Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, FL

I Want Meat

We went to a Brazilian Steakhouse last night, the Fogovivo.    Pretty neat, but filling.In addition to a 'salad' bar (just a nod to salads with lots of strange and exotic other stuff) it's basically sitting there while hordes of waiters carrying long knives and slabs of meat cruise the floor responding to the 'Want Meat' cards.and desserts-Until you give up and say -
P.S. - Please read my son's blog for today by clicking here.

More SMGF results

Sorenson Molecular Genealogical Foundation did another of their periodic updates yesterday.    On the Y-DNA side, Cameron, #58 showed up (37/37) with all 43 of his markers.    None of the rest of us gained any markers but a new Berry also showed up.

He is Berry/Ross (18/18).    He has 21 markers-and his pedigree is-
He doesn't match any of the other SMGF Berrys but I haven't checked him against the entire Project.    Anyone know him?    Is he even a real Berry?    When I Google his line I get Fortenberrys.

A New Member

Our 115th member, Edward Berry, #110, has just joined under the sponsorship of Susie Milam.    There's some thought/hope among some of our participants that Edward will turn out to match the Faires Berrys.    We'll see.

We're in a bit of an unusual situation.    Our 'pipeline' now consists of one Y-DNA26-37 marker portion of a Y-DNA37 test for Donald, #103, estimated for February 8, and SEVEN tests that have been ordered but not yet returned to the lab for processing, only one of which I know has been mailed but not yet received.

Help us out here folks.    Don't keep us in suspense.

How DNA Computers Will Work

from How Stuff Works

Even as you read this article, computer chip manufacturers are furiously racing to make the next microprocessor that will topple speed records.    Sooner or later, though, this competition is bound to hit a wall.    Microprocessors made of silicon will eventually reach their limits of speed and miniaturization.    Chip makers need a new material to produce faster computing speeds.

You won't believe where scientists have found the new material they need to build the next generation of microprocessors.    Millions of natural supercomputers exist inside living organisms, including your body.    DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules, the material our genes are made of, have the potential to perform calculations many times faster than the world's most powerful human-built computers.    DNA might one day be integrated into a computer chip to create a so-called biochip that will push computers even faster.    DNA molecules have already been harnessed to perform complex mathematical problems.

While still in their infancy, DNA computers will be capable of storing billions of times more data than your personal computer.    In this article, you'll learn how scientists are using genetic material to create nano-computers that might take the place of silicon-based computers in the next decade.

NEXT

Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys

At last!    The Augusta/Washington Co. Berry database has been updated and facelifted and its new version can be seen here.    It also contains just over 3000 folks additional to the previous online version, for a total of 38,913 in the entire database.    That figure is somewhat misleading, however, because the database comprises all those folks related to my kids, that is, both my and Betty's families.    Just over 4100 of them, plus spouses, are Betty's kin.

As you might imagine, the upload of a database of this size is not an inconsequential undertaking.    I can't say just how long it took but certainly the better part of a day.    I can't say for certain because I left it uploading overnight and it 'timed out' somewhere in the process.    That's one of the difficulties.    You can't just tell the computer to upload the whole file and expect it not to need tending.

At any rate.    Here it is.    Please let me know if anything doesn't go where it should or seems to behave strangely.

I had a notion . . . .

. . . that if I compared Ken Nordtvedt's I1a subclades with our I1a Berrys it would probably tell us something interesting  --   maybe even show us which folks belonged to which subclades.

Well, I did it and . . . NOT!

This was Ken"s comment.    "I have two Berry haplotypes of 67 markers in my research database.    Both were placed in I1a-AS(generic), and this was before your message arrived.    I usually just keep one haplotype from a family.    Why do I have two in I1a-AS(generic)?    It was because I decided their common ancestor was far back in time, probably before the age of surnames.

Half of all I1a-AS is in AS(generic).    That means there is no clear founder for a clade of these folks earlier than the founder of I1a-AS, himself.    That's 6000 years ago.    I happen to also be in AS(generic) right now."

