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

Conference reports from Louis Kessler

Louis Kessler is a first-time conference attendee. He provides an interesting perspective and has also shared a selection of photographs.

• 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

• Report Genetic Genealogy Conference 2017 (Family Tree DNA)

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:

• Building a mutation history tree
• Grouping your project members

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.

News from the FTDNA conference and the start of the FTDNA sale

The annual Family Tree DNA International Conference on Genetic Genealogy took place over the weekend in Houston, Texas. Jennifer Zinck has provided two very detailed write-ups from the conference which are well worth reading in their entirety and will give an idea of what we might expect from FTDNA in the coming months:

• 12th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy – Saturday
• 12th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy – Sunday

You can see some pictures and tweets from the conference by searching on Twitter using the hashtags #FTDNA2016 and #FTDNAconf2016.

If there are further reports from the conference I will post the links here.

Ancient Origins report
A new Ancient Origins report was announced at the conference and this feature is now live. Log into your Family Finder account to get your results. Here is my report.

There is currently little information provided about the populations used to inform these reports but there is a brief FAQ section in the FTDNA Learning Center. This is probably not a report to be taken too seriously but is a little bit of fun.

FTDNA sale
At the end of the conference FTDNA announced the start of their sale. The Family Finder test is on offer for just $59 (£47), its lowest ever price. There are reductions on all the other tests as well as on some upgrades. Click here to see a full list of all the tests available and all the other sale prices.

The BigY test is included in the sale and is on offer for $525 but is only available to existing customers who have already ordered a Y-STR test.

There are also lots of coupons being offered to existing customers which can provide additional reductions on top of the sale prices. The deals include offers for up to $100 off the Big Y test, $60 off the 111-marker Y-DNA test, $40 off the 67-marker Y-DNA test, $40 off the full mitochondrial sequence test, as well as smaller reductions on other tests and upgrades.

If you're looking for an extra discount look out for offers in the various genetic genealogy mailing lists and Facebook groups. Many groups, including some of the haplogroup projects, are maintaining spreadsheets to collate all the spare coupons so if you want to order a test check first to see what is available. The coupons will be issued every week on a Monday until the end of the year.

FTDNA Group Administrators' Conference 2015 and the FTDNA winter sale

Family Tree DNA Group Administrators' Conference 2015
The Family Tree DNA group administrators' conference took place last weekend. Jennifer Zinck has written two very detailed summaries of the two-day event which include news of forthcoming developments at Family Tree DNA:

- 11th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy – Saturday

- 11th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy – Sunday

A very detailed report with lots of photos has also been provided by Roberta Estes:

- 2015 Family Tree DNA 11th International Conference – The Best Yet

The slides for most of the presentations are available on the Family Tree DNA Slideshare account:

- www.slideshare.net/FamilyTreeDNA

Family Tree DNA Winter Sale

It was also announced at the close of the conference that the Family Tree DNA winter sale has now started. The sale will end at 11.59 pm Texas time on 31st December 2015. A list of the sale prices can be found below.

YDNA	Standard Price	Group Price	Sale
Y12	$59		not on sale
Y25	$109		not on sale
Y37	$169	$149	$139
Y67	$268	$248	$228
Y111	$359	$339	$309
YDNA Upgrades	Standard Price		Sale
Y12 - 37	$119	$99	$79
Y12 - 67	$209	$189	$151
Y12 - 111	$359	$339	$271
Y25 - 37	$69	$49	$39
Y25 - 67	$168	$148	$118
Y25 - 111	$269	$249	$199
Y37 - 67	$119	$99	$79
Y37 - 111	$240	$220	$176
Y67 - 111	$149	$129	$103
Big Y	Standard Price		Sale
Big Y	$575		$525
Family Finder	Standard Price		Sale
FF	$99		$89
mtDNA	Standard Price		Sale
mtDNA+	$69		not on sale
mtDNA FullSeq	$199		$169
mtDNA+ to FullSeq	$159		$149
SNP Packs	Standard Price		Sale
SNP Packs	$99, $119		$10 off each pack

To convert the US dollar prices into your local currency you can use the XE Currency Converter.

