FTDNA gift certificates extended

You may have noticed the FTDNA site was down over the weekend.    Not sure why yet.    Haven't seen any enhancements but the notice they posted would have led one to believe that some were coming.

At any rate, because of some concerns expressed over the Dec. 31 expiration of their Gift Certificate offer, they have extended the offer until Friday, January 4, 2008.    They didn't say what time but I'm going to assume midnight.    What time zone you ask?    Don't wait that late.

In case any of you know anyone interested in a NEW 25 marker Y-DNA test or a NEW mtDNA test, we still have two $15 gift certificates for each to use before January 5th..

Also, to log in to your Personal Pages, the letters in the ID and password should be capitalized (passwords are now case sensitive).

upgrade ?

Well, the FTDNA site is back online but I can't see anything different (except that my saved link didn't work any longer).    Guess I'll have to wait until someone on the DNA List points out the 'improvements'.

upgrade

Went to the FTDNA website yesterday to see if anything new was going on with any of the Berry folks and got this message -

Don't know what will be new but am anxious to see.

Big Woop!

OK.    I never ever wanted to be a data entry person -- and apparently with good reason!    In trying to explain to Ben the David's, #101, double mutation at DYS392 I discovered that I'd made a data entry error by entering the marker's position rather than its value.    No mutation there at all.    David is 13 just like everyone else.

So I've redone the cladogram and, while similar, it is now correct.
The OC genetic distance table -
And finally, the dreaded Mersa -
Ken, #83, and David need to now need to go to their 'Y-DNA Matches' tab on their FTDNA personal pages to upload their new results to ySearch.    Take a look for the 'Click here to upload to Ysearch.org' line.    Click it.    I'll pick up your ID's when I see you've done it and put a Ysearch tab on the yResults pages.

Orange Co., NC Berrys

The last of David's, #101, markers came in yesterday and thankfully he had some differences in this final batch.    I say thankfully because we already knew that he was related from his other markers and we'd like to see if these differences help us determine the interrelationships among the family.

These marker differences are shown in the yResults 'Family View' and from the few members we have to this point, it would appear that Wiley, #18, might represent the ancestral haplotype.    Maybe.You can't really see the subtle differences in shading in this copy so you ought to examine the markers here on the yResults page.

The new markers deserve a cladogram showing the marker differences and relationships among these folks, so here it is - I wonder if this cladogram is telling us that the ancestral haplotype might be Billy, #8?
I don't know this family and I'll be happy to pass along any analysis the genealogists in this family would like to share.

Christmas memories

Three generations . . .                                                                                       Till next year . . . .
Addendum

Merry Christmas

Our 112th member!

Participant #107, Keith Leslie Berry has just ordered his 43 marker test kit from DNA Heritage and expects to confirm his Berry Plain Berry line.    His yAncestry has been posted to the Project website.

A First Look at deCODEme DNA Results

Well, finally!!!

Sorry for the unintentional hiatus but what with Christmas and ice storms and the like, not to mention lack of new results, I've just had a hard time coming up with anything I thought would be interesting.

But! . . . New results for the Orange Co., NC Berrys!    David's, #101, results, not expected until Jan. 18, next year, have started to come in and he is definitely an Orange Co., NC Berry.    So far only the first 12 markers of his Y-DNA37 order but maybe this bodes well for the balance.    For anyone interested, David's results are posted to the yResults pages, both numerical and family.

We'll do a new 37 marker cladogram for the seven when all his results are in and then someone can take a shot at interpreting them.    Ben?

But Wait!!    13 more new markers have just been POSTED AT 4:55 PM .    But  --  no differences.:(

Berry I1a cladograms

Sorry.    I should have put this up last night when I finished it.    This morning the ice storm got the internet connection first, then the power.    Back on now.    For good, I hope.

Someone asked for I1a cladograms so here they are:

First, the 25 marker cladogram -The largest group are the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys at the bottom of the diagram, next above them is Unassigned SMGF Berry/Bowen, followed next by Unassigned John, #92, then Gum Branch Berrys Norman, #74 and SMGF Barry/Thomas, then Unassigned Larry, #48, and finally Unassigned Danny, #95.

Next, the 37 marker cladogram -Here we see only the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys to the left and Gum Branch Berry Norman to the right.

Finally, the 67 marker diagram comprised entirely of Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys -
POSTED AT 7:55 PM, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2007
NOTE:    I've been asked for guidance on how to read or interpret these cladograms.    Sorry, I don't have it.    To me, they're merely visual representations of the Genetic Distance tables.    I do suspect that they are more than that, however, and I have seen something about the 'star' pattern perhaps indicating the ancestral haplotype??    If I ever find out, I'll do a blog posting about it.

Searching mtDNA Matches: a method

Anne Nelson* believes that you will need a FGS to be sure there is a genealogical connection.    It has been seen that exact HVR1+2 matches do not necessarily have the same underlying coding region (the other part of the mtDNA genome) mutations.

Lacking that, she suggests that "one place to start looking for genealogical connections is your list of  HVR1+HVR2 matches.    Share your mtDNA lineage with them  --  both your direct line of women and whatever you know about sisters/daughters and who they married . . . . The key is to narrow your matches down to people who "track" in the same timeframe and geographic location as you do.

