Snippets from the SCGS Jamboree

Jun5

Going to a conference about your passion can be a really fun experience. It is wonderful to finally meet people who you have been emailing with and discussing important issues with online. Another favorite for me is the exhibit hall with vendors showing off their new and old stuff.

I had a great time at the SCGS Jamboree this year. Since I came home early, I am watching a talk streamed live about organizing my work space as I write this! The live stream is really well done. A small live image of the person is on the left and their slide is shown, much larger, on the right. Plus you can chat with the other folk watching. The live stream is available free, thanks to Ancestry.com, until July 5 see http://genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com/2016/05/jamboree-2016-registration-now-open-for.html

Richard and Kalani at the ISOGG booth

Richard and Kalani at the ISOGG booth

In order to pace myself at a conference, I try to limit myself to attending two presentations a day and spend the rest of the time schmoozing in the exhibit hall.

Two people who I have communicated extensively with online are pictured on the left in front of the ISOGG table.

Kalani Mondoy blogs about Polynesian DNA, which is tricky because it is so endogamous. His mother was adopted so he turned to DNA to find her biological family. Richard Weiss is a search angel and adoptee who is involved with DNAadoption.com including the building of their relationship calculator. Each has now found their biological families and both are Mayflower descendants!

Read on for some of my favorite snippets from the conference.

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A Triangulation Feature on the New 23andme

May26

An exciting triangulation feature is available at 23andme.  This feature shows you the relatives you have in common with one other profile and whether or not they triangulate with the two of you.

To use this tool you go to  Family & Friends > DNA relatives  and pick a DNA relative to look at. Scroll down the page towards the bottom where you will see a display like this (names removed for privacy): [previous 2 paragraphs updated 10 May 2019]

RICsmll

When there is a “Yes” in the right hand column, there is a DNA segment in common between the two people you are comparing and this third person thus you triangulate. A “No” means that although you each share DNA with this relative, there is no segment of DNA where all three of you match. Click on the Yes (or a No) to see the three of you compared in the chromosome browser.

Once in the chromosome browser, you can use the “Update View – Edit” to add more people to the comparison with the first person. This is the same chromosome browser that you get to from Tools > DNA relatives > DNA

Jason Lee has done a nice write up with more details on his DNA blog at Tumblr:
http://dnagenealogy.tumblr.com/post/144966221253/relatives-in-common-quick-reaction

 

It’s almost time for Jamboree!

May19

The Southern California Genealogical Society puts on a wonderful genealogy conference every year in Burbank in early June. There are only a few days left to register so, unless you have done so already, head over to http://genealogyjamboree.com/2016/about.html by May 22.

Thursday June 2 is DNA day and there are many terrific presenters and topics: Tim Janzten, Blaine Bettinger, Diahan Southard, Emily D. Aulicino, Katherine Borges, Jim Bartlett, David Dowell, Paul Woodbury and me to name a few. I will be giving my updated talk on DNA Triangulation as well as my Breaking Brick Walls talk. The full schedule is at http://genealogyjamboree.com/2016/schedule-dna.html

Friday morning there are a number of FREE events, including round tables led by experienced researchers both for DNA and genealogy. I will be hosting a DNA table about Triangulation.

The rest of the conference has numerous genealogy talks and a few more DNA presentations plus an exhibit hall of vendors (always one of my favorite parts). Since this is the year I plan to master German genealogy I was pleased to see that it is one of this year’s themes.

A particularly good feature is that you can sign up for a one-to-one consultation with an experienced researcher to help you with one of your genealogical problems, described towards the bottom of this page: http://genealogyjamboree.com/2016/special-events.html

Hope to see you at Jamboree!

Full versus Half Sibling DNA Matches

Apr29

Recently I was asked whether there is a way to tell a full sibling from a half sibling. Sometimes the total centimorgans are low for one but high for the other. You expect to share about 2550 cM with a full sibling and 1700 with a half sibling; so which is it if you share 2100 cM?

The answer is that full siblings will share many fully identical regions (FIRs), over about 25% of their chromosomes. Half siblings will have no FIRs of any significant size. The exception being some small ones if their parents are from the same population group but still far far fewer than a full sibling.

Here is a comparison of my first eight chromosomes with my brother made at GEDmatch. The green bars are where we are fully identical, in other words we got the same segment of DNA from each of our parents there.

GEDmatch comparison of me and my brother

GEDmatch comparison of me and my brother (full siblings)

You can click on the image to see the entire display at GEDmatch that this was made from.
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DNA day sales end today!

Apr26

Dna-splitNational DNA day on April 25 celebrates the day that Crick, Watson, et al published their papers on the structure of DNA. There is an article in Wikipedia about it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Day

Both Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA have been celebrating this date with sales of autosomal DNA test kits that end today. So buy a few!

23andme did not have a sale, but has sent a $50 off coupon out to people who have already tested there as a mother’s day sale or gift and that is good through next Sunday.

See my DNA testing page for a comparison of the sites. Remember that if you test at ancestry you can transfer those results to Family Tree DNA (click here for my post on that with the details)