unfortunately not much help for the rest of us unless we are trying to reconnect with the descendants of family members who emigrated to the US in the last 200 years or so. Autosomal tests do also give us matches with more distant cousins, and in fact most of our matches are with people who are predicted to be fifth or more distant cousins simply because we have so many of them. However, finding the genealogical connection with these distant cousins can be difficult if not impossible. While some genealogists are lucky enough to be able to identify all of their 32 great-great-great-grandparents there are probably very few people who can name all of their 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents. I currently have over 7400 matches at Ancestry DNA. Twenty of these matches are with predicted fourth to sixth cousins and these matches have been assigned a confidence level of 95%, which means that there is a very low chance that these matches will be false positives. However, none of my fourth to sixth cousins at AncestryDNA have surnames in common with me and their trees are all in America whereas all my ancestry is in the British Isles so it is an impossible task trying to establish how we are related. My remaining matches are all predicted to be fifth to eight cousins who have been assigned as moderate confidence or low confidence. AncestryDNA add the following note of caution about these distant matches: "Even though there is a 50% (or less) chance that you are related, these matches are still good leads." Nevertheless it seems to me that it would be a futile exercise trying to work my way through all these 7000+ matches with little hope of ever identifying the genealogical relationship, if any. Ancestry do a have a potentially useful "shaky leaf" feature which could help in this situation. If you and your matches have both uploaded trees Ancestry will search the trees for you and will identify the ancestral couples who appear in both trees who might have contributed the shared segment of DNA. However, I do not yet have the benefit of any of these shaky leaf hints.

People are typically getting many more matches at AncestryDNA than at 23andMe and FTDNA, even when you take the comparative sizes of the databases into account. The reason for the large number of matches is that AncestryDNA have set a much lower matching threshold. Ancestry recently announced plans to introduce a new improved matching algorithm, and it is expected that this feature will be rolled out some time before the end of the year. As a result, we can expect our match lists to be drastically pruned but it will be a change that is very much for the better. Blaine Bettinger, who writes The Genetic Genealogist blog, attended a bloggers' summit hosted by AncestryDNA in San Francisco in October where the attendees were given much more detailed information about what to expect. Blaine has provided an excellent write-up in his blog post "Finding genetic cousins - separating fact from fiction". I shall be interested to see how this new feature works out.

We were told at Back To Our Past that the AncestryDNA autosomal test will be launched in the UK and Ireland some time next year. The date has not yet been revealed but my money is on a launch in April 2015 at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Birmingham. Although the AncestryDNA test is lacking many of the essential tools that we take for granted at Family Tree DNA and 23andMe (for example, a chromosome browser and the ability to download your segment data), Ancestry do have the advantage of a large subscriber base of over 250,000 people in the UK and Ireland. Many of these people will no doubt be tempted to take the test and a lot of them would probably have never considered testing at FTDNA or 23andMe. Family Tree DNA now offer a free autosomal transfer programme though it's necessary to pay a small fee of $39 to unlock additional matches and features. Anyone who tests at AncestryDNA will be able to transfer their results to FTDNA so that they can take advantage of all the extra tools and receive matches in FTDNA's international database. Another option for people who have tested at Ancestry and who wish to do more detailed comparisons is to upload their results to GedMatch, which is a free third-party website. GedMatch also have many additional useful features, such as a variety of admixture analyses, though there is a small fee to access some of the advanced tools. GedMatch also serves as a database where you can compare your results with people who have tested at all three testing companies, though the vast majority of people in the database are currently Americans. DNAGedcom provides a further range of tools for advanced users including Don Worth's wonderful Autosomal DNA Segment Analyser.