FTDNA are also releasing special discount codes on a weekly basis every Monday to existing FTDNA customers. These codes can be shared with family and friends, and offer additional savings of up to $75.

Someone on the ISOGG DNA Newbie list has very kindly compiled a collaborative spreadsheet on GoogleDocs where people can post their spare discount codes so take advantage of these special offers to get the best available price. The spreadsheet is shared with permission and can be found here.

If you've not already take a DNA test or if you want to order a test for a friend or family member then now would be a very good time to do so!

The Family Tree DNA 2013 conference

Family Tree DNA's 9th Genetic Genealogy Conference for FTDNA Group Administrators took place in Houston, Texas, from 9th to 10th November 2013. The full conference schedule can be found here. One of these days I would love to go to Houston to attend an FTDNA conference for myself but for now I have to follow the news on Twitter and hope that those who have attended the conference will share their experiences during and after the event. Fortunately this year we've had some wonderful coverage from the genetic genealogy blogging community and their reports are so thorough that it's almost as good as being there. I've provided the links below for all the reports that I've seen so far. I will update the list with any new content that is discovered. Do let me know if there's anything that I've missed.

Jennifer Zinck, who writes the Ancestor Central blog, has written three excellent and very detailed reports:

- Get your DNA test here! A tour of the Family Tree DNA lab

- 9th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy Day 1

- 9th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy - Day 2

Roberta Estes who writes the DNAeXplained blog has written a series of blog posts reporting from the conference and also a pre-conference preview:

- 2013 Family Tree DNA conference Day 1

- 2013 Family Tree DNA conference Day 2

- 9th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy

- 9th Annual Conference Reception

- 10 year pioneers recognized by Family Tree DNA

- Gene by Gene Genomics Research Center Lab Tour

Emily Aulicino, who writes the Genealem blog, has provide two reports from the conference:

- 2013 Family Tree DNA International Conference Day 1

- 2013 Family Tree DNA International Conference Day 2

Dave Dowell, who writes the Dr D Digs Up Ancestors blog, has provided the following two posts on the conference:

- FTDNA Conference Part 1

- ISOGG gears up for SNP tsunami

David Mittelman, Family Tree DNA's Chief Scientific Officer, has provided a very nice Storify version of the tweets and images emanating from the FTDNA conference:

- Family Tree DNA 2013 Conference Storify.

Finally, you might also want to check out my blog post on The new Big Y test from Family Tree DNA. This has attracted a remarkable amount of worldwide attention in the last few days and is already the third most viewed post that I've ever written!

This page was last updated on 14 November 2013.

© 2013 Debbie Kennett

The new Big Y Test from Family Tree DNA

Family Tree DNA have just announced at their conference the introduction of a new Y-chromosome DNA test to be known as the Big Y. The new test uses next generation sequencing technology which is much more reliable for the Y-chromosome than the chip testing used for the Geno 2.0 test from the Genographic Project and the Chromo 2 test from BritainsDNA. The Big Y is intended as a replacement for the Walk through the Y test which used the slower and much more expensive Sanger sequencing technology.

The Big Y test covers 10 million base pairs. It will provide results for almost 25,000 of the known Y-SNPs. However the exciting part is that this test can also be used for SNP discovery, opening up the tantalising possibility of finding SNPs that will prove to be unique to a particular surname lineage or an individual branch of a family tree.

The introductory price of the new test is $499 (£311). The selling price from 1st December will be $695 (£434). The test currently only seems to be available to existing customers, but it may that the FTDNA home page hasn't yet been updated. There is now a new splash page on the personal pages of male FTDNA customers.

People who have ordered the old Walk through the Y test will receive a voucher giving them an additional $50 off the cost of the new test. The new voucher (coupon) will be available on personal pages from Monday.