POSTED AT 4:14 PM, SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2000
A Loss for Genetic Genealogy

James LeVoy Sorenson died today at 86.

Benton Co. Berrys

Thanks to Susan, sister of D.F. Berry, #76, we've added some additional 166 persons to the Benton Co. Berrys database.    The thing is, they don't have an obvious connection to Samuel Berry m. Nancy Crow.
D.F. and Rodney, #81, are the only Benton Co. Berrys whose earliest known ancestors don't seem to have been children of Samuel Berry and Nancy Crow.

Since, to date, no one has been able to identify the parents of Samuel Berry, these lines might be fertile sources for further investigation of this mystery.

(... and thanks to the folks at Liester for correcting my code so I could get the database to display correctly.)

MacWorld

I was going to do an item on a new Benton Co. database upload today but I've run into a problem with Reunion's web card generation algorithm.    Probably something to do with running it on my late 2007 model MacBook using MacOSX 10.5.1 since it seemed to do fine on my old eMac running MacOSX 10.3.9  - -   but that's not much help since my eMac is in Winchester and I'm in Miami.    I've written leisterpro help about it and hopefully they'll tell me what I'm doing wrong.

So I've decided the best I could do for today was to show you a 60 second version of Steve Jobs' keynote at Tuesday's MacWorld convention in San Francisco:
The full version may be seen here.

numbers, numbers, numbers

Floyd's, #53, last panel, his Y-Refine25to37 order, came in yesterday.    It's posted.    Anyone been inspired to look at Floyd's line?    Hard to get a handle on it because the given names are so ordinary.    James, William and Chester.    Only Chester might be a little bit distinctive.
It's a nice thing that other's have the same or similar interests to ours.    I've had a kind of a sense of when SMGF did updates to their database, but nothing more than that.    Even then, it was just a 'sense' that they did it every three months or so.

Luckily, others have been interested enough to keep track.    Tim Janzen posted this list of updates to the SMGF database.    Make of it what you will.

Y chromosome database 
                                     Number of haplotypes
    Date    7 marker haplotypes    with more than 34 markers 
 10/20/2006        15921                 12967
 12/06/2006        15953                 12909
 01/23/2007        16595                 13460
 03/12/2007        17332                 14285
 05/07/2007        17645                 14510
 07/10/2007        19113                 14720
 11/15/2007        21445                 15519

mitochondrial DNA database 
   Jul-06       ca 4000
 10/20/2006        5792
 12/06/2006        8517
 01/23/2007       11285
 03/12/2007       15760
 05/07/2007       19543
 07/10/2007       25104
 11/15/2007       42012

Miami

We've been in Miami for a week now, visiting Betty's niece and nephew.

The dogs have found new friends.
Went to a flea market yesterday.
Almost like another country.
. . . . and not the place you'd expect a nice sunset.

113 & 114

You'd think that Brian, #49, must be getting tired of still being in the 'unassigned' category.    He's sponsoring two of his (paper) cousins for Y-DNA37 tests - James E. Berry, #108, and Michael J. Berry, #109, our 113th and 114th participants.

A friendly reminder - Everyone should go to your FTDNA Personal Page:   First, click on the 'Setup Preferences' tab and select your matches to be set against the entire database.    Leaving it set to "display of matches only to my Surname Project" will severely limit your opportunity to see matches that may be of interest to you but are not yet in the Project.    Severely, as in 'No Chance'.    One exception to this advice is that if you have more than 12 markers tested it will probably be a good idea to uncheck the 12 marker button.    Since 12 marker matches are mostly meaningless this will avoid those 'dear cousin' emails from folks with different surnames.

New results posted

Yesterday's results solidified Donald's, #103, Spartanburg Co., SC Berry membership.    He and Wayne, #1, match exactly on their common 25 markers.

