New Sort Option for the Ancestry Pro Tools DNA Match List!

Nov1

Many of us got the Ancestry Pro Tools to see how our matches were related to each other; then we got frustrated when there were many pages of matches that could not be sorted by the closest matches to that match.  Look at the image below. The sort feature we wanted is here!

On the far right above your match list it now says Group Search Sort. If you click the sort button, it pops up a little box which gives you the option to sort by your closest matches, your match’s closest matches, or by the date.

The advantage of sorting by your match’s matches is that you can now quickly see if you have already solved the relationship to one of their close family members. The first few words of whatever you put in the notes for that match are listed. Plus if Ancestry has found a relationship there is a little three person icon. More on the basics of the pro tools are in my June blog post (click here). Meanwhile, if this has not rolled out to your pro tools account yet, there is a workaround mentioned by Leah Larkin in her facebook group – The DNA Roundtable – just add
?sort=MATCHING_RELATIONSHIP
to the end of the URL on the page with your match

Remember, this new feature only works if you have the Ancestry Pro Tools which I have heard are on sale for the Holidays at a bargain price

Genetic Genealogy in Literature

Oct29

Mystery and crime are among my favorite leisure reading genres; you might well call that a busman’s holiday. I have watched the evolution of DNA mentions in that literature with great interest. From simple “does the DNA match” to more advanced concepts like contact DNA in the gun residue test (from Michael Connelly‘s most recent Lincoln Lawyer book).

The other day I was enjoying a play at TheaterWorks in Hartford when a discovery made at 23andme was mentioned. Sorry if that is a bit of a spoiler. It is a superb three person play called Fever Dreams, by Jeffrey Lieber, co-creator of the television series LOST. I recommend it highly.

But the most amazing reference to DNA came when one of my favorite writers, J.A.Jance, mentioned a site I use regularly, GEDmatch.com, in a recent novel. That is a site used primarily by serious genetic genealogists, thus not one I would expect an author to know about.

Now I am on the lookout for more of these advanced DNA mentions in literature. Feel free to add yours to the comments below. Here is the J.A.Jance quote from Den of Iniquity page 200 (Note, the names are all made up so there are no privacy violations when quoting fiction!):

“The DNA profile obtained from Caroline Richards led to a woman who was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 12, 1977. Her birth name was Patricia Ann Bledsoe. She was the daughter of a Princeton philosophy professor named Arnold Bledsoe and a stay-at-home mom named Lila Anderson Bledsoe. Her sister, Marisa Bledsoe Young, who was three years younger than Patricia, aka Phyllis Baylor, entered her own DNA into NamUs and also in GEDmatch two years ago in an effort to locate her long-lost sister as well as Patricia’s daughter, Serena, aka Lindsey Baylor, both of whom disappeared without a trace in 2002.”

In case you have not heard of NamUs here how that book describes it:

“… a national database of missing persons. Individuals as well as law enforcement are able to post entries including names, dental records, and DNA profiles. They’re also able to do their own online searches. A similar organization in the private sector is the nonprofit DNA Doe Project, which focuses on human remains that may have gone unidentified for decades.”

Wow, a mention of the DNA Doe Project as well!

Here is another J.A. Jance quote from Blessing of the Lost Girls, Pp 98-99:

‘When cops find DNA at a crime scene, once they have a profile, they run it through CODIS—the Combined DNA Index System—a national database that includes DNA of all kinds of people, including ones arrested for and convicted of violent crimes. The Golden State Killer was a rapist and murderer who operated in California for decades. Cops had his DNA but his profile wasn’t in CODIS. Then they asked for help from a genealogist who went to the public databases . . .” “Like Ancestry.com?” Deb asked. “Yes, sites similar to that one,” Jenny agreed. “She located a familial match, a partial match, to a distant relative who had submitted his DNA just to trace his own roots. Once she found that first relative, she was able to go back and create a family tree that finally, generations later, led to the killer. Some jurisdictions call it genetic genealogy while others call it forensic genealogy. Both work.” “Wait,” Deb said. “Are you saying, if the cops have the DNA of the guy who attacked me, they might be able to do that kind of family search to locate him?” “I am,” Jenny said. “And he might be the same guy who killed that other girl?”

Jance explains the use of forensic genealogy extremely well. For more about DNA and law enforcement plus more about Barbara Rae-Venter, the genealogist who uncovered the identity of the Golden State Killer, click here for my post titled DNA and Law Enforcement

Disclaimer: All book references use my affiliate links to Amazon

23andme: Now and Then

Sep23

23andme started out by being a leader in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic testing business. Time Magazine named it the 2008 Invention of the Year![1] It was the first place I tested my own autosomal DNA and that of many family members back in 2011-2012. Originally it had the best cousin matching tools, best ethnicity estimates, and had a well designed interface to examine the health implications in your own genome. Now I recommend to most that they start with Ancestry DNA and then upload that data to several other sites, including Promethease for the medical analysis, although 23andme still tests a wider range of health related genes.

23andme has been in the news this week because its entire board, except its founder, Anne Wojcicki, resigned over her plan to take it private again. It went public in 2021 but has yet to turn a profit and the WSJ reports that it will run out of cash next year [ref WSJ]. However there is at least one company interested in buying it according to a post on the DNA-Newbie list.

How should those of us who have tests there react to this news? Personally I am not worried, mainly because I hardly ever use the site anymore. I have long since downloaded my data and have contacted most of my closer matches. Roberta Estes has done a thorough blog post (click here) explaining how to save your data from 23andme.

