A Million Milestone — I’m ecstatic to report that my blog, Roots and Recombinant DNA (www.rootsandrecombinantdna.com), has surpassed One Million views! When I started this Genetic Genealogy journey in 2012, I had no idea it would morph into one of the most prolific passions of my life. From helping people understand how DNA works, explaining complex genetic subjects, solving decades-long brick walls or family mysteries, bringing together long-lost family, and meeting my Motherland cousins; to appearing in the James Beard award-winning book, “The Cooking Gene” (by Michael Twitty), “The Lost Fa ..read more

GOOD NEWS! MyHeritage is offering a wonderful way to spend your time in social distance and sheltering in place. You can now colorize ALL of your black & white photos for FREE during a limited time. Here's the press release: "MyHeritage is offering FREE and unlimited access to MyHeritage In Color™ from March 23 to April 23, so that people everywhere can join in the fun of colorizing their black and white photos. Ordinarily only 10 photos can be colorized by users who do not have a Complete plan, but now, you can colorize as many photos as you’d like for free. My high school yearbook ..read more

Source: petridishtalk.com (google images)On September 24, 2019,  Genomeweb reported that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $29.5 million to two research centers in the USA and one in Europe for creation of a new human genome reference sequence to "better represent human diversity." Approximately $12.5 million over five years will be distributed to Washington University, St. Louis, MO; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK, to form the WashU-UCSC-EBI Human Genome Reference Center. In coordination with the National Cent ..read more

Some genetic genealogists and genealogists pan genetic ancestry or ethnicity admixture estimates. They see them as not useful and wouldn't mind if ethnicity predicting was discontinued. On the other hand, I see genetic ancestry estimates as part of the genealogy cycle of life. I understand that matching to genetic relatives is a natural progression from traditional genealogy methodology and practices, but genetic ancestry estimates are a natural extension of DNA relative matching and both can be used synergistically to achieve optimal results. I'm sure by now you've seen or heard about ..read more

My 1st Cousin 2x removed Clara Harvey  This blog is in honor of my cousin Clara Harvey, who turned 95 on April 26, 2018, just one day after National DNA Day. She is truly one of the last Mohicans — one of two surviving first cousins from my maternal grandfather's generation.  With Mother's Day fast approaching, this is the perfect time to share phenomenal news about matriarch Clara's MATERNAL (mitochondrial-DNA or mtDNA) HAPLOGROUP, and we took it to the "Bank" (more on this later). I'm also making an urgent appeal to add Cousin Clara's maternal haplogroup to the mtDNA phylogenetic tree so w ..read more

Source: MyHeritage.com I must say MyHeritage is thee new rockstar DNA company and it continues to impress: In March 2018, MyHeritage launched DNA Quest,"a new pro bono initiative to help adoptees and their birth families reunite through genetic testing." DNA Quest, first available in the United States, received such an outstanding response that the program is now being expanded globally!  According to MyHeritage:  The initiative, initially launched in the USA only, received an amazing response. More than 10,000 applications were submitted so far to receive free DNA kits, from the quota of 1 ..read more

The instantly iconic Marvel Comics film Black Panther (2018) sparked an epic socio-cultural movement by the masses to take pride in their African roots, to don haute tribal couture, and even hold voter registration drives at movie theaters. Featuring a mostly Black cast and a young African-American director, Ryan Coogler, the nascent epic triggered one of those Malcolm Gladwell tipping points—an uplifting of our collective self-image; a renewed conversation sparked between African-Americans and continental Africans about their connection, and a vibrant curiosity in people lusting to find th ..read more

On February 8, 2018, DTC personal genome service 23andMe announced a new Global Genetics Project. 23andMe's goal with the new Global Genetics Project is over the next two years to test over 5000 people whose recent ancestry is from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania covering over 61 qualifying countries.* It's FREE and totally worth sharing with all of your friends. According to 23andMe, "This work will help 23andMe expand its reference data sets, improve the ability of our scientists to study groups who are currently underrepresented in genetic research and reveal new insights into pat ..read more

Illumina Global Screening Array ChipBack on August 8, 2017, DTC personal genome service 23andMe quietly announced that it was upgrading its genotyping chip for a fifth time to the Illumina Infinium Global Screening Array-24 v1.0 Bead Chip (GSA) — aka 23andMe version 5 or v5 — and promised new customers more improved ethnicity reports, especially those with non-European ancestry, and those with African ancestry would be the first to receive more specific African ancestry updates. I'm excited already. 23andMe's latest chip upgrade comes on heels of the US Food & Drug Administration relaxi ..read more

23andMe FINALLY restored our ability to see the chromosome paintings and ancestry report of the people we are sharing with in your DNA Relatives list. This was another quiet and soft roll-out or restoration by the DTC personal genome service, and only appears to affect some US customer accounts for now. I've been campaigning a long time for 23andMe to restore this feature and raised the issue in several forums and blogs. Our ability to see our DNA relative's chromosome paintings was absconded when 23andMe decided to upgrade its interface and Web site (aka the New Experience) a couple of yea ..read more