Ancestry Sold and Family Tree Emerges

I’m in Salt Lake City for a week of research; but my attention has been hijacked by events in the larger genealogical world:

1. First my wife texted me and then Dick Eastman, elaborated, in a special edition of his newsletter (EOGN), yesterday morning that Ancestry.com had been sold for 1.6 Billion dollars. 
2. Yesterday afternoon the listserv of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG) erupted with a discussion of the efforts of FamilySearch to offer a new generation of online family trees.  
3. This morning, while I was sitting in the Family History Library organizing my research priorities for the day, the PA system announced a class Family Tree (FT) 

With all the concerns from the ISOGG list posts still fresh in my mind, I decided to attend the session.

To say that I walked into the room a skeptic would be an understatement. I have long resisted the entreaties of Ancestry and others to me to share my family trees online. I wasn’t against sharing; but I was not interested in giving up all control of my intellectual property so that a for-profit company could benefit. I also was not eager for others to “improve” on my efforts without giving me giving me credit and/or adding totally undocumented persons, facts or events. I shared freely from behind password protection where those who viewed my work could be screened and advised of copyright courtesies. That generally worked to my satisfaction.

Within the last month I allowed my concerns to erode and began to post several generations of my direct line ancestors within the DNA matching portion of Ancestry. I did this to facilitate matches with distant cousins who appeared to share segments of my DNA. Ancestry makes it so seductively easy to graft branches onto one’s tree trunk. However, my concerns about quality control of the information only intensified.

Is it a good thing for genealogists that Ancestry is being taken private? Of course, only time will tell. As one who has a small investment in company stock, I stand to make a decent return on my investment. Yet I wonder if my potential future earnings have been short changed. According to Business Wire several legal firms are sniffing around for potential class action suits by shareholders. In that article it is stated that these firms are investigating:

whether the Board of Directors of Ancestry.com breached their fiduciary duties to stockholders by failing to adequately shop the Company before agreeing to enter into the proposed transaction, and whether the Company has disclosed all material information to shareholders about the transaction. The Company has seen substantial recent growth. Its share price has skyrocketed from $20.95 on March 22, 2012 to $33.23 on August 3, 2012. Further, at least one analyst has set a target price for the Company’s stock at $45.00.

This is probably par for the course for any purchase of this magnitude. It is also of little interest to most subscribers of Ancestry. Their legitimate concerns are what will happen to the product.

Speaking of product and my introduction to Family Tree (FT), I was very favorably impressed after my two and a half hour guided test drive. Although all the program functionality is not yet available, my exposure to it this morning left me eager to use it. Those of us who are not LDS members may have a few months to wait. Some of us have endured broken promises about when the rest of us would get access to the New FamilySearch. However, what I was introduced to in the computer lab this morning left me very eager to learn more. I will attend an advanced session on Thursday. In the meantime I will investigate whether I can log in and explore the program outside the controlled environment of the lab. We were told the program was moving from “beta” to “pilot”. I guess that is progress.

The concept of one correct record per person is very exciting. So is the emphasis on documenting and managing sources. However, the Wikipedia like ability to monitor any changes by made by others either to individuals and sources was key to winning me over. FamilySearch readily acknowledges it lost credibility with the sloppy data incorporated into the New FamilySearch (nFS). They seem committed to give users of FT the tools necessary to edit and clean up this messy data.

Now I’d like all this to settle down so that I can get back to researching my ancestors!

Is This My Line?

Could the eldest daughter of Jeremiah and Deborah (LANHAM) REEVES [“Unknown d Reeves 1813-” just above] be my granddad Cash Adams' paternal grandmother Patsey? I don’t have any proof, but her age and location in Madison County, Kentucky, certainly make her a candidate. Jeremiah is the dark shaded person next to the far right in the third row above.  The unnamed daughter is the second from the left in the bottom row.

I just got an autosomal DNA match from a man who is associated with this family. That match is reported to be “Possible range: 4th - 6th cousins” with a “Confidence: 96%”. My match is a descendant of Harvey REEVES the middle child in the bottom row above. There is no assurance that the REEVES line is where we share a common ancestor. However, my DNA match and I would be 4^th cousins if Harvey and Patsey were siblings. That is within the range projected by the lab (DNAAncestry).

I wish Ancestry provided us with a little more access to the details of our own information. It would help me evaluate the strength of the above match. Perhaps that is all coming as the autosomal service moves out of beta. 23andMe, in its "Relative Finder" tab, gives us a percentage of match and its "Family Inheritance" tab allows us to see the location(s) of any significant matching segments. FTDNA's "Family Finder" tells us the total amount of match, the number of significant segments, and allows us to overlay our results with those of matches to see if multiple matches may be sharing the same segments. Both of the other services allow us to download our own raw data for further comparisons. Ancestry earlier this month on the company blog announced that this latter feature would be coming in 2013. It was reassuring for a testing lab to acknowledge: 

AncestryDNA believes that our customers have the right to their own genetic data. It is your DNA, after all.

