Goodbye California---Hello Tennessee

Friday Denise, RaggZ and I will depart our lovely home for the last 16 years in Morro Bay and head for new adventures in Nashville. Our new apartment will be part of a continuing care retirement complex located half a mile from the home of Jon, Shana, Noah and Simon. We will be an easy day's drive (or one hour flight) from Lee, Michelle, Jared, Jayson and Justin in the south Chicago suburbs; and a day and a half (or hour and a half flight) from Jason, Kindra, Alex and Devin in Virginia Beach. Debbie and Chris will be slightly farther away in NYC but are likely to return to Atlanta (CDC) in 2013 when mayor Bloomberg terms out. Debbie's position as Director of Special Projects reports to the Commissioner of Public and Mental Health who is a political appointee who serves at the pleasure of the mayor.

Our new address in Richland Place (http://www.richlandplace.com/) will be:

500 Elmington Ave, Apt 426
Nashville, TN 37205
Y'all come.

We should lower the average age among the 137 independent living units. We are very reluctantly leaving our window on the Pacific http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=798456 but are looking forward to spending more time with our seven grandsons.

We haven't had time to get out Christmas cards this year. One of our New Year's resolutions is to get out greetings early in 2012 when we arrive in Nashville. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Now I need to get back to packing boxes!

RootsMagic 5.0 Released

Today RootsMagic announced the release of version 5.0 of its popular genealogy program for Windows PCs.

For new customers the full version of this powerful program is $29. Current customers can upgrade for $19. A trial version is available for free download. I will be downloading the new version as soon as I finish this blog post. This has been my genealogy program of choice starting with its ancestor, FamilyOrigins. Click on the picture above or this link for details about this new version.


This would make a nice gift for those on your holiday list.

David Dowell's Adding DNA Testing Presentation

Linked below is a very nice review of my presentation on genetic genealogy a week ago in the Chicago area:

David Dowell's Adding DNA Testing Presentation - Chicago Genealogy | Examiner.com

Many Genes Associated With More Than One Disease

Grace Rattue reported on Monday in Medical News Today,

"According to investigators at the University of Edinburgh, individuals who carry specific genes, including some accountable for Parkinson's disease, some cancers and heart disease, may be at risk of developing other health problems. Although researchers have long suspected that different diseases are genetically associated, to date there has been insufficient systematic evidence to prove it. The study is published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics."

In that article the investigators state, 

"Showing that genes are linked to more than one disease is very important. We have shown that this is a common finding and not just an exception. Anyone who goes for genetic testing should be aware that in future, any information they receive about individual genes could have wider implications than they or the clinician immediately realize. They could also influence the risk of other conditions, so being aware of these wider effects is important."

For more information on this phenomena read Many Genes Associated With More Than One Disease.

FTDNA Announces a Holiday Sale on DNA Test Kits

FTDNA yesterday announced its anticipated holiday sale. Note that it may be necessary to join a surname or geographic project (free), to qualify for the sale prices.

Dear Project Administrator,

As we approach the holiday season, we feel having one BIG promotion for a sufficient amount of time best supports our volunteer Administrators, in their effort to recruit new members. Current members will also benefit by having simultaneously reduced prices for upgrades. Effective immediately this promotion will end on December 31, 2011. We hope that this will give a big boost to your projects!  New Kits Current Group Price SALE PRICE Y-DNA 37 $149 $119 Y-DNA 67 $239 $199 mtFullSequence $299 $239 SuperDNA (Y-DNA67 and FMS) $518 $438 Family Finder $289 $199 Family Finder + mtPlus $438 $318 Family Finder + FMS $559 $439 Family Finder+ Y-DNA37 $438 $318 Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-67) $797 $627 Upgrades 12-25 Marker $49 $35 12-37 Marker $99 $69 12-67 Marker $189 $148 25-37 Marker $49 $35 25-67 Marker $148 $114 37-67 Marker $99 $79 Family Finder $289 $199 mtHVR1toMega $269 $229 mtHVR2toMega $239 $209 ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MIDNIGHT DECEMBER 31st 2011 TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICES. THIS PROMOTION IS NOT VALID IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANY OTHER PROMOTIONS OR COUPONS. AT THIS TIME, WE WILL NOT BE OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR THE Y-DNA111, NEW KITS OR UPGRADES. THOSE MAY BE OFFERED AT A LATER TIME PENDING THE LAB VOLUMES WITH THE TESTS UNDER PROMOTION. Log in to place your order You are welcome to share this information with the members of your groups. As always, we appreciate your continued support. Family Tree DNA www.familytreedna.com If you are not sure which test you should order, ask Dr. D. It really depends on what genealogical question you are attempting to answer. After you have defined your research question, then you can make a more intelligent decision about which test to order and which family member(s) should do the cheek swabbing.

