Archives

Cyber Monday Sales for DNA and Genealogy

Nov30

Cyber Monday used to be the day for online sales but most started last Thursday or Friday however I admit that I was too busy with family to pay much attention.

Ancestry’s sales will finish at midnight EST tomorrow, the end of Cyber Monday and they include 20% off AncestryDNA ($79). 11/28-12/1

Family Tree DNA has sales and mystery gifts until the end of December, see Roberta Estes’ post for more details: http://dna-explained.com/2014/11/25/family-tree-dna-holiday-sale-including-mystery-rewards-starts-now/

and Family Tree Magazine has all kinds of holiday sales, with an additional discount that is ending Cyber Monday: http://www.shopfamilytree.com/cyber-monday-deals

 

 

DNA matching changes at Ancestry.com

Nov21

All my favorite bloggers have posted good articles about the changes in the Ancestry.com DNA pages. I have put a list of them at the end of this post.

The improvement in Ancestry’s DNA matching has greatly reduced the total number of matches, which ran into the thousands for many of us. The theory is that their new algorithm has gotten rid of those matches that were unlikely to share a common ancestor in the genealogical time frame. I am hopeful. And the new DNA home page for a person is much nicer looking and more informative as you can see below.

NewAncestryDNAHomeSmll

Looking at how my brother with one Jewish grandparent has fared, all his 4th cousin Jewish matches (dozens of those) are gone. This is probably correct. The few that I have been in contact with are not recently related.

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Using Ashkenazi Jewish DNA to Find Family

Nov10

Reading about this holocaust survivor’s discovery of missing family via DNA had me crying –
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4589762,00.html – but it also got me thinking about how few jewish DNA success stories there are. Perhaps that is changing now that more people are testing.
A7734 on facebook
The screenshot at the left is from facebook page A7734 about Menachem’s search. It shows him and the genealogist who helped him, looking at the first picture of his parents he had ever seen.

Frankly, success stories with jewish DNA are rare.  I have none to report from my family. I emailed all my Ashkenazi researching friends to see if anyone had a good success story. Not very many are out there. If you have one, please send it along.

The endogamous nature of jewish DNA is part of the problem. Everyone looks like a close relative in the DNA matching. Another part of the problem is that so few Ashkenazim know their ancestors past their great-grandparents. Too many records were destroyed in WWII, among other problems researching.

In my experience, if an Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) DNA match is not showing as a 2nd cousin or better it is unlikely that you will find the relationship. An experienced Israeli researcher told me to ignore anyone without at least one long segment match of 23 cM.

Below are a few tips from search angel Gaye Tannenbaum who frequently works with AJ DNA.

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The DNA behind the PBS show “Finding Your Roots”

Nov4

On Tuesdays, I usually count down the hours until the latest episode of Finding Your Roots is on, but tonight we will be watching election returns while my DVR records the show. So you all know what I will do when my husband finally heads for bed …

FindingRootsBlog

It looks like tonight’s show will showcase the ancestry of a number of jewish celebrities. Since Ashkenazi research can be particularly difficult and the DNA very tricky due to that population’s endogamy, I am particularly interested to see what I can learn.

 

Cece Moore‘s latest blog entry at the PBS site was just posted. Each week she discusses some of the details of the DNA work she did for the previous show.
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