Win A FREE Genetic Genealogy Test!

To celebrate the upcoming one-year anniversary of his blog, Blaine Bettinger, is giving away a FREE Genetic Genealogy Test! The winner will have the option of selecting from three different tests.

Contest rules can be found in his post Win A FREE Genetic Genealogy Test From The Genetic Genealogist!

Blaine also provides links to sample reports as well as links to information about the tests he is offering. Thanks to Blaine, and his informative posts, I've learned a lot about genetic genealogy this past year. Of course, before reading his blog I didn't know hardly anything about it, and I definitely don't understand everything he writes, but I certainly appreciate his efforts.

Now, guess I should check out those links to help me decide which test I'd like to have, just in case I'm the winner!

Free DNA eBook from the Genetic Genealogist

Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., aka The Genetic Genealogist, has put together an interesting eBook on some of his favorite and most-visited posts.

He says "It has a wide array of posts for anyone interested in DNA, including people who are new to genetic genealogy and those who have had experience in the field. The title is: 10 DNA Testing Myths Busted, and Other Favorite Posts."

The eBook, which is in pdf form, can be downloaded from the link on his post titled If You Just Can’t Get Enough of The Genetic Genealogist…

Thank you, Blaine!

DNA and Genealogy Research

Yesterday, Leland Meitzler posted Americans Are Individually a Mix of Many Races at The Genealogy Blog which is really about this article at The Observer: The genes that build America. It's a bit long but well worth reading.

It starts out talking about the discovery of the relationship between ancestors of Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond, which is 'old news' but once you get past that, it gets interesting.

"America has embarked on an amazing journey to explore its own past. Millions of Americans of every creed and colour are exploring their family histories in a genealogy boom that is redefining who they are and what it means to be American. The internet has allowed people to find obscure information at the click of a mouse that was previously locked away on dusty library shelves. They are also using modern DNA techniques to research their racial history, creating a multi-million dollar industry of consumer genetics. Like Sharpton, many are making shocking discoveries. They are finding slaves and slave-owners. Far from being a nation of different races, many are finding they have mixed pasts. Blacks are discovering they have white blood, whites are finding black relatives. Native Americans are growing in numbers, not because of a high birth rate, but because many Americans are discovering unknown native ancestors written in their DNA."

"Last year, Professor Peter Fine at Florida Atlantic University had an idea for an art class. He would gather a group of students to produce work around their idea of their racial identity. But as part of the class he asked them to take a DNA test that would break down their racial background. His bet was that most of the class - of whom the majority saw themselves as whites of European descent - had no real idea who they were.

"He was right. Of 13 students, only one turned out to be completely European. The rest displayed a mixture of European, Native American, African and Asian genes. The one black student turned out to be 21 per cent white. Fine himself - who admits to looking like a corn-fed stereotype of a white Midwesterner - discovered he was a quarter Native American. 'I honestly think these tests could have a large effect on American consciousness of who we are. If Americans recognise themselves as a mixed group of people, that could really change things,' he said.

"Fine has a point. For centuries, America has been less a racial melting pot and more a stew, where different communities bump up against each other, but keep mostly to themselves. Yet, as millions of Americans take DNA tests, they are discovering a surprising truth: America's strict racial lines are, in fact, blurred. One-third of white Americans, according to some tests, will possess between two and 20 per cent African genes. The majority of black Americans have some European ancestors."

New Opportunity for DNA Research?

A recent posting by Dick Eastman reported that Ancestry.com was partnering with Sorenson Genomics, a DNA research firm, to be able to provide DNA testing and somehow link that data to Ancestry's existing family information. This is big news, but how is it going to work? As with many of the announcements of other genealogical collaborations last month, there will be questions without answers and it will be a while before all the ramifications are known. Dick posted yesterday's press release with more details on the partnership.

An article in the Salt Lake Tribune makes the outlandish claim that "In less than three weeks, people will be able to find distant relatives by clicking a mouse. And they can be sure that their supposed family members are related to them because instead of using old documents, people will locate their relatives through DNA tests."

DNA replace documents? I suppose that could happen, but not likely in the near future. Find relatives with the click of a mouse? According to 'The Generations Network' and other database providers, we can do that now. The implication is that DNA testing will make it so. It will only happen if you and your relatives have been tested. It'll take years of collecting and testing DNA samples. The state of current DNA testing and its use for genealogical research is limited. Not enough people have had DNA tests done, most cannot afford it. Hopefully this partnership will make testing more affordable so more people can have it done, and if that happens it may make it easier to make the connections to unknown relatives. Only time will tell. I'm certainly looking forward to the time that I can find my relatives with just the click of a mouse!

For more information on this partnership and DNA testing check out these posts:

• Tim Agazio - Genealogy Reviews Online
• Blaine Bettinger - The Genetic Genealogist
• Diane Haddad - Genealogy Insider
• Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings