This is an exciting development. Today one of my 23andMe profiles was invited to add tree information from FamilySearch. Relatively few people have added family information to their 23andMe profiles, possibly because many took the test for the health information. Hopefully this will encourage more uses to get interested in the family connection aspect of… Continue reading 23andMe Collaborates with FamilySearch
DNA testing company 23andMe has been in the the news recently. This week The Wall Street Journal published IRS Greenlights Tax Breaks for Buyers of 23andMe Geneticts Tests. The tax break article describes a new ruling by the IRS. Now some costs related to 23andMe health testing can use FSA or HSA medical spending account… Continue reading 23andMe Health Test New Tax Treatment
Ancestry recently announced they have created several more AncestryDNA communities. These 225 new communities are focused on the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and French North America. The announcement is here. Ancestry communities are formed by combining information in Ancestry family trees with DNA match information. This is different from ethnicity percentages, which compares a… Continue reading New AncestryDNA Communities
This is perhaps a first. This morning Gedmatch emailed its users to explain the new terms of service. Recently all kits were opted-out of law enforcement searching. Some people have opted-in, but not all members of the community were aware of this change. Now the full database has been contacted (or attempted to be contacted). … Continue reading Gedmatch Contacts Users about Terms of Service and Law Enforcement Use
Gedmatch has a new announcement on their web page. The new Gedmatch Genesis site will be replacing the Gedmatch site, so that all of Gedmatch will have access to the Genesis database and features. This change will happen June 1st. From Gedmatch: Moving to GEDmatch Genesis The transition from Legacy GEDmatch to Genesis is complete.… Continue reading Gedmatch Genesis merging back to Gedmatch
Next week is the annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank. If you can go, it's awesome. If not, a number of sessions will be live streamed, for free! You just need to register. The schedule of live streamed sessions is here: Friday, May 31, 2019 1:00 – 2:00 FR010 Funeral Homes and Family History: They're Dying… Continue reading Genealogy Jamboree 2019, Free Streaming!
Terms of Service Change This morning the news went out in the genealogy community that Gedmatch has changed its terms of service and privacy policy. "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, ALL DNA KITS HAVE BEEN SET TO BE OPTED-OUT OF MATCHING BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, WE WILL PROVIDE A MEANS FOR THE PERSON WHO… Continue reading Gedmatch, Major Change for Law Enforcement Matching
One of my favorite yearly genealogy events is the Genealogy Jamboree held in Burbank, California, near the end of May. This year is the 50th year for the conference, and the seventh year for the genetic genealogy day. Online streaming options are available for the main conference and the DNA day. The DNA day lectures,… Continue reading Genealogy Jamboree 2019, DNA Streaming
Last month Ancestry made available an update to the DNA match website. Info about that update is here: New AncestryDNA Match Page. I had a number of critiques about that update. Thankfully some of those issues have been addressed in an update this week. The overall match page is the same. The changes are on the… Continue reading Revamped AncestryDNA Match Pages
Today is DNA day, and DNA is in the news again. This article from the New York Times looks back on the year since the Golden State Killer arrest was announced. Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder This article is a good overview of developments in the field. And… Continue reading NYTimes Article “Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder”