Now to get back to the subject of the AncestryDNA presentation at Back To Our Past. Mike Mulligan provided an introduction to autosomal DNA testing in a presentation that was pitched very much at a basic level. I was interested to learn that the Ancestry.com headquarters are in Ireland. In order to prepare for the launch, testing has been done on eighty people who are either Ancestry.com employees or their friends and family members. In contrast with my experience, Mike seems to have found quite a few close matches in the database. I suspect this is because a lot of Americans have quite recent Irish ancestry so people in Ireland are much more likely to get meaningful matches in the database. Mike has also had matches with a number of adoptees, and he's been corresponding with them and trying to help them. The price of the AncestryDNA test has not yet been decided. Mike mentioned that Ancestry did not want to give out segment data because of what they perceive as potential health issues.

Mike Mulligan of Ancestry.com

Mike showed us some examples of the ethnicity reports provided by AncestryDNA. I've included photographs of a couple of the slides below but unfortunately the lighting at the RDS was rather bright and, even with my best attempts at upping the contrast in Photoshop, I'm afraid the images are still rather over-exposed.

The most interesting slide was one which showed a comparison of the ethnicity estimates received by some of the Ancestry employees in Ireland who were included in the "friends and family" testing. Although it was only a very small sample it seemed apparent that the people who were from the north west of Ireland were the ones who came out with the highest percentages of  "Irish". Most of the Ancestry employees were between 70% and 100% "Irish" though one person was only 29% "Irish". However he had a Scottish great-great-grandparent and also some English ancestry.

I'm personally not convinced that the AncestryDNA test is reliably able to distinguish between "Irish" and "British" DNA. According to my Ancestry DNA test my percentages are:

47% Europe West
21% Great Britain
20% Ireland
8%   Iberian Peninsula
4%   Trace regions

I have one Irish ggg grandmother, one Scottish ggg grandfather, and all my remaining known ggg grandparents are from England. However, I do have some gaps in my family tree, including a London-born great-grandfather whose parentage is unknown and who is my biggest brick wall, so it's possible that I do have some more distant Irish ancestry of which I'm unaware, though not enough to account for such a high percentage. I also have a surprisingly low percentage of "British" DNA. I've found that lots of Americans come out with very much higher percentages of "British" than me!

Ancestry.com also had a stand at Back To Our Past and the displays provided information about the Ancestry DNA test. The stand was always busy when I went past but I was surprised to see them advertising the test without being able to offer visitors the chance to buy a kit.

The Ancestry.com stand at BTOP.

What's your story? Ancestry.com at BTOP.

On the Monday after Back To Our Past the ISOGG members who had helping out at the show were treated to a special day out which had been arranged with meticulous detail by Gerard Corcoran, the ISOGG regional representative for Ireland. (I wrote about our day out in my previous blog post.) Gerard had arranged for us to have dinner on Monday evening at Ka Shing, a Chinese restaurant in Dublin city centre. The evening was hosted by Ancestry.com, and three of the Ancestry team joined us for the dinner: John Halvey, Operations Manager, Ancestry International; Eric Booth, Senior Product Marketing Manager, International; and Mike Mulligan, the International Product Manager who had given the presentation on Saturday at BTOP. The evening provided us with an excellent opportunity to quiz the Ancestry staff about their autosomal DNA test. I was sitting next to Mike Mulligan. Mike had mentioned in his presentation that his DNA test had "confirmed" a genealogical connection with a sixth cousin once removed which had shown up as a shaky leaf hint. However, such a statement is highly misleading as it's quite possible that the shared DNA could have come from a different ancestor altogether. You can only verify such relationships by having access to the underlying segment data, and using techniques like triangulation and chromosome mapping to determine which ancestral couple contributed the matching DNA segment. For examples of how the AncestryDNA leaf hints have the potential to lead people up the garden path have a look at Heather Collins' blog post My AncestryDNA review: a cautionary tale and CeCe Moore's article AncestryDNA, raw data and Rootstech. Mike conceded that this is potentially a problem. He told me that Ancestry have done a lot of research and it is apparent that the vast majority of their customers are not interested in doing the advanced autosomal DNA analysis that is being conducted by some of the members of our genetic genealogy community, which is why Ancestry have not provided the tools. Their research certainly confirms my own findings from talking to people in the UK who have taken autosomal DNA tests. I find that very few people are up to the challenges of using the advanced techniques, and many struggle with the basics such as trying to download their list of matches into Excel. Intriguingly, however, Mike did mention that Ancestry have some sort of triangulation tool in the pipeline. He said he'd seen the results for one of his US colleagues using this tool and they were very interesting. We shall have to wait and see what materialises.

Dinner at Ka Shing courtesy of Ancestry.com. 

I didn't get round to discussing the discontinuation of the AncestryDNA Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests. AncestryDNA stopped selling these tests in June this year, and their Y-DNA and mtDNA database was scheduled to be destroyed in September much to the horror of the genetic genealogy community. I understand that John Halvey, who was sitting on the other table from me, was getting a hard time from my fellow ISOGG members about the potential destruction of this irretrievable asset. However, CeCe Moore, who was at the bloggers' summit, has since advised me they were informed that the "legacy" database has not been destroyed after all. She tells me  "It's fate remains up in the air for now, but fortunately all hope is not lost."

Competition is very healthy, and it will be interesting to see how the genetic genealogy market evolves in 2015.

This post was updated on 13 November to correct the information on the AncestryDNA Y-DNA and mtDNA databases following a comment received from CeCe Moore.

See also my blog post dated 8th January 2015 - The Ancestry Y-DNA and mtDNA samples have not been destroyed after all.

© Debbie Kennett 2015

Back To Our Past and Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2014

I've had a somewhat hectic schedule in the last month or so, and have not had much time for blogging but I hope to catch up in the next few months. I was in Canada in September where I was presenting a series of lectures at the BIFHSGO conference, and we stayed on in Canada to enjoy a wonderful holiday. I hope to write about my experiences in Canada shortly. Soon after getting back from Canada I travelled to Ireland to attend the Back To Our Past show at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) where I was invited to give a presentation as part of the associated Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference. This is the second year that there has been a genetic genealogy component to Back To Our Past, and it now looks set to become a permanent fixture of the show. Genetic Genealogy Ireland was sponsored by Family Tree DNA and the lectures were organised by volunteers from ISOGG - the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

The RDS in Dublin - the venue for Back To Our Past
and Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2014.

For much of the show I was helping out as a volunteer on the Family Tree DNA stand answering DNA-related questions and swabbing customers who wanted to be tested. FTDNA were doing brisk business each day and the stand only started to quieten down by about 5.00 pm. I don't yet know the final tally, but around 95 kits had already been sold by the end of the second day. Last year 99 kits were sold over the course of three days so the total is certainly going to be well up on last year. A number of ISOGG surname DNA project administrators were offering sponsored tests, and some lucky project admins were fortunate to have their offers accepted. I don't yet know the full list of names but free tests were done for the following surnames: CASSIDY, DALTON, FITZGERALD, GOUGH, KENNEDY, LLOYD, LYONS (2) and TAYLOR.  The offers for the free tests are collated on the free DNA tests page on the ISOGG Wiki. Most of these offers are still valid so do check out the list to see if your name is included.

A busy FTDNA stand.

Pretty in pink on the FTDNA stand.

One of the members of my own Cruwys/Cruse/Cruise DNA project called in to say hello to me, and he updated me on the progress of his genealogical research. I also had the pleasure of meeting for the first time a fellow Cruse researcher with whom I'd corresponded previously. She ordered a mitochondrial DNA test for herself and she took a kit away with her so that her dad could be tested. He is descended from a Cruse line that can be traced back to Sampford Arundel in Somerset, and I shall look forward to seeing his results in due course.