Patsey's husband,Isaac N. ADAMS, my third great-grandfather (about 1813 to after 1870), appeared in official records in the 1840 US Census for the Eastern District of Madison County, Kentucky. Patsey was named only in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Isaac's last appearance was in the 1870 Census for Peno Township, Pike County, Missouri. At that time he was a widower living in the household of his youngest son John Speed ADAMS. Coincidentally 1870 was the year of birth of my grandfather, Cash ADAMS. 

Does this prove that my Missouri ADAMS line descends from the above REEVES family? Not quite. However it is the best working hypothesis that I have found. I’ll be exploring it further when I spend a research week in Salt Lake City later this month. 

“Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

Earlier this month I was privileged to attend a very interesting and informative presentation that was the first of the 2012/13 Chancellors' Lecture Series at Vanderbilt University. It was presented by Dr. Dan Roden and was entitled 

“Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

Since most of you do not live two miles from Vanderbilt University, you will have to settle for a YouTube like version of his presentation which is linked above.

In addition to my intense interest in the subject matter, Denise and I had a couple of personal ties that compelled us to attend. Both of us have been beta testers for the PREDICT database that is being built by Vanderbilt to use genetic testing to forecast the response a given patient will have to a given drug. So far we have only been given the results (part reproduced below) of how our genes predict how we will react to two widely prescribed drugs--Plavix and Simvastatin:  

Clopidogrel (sounds like "kloh-PID-oh-grel") is a blood thinner used to prevent clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Your genes can affect how well the drug works. This genetic test identifies how well you may respond to clopidogrel. Clopidogrel is a blood thinner (brand name Plavix). When the cells in your blood stick together, you can form a harmful clot or have a stroke. Clopidogrel is used to help prevent blood clots from developing, for example, for people who have had a recent heart attack or stroke. However, clopidogrel does not prevent harmful clots or strokes the same for all people.    

Simvastatin (sounds like "sim-va-stat-in") is a medication that lowers fatty substances in the blood (brand name Zocor).

Examples of fatty substances are cholesterol and triglycerides. Simvastatin lowers the levels of LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol"). At the same time, simvastatin raises HDL cholesterol ("good cholesterol"). Although rare, people sometimes have a bad reaction to the drug. Your genes can affect your risk for bad reactions to the drug. This genetic test identifies your risk for a bad reaction to simvastatin.

My results from the PREDICT test indicate that I will process both of these drugs normally. My wife, Denise is red-flagged on both of them:

In some patients, simvastatin may cause muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness. Your doctor, often with the results of a lab test, can determine if your simvastatin medication is the cause of these symptoms.

The results of your test show that you have one version of the gene that may put you at increased risk for this negative outcome.

These results were not unexpected as we have similar results from 23andMe. However, it was somewhat reassuring to have the results replicated.  In addition Denise self discovered several years ago that statins give her severe leg cramps.


Our second personal draw to attend this lecture is that Dr. Roden is our daughter-in-law's genetic cardiologist. As she tells it, she knows him well; but he knows her better.


Vanderbilt now has linked 150,000 patient medical records with genetic information. The goal is be able to prescribe drugs that do what they are expected to do and don't make the patients sick. Although testing is being done on 184 variant genes that may predict reactions to 58 different drugs, so far associations are viewed as being reliable enough to embed them in patient records (available to patients and their doctors) for only the two types of drugs reported above. At present Vanderbilt is only one of two hospitals who make this link between patient genetic history and patient medical records. This number hospitals and genetic to medical information links should expand considerably over the next few years.

I hope you will want to watch this presentation excellent.

 “Genomes, Hype, and a Realistic Pathway to Personalized Medicine”

 

FTDNA 72 Hour Sale

FTDNA has announced a 72 hour sale for mitochondrial and autosomal DNA tests. Does this reflect the increased competition now that Ancestry has joined FTDNA and 23andMe in the autosomal testing marketplace? Maybe and maybe not. Periodic sales have been around in this marketplace before Ancestry recently joined this segment of the DNA testing arena.

