Author: Blaine Bettinger

DNA Testing Offered to Participants of the Slave Descendants Freedom Society Seminar Series

Blaine Bettinger

Two companies recently teamed up to offer their services to families with roots in the African Diaspora.Slave Descendants Freedom Society and Diversity Restoration Solutions are bringing a seminar series to 50 cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe titled “Restoring African American Families Using Genealogy and History.”The seminar will focus on topics such as slavery in America, the importance of African American family genealogy as it relates to slavery, and 13 steps to restoring a family with genealogy and history.According to a recent press release:

“This interactive seminar series is a stepping stone in that it seeks to help African Americans find their self identity, understand the benefits of restoring the core family base, and move forward in leveraging resources as a people,” said Sheppard, author of “Ancestor’s Call,” a genealogy and historical accounting of the Grandy family and Moses Grandy, an ancestor whose story was originally told in a rare 1843 slave narrative. “It’s important that we lay the foundation for generations coming after us; our children and grandchildren need to know who they are in order to receive their inheritance. This seminar honors the contributions of our ancestors but with an emphasis that this recognition should not occur just during Black History Month, but as a way of life, everyday. Participants will come away with a greater understanding of themselves, an action plan for tracing their family tree and hopefully a stronger appreciation for family and desire to pay it forward in their community.”A pdf brochure is available. ... Click to read more!

BRCA2 as a Cycle Path in Cambridge

Blaine Bettinger 3 Comments

Today represents a brief break from genetic genealogy, in a way, but I thought the topic was interesting enough to talk about.

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BRCA2 (Breast Cancer Type 2 susceptibility protein) is a tumor suppressor gene involved in the repair of DNA damage.BRCA2 binds to and regulates another protein (the product of the RAD51 gene) to fix DNA breaks caused by any number of factors.BRCA2 was discovered in 1995 by Professor Michael Stratton and Dr. Richard Wooster in cooperation with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

To date, researchers have identified 450 different mutations in the BRCA2 gene, some of which unfortunately cause an increased risk of cancer.Typically, the mutated gene produces an abnormally short protein that is unable to help the cell fix DNA breaks.Thus, mutations can accumulate and eventually lead to cancer (breast, ovarian, prostate, or pancreatic). ... Click to read more!

Genetic Genealogy and the Amish

Blaine Bettinger 12 Comments

I am a genetic genealogist because I thought it would be a fun and interesting thing to do.Some people, however, are genetic genealogists because it is a matter of life and death.

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The Amish/Mennonites and Genetic Disorders

The Amish migrated from Europe (Germany/Switzerland) to the United States in the 1700s.One such group, the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, began with 200 Swiss immigrants.Today, there are roughly 200,000 Old Order Amish.Because of the difficult lifestyle, the lack of evangelism, and the language barrier, there is essentially no conversion to the Amish religion.In addition, marriage outside the community is forbidden.As a result, the community has remained closed for over 10 generations and is still using the same 200 genomes of their founders!This is known as founder effect, which means that a population is started by just a small number of individuals and as a result that new population will be different (both genetically and phenotypically) from the parent population, potentially with low genetic variation. ... Click to read more!

What do the results of a Deep SNP test mean?

Blaine Bettinger 12 Comments

Often, at least at the current stage of genetic genealogy, DNA sequencing does not reveal enough information to identify a person’s particular Y chromosome or mtDNA haplogroup.The example I will be using in this post is Haplogroup E.Haplogroup E split into E1, E2, and E3 about 28,000 years ago.Current tests offered by many sequencing companies are able to place a person in the general “E” Haplogroup, but might be unable to determine exactly which subclade of E a person descends from.In such a situation, a “Deep SNP” test can be used to fill in that information.

A SNP is single nucleotide polymorphism, or a change in the DNA sequence at a single nucleotide.For instance, the switch of a C for G, a cytosine for a guanine.You can see a chart of some of the most common SNPs tested for genetic genealogy here or here.The Deep SNP test (which can go by other names) analyzes a person’s DNA, such as the Y chromosome, for the presence or lack of these mutation(s). ... Click to read more!