No doubt further information will be forthcoming in due course from the people who have attended the conference. It has been possible to pick up quite a bit of the news from the conference tweets (search on Twitter using the hashtag #FTDNA2013).

Details of all the other currently available SNP tests can be found on the ISOGG Y-SNP testing comparison chart. This will now need to be updated to include details of the new Big Y test.

In other news from the conference it would appear that the Genographic Project will be introducing a new Geno test within the next seven to 12 months. It may be that the next Geno test will also use next generation sequencing technology.

Updates
A set of FAQs on the Big Y test are now available on the FTDNA website at: https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/y-dna-testing/big-y/

The ISOGG Y-SNP testing comparison chart in the ISOGG Wiki has now been updated to incorporate details of the new Big Y test.

Roberta Estes has advised on her blog that results from the Big Y will be delivered in 10-12 weeks and the results will be accompanied by comparison tools. See her blog post here.

Jennifer Zinck has provided a very nice detailed summary of the first day of the FTDNA conference with further information on the talk on next generation sequencing by David Mittelman, FTDNA's new Chief Scientific Officer, in which the new Big Y test was announced. Click here to read Jennifer's blog post.

CeCe Moore has blogged briefly about the Big Y test. Most importantly she has received confirmation from David Mittelman of  Family Tree DNA that Big Y customers will be able to download their raw data files on request.

See my blog post on The Family Tree DNA Conference 2013 for a compilation of all the blog posts and other coverage from the conference.

Related blog posts
- The Big Y roll out - the SNP tsunami is on its way!
- A confusion of SNPs
- The Y-chromosome interpretation service from YFull.com

Family Tree DNA Conference 2012 - citizen science comes of age

Each year in October or November Family Tree DNA host a conference in Houston, Texas, for their volunteer project administrators. The two-day programme includes a mixture of talks from FTDNA scientists, staff and project administrators. The conference is often the place where exciting new developments are announced. This year's conference, which took place from 10th to 11th November, was no exception. A number of the attendees were tweeting from the conference which enabled us to pick up most of the news as it happened. Twitter does not allow old tweets to be searched so you can no longer search for the #FTDNA2012 hashtag. You can, however, access the tweets from the accounts of the individual users: @ancestryjourney @Smitty327 @TrevorRix @khborges @CeCeLMoore @Genealem @RichardHillDNA @RobertaJEstes ‏@winincentive @Greenleafy and @spwells.

The big news from the conference was the announcement of the new Y-DNA haplogroup A00 in a joint presentation by Bonnie Schrack, Thomas Krahn and Michael Hammer which was unassumingly entitled "In Search of the Root: Discovery of a Highly Divergent Y-chromosome Lineage". The new haplogroup A00 is now the oldest and deepest-rooted branch of the human Y-DNA tree and is thought to date back about 338,000 years, making Y-Adam much older than mitochondrial Eve, who dates back around 200,000 years. Earlier studies had suggested that Y-chromosomal Adam, the common patrilineal ancestor of all males alive today, lived around 142,000 years ago. The new date for the root of the Y-tree now takes us back into uncharted territory because the earliest example of an anatomically modern human from the fossil record dates back only 196,000 years ago. However, the most astonishing aspect of this discovery is that it came about not because of the research of university scientists but from the hard work and dedication of an amateur genetic genealogist, Bonnie Schrack, who became involved in the world of DNA testing through her genealogical research and a simple desire to learn more about her roots. Bonnie is the volunteer project administrator of the haplogroup A project at Family Tree DNA, a job which she does in her spare time. Bonnie galvanised the support of her project members and the wider genetic genealogy community to arrange for some tests to be done on selected members of the haplogroup A project as part of FTDNA's Walk through the Y programme. Funding for the WTY tests was provided not from academic research grants but by members of the genetic genealogy community from around the world. Stan Pietrzak from Poland has been one of the project's most generous and enthusiastic supporters. Thomas Krahn, who heads up Family Tree DNA's Genomics Research Center in Houston, is in charge of the WTY programme. He and his wife Astrid were reportedly up all night doing the landmark WTY test, scoring more and more markers with a growing sense of disbelief before they finally realised what an amazing discovery had been made. Dr Michael Hammer, FTDNA's Chief Scientist, who has his own laboratory at the University of Arizona, then became involved when the momentous nature of the discovery was realised. In order to determine the placement of the new SNPs on the Y-tree Thomas went on to do WTY tests on samples from a chimp and a gorilla, and also analysed gorilla and chimp Y-STR markers. The person whose sample was used in the WTY project is a gentleman from South Carolina who is descended from a former slave. Little did he know when he agreed to take the test to help with his family history research that he would be making history! Further information on the new haplogroup A00 can be found in the following blog posts and websites:

