The Genetic Genealogist Offers New Ebook

The Genetic Genealogist is offering a new and e-book on how to interpret your DNA test results. It is free, and you can find out more here. Enjoy!

Blue Eyes: Who Would Have Known?

Over the past several hours, genealogy blogs have been a buzz with the news that people with blue eyes have a common ancestor. You can read more about it here. I guess that's why the genes for blue eyes are considered recessive.

Congrats to Jasia!

I just want to say, "Congrats!" to Jasia, who won the free DNA test. You can read Blaine Bettinger's post on the results here.

Congragulations to Blaine Bettinger!

I just want to congratulate Blaine Bettinger for becoming a member of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy. I just noticed his announcement, and I want to say, "Congrats!"

The Genetic Genealogist Hosts Contest For Free DNA Test!

I realize that other people have already posted about this contest in the past few days that Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist, but I decided to post on this contest as well.

So, what are the requirements to enter? Well, one could post an article on the contest on his or her blog, and leave a comment with the URL for the post entry. One could subscribe to the feed of The Genetic Genealogist blog, or one could leave a comment explaining why one would to win the contest.

What is the prize? The prize is a free DNA test, and one could choose one test out of three. One could choose either a mDNA test, or from two different y-DNA tests.

To be honest, I am not sure what I would actually do with a genetic test, as I have never talked to any of family members about doing one. I am not sure if I could get my family to agree to the test. If I had to choose, I think I would do a y-DNA test on my last name, as that might be the easiest option in doing research. If other DNA tests have been done by people of the same last name, I might be able to make a connection, but that is, again, an if.

Forgot to Mention These Articles

I forgot to mention these articles a few days ago, when I wrote about other interesting articles. The articles I forgot to mention were:

• "How Big is the Genetic Genealogy Market?"
• "The Genetic Genealogy Market, Part II"

I completely forgot to mention these articles, and I am terribly sorry for my oversight. Both of these articles are at Blaine Bettinger's The Genetic Genealogist.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The Carnival of Genealogy has been posted at The Genetic Genealogist. The topic for the next carnival is a carousel. Click here to go to the carnival.

Not Sure if DNA testing would help me ...

Before I begin with my question, I just want to say that I have not exhausted all of the records available to find an answer to my question. At the moment, I haven't been able to do very much research on this mysterious ancestor. Of course, of the little information I have found so far, the information about the year born and possible parents are conflicting.

Of course, I am wondering how feasible is DNA testing would be in determining the parents of my ancestor. My ancestor and his possible parents have been dead for several decades, but some of my ancestor's descendants are still alive. I do not know if there any male descendants of the possible father that are still alive. Would a y-DNA test be feasible to determine a possible paternal ancestor going back two or more generations?

Please forgive me if my question is unclear.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The latest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has just been posted. You can find it here. The next topic is on using DNA to solve genealogy mysteries. Enjoy!

Ancestry has teamed up with a Genetics company

I realize that I am little behind on writting about Ancestry's new partnership with a genetics company. Ancestry's blog posted this article on their blog within the past few days: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1542.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not. I haven't given much thought about genetic genealogy primarily because I have only been doing genealogy for the past four years. Personally, I think genealogy is much more interesting and fun when one is digging through old documents. My concern is that if Ancestry is going to have DNA data put into an electronic system, they will charge an extreme amount for other people to access. Also, if DNA data is going to be digitized and available on the internet, wouldn't that information be easily stolen by hackers? I know that this concerns may seem to be trivial, but has anyone taken any consideration of the consequences of what Ancestry and Sorenson Genetics are doing?

It would be nice if the price of DNA testing kits dropped; then it would be much easier for those who are interested in genetic genealogy to take time to have their DNA tested. Since I really do not know much about genetic genealogy, I don't believe I have the qualifications to write very much on genetic genealogy.