I managed to escape from the FTDNA stand every now and then to attend some of the lectures. Most of the talks have been recorded, and the recordings are gradually being uploaded to the Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel in the order in which they were presented. The lecture programme can be found online here, and the speakers' biographies are on the Genetic Genealogy Ireland website. I will leave you to enjoy the talks for yourselves, but I will just comment briefly on some of the highlights.

Cathy Swift, Director of Irish Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, gave an excellent talk on the subject of  "Emerging dynasties in a maritime world - hunting for Brian Boru’s genetic legacy". I was not able to attend this talk in person but caught up with the recording on YouTube. Cathy provided a very interesting insight into the evolution of surnames in Ireland. She acknowledged the "intellectual curiosity, involvement and enthusiasm" of all the citizen scientists who run surname and geographical projects. However, as the science is advancing so rapidly and so much of the work is taking place outside universities, it can be very hard to keep up to date with the latest advances and to form judgements about whose work can be relied upon. Cathy argued for increased collaboration between the "fusty dusty ivory tower people" and people like the volunteer project administrators who are working "at the coalface". Cathy is running a Y-chromosome research project which is using surnames and DNA to investigate the extent of Viking ancestry in Limerick. You can read more about the project and the surnames which have been selected for inclusion on the Mary Immaculate College website. I had a chance to chat to Cathy at dinner on Friday night and again during the conference. She has some very robust views on the interpretation of historical evidence in combination with DNA results, and she is very keen for historians to collaborate with genetic genealogists. I think we will all enjoy collaborating with her in the future for our mutual benefit.

Kirsten Bos from the University of Tübingen in Germany gave a fascinating talk on the subject of the "Plagues of our ancestors as revealed through ancient DNA". Her talk is not yet up on the YouTube channel but I highly recommend watching it when you have the chance.

Kirsten Bos on the plagues of our ancestors.

I was not able to attend Maurice Gleeson's talk on "Solving adoption mysteries in your family tree", which was the closing lecture on Saturday but I understand that the audience was moved to tears when Kirsten Bos's husband, who is himself an adoptee, gave a spontaneous and very personal account of his own DNA success story. There are apparently 50,000 adoptees in Ireland and as the autosomal databases continue to grow we can expect to hear of many more such success stories.

Maurice Gleeson on solving adoption mysteries in your family tree.

I've been following the progress of the People of the British Isles Project for some time so I made a particular point of attending the talk by Daniel Crouch from the University of Oxford. I've written previously about the project, and much of the material was already familiar to me. The good news is that the long-awaited POBI paper is going through the final stages of the peer review process and with any luck should be out in the next few months. This is the first study that has been able to identify distinct regional genetic clusters within a country. The maps are quite stunning and show, for example, that the people of both Devon and Cornwall can be broken down into different genetic groups. The dating of the clusters is, however, proving more controversial. The research has now moved into the next phase and Daniel is starting to explore the connections between genetics and our facial features.

Dan Crouch on the People of the British Isles Project.

For me one of the highlights of the conference was Rob Warthen's talk on Sunday afternoon. Rob founded the DNAadoption website and DNAGedcom, both of which he works on in his own free time on top of holding down a full-time job. These sites are an example of citizen science at its best. Genetic genealogy is an emerging and rapidly evolving discipline and it is often the users who step in and provide the tools that are missing from the commercial providers. DNAGedcom provides a range of tools for advanced autosomal DNA analysis, including the popular Autosomal DNA Segment Analyser, a program written by Don Worth which works in tandem with the tools that Rob provides. If you are familiar with the application of triangulation to autosomal DNA data then I highly recommend that you experiment with the ADSA tool as it takes all the hard work out of identifying the "in common with" shared segments and presents the results in a easy-to-understand visual format which conveniently avoids the need for creating complicated spreadsheets. Sue Griffith has provided an excellent introduction to using ADSA on her Genealogy Junkie website. Rob's websites were originally set up to help the adoption community in America. In many states in the US, adoptees are denied the basic human right of having access to their own birth records, and they are increasingly turning to DNA in an attempt to connect with their biological families. The methodology used by the DNA adoption community is equally applicable for all genetic genealogists who are interested in doing a more detailed analysis of their autosomal DNA matches. Rob's talk was entitled "Finding Sue - how one quest grew into the DNAGedcom and DNAadoption websites". The Sue who is the subject of the talk is Rob's wife who was herself adopted. Sue joined Rob for the first half of the presentation, and the two of them told her story together. They are an engaging couple and Sue spoke from the heart. I won't spoil the story for you and I urge you to watch the presentation for yourself but make sure you have your tissues handy, especially at the point where a surprise guest in the audience reveals the part that he played in the quest and how it affected him.

Rob and Sue Warthen on how a Genographic Project DNA test
given as a Christmas present started a journey of discovery.

I only managed to catch the tail end of Emily Aulicino's excellent presentation on autosomal DNA. The Family Finder test was the most popular test at last year's show and there is clearly a great thirst for knowledge on the subject as Emily was speaking to a packed audience. Emily was selling copies of her book Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond at the show and not surprisingly she sold every single copy.

Emily Aulicino explains how autosomal DNA testing
can be used to help to verify family relationships.

I understand that Michelle Leonard gave an excellent presentation on the Fromelles Project, and John Cleary's talk on "How to enhance your Y-DNA results through surname and haplogroup projects" was very well received so I'm particularly looking forward to watching these two presentations when they become available. I'm also looking forward to hearing Patrick Guinness's views on the prolific Y-DNA genetic signature in north-west Ireland that has been misleadingly associated with the semi-mythical figure of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

John Cleary speaking on how to enhance your Y-DNA results
through surname and haplogroup projects.

Brad Larkin gave two talks at Genetic Genealogy Ireland. I was busy answering questions on the FTDNA stand after my own talk when Brad was speaking on the future of genetic genealogy, but I'm interested to hear his views and will catch up with this talk later.

Brad Larkin on the future of genetic genealogy.

Spencer Wells was the keynote speaker for the conference, and gave a presentation on the Genographic Project.

Spencer Wells on the Genographic Project

On Saturday I attended the presentation by Mike Mulligan, the International Product Manager of AncestryDNA. This talk was part of the main BTOP programme and was therefore not recorded. I will write about AncestryDNA in a separate blog post.

My own presentation was on the subject of "DNA for Beginners". You can watch my talk by clicking on the image below.

A PDF file of my presentation can be downloaded here. I've included clickable links for all the websites that were mentioned. The handout for my presentation can be downloaded here.

One of the best parts of attending a conference is the opportunity to meet up with old friends, make new friends and to network with fellow genealogists and genetic genealogists. I called in at the Guild of One-Name Studies stand and had a chat with my fellow Guild members Fíona Tipple and Sean Colfer. They were kept busy dealing with enquiries from researchers with a range of experience from complete beginners to knowledgeable experts.

The Guild of One-Name Studies stand.

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet Claire Santry for the first time. Claire runs the Irish Genealogy Toolkit website, which is a first-stop resource for anyone researching their Irish ancestry. She also writes prolifically on her Irish Genealogy News blog and can always be guaranteed to be up to date on all the latest genealogical developments in Ireland. Claire has already written a comprehensive report from Back To Our Past which includes all the genealogical news from the event. As you will see, she mentions that I talked to her into taking a DNA test though I have to say she did not need much persuading! I wonder if Claire will be writing more about DNA testing on her blog once she gets her results!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Seán Quinn. We had a long chat and discovered that we have many interests in common. Seán has been researching his Irish ancestry for many years and has a particular interest in Irish surnames and his own surname Quinn. He has a website on Irish surnames where he has published the fruits of more than ten years' research. He's also the author of several books. Seán very kindly gave me copies of his books Surnames in Ireland and An Introduction to Irish Ancestry, and in return I gave him a copy of my book on DNA and Social Networking. (All my copies of The Surnames Handbook had already gone by this stage.)