$1,000 Genome in Two Hours by 2012, Says CEO of Ion Torrent

If Jonathan Rothberg is to be believed, we have not seen anything yet. Earlier this month he claimed the mythical “$1,000 genome” will be here next year. He made that claim at MIT’s Emerging Technology conference:  $1,000 Genome in Two Hours by 2012, Says CEO of Ion Torrent - Technology Review.

This claim has the potential to firmly establish personalized genomic medicine within the next two decades. If we can retool medical practitioners as rapidly as we can explore our genomes, we will be seeing amazing things. It will also add great power for those of us who use DNA testing as one of our tools to explore our family histories.

These amazing breakthroughs in science and medicine will make it even more imperative that we as a society develop appropriate legal and ethical norms for defining ownership, control and privacy that should be given to the vast amount of personal information that will be made available.

Right to Own our Own Bodies

One of the most important human rights issues of the 21^st century may be the right to have access to information contained in our own bodies. We are generally acknowledged to own any ideas we express that can be recorded in tangible form (copyright). However, we do not seem to have clear rights of ownership to more tangible products of our bodies. Body pieces that are removed during medical procedures, information gained during medical testing and information contained in our DNA, seem to fall into a category of information from which some paternalistically believe they must protect us.

After four decades as a librarian I have the professional ethic that information is power and that my role as a professional is to help clients find the information they need to make informed decisions about all aspects of their lives. This is a somewhat different paradigm than the prevailing one in the medical arena between physicians and their patients.

Scientists and physicians want to use health information for their own purposes but many are reluctant to share it with the donors of that information. Many researchers are afraid that we might object to their use of this data which they believe they can exploit for the benefit of society. Physicians don’t appreciate the value of their patients having information on medical issues if the physicians do not have the knowledge to “fix” the problems. Both of these positions are short-sighted and paternalistic.

I had been developing my own opinion on these topics over the last few years as I pondered my own chances of developing Alzheimer’s. My mother was afflicted by late onset dementia which may have been a form of Alzheimer’s. The prevailing view of the medical community seems to be that since they cannot successfully reverse or arrest such a disease, there is no benefit in me finding out whether or not I might have an elevated risk of developing it. In fact, they believe that such knowledge would unduly raise my anxiety level and lead to depression. A few recent studies suggest that any such anxiety and depression would be short lived and that those who do not test positive for increased risk will receive a positive attitude adjustment from the results.

Even if the medical community is not yet equipped to successfully treat me for such diseases, I can use such diagnostic knowledge to make informed decisions about my life and the environment in which I wish to live it. For example, if I believe myself to be at increased risk of Alzheimer’s, I may wish to choose to live in an extended care retirement community of my own choosing rather to inflict the burden of such a choice on my children with the potential guilt this may afflict on them.

With those concerns in mind, I have been tested for one gene marker that is thought to be associated with Alzheimer’s. I fully understand that this is only one indicator and that by itself it does not control my fate. I was relieved to find that on the basis of this one indicator, my likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s is only about 3% while that of the general population is about 7%. At the same time my wife tested along with me and discovered that she is at an increased risk of about 14% even she has no family history of Alzheimer’s. Her result does not seal her fate. She still has, based on this one indicator, only a one in seven chance of developing this disease. However, based on this knowledge, we can make decisions about our lives that have little to do with the ability or inability of the medical profession to “fix” Alzheimer’s.

Individual citizens need to have complete access to any medical test conducted on them and to be able to control information coming from within their bodies. For those of you who may have an interest in some of the ethical issues involved, I would recommend the thought provoking book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot about which I will have more to say in a future blog post. 

