Share Your DNA Results at MyHeritage
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
4d ago
MyHeritage now allows their DNA customers to share their DNA results with a collaborator.  This is great news for everyone who does genealogy with a friend and especially for those of us who help others break down brick walls using DNA results! Sharing allows your collaborator to see your ethnicity estimate, genetic groups, and DNA match list; to message your DNA matches; and to edit your family tree.  To protect your privacy, your collaborator will not be able to download or delete your raw DNA data, invite anyone else to view your results, or change your settings. Your collaborator ..read more
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Gordon Revisited
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
2M ago
Several years ago, I helped an adoptee I called “Gordon” identify his biological father.  (Gordon is a pseudonym, as are all other names in this post.)  Gordon already knew that his birth mother was Helene Mills, the daughter of Oscar Mills and Florence Mattieson and the sister of Chris, Tony, and Michael. Gordon’s case was particularly tricky, because he had long sections of DNA where he’d inherited the exact same genetic information from both parents.  These so-called “runs of homozygosity” (ROH for short) indicated that the only candidates for his father were his own grandfat ..read more
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Thank You!
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
2M ago
This blog started in 2016 on a whim.  Genetic genealogists seemed eager to learn about the science and math behind our DNA tests, and I love to teach.  That perfect alignment of interests has motivated me ever since.  Over the years, the blog has expanded to cover not just science and math but also case studies, changes in the DNA industry, ethics, and new methods for genetic genealogy.  I always strive to make complex concepts easy to understand. I have also broadened my teaching outreach to local, national, and international conferences and genealogy societies; institutes ..read more
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Introducing BanyanDNA!
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
3M ago
This is a copy of the first BanyanDNA newsletter, delivered 9 December, 2023.  You can sign up for the newsletter here. Welcome to the inaugural newsletter for BanyanDNA, the next generation of DNA analysis! BanyanDNA is unlike any other tool for genetic genealogy. Not only can it help you identify an unknown parent, grandparent, or great grandparent, it can alert you to places in your tree where shared DNA does not support the documented relationships. Best of all, it is completely customized to your family, whether you have pedigree collapse, double cousins, or (in a future release) en ..read more
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DNA Doesn’t Lie, but It Sometimes Speaks in Riddles
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
5M ago
“Danielle” was a participant in my recent lecture to the Eastside and South King County (Washington State) genealogical societies, and she has an interesting family situation.1  Danielle shares only 944 cM with her granddaughter Lisa, well below what we expect for that relationship.  Of the more than 1,100 data points in Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM Project, the lowest reported value for grandparents is 984 cM.  In fact, at first glance, the match between Danielle and Lisa appears to be a first cousin, half-niece, great-niece, or great-granddaughter, rather than a grandpare ..read more
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Seventy Four Point Five
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
5M ago
Okay, I’m not happy about it, but it’s happened:  23andMe has removed the chromosome browser from their features after the recent “credential stuffing” attack.  The chromosome browser is the tool that lets us see which segments we share with our DNA relatives.  MyHeritage has done the same, although they haven’t publicly stated why. Briefly, a cybercriminal was able to access some accounts whose owners “recycled” their login credentials, meaning those owners used the same email address and password combination at other sites on the web, where they were compromised.   E ..read more
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The 23andMe Hack
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
5M ago
By now, you’ve probably heard that 23andMe was “hacked” by criminals who stole the data of up to 7 million users.  Technically, it wasn’t a hack; 23andMe’s security systems weren’t breached.  Rather, the criminals acquired emails and passwords from lapses at other websites then logged in to 23andMe accounts that used the same login credentials.  This kind of attack is called credential stuffing. What data exactly did the crooks get?  That’s a great question.  23andMe has been tight-lipped about those details, but we can guess.  For the customers whose login creden ..read more
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Jan and the Complex Pedigree Analysis
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
6M ago
Annemarie’s grandparents were Anna and Jan, Afrikaners in South Africa.  They married when Anna was 18 (her first marriage) and Jan was 36 (his second).  Jan was the younger brother of Anna’s stepfather Andries, who married Anna’s mother, Maria and fathered Anna’s half sister Igna.  With me so far? The paper-trail for Anna and Jan How much DNA can we expect the children of Anna and Jan to share with a grandchild of Andries and Maria?  They would be half first cousins (h1C), because Igna and Anna were half sisters and also first cousins once removed (1C1R) through the brot ..read more
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Yaniv Was Right
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
7M ago
At a family history event in mid-August, a company employee let slip that AncestryDNA was considering allowing DNA files created by other companies to be uploaded into their database.  This report was confirmed to me directly by three independent sources. If this were to happen, it would rock the genetic genealogy world, in more ways than one.  Let’s think this through. The Good Genetic genealogy is a numbers game, and AncestryDNA has—by far—the largest genealogical DNA database out there. It’s about as large as the other direct-to-consumer databases combined.  Almost everyone w ..read more
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AncestryDNA Plus: A New DNA Subscription Tier
The DNA Geek | Mixing science and genealogy
by thednageek
7M ago
AncestryDNA is rolling out a new pricing scheme, called AncestryDNA Plus, that charges a small subscription fee to access to some advanced DNA tools, like SideView and Traits.  SideView automatically sorts your matches into parental sides (i.e., Parent 1 and Parent 2) that can be manually assigned to maternal and paternal.  Traits are genetic predictions about things like personality, appearance, and fitness. If you already subscribe to the genealogy records at Ancestry.com, nothing will change for you or any DNA kits that you can view.  If you don’t subscribe, you will soon lo ..read more
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