23andMe in the News

Blaine Bettinger 3 Comments

A June 18th article from MSNBC about online family trees and social networking revealed another tidbit about 23andMe. According to the article (and no source of the information is given), 23andMe “plans to charge $1,000 for an extensive genetic profile and features to help track down lost relatives.”

I’m not exactly sure what that means. Are distant cousins lost relatives? Or is the unknown birth mother of an adopted child a lost relative? Given 23andMe’s interest in genetic genealogy, I’m guessing that it’s for general interest, rather than just for people looking for birth parents. Or perhaps they’re doing both – it’s really not much of a difference. It’s all about building a database, of course. Without the ability to compare results to a database, the usefulness of DNA testing for genealogical purposes can still be informative but is limited. ... Click to read more!

Genetic Genealogy in the News

Blaine Bettinger 3 Comments

ancestry1.gif Yesterday was another big day for genetic genealogy, with two major announcements.First, as I have previously mentioned, Ancestry.com teamed up with Sorenson Genomics to offer DNA testing.The results of that testing can be, at the owner’s discretion, tied into a new DNA database as well as their massive collection of genealogical source materials.Here’s the official announcement from PRNewswire: “Ancestry.com Enters DNA Genealogy Field Through Exclusive Partnership With Sorenson Genomics: Combines Three Major Pillars of Family History Research – Historical Records, DNA and Family Trees.”Here’s another blurb at Family Tree Magazine.According to one source (CNET News), the $200 test will examine both Y DNA and mtDNA, but that hasn’t been confirmed.It only makes sense to test both, however, especially at that price. ... Click to read more!

Interview with Katherine Hope Borges at ISOGG

Blaine Bettinger 2 Comments

The following is an interview with Katherine Hope Borges, founder of ISOGG (The International Society of Genetic Genealogy), done at the 2007 SoCal Genealogical Jamboree. ISOGG has about 5,000 members and is growing rapidly. ISOGG has MANY great services on their website, including the “Founding Fathers DNA Page”, and an up-coming Presidential DNA page.

If you liked the video, there are lots more at Roots Television!! If you’re interested in genetic genealogy and haven’t checked out Roots Television yet, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Thanks to Megan for letting me snag this video!

Ancestry.com and Sorenson Genomics

Blaine Bettinger 5 Comments

Ancestry.com, one of the largest online sources of family trees and genealogy source material, is teaming up with Sorenson Genomics to offer DNA testing.

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Ancestry.com has more than 14 million users, meaning that genetic genealogy will be introduced to a huge new group of individuals. Additionally, Ancestry can use the results of this testing to enhance the other databases they already offer – something that the other big testing companies lack.

As of now, the rumored price is to be $200, with no mention of the type of testing to be offered. There’s a lot more information available at Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, The Jerusalem Post, The Times Daily.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Deseret News.com. Look for the announcement to be made sometime today. ... Click to read more!

Genetic Genealogy Used to Identify Lost Soldiers

Blaine Bettinger

An article in yesterday’s Mount Vernon News highlighted the use of genetic genealogy to identify POW’s from the Korean War who had died in North Korean detention facilities.

The Korean War Project, sponsored by the Department of Defense, uses genetic tests, especially mtDNA (because mtDNA is so hardy), to match remains to living family members. This type of identification has been used for years now.

One of the volunteers for the Project, Carol Kiley, has found 21 matches in the three months she’s been tracking down families.Ms. Kiley says that her background in genealogy helps her locate the families of missing soliders.

The article discusses the case of Pvt. Robert Wayne McNeil who served in F Company of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.He was captured as a POW on April 25, 1951, and died thereafter.Remains have been discovered that might be McNeil’s, and Ms. Kiley is attempting to locate a sister, niece, or female cousin for mtDNA testing. ... Click to read more!