Bennett Greenspan sent the following announcement to project administrators:

This is a courtesy e-mail to you about a sale we are announcing to all of our customers, therefore you do not need to re-post it in your administrator's bulk e-mail system. It seems every time we run a flash sale a few people e-mail us days later they were traveling, sick or just had not looked at their e-mails in time, so for all of you who want to entice a friend, neighbor or reluctant relative to get involved in Genetic Genealogy here's one more opportunity, but it will last for only 72 hours. We are gearing this sale for newcomers and upgrades by promoting the Family Finder and the Full Mitochondria Sequence (FMS). This sale starts Friday, September 28, at 12:00am and ends Sunday, September 30, at 11:59PM. New Kits Current Price SALE PRICE Family Finder $289 $199 mtFullSequence $299 $199 Family Finder + mtFullSequence $559 $398 Upgrades Current Price SALE PRICE Family Finder $289 $199 HVR1 to mtFullSequence $269 $199 HVR2 to mtFullSequence $239 $199 mtFullSequence $289 $199

As with all promotions, orders need to be placed by the end of the sale and payment must be made by end of this sale. Learn More

Both men and women can take any of these tests. The mtFullSequence and the upgrades will provide information that has been passed down by mothers through their umbilical cords to all their children. Men cannot pass it down to their offspring. Mitochondrial DNA can trace maternal lines back through scores of generations.

Family Finder tests autosomal DNA for near relatives up any ancestral line. 

Where Did The Red Hair Come From?

A colleague referred me to a very interesting webpage about the origins of red hair. If you have red hair or have a friend or family member who does, you will find this page of interest.

Both my first wife and my daughter had auburn hair in their younger days. As they approached 40 their hair browned out. 

Because of their hair color, this article was of interest to me. It claims that red hair is a recessive trait and that it is only found in descendants of the R1b haplogroup. In both the cases of my ex-wife and my daughter this would hold true. My haplogroup is R1b as was the paternal line of my ex-wife. R1b is the most common male haplogroup in Western Europe--perhaps accounting for 40% of the men in that region and a much higher percentage in some parts of the British Isles. So far so good.

However, if red hair is a recessive trait, redheaded children must also inherit the gene from their mother as well. I wonder which female haplogroup(s) carry this trait. Both my ex-wife and I have inherited different versions of the female haplotype H. Again H is the most common female haplotype in Western Europe. Do other female haplotypes carry this recessive gene? If not it would take an R1b male and an H female to create a redheaded child. But perhaps others can carry this recessive gene. Someday soon we may have the answer to this question.

In the meantime could this offer some new clues to redheaded orphans?

23andMe "Flash" Sale

23andMe is reaching out for new customers using a new marketing approach. CeCe Moore who blogs as Your Genetic Genealogist offers more details. The 23andMe test is of autosomal DNA only. Therefore, it is good for exploring relationships with fairly close cousins and other close relatives. It also gives information on many health risks. However, it does not test more distant ancestors on the direct paternal (surname) or direct maternal (umbilical) lines like Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA do.

While 23andMe is becoming more useful for genealogical research, it's original purpose was for health related testing. Now that three companies are testing autosomal DNA, matching across company databases is challenging. You may only see matches for relatives who have tested with the same company.

To take advantage of this sale, you should use the link on CeCe's site. If you go directly to the 23andMe site you probably will not find the sale listed---at least I didn't. Apparently, 23andMe is using this marketing outlet to try to attract a wider audience than the genetic genealogists who are already aware of their services.

Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets of My DNA

I just finished Richard Hill's new book "FINDING FAMILY: My Search for Roots and the Secrets of My DNA." 

Blaine Bettinger who blogs as "The Genetic Genealogist" Published an excellent review that I just read after I had read the book myself.  I agree with everything Blaine said -- including the small criticism about the difficulty at a few points of following all the bit players without a scorecard. In this regard I hope Richard will consider inserting brief diagrams (dare I say pedigree charts) of some of the families he encountered along his quest to find his biological parents.

Even though I heard Richard recount this story as recently as last November, the twist at the end of the book was a surprise that kept me reading far too late into the night until I had finished the heartwarming saga. The story is engaging and those involved with DNA testing and/or traditional genealogy can learn much from the process and missteps Richard encounter along the way. Birth parents and adoptees searching for each other can learn many techniques and receive inspiration. Read and learn.

zlyoga's Experience with 23andMe: The Videos

My wife discovered a very interesting video on YouTube on genetic testing through 23andMe. Actually, it is a series of two videos. Don't let the youthful demeanor of zlyoga fool you. She knows what she is talking about. The first was done when she submitted her spit sample for testing. The second was done about a year later: 

"Mailing my spit to California- 23andme" (2009)

   

"23andme Genetic Testing: a one year followup" (2010)   

These videos are a good overview of the genetic testing being done at 23andMe. You probably should watch her earlier (2009) video first. This second video (2010) is a little dated in terms of 23andMe's policies but the explanation of the DNA testing and interpreting process is very comprehensive and is still very good.

Of the major US companies that provide direct to consumer (DTC) testing of DNA for genealogical purposes, 23andMe is the only one which also markets testing of genes that have health implications. Many of you will remember that the original impetus for starting 23andMe was largely to help find a cure for Parkinson's. Although most of our genome probably contains health related information, so far we do not know the purpose of much of it. Fortunately our knowledge increases on an almost daily basis. 