One tactic I recommend is mapping the lineages on a GOOGLE map.    FTDNA offers a map for your oldest known ancestresses, but this falls a bit short, imho.    The reason is that your lineage may be traced back to 1750 while your matches' may go back to 1880s, 1850s, 1820s, or 1790.    By only posting the oldest known ancestress, you lose the migration of the descendants.    I offer an example from my own mapping efforts (although this needs some reworking, it will give you the idea):    http://tinyurl.com/2olvs3

As to timing on your DNA timeline, your matches could be close or more distant.    FGS is showing that we don't know nearly enough yet to be able to give you a precise answer to this question.    For instance, the group I have mapped above has the same coding region as a group which has a different HVR1+HVR2 motif  (although it's close).    I think that until we have a good picture of the . . . sub-clade, which will take many many more FGS to have, we won't know what the timeframe for the relationship between these two groups is.

I can tell you that I have seen some successes from folks looking at these maps and realizing another line took basically the same migration path that theirs did and finding at the very least a probable connection.    I'm working right now on a possible connection between my 1805ish GA born U2e gggggrandmother and an mtDNA match born a little later in AL.    Given the migration paths of the time, the AL woman's mother was probably born in GA, SC, NC, TN or VA.    Right now there are only two of us with lineages that close together, spatially.    However, some of our matches don't understand how to think about mtDNA matches yet, I don't think.    They looked just at the surnames and said "no connection" instead of looking at the TIME and PLACE.    My third oldest MIGHT be in the same place as their oldest, but with a different surname."

*Anne Nelson is a Project Administrator (since 2002) for the WEBB, MAYNOR/MAYNARD/Soundex, WITCHER, H5 mtDNA and H9 mtDNA projects, and the Co-Admin for the HUDSON project.    She has been working with mtDNA for the last few years, and does custom mtDNA reports.    It is through this last that she has been taking a hard look at specific mitotypes and their sub-clades, examining the FGS sequences available as well as the HVR1 and HVR2 data which is more readily available.

New mtDNA results

Larry, #9, received his mtDNA HVR1 and HVR2 results yesterday.    He is haplogroup K with CRS differences in HVR1 at 093C, 224C, 249C, 311C and 519C and in HVR2 at 73G, 195C, 263G, 309.1C, 315.1C, 497T, 524.1C and 524.2A.   

Although I suspect that the only sure meaningful match is a FGS* match, Larry has enough differences and a somewhat unique haplogroup so that his HVR1&2 match should be more hopeful than many others.

      *FGS - Full Genome Sequence (also called Whole Genome Sequence or EGS).    It sequences the entire mtDNA genome   --   all 16569 base pairs.

Duplication and Mutation

I figure that if we watch enough of this stuff, maybe someday we'll begin to understand a little -


That is, if we want to.

It's not too late!

    Well, sorta.    It is too late to get yours by Christmas, but they've extended the Give one get one program until the 31st so it's not to late to do a really nice thing for a child in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia or Rwanda.    Go ahead and do it.    You'll feel really good! . . . and you'll get yours early next year.

almost Woops!

I was waiting for Floyd's and Donald's samples to be sent to the lab yesterday evening and keeping a log of the times and -- what?    It wasn't happening!
Well, I can't explain why the delay (from past observation) in shipment but they're gone and we now have this new pipeline.

Wednesday

Yesterday Danny, #95, was the recipient of one of FTDNA' s gratuitous Y-HAP-Backbone tests.    This is a good thing.    As I understand it, if FTDNA cannot predict your haplogroup with 100% confidence, they will run that DNA sample through their Backbone SNP test for free.    Danny tested M253+, I1a.

NOTICE:    Today is 'batch shipment day'.    Save a week, save the world.

Very Interesting

I've heard back from Family Genetics, Ltd., the UK company that John's, #106, results were from.    A prompt and informative reply.    They gave me a nomenclature change for one of the markers so I made the correction and ran a distance table again, this time for only the Hg I1a's in the Project.    Much more interesting -Now he 'seems' to match the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys!    It would be nice if some of those missing markers could be tested.    As it is, we're really only comparing 21 common markers with most of the group, and all 26 only with ##7, 27, 90 and 102 where the match doesn't look so good.

Even more news!    Donald's, #103, sample has arrive back at FTDNA from Scotland.    It should go to the lab tomorrow evening.

fiddle faddle

In case anyone cares, here's our 'usage' for November -

And, in other news, Floyd, #53, is upgrading his haplotype from 12 to 37 markers.    Wish that would help us find more matches!    Even though it won't, it's the smart thing to do because when the right one does show up there won't be any ambiguity about match or not.

A New UK Participant!

Thanks to Patrick's, #60, searching the hinterlands we have a new 'old country' participant in the Project, John Berry (who will be Participant #106) from Hereford, County of Herefordshire, UK.    John is sponsored by Norma Pink, his 1st cousin, and tested at Family Genetics, Ltd., a lab in Stockport, UK.

Unfortunately, John doesn't match anyone yet but when he does someone is going to have a real 'leg up'!

Here's a Genetic Distance chart comparing John's 26 markers with the rest of the Project.

John is the first line, 106-, (I did the chart before I estimated him to be Hg I1a) and each line following represents a participant by his Participant # and haplogroup.

Not every Participant is included.    Each 'Unassigned' is, but each Berry 'family' is represented by one of its members, usually the one with the most markers tested.

Although John doesn't match anyone he is closest to the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys with a GD of 5 out of 26 markers.    I suppose that shouldn't be unexpected since most of the other folks are different haplogrups from him.

Also, a warning - I am not absolutely certain of John's allele values as stated.    I have written to Family Genetics asking about any nomenclature conversions needed to conform their results to FTDNA's.    Should I learn of any differences I'll redo the comparison and post the results here.