Unfortunately, other results solidified Floyd's, #53, 'unassigned' status.    But, unless his match (when it arrives) has only tested 12 markers, there'll be no doubt about it.    Both Donald and Floyd still have their Y-DNA26-37 marker panel yet to be reported.    That will be somewhat an anticlimax, though, since Donald will then be the only Spartanburg Co., SC Berry with 37 markers and it won't create a match for Floyd.

A new Madison Co. Berry

Sorry, again.    Seem to have run into a 'burn out/writer's block/event overload' or just plain tired and couldn't seem to make myself get to 'day three' as I promised.

Fortunately, life intervenes and we have new results for Charles, #104, who tested at DNA Heritage.     As you no doubt recall, I have a new laptop and seem to have failed at my attempt to transfer over my old emails.    As a consequence I don't know whether we expected Charles to be a Madison Co. Berry or not.    I don't seem to have a yAncestry for him yet unless it was in one of those emails that failed to transfer.

But here's what we do know.

And here for the Madison County markers.

And, in the process of transferring his results from DNAH into our website, I discovered (at least 'discovered' for me) an 'easy' way to convert results from one lab's protocol to another's.    In Charles' case I went to the SMGF Search the Y database site, selected DNA Heritage, and entered his results.    I then changed the format to FTDNA (which is what we use on the Project website) and they automatically converted!    Magic!

Travelin'

Sorry, more later.    I'll finish up the festival with day three (which includes a really good mandolin and bass duet with David McLaughlin and Marshall Wilbon) and any adventures from our trip today down Florida to Miami.

I don't really expect any new DNA stuff before Monday, if then.

day two FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2008

No new DNA news but another full day of bluegrass.
The lineup today included Goldwing -
Cherryholmes -

Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver -
and Rhonda Vincent and the Rage -Pay particular attention to the fiddler in this band.    His name is Hunter Berry and one of these days I'll talk him into testing.Hunter usually stands when he plays but was suffering the aftereffects of a recent rear-end collision and was playing on 'Skittles'.

New (mini) results

Some call them 'bikini' results.    Donald's, #103, first 12 markers of his Y-DNA37 order came in yesterday and those markers match Clay, #41, and Wayne, #1.    This is encouraging for the Spartanburg Co., SC Berrys.    If Donald's additional markers match Wayne that will establish the Spartanburg Co., SC Berry family, but it will still leave Clay as merely a 'possible' for his 12 marker match since he has no paper connection to either Wayne or Donald.    Clay needs more markers!

day one

Just a couple of snippets from day one of our three day bluegrass festival.

Gary Waldrep is a really nice, high energy guy from Alabama whose first out-of-state gig for his band was right here 11 or 12 years ago.    We were here for that debut and have enjoyed him each year since.    This is a bit of The Gunbarrel Road -
If you like that take a look for his new CD coming out soon.

The Grascals are a young, high energy band with a couple of leftovers veterans of the Osborne Brothers band -
Here're my seat neighbors for the past several years.

Hard drive

Just over 12 hours.    Too close for two days, too far for one day.    Here's what I left behind.
We got to travel with our furkids this trip.    Phantom -

and Edn -

and I even got extra help keeping a lookout -

Found it!

Welcoming lights at Jekyll -
Helping dad all day is thirsty work!


Oh, yeah!    No new Berry DNA news.

Headin' out

Happy New Year!    First thing tomorrow morning we head out to Jekyll Island, Georgia, for our vestigial bluegrass festival.    Then, from there, on down to Florida 'for a while'.

Too bad.    With my new laptop there'll be no escaping me this year.

A small, easily surmountable problem is that the Redskins are a Wild Card team in the playoffs this year and they play the Seahawks Saturday at 4:30 - sort of in the middle of the music.    Not to worry, though, each band plays two sets, one early and one late, except Ralph Stanley.    We'll miss the second set of a couple of bands and get to see most of Ralph's.    Assuming no overtime.

The good part is that the dogs get to go with us for this trip.    I'm not sure whether it's harder on them or harder on us when they have to stay behind.

Well, back to packing.