WDYTYA? Followup

If you are interested in more information on the story of Cynthia Nixon which aired on this season's first episode of the US version of Who Do You Think You Are? on TLC on Wednesday evening, I have a couple of suggestions for going deeper. If you missed the show when it was first aired, you can watch a recap online at the TLC site. Two respected bloggers offer you a chance to explore the most explosive event in Cynthia's family history in more detail. 

Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, covered legal aspects of the case and turns it into a legal thriller where you get to come up with your own verdict.

Roberta Estes, DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy discussed missed opportunities for researching deeper -- particularly with DNA.

Dr. D has long wondered why Ancestry continues to miss opportunities to market its DNA testing product. The company offers one of the three most used DNA testing programs in the US. However, no DNA test reports made it into any of the episodes of the program last season -- a trend that has continued through episode 1 this season. We are only offered about 42 minutes of content in each episode. A little of that is used to remind us what happened before commercial breaks in case our short term memory is a little challenged. 

One of the biggest challenges of the show is to film around the availability of the guest celebrities. Since it takes several weeks to get DNA tests back from the lab and to identify other potential relatives whose DNA reports might match, it is challenging from a time perspective to include such testing. Still, since Ancestry.com is the lead corporate sponsor, one would think DNA testing could be fitted in somewhere -- at least in some episodes. Is it possible that the DNA testing package being offered by Ancestry is not as conducive to genetic analysis as the tools offered by some of its competitors?

DAR Partners with FTDNA to Offer Discounted 37 Marker Y-chromosome Tests

Wow! 2014 has already been a great year for genetic genealogists. First FTDNA introduced new X-chromosome analysis tools. This has already been blogged adequately by Roberta Estes and CeCe Moore so I will not attempt to duplicate their good work here.

Now the DAR is getting into DNA in a big way and is announcing a partnership with FTDNA for reduced prices on 37 marker Y-DNA tests:

You may click on the image above to see the details for this offer on the FTDNA site. Many more details were also released from the DAR site. The DAR is even sponsoring a new online course about using DNA evidence in support of DAR applications. Hallelujah! 

I have long been a critic of the DAR for not accepting DNA evidence to DISPROVE long accepted lines when that evidence establishes the members could not have been related to the Revolutionary patriot within genealogical time. Now I may have to initiate a new conversation with their staff.