The Spittoon » Support Your Right to Access Your Clinical Lab Results

The issue of who controls the right to your DNA code and the rest of the information from within your body has the potential to be the most important civil rights issue of the 21st century. You have a chance to express your opinion on this important issue -- part of which is discussed in the linked blog post from 23andMe. Although 23andMe has a vested financial interest in this issue, I believe that your interests are best served by you controlling who has access to the information stored in your body. You certainly cannot control that information if you cannot get access to it. Read the post: The Spittoon » Support Your Right to Access Your Clinical Lab Results.

1940 US Census

Genealogist are getting increasingly impatient for the release of the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012. I am chairing a group that will be presenting a program, "Mining the Gold in the 1940 US Census", at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Anaheim at the end of June. That will be just two months after the release of the census images by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) but before the availability of name indexes for every state. Joel Weintraub will be the principal speaker on that program. Joel is perhaps best known to genealogists as the partner with Steve Morse in a wide array of 1-Step search engines. Weintraub has been working for over a year with a dedicated group of volunteers to provide an enumeration district approach to census information that will provide access to the information in this census before the name indexes are available and will supplement the search processes even after name indexes are provided. A panel from the NARA, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, HeritageQuest and Archives.com will supplement Dr. Weintraub's presentation. For more on the 1-Step approach to this census see my earlier post.


Today Dick Eastman posted a link to a historical 10 minute video about that census for those of you who want to gear up to take full advantage of the treasures of the 1940 Census.

DNA Tests on Sale for Holidays

This past weekend I attended FTDNA's 7th International Conference for Group Administrators in Houston. This was the first time I have been able to participate in this conference. It brought together 180 volunteer coordinators of various DNA projects. Most of these projects are surname projects. However, some of them are based on haplogroups or on geographic region of origin. It was a very exciting and stimulating two days.


Speakers included geneticists including Spencer Wells who gave an update on the Genographic Project, Michael Hammer who updated the status of efforts to study ancient (including Neanderthal) DNA and Thomas Krahn who gave a status report on his Walk Through the Y Project. Project coordinators, a legal expert and others at the forefront of the application of this dynamic science to the advancement of family history research also made reports. 


As many of you know, genetics is a young and volatile branch of the life sciences. Alice Fairhurst, coordinator of the Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree Project of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists, reported that the number of new subbranches of the Y-chromosome tree that have been recognized in 2011 are already four times the number identified in 2006 and may approach or surpass the number of such new discoveries of five years ago by a factor of five by the time the year is over. It is increasingly difficult for any one individual to begin to keep up with all the new discoveries coming out of labs around the world.


At the end of the conference Bennett Greenspan, founder of FTDNA, disclosed that FTDNA would be announcing a new sale on DNA tests later this week. That sale should extend until the holidays. Depending on how this sale structured This would be a great opportunity to extend one's tests to reach a greater precision or to involve additional family members in DNA testing. What would be a better gift for the family member who has everything? Your whole family could benefit from the results. Stay tuned for more details on this sale and for other information coming out of this conference.

Cosmic Log - Genes tell a tale as big as Africa

Cosmic Log - Genes tell a tale as big as Africa

ABC-CLIO Blog: Genetic Genealogy

ABC-CLIO Blog: Genetic Genealogy: You've likely heard of DNA tests for paternity lawsuits, crime scene investigation, and even medical conditions; but did you know genetic te...

Lackland Dynasty of US Presidents?

There is a fascinating YouTube post making the rounds. According to it a 12 year old girl has discovered that all US presidents other than Martin Van Buren, our 8th president, descend from one English king. That king was John Lackland, the King John of Robin Hood infamy.

It would take considerable time to verify all the lines that are claimed in "12 yr Girl Discovers ALL U.S. Presidents Except One Related to One British King". According to the video, BridgeAnne d' Avignon made this discovery as the outgrowth of a school project in 2009. More background on this Watsonville, CA girl's research with her grandfather can be found at the site of the local TV station originally which covered this story back in 2009. I wonder why it has not received more attention?