The other major DTC genetic genealogy testing services---Family Tree DNA and Ancestry---chose to avoid health implications and concentrate of family tree building. They have done this in an attempt to avoid the scrutiny of the FDA and the wrath of the medical community. The FDA has made tentative attempts to claim that DTC genetic testing is a medical device over which they can claim jurisdiction. Large portions of the medical community still believe that DTC genetic testing is something to which they should control access in order to protect the public. Both attitudes, if accepted, would slow the progress toward personalized, genome based, medical treatment that is on the horizon and has the potential to revolutionize medical practice. If can help us predict which drugs and other treatments are likely to be successful with specific patients and thus eliminate many that would be ineffective and even counterproductive. Both patient care outcomes and medical costs can be positively effected if we treat our bodies in ways that our individual genes are ready to accept.

72 Hour DNA Sale @ FTDNA

Family Tree DNA has just announced a three day sale aimed at individuals who have not yet tested. If you are interested in exploring cousins in any line of your pedigree chart, this would be a great opportunity to start. These test bundles both include the Family Finder autosomal test which is good at finding close cousins on any of your lines. It will return matches with some of your more distant cousins who have tested but not all of them. Your match rate becomes significantly and increasingly smaller with each generation beyond third cousin. 

Both men and women can take advantage of this sale. However, women can only take the Family Finder + mtDNA option as women do not have Y-chromosome DNA. The Y-DNA 12 and the mtDNA tests bundled with Family Finder for this sale are entry level tests. They will give a vague indication of deep ancestry but matches at this level will not be useful for identifying specific relatives in the database. On the other hand, they can definitely eliminate many potential relatives who belong to different ancient tribes than the person being tested. While the Family Finder test is as definitive as any autosomal test on the market, the two tests with which it is bundled for this sale should be considered as entry level only. Those taking advantage of the sale price for genealogical purposes, will probably want to expand the Y-chromosome or the mitochondrial portions at a later date--possibly at the next sale aimed at existing customers. 

Dear Family Tree DNA Project Administrator,

This is a courtesy e-mail to you about a promotion that we have announced to all our customers, and therefore you don't need to re-post it in your administrators' bulk e-mail system. It seems that every time we run a super sale that a few people email us days later that they were traveling, sick or just hadn't looked at their emails in time, so for all of you who have wanted to entice a friend, neighbor or reluctant relative to get involved in Genetic Genealogy here's one more opportunity, but it will last for only 72 hours. These are the only two options on sale, and they are geared specifically for newcomers. This sale will end on Saturday, August 25, at 11:59PM.

New Customers Only Current Price SALE PRICE Family Finder + Y-DNA 12 $339 $249 Family Finder + mtDNA $339 $249

As with all promotions, orders need to be placed by the end of the sale and payment must be made by end of this sale. Learn More

Where Did My Genes Come From?

DNA can be mind numbingly precise; but there is so much more that we have yet to learn. One example of this is our attempts to determine our geographic and ethnic origins. The chart below gives the current such projections for Dr D:

If you can read the chart above, Ancestry projects that 71% of my DNA is compatible with origin in the British Isles and 25% appears to be of Eastern European origin--leaving 4% uncertain.  23andMe tells me that I am more than 99% European, less than 1% Asian and 0% African. Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) reports that 94.36% plus or minus 1.72% of my DNA is compatible with Western European origin; and 5.64% (again plus or minus 1.72%) is of Middle Eastern origin.

Hmm? I'm glad I got that all sorted out. What else did these lab reports tell me? 23andMe specified that the Asian component (less than 1%) is on Chromosome 1. FTDNA equates my Western European overwhelming majority as being compatible with Orcadian (Orkney Islands?) DNA. The remaining Middle East component is classified as "Palestinian, Adygei, Bedouin, Bedouin South, Druze, Iranian, Jewish, Mozabite." 

This all must have been confused by my 2.5% Neanderthal DNA which 23andMe found. As a point of reference, this put me at the 39th percentile of Northern Europeans who are said to average 2.6%. My wife and her sister scored at the 95 percentile with 3% Neanderthal DNA. I want a recount! It looks like I may get it with Gene 2.0 which claims to test Neanderthal as well as Denisovan DNA.

So what have I learned as a result of these analyses? I have learned to take these reports, at their current state of evolution, with a grain (or perhaps a shaker) of salt. They point in the right direction but the exact point of origin of my various deep ancestors are still a little murky. These predictions are based on autosomal DNA so it encompasses all my lines and not just the paternal > paternal... (Y-chromosome) and the maternal > maternal... (mitochondrial) lines. I hope more experience and more individuals testing will sharpen the focus of these emotionally fascinating tests.