- The Y haplogroup A website, a new website from Bonnie Schrack which includes links to the slides from her talk at the conference as well as her speaking notes
- The new root - haplogroup A00 by Roberta Estes
- Your paternal line just got much longer by Dave Dowell
- A00 on the Y haplogroup tree: a new view of African origins from a Y-chromosome perspective Thomas Krahn's very technical slides for his presentation at the FTDNA conference. This presentation includes links to the Ysearch IDs for the gorilla and chimp Y-STRs (25 markers) and the haplogroup A00 Y-STR signature (94 markers)
- Walk through the Y project Thomas Krahn's WTY presentation from FTDNA 2012
- A00 at FTDNA 2012: history in the making? A blog post from Dienekes Pontikos
- Haplogroups A and the top of the modern human tree a diagram from Stan Pietrzak

A scientific paper is in preparation and will be published in the near future. These findings beg the question as to what other discoveries are waiting to be made. The world population is now over seven billion. Family Tree DNA have the world's largest Y-DNA database with almost 250,000 Y-DNA results from around the world, yet this represents just a tiny fraction of the total male population. I am sure there will be many more exciting discoveries to be made in the years to come as more people get their DNA tested.

The other big news from the FTDNA conference was the announcement that FTDNA's parent company has undergone a major restructuring and is now known as GenebyGene with four separate divisions: Family Tree DNA for genetic genealogy; DNA Traits for health tests; DNADTC for research-use genetic tests; and DNAFindings for paternity testing. The research arm DNADTC is now offering complete genome sequencing, and they are the first commercial company to do so. The test costs $5495 with a minimum order of three tests. No data analysis is provided. The test is not targeted at the consumer market but, as the price of sequencing drops, it cannot be too long before complete genome sequencing becomes a reality at an affordable price for the genetic genealogist, though data processing, analysis and interpretation will be a challenge.

A number of conference attendees have blogged about their experiences. Each blogger brings a slightly different perspective and all the posts are well worth reading:

-  8th Annual Conference on Genetic Genealogy - Day 1 by Jennifer Zinck
-  8th Annual Conference on Genetic Genealogy - Day 2 by Jennifer Zinck
-  Family Tree DNA Conference: Nits and Grits by Roberta Estes
-  Family Tree DNA's 8th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy Day I by Emily Aulicinio
-  Family Tree DNA's 8th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy Day 2 by Emily Aulicinio
-  FTDNA 2012: Geno 2.0 and more by Judy Russell
-  Native American Focus Meeting by Roberta Estes
-  Photos from FTDNA 2012 from Trevor Rix
-  A visit to Family Tree DNA's state-of-the-art lab by CeCe Moore

I would like to thank everyone who tweeted and blogged from the conference. It made all the difference to those of who could not attend in person. If I've missed any links do let me know and I will update this blog post accordingly.

This post was originally written on 27th November 2012 but was embargoed for publication until 28th February 2013 when the paper on the new root of the Y-tree was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929713000736

© 2012-2013 Debbie Kennett