On the surface her claim seems plausible. Maybe I will investigate this in detail after I get settled in Nashville early in 2012. I am particularly drawn to this because John Lackland is my 22nd great-grandfather. Does anyone else know more about this claim? Maybe we need to try to tie in poor orphaned Martin Van Buren.

Ancestry adds Vital Records Collections

Ancestry announces the addition of many new vital records collections:

Ancestry.com today announced it has added 53 new historical vital record collections to its nearly half billion U.S. vital records, the largest searchable online collection of its kind. The foundation of family history research, civil vital records – recordings of births, marriages and deaths – were typically created at or near the time of the event andserve as an essential resource for the millions of Americans who are beginning or continuing their family history research. The new additions encompass 23 states, include more than 50 million historical records dating from the 1600s (some of the oldest U.S. records available) through to 2010 and have been made available through partnerships with state and local archives, county offices and newspapers. Many notable Americans can be found in the collections, including John Wayne, Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and many more.

Interesting facts presented by these records include John Wayne’s birth name as Marion Robert Morrison, changed to the legendary stage name when he began working in Hollywood. “Gone with the Wind” star Clark Gable hailed from the small village of Cadiz, Ohio according to the Ohio Births and Christening Index (1800-1962). The Minnesota Birth and Christening Records (1840-1980) show that “The Wizard of Oz” star Judy Garland’s given birth name was Frances Gumm. 

More information is available in this morning's press release.

Some of the new vital record collections now available on Ancestry.com date well back into the 17^th Century including:

•     Connecticut, Deaths and Burials, 1650-1934:Town clerks began recording births, marriages and deaths by 1650. These records are derived from microfilmed records of deaths and burials. This collection includes legendary names such as P.T. Barnum of circus fame and dictionary pioneer Noah Webster.
•     Maryland, Births and Christenings, 1662–1911: This collection is extracted from more than 200,000 Maryland birth, baptism, and christening records sourced from church, civil and family records. This collection includes the birth of John Hanson, President of early America’s Continental Congress.
•     New Hampshire, Death and Burial Records, 1654–1949:New Hampshire’s earliest records were in the mid-1600s, though laws requiring a statewide compilation of records were not passed until 1866.
•     New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637–1947:Records in this collection are derived from certificates of intention of marriage and certificates of marriage for more recent years.
•     New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660–1931:This collection is comprised of more than 2.3 million birth, baptism, and christening records. Information found here may include name, gender, race and birthplace.

Happy researching!

Free DNA Genealogy Presentation Nov. 10 at the Fountaindale Library – Thrifty Thursday | Genealogy Journey: FPLD's Genealogy & Research Blog

Free DNA Genealogy Presentation Nov. 10 at the Fountaindale Library – Thrifty Thursday | Genealogy Journey: FPLD's Genealogy & Research Blog:

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William John Christie, II (1918-2011)

Denise's father, William John Christie, II, died peacefully this morning at about 5:15 Pacific time. He was 93 and had enjoyed life--at least until the last several days. Due primarily to the efforts of his younger daughter, Michele, and his son, William John Christie, III, he had maintained a good quality of life at home until his recent hospitalization.

Bill was a loving father to his three children and husband to Audrey (Paepke) who predeceased him in 1995. After 50 years of marriage they both looked good (above). He left eight grandchildren. Until the last few days he enjoyed watching any of his nine great-grandchildren play even though he couldn't remember whose kids they were. They range in age from almost 17 years to one born the last week during his hospitalization. He was a veteran of WWII and worked over 30 years for the Department of Defense Audit Agency in Germany and the US. His unit landed on the coast of France two days after D-Day. The next couple of days must have been horrific because he permanently erased them from his memory. Of the period he said, "All I know is that I must have done my job. I was 1st Sergeant of my unit when we landed and I was still 1st Sergeant two days latter. If I hadn't done my job, I wouldn't have still been 1st Sergeant." A celebration of his life will be scheduled in the coming weeks. When I first started researching my father-in-law's ancestry a couple of decades ago, his auditor's interest on correct detail came to the fore. He told me that if I found any CHRISTYs who spelled their name with a "y" I should ignore them because his family had always spelled the name CHRISTIE. A few weeks later I showed him a 1920 census record in which he debuted as 22 month old "William Cristy 1 10/12."  Bill looked at the record for a long minute. Then he looked at the record again and then looked at me and said, "I guess I should leave you alone because you obviously know more about what you are doing than I do." He kept to his word. He was always interested in my finds, but never again tried to direct my research efforts.