The reason I rarely use 23andme is because it no longer allows you to compare your DNA to a relative in a chromosome browser; the feature I liked the best. I now do that at GEDmatch, Family Tree DNA, and MyHeritage. That tool was removed because of a data breach over a year ago where a hacker got lists of Jewish and Chinese testers and posted them for sale on the dark web. The break-in took advantage of users who had the same email and password on multiple sites, some of which had been exposed elsewhere.

Perhaps it is the resulting class action suit that caused part of 23andme’s financial woes. Click here for an article about how that is being settled with users.

My understanding was that the inspiration for the founding of 23andme was that Genia Brin, the mother of the then husband of founder Anne Wojcicki, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1998 [ref michaelfox org]. The focus of 23andme has always been on discovering the genetic basis of various medical issues, not genealogy. However they have been quite supportive of adoptees (click here), since it is helpful to know what issues may lie in your DNA when you have no known family health history.

One way to look at the genetic basis of various diseases is to crowd-source lots of genomes.

Continue reading →

Riding the Rails

Aug5

​One of the benefits of doing genealogy is seeing history through the eyes of your ancestors. Sometimes helping another with their family history has a similar advantage. Cathie’s father wrote up his experiences in the 30s for her. I was so charmed by them that I asked for permission to publish a slightly edited and condensed version on my blog. Here it is:

I left home when I was just 16 in June of 1929. I worked on a farm, a golf course and spent the winter in a home for homeless boys in Chicago until clement weather arrived.

I then “rode the rails” with a vengeance when real Spring weather arrived — April or May 1930. I had made up my mind I wanted to reach the West Coast to become an apprentice seaman and, (for some obscure reason), to reach Japan.

Let me digress here a moment. Hitchhiking was the optimum way of traveling for a “wanderer” (later, a “bum”) in densely-populated areas. One could get to the outskirts of a town or city easily and there was considerable traffic from whom rides could be cadged ​with the thumb. But when it came to crossing the vast distances of the West, freight trains were the only answer. (You could starve to death hitchhiking in say, Wyoming or Nevada.)

So I took up “riding the rails”. ​It was not easy. You had to find the freight yards, seek out​ other bums who were going to take the next west-bound freight to assure yourself you had the​ right train and then position yourself strategically between where the train was made up, beyond​ where the railroad “dicks” kept the train under surveillance but still close enough to its point of​ origin before it reached dangerous speed. Then jumping into an empty car was no simple task.​ The outside door latch had to be​ unfastened, the door pushed open; then you used both your​ arms to lift yourself so you could slide on your stomach into the car. If your travelling​ companions had already gotten into the cars, they would give you a hand thus making the entry​ in a lot easier.

One had to be prepared for the monotony of hours, or days of travel. The scenery was generally​ entrancing. Freight trains stopped a lot, as you could dismount and stretch your legs or seek​ out a drinking water source. The brakemen riding in the caboose knew they had unauthorized​ passengers but normally took no adverse action against them. Chasing bums off trains “was not​ their job” (they left that to the railroad dicks).

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DNA and Law Enforcement

Jul9

Many people have asked me about the use of their DNA by law enforcement. Some are concerned, others just curious. So here is how it works.

First of all, there are only two commercial databases where law enforcement is allowed in.  Both of those, GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA (ftDNA), require you to opt in to that usage and inform you about it in their terms. There is also one non-profit – DNA Justice – just for Law Enforcement, where you can choose to opt in to be informed if your DNA solved a case.

In order for your DNA to be helpful for solving cases, you have to upload your DNA test done elsewhere to any of those sites, although ftDNA will also do the actual DNA testing and even has some additional tests. In fact, I have a review of the great new Roberta Estes book about that site coming soon. Remember, Law Enforcement only uses your DNA for cousin matching, and perhaps ethnicity, but does not have access to your actual raw DNA data.

If you opt in to helping solve cases on those sites, then your DNA plus your family tree could be used to identify any 2nd or 3rd cousins that are unidentified bodies, rapists, or murderers. Unless you are a genealogist, you probably don’t know all your cousins, and there can even be a few unknown out-of-wedlock ones. I have discovered more of those on my own tree than I would have expected.

So why are so many reluctant to opt in? Fear of reprisals from the criminal? (they don’t know about you, so no worries) or just the reluctance to be a tattle tale? We have all been trained to guard our online privacy so perhaps that is where the discomfort comes from.

I explained the methodology of using genetic genealogy for identifications in a post (click here) I wrote just after the Golden State killer was found. It is the same set of techniques used to help adoptees. The important thing to understand is that genetic genealogy is just used as a tip to narrow down the possibilities. Then Law Enforcement collects the actual DNA of the suspect(s) and compares it to what they have for the perp before any arrests are made.

In the case of unidentified bodies, the trick is to get enough DNA from the degraded remains to create a DNA profile similar to a test kit and thus usable on those sites, The DNA Justice site says “There is so much work still to be done, with more than 14,000 listings in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) alone.” Click here to read a few of the success stories on the DNA Doe site to see how important this work is.

Finally if you want an inside look at how this work is done read the book  I Know Who You Are written by Barbara Rae-Venter. This compelling autobiographical book includes the details of how the Golden State Killer was found with genetic genealogy.

Here’s hoping more of you opt into helping out by uploading your autosomal DNA test results to these sites!