On Saturday evening all the genetic genealogy speakers and ISOGG volunteers were invited to a very enjoyable wine reception in Bewley's Hotel. The reception was hosted by the APGI (Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland),

On the Monday after the show ISOGG members were treated to a special Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2014 day out which had been carefully planned by Gerard Corcoran, the ISOGG regional representative for Ireland. Gerard put together a fabulous programme for us. We met in the morning at the National Library of Ireland where we had some free time to do some research. We then headed over to the Dáil (the Irish National Parliament) where we were introduced to Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy who is the TD (Teachta Dála - member of parliament) for the constituency of Laois-Offaly. We had our photographs taken on the steps outside parliament, and were then treated to a guided tour of the Dáil.

ISOGG members with Marcella Corcoran Kennedy outside parliament.

We headed off to Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) for lunch where he had the pleasure of meeting Kingsley Aikins, the CEO of Diaspora Matters. After lunch we met up with members of the Genealogical Society of Ireland and we were given a guided tour of the magnificent new DLR Lexicon - the official name of the new Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Library - which is due to open some time in December. This was followed by a reception at Dún Laoghaire County Hall in the presence of Councillor Marie Baker, the Cathaoirleach (chairman) of the County Council, who also very kindly consented to provide a DNA sample to join the Family Tree DNA database! I had a chat with Seamus O'Riley who is the Genealogical Director of the Irish DNA Atlas Project. I also had the pleasure of meeting Michael Merrigan who is a fellow member of the Guild of One-Name Studies. Michael is the co-founder, director and general secretary of the Genealogical Society of Ireland and also serves as a county councillor. He is also a strong advocate for academic rigour in the interpretation of historical records and DNA evidence so we had much in common. In the evening we were treated to a meal at the Chinese restaurant Ka Sheng in Dublin city centre. Ancestry.com were our hosts for the night and we had the opportunity to quiz them about the launch of their autosomal DNA product in the UK and Ireland. I will write about this in a separate blog post. It was a very successful day and Gerard has already promised us that he will arrange another special ISOGG outing for us next year.

All in all Genetic Genealogy Ireland was a great success. There was a real buzz around the event and a sense of excitement that we were all at the start of something very special. There have been some vigorous debates in the Genetic Genealogy Ireland Facebook group, but the fact that we are having these discussions is testament to the energy and enthusiasm that has been generated. New friendships have been formed, new links have been forged between genetic genealogists and academics, and I am sure that next year's event will be bigger and better than ever.

Particular thanks are owed to Derrell Oakley Teat who was entrusted by Family Tree DNA with the task of organising the FTDNA stand. She worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make all the arrangements and also co-ordinated our week-long social programme. Maurice Gleeson did a magnificent job of organising the lectures and he chaired the sessions throughout the course of the three days with both charm and good humour. However, all the hardworking volunteers and speakers played their part, and especially those who flew over from America at their own expense to participate.

Maurice Gleeson with a captive audience discussing
 "Which DNA test is best for you?"

Disclosure
I travelled to Ireland at my own expense and paid for all my own accommodation. As compensation for presenting a lecture at Genetic Genealogy Ireland I received a free DNA test from Family Tree DNA. I have not yet claimed the test though I intend to use it to do a Family Finder test on a cousin.

Update
My report on AncestryDNA at Back To Our Past can be found here.

My presentations at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013

Both of my presentations from the recent Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference held in Dublin from 18th to 20th October can now be found on the Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel. You can watch the recordings on YouTube or click on the links below.

 DNA for Beginners: The Three Tests


Chromosomes, Conquerors and Castles: DNA and the Cruise/Cruwys/Cruse One-Name Study 


The handout for my talks can be downloaded from my Dropbox account.

Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013

Last week I spent four enjoyable days in Dublin participating in the first ever Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference which took place at the Back To Our Past show at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in Ballsbridge just outside the city centre. Back To Our Past, now in its third year, is the premier genealogy event in Ireland, and is the Irish equivalent of Who Do You Think You Are? Live. Back To Our Past is held alongside the Senior Times Over 50s show which takes place in the same building, and for the price of a single ticket people can attend both events. Around 20,000 people attended last year over the course of the three days, and I'm sure that just as many people if not more will have attended this year's show.

Genetic Genealogy Ireland was sponsored by Family Tree DNA and organised by ISOGG - the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. Family Tree DNA were exhibiting at the event for the first time this year. FTDNA's involvement at Back To Our Past was the initiative of volunteer project administrator and US ISOGG member Derrell Oakley Teat, who suggested the idea to FTDNA staff back in January this year. Another ISOGG member Maurice Gleeson, the administrator of the Spearin and Irish Caribbean DNA Projects, had attended Back To Our Past in 2012 where he gave a very successful and well received lecture on DNA testing. He became involved in the organisation at an early stage and assumed responsibility for arranging the genetic genealogy lecture programme.  He approached the task with considerable enthusiasm and energy, and put together a fantastic and varied programme of talks. Katherine Borges, the Director of ISOGG, and Cynthia Wells, the administrator of the Lay/Ley DNA Project and co-administrator of the Talley DNA Project and the Wells DNA Project, both flew over from the United States to give presentations and to help on the FTDNA stand (or "booth" as they call it in America!). Some speakers came over from England and other speakers travelled to Dublin from all over Ireland. The full lecture schedule can be found here. It says a lot for the dedication of our genetic genealogy community that all the speakers paid their own way to attend the conference.

   The entrance to the Back To Our Past show 
at the RDS in Dublin.

I was invited to present two lectures. My first talk on Friday 18th October was entitled "Chromosomes, conquerors and castles: DNA testing and the Cruise/Cruse/Cruwys one-name study". On Saturday 19th October I gave a talk on "DNA for beginners: the three tests". Both of my talks seem to have been very well received. There was apparently a sudden rush for the FTDNA stand after my DNA for Beginners talk on Saturday! I was only able to attend the first two days of the conference as I had already been booked to do a talk for the Abingdon branch of the Berkshire Family History Society on the following Monday so I had to fly home on Sunday and consequently I missed the last day of the show which I understand was really busy. In contrast to WDYTYA Live, where Sunday is traditionally the quietest of the three days, several people told us that Friday is the quietest day at BTOP and Saturday and Sunday are always the busiest days.

During the first two days of the show I was helping out Derrell, Katherine and Cynthia on the FTDNA stand in between presenting my talks. John Blair and Geoff Swinfield also joined us later in the day. We had a non-stop stream of people visiting the stand to ask questions and to take DNA tests from the minute the show opened until late in the afternoon. It was difficult to find any free time to get away just to buy a drink or to get something to eat. Some people knew nothing about DNA testing and were coming up to the stand to find out how the process worked. We had a large quantity of leaflets from FTDNA and such was the interest that they had all run out before the end of show on Sunday. A lot of people wanted to know if their surname was represented in a project before deciding to test. We couldn't access the FTDNA database at the show so we sent them home with instructions to look up their names on the website. I suggested to several people that if they weren't able to test at BTOP they should wait until December to order a kit in the sale. I'm sure there will be an upsurge in orders from Ireland in the coming months. Other people, and especially those who had attended some of the talks, were happy to take a test there and then, and they will be able to look forward to receiving their results in the next six weeks or so. I spoke to a number of people who were interested in setting up DNA projects for their family history societies or their surname. A representative from the North of Ireland Family History Society came to speak to me after my talk and his society seem to be very keen to get involved in DNA testing. He insisted on taking a photo of me for their Facebook page! I was particularly pleased to meet up with one of the members of my Cruise DNA project who lives in Ireland and had come along to the show especially to meet me. He's very kindly offered to take me on a trip to Cruisetown (now known as Cruicetown), the former stronghold of one of the Irish branches of the Cruise family, the next time I visit Ireland.