Genetics, Genealogy and Ethics

Tonight's episode of NCIS "Enemy on the Hill" raises some of the ethical questions that are beginning to become more common as adoptees increasingly use DNA testing to find their biological families. The interpretation that a complete mitochondrial match means that the criminalist in the NCIS lab, Abby Sciuto, had discovered a sibling may not be exactly correct. However, some to the emotional issues that were raised are very real.


In the show Abby discovered the match accidentally when she volunteered to donate a kidney. At the end of this week's episode, Abby has reached the conclusion that she is adopted and is struggling with the question as to why her parents had not told her she was not their biological child. She has yet to tell her newly discovered DNA match that she thinks she is his sibling even though she did visit the pet shop where he worked and had a conversation with him. I don't know if this theme will be continued in a future episode.


It is issues like this one that will be part of a chapter on ethical issues raised in DNA testing. This will be a book on genetic genealogy that I will be co-authoring with CeCe Moore who blogs as Your Genetic Genealogist. Our book should be out in 2012.


You can view the episode online and see Abby's quandary.

Genealogy Author David R. Dowell to Visit Chicago

This a very nice ego boost to stumble across on the WWW today. Of course I knew this was scheduled to happen but presentation is often as important as content! :-)


Genealogy Author David R. Dowell to Visit Chicago - Chicago Genealogy | Examiner.com:


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DNA Projects: It's NOT Just About Individual Results

I'm finally comprehending something that my writing partner, CeCe Moore, has understood for a long time. CeCe blogs as Your Genetic Genealogist. She has tested several family members. By comparing who (and how much) each known family member matches those whose relationship are unknown she can learn much more than she can when she just compares her own results with the match for whom she is trying to discover the actual relationship.

YOUR GENETIC GENEALOGIST

DISCOVER AND UNDERSTAND THE FASCINATING WORLD OF GENETIC GENEALOGY. WRITTEN FOR EVERYDAY PEOPLE BY AN EXPERIENCED PERSONAL GENOMICS CONSUMER (NOT A SCIENTIST).

I have long understood this with Y-chromosome studies. I have been able to recreate the 111 markers that my 6th great-grandfather, Philip Dowell would have if we could find exactly where he is buried in that church yard is Southern Maryland, dig him up and test his DNA. Philip died in 1733. More details on the current status of the Dowell/Dewell Surname DNA Project is scheduled to be published in one of the next two issues of

American Ancestors

New England Historic Genealogical Society -Founded 1845

My learning opportunity has come as I examine the autosomal DNA test results for my wife Denise and her sister Michele. As most of your know Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA often is passed down unchanged for many, many generations. Not so with autosomal DNA. It changes significantly with each inter-generational transfer. Most individuals share about 50% of their autosomal  DNA with their siblings. Denise and Michele share about 45%. Therefore the matches that they get on their autosomal tests at 23andMe are different. 

www.23andMe.com

As of this morning, Denise had 707 matches and Michele had 797. They each have many matches not shared by the other. If you are familiar with 23andMe, you will understand that we will never learn the identity of a majority of these matches. Many of those tested there did it for the medical information and have no interest in genealogy or have privacy concerns that keep them from communicating with others with whom they have a match. 

So far we have only been able to find that Michele matches two of the ten individuals with whom Denise has the longest matching segments. 

From Denise’s list:	Denise	Michele
Potential Cousin #1	3 segments,  0.77% shared	1 segment,  0.22% shared
Potential Cousin #4	1 segment,  0.34% shared	1 segment,  0.19% shared

As we continue to contact those with whom the sisters share identifiable segments of autosomal DNA, we will probably fill in other shared connections. However, this preliminary comparison has been an eye opener for me. I knew autosomal DNA was fickle, but I am only beginning to understand how randomly it is distributed from one generation to the next. It takes the results from multiple family members who are known to be related to begin to piece together a coherent picture.