Month: October 2009

I’ve been playing with 23andMe’s Relative Finder this week, since it’s now in open beta.  It’s been interesting hearing from 6th to 10th cousins from around the world, and we’re working to find ancestors in common.  I’m looking forward to identifying – for the first time – a piece of autosomal DNA that came from a specific ancestor.

While in the beta period, the number of relatives is limited to 1000 (I currently have 173 with only 5 in the 3rd to 7th cousin range), and you can only contact other people who have opted in for the beta test. So if you have a 23andMe account, please opt in to the beta test via the following instructions (kind provided by Ann Turner):

1. Open the page https://www.23andme.com/user/profile/  and check the checkbox near “Name:” and click on the blue “Save Changes” button. ... Click to read more!

Megan Smolenyak has been very busy the past couple of weeks sharing her research of Michelle Obama’s genealogy. Genealogy Insider posted this video of Megan on the CBS Early Show on October 8th.  The YouTube video is described as: “The New York Times traced Michelle Obama’s five generation path from slavery to the White House. Harry Smith spoke to Megan Smoleyak the genealogist who uncovered the first lady’s family tree.”

In the May 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine, the editors will name the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs.  Last month many of my readers nominated this blog for the list, which I appreciate greatly!

As of today you can vote to narrow down the top 130 nominated blogs to about 80 blogs, which the editors will then reduce to 40.  The blogs have been placed into 10 different categories.  There is more information about the categories and blogs here.

If you have a moment, please feel free to vote for The Genetic Genealogist in the genetic genealogy category!  Voting takes place from October 5th through November 5th, and you can vote as often as you like.  Thank you!

23andMe has been beta testing a new tool for comparing autosomal DNA results called “Relative Finder.” Although I was not one of the beta testers, it seems that this new tool will be of great use to genealogists. Roberta Estes has posted a nice summary of the Relative Finder tool at the “Searching for the Lost Colony DNA Blog.”

90% of Customers Likely to Find a Match!

Relative Finder compares your autosomal SNP results to the results of others in the 23andMe database to determine matches. While developing the tool, 23andMe discovered that in their dataset of “more than 5000 individuals with European ancestry,” 90% of individuals had at least one distant relative between 2nd and 8th degree cousins!

Other Uses ... Click to read more!