I was very surprised at the number of visitors from America, all of whom were particularly interested in the Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference. There was one American visitor in the audience for one of my talks who introduced himself to me afterwards and said that he'd read both of my books! We tested quite a few Americans on the FTDNA stand. Two FTDNA project admins from America, Jim O'Halloran and Mike Carragher, had been thinking about a trip to Ireland and when they heard about BTOP they decided to plan their trips around the show. They were both hoping to travel around Ireland afterwards to test more people for their projects. All my American friends commented on how welcoming the Irish people were to Americans - they welcomed them back as long lost cousins. We all loved the Irish sense of humour and their relaxed attitude to life.

The long queue waiting for the doors to open

 for the Over 50s Show at the RDS.

A number of project administrators offered to sponsor DNA tests for people with their surnames. The free DNA tests are already a well-established tradition at Who Do You Think You Are? Live, and they went down very well in Ireland too. It's always pot luck as to whether or not someone with the right surname comes along to the show, but a number of projects were lucky to get new project members. We did free DNA tests for the surnames DOOLAN, HUDSON, KNOWLES, TAYLOR (2) and WATSON. I haven't seen the full list and other projects might have been successful too. There is a page on the Genetic Genealogy Ireland website which lists all the surnames for which sponsored tests were available. Even if you were not able to attend BTOP do check out the list and the comments section to see if your name is featured. I'm sure the project admins would be delighted to hear from you. There is also an additional listing of surname projects offering free DNA tests on this page in the ISOGG Wiki. Some of the names in the Wiki were not included in the Irish offer so do check out this page as well.

 A quiet time on the FTDNA stand
towards the end of the day on Saturday.

We had some enjoyable get-togethers in the evenings. It was a pleasure to meet Margaret Jordan who runs the large Ireland Y-DNA Project which now has over 5000 project members and is the third largest DNA project at FTDNA. Margaret told me that there is now a growing interest in DNA testing in Ireland. When she first took over the project the majority of project members were in the US but in recent years Irish people have begun to embrace DNA testing and Irish residents now comprise about 20% of her project members with the numbers increasing every week. I was also pleased to meet Elizabeth O'Donoghue/Ross, Nigel McCarthy and Finbar O'Mahony who run the Munster Irish DNA Project. I was also pleased to meet Gerard Corcoran who is ISOGG's representative in Ireland.There is a lot more DNA activity in Ireland than I had realised, and it is good to know that we have so many people living in the country who can help with the educational process.

Unfortunately I did not have time to attend any of the lectures as we were so busy on the FTDNA stand, though I did manage to catch the tail end of the L21 discussion panel on Friday. Maurice Gleeson worked hard co-ordinating all the lectures, introducing the speakers and making sure that all the equipment worked properly which was not an easy feat. He recorded all the lectures and, where the speakers have given permission, he has uploaded the recordings to the new Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel.  I gave two talks at the conference and both of my talks can now be seen on YouTube. On Saturday the subject of my presentation was "DNA for beginners: the three tests". On Friday I presented a lecture entitled "Chromosomes, conquerors and castles: DNA and the Cruise/Cruwys/Cruise one-name study". The handout for my talks can be downloaded from my Dropbox account.

Maurice Gleeson speaking to 
a packed audience at Back To Our Past.

All in all I think it was a very successful event. The DNA lectures seemed to be very well attended and were often more popular than the talks in the main lecture programme. We sold lots of FTDNA test kits on behalf of FTDNA, and I rather suspect we will all be back again next year.

Further links
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2013 website
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland on Facebook
- Genetic Genealogy Ireland YouTube channel
- ISOGG Wiki

© 2013 Debbie Kennett