DNA Kits Aim to Link You to the Here and Then (Genetic Genealogy)

NYT ^ | 2/5/06 | Jennifer Alsever

[martin_fierro]

DNA Kits Aim to Link You to the Here and Then

By JENNIFER ALSEVER Published: February 5, 2006

THE past comes at a price for Georgia Kinney Bopp. Retired and living in Kailua, Hawaii, Ms. Bopp has spent about $800 on tests to trace her ancestry, using samples of DNA from inside her cheek and from possible relatives.

She and her husband, Thomas, even plan vacations around genealogy research, seeking DNA samples from distant cousins.

"If we travel, we keep a DNA kit with us, just in case we meet someone who might help identify an ancient ancestor," Ms. Bopp said. "You just never know."

Several years ago, the Internet helped to encourage a greater American fascination with genealogy. Now DNA testing has added a new twist that has people like Ms. Bopp paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars to look at genetic information in order to uncover details about their heritage.

More than a dozen companies, like Family Tree DNA in Houston, Relative Genetics in Salt Lake City and African Ancestry in Washington, now sell home DNA tests; the prices range from $100 to $900 each.

"We test 20,000 people a year," said Bennett Greenspan, chief executive of Family Tree DNA, which generated $5 million in sales last year. "We grew up as Americans, and we don't know exactly where we came from."

DNA tests helped Ms. Bopp when she could find no public records about her maiden name, Kinney, that went back further than 1820 for her father's paternal ancestors. She paid a total of $440 for tests for her father and for a stranger who had the same last name.

< -- SNIP -- >

[martin_fierro]

Bugmenot username: notme9 pw: noone

[martin_fierro]

	Genetic Genealogy
Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?) (M175)
GG LINKS: African Ancestry DNAPrint Genomics FamilyTree DNA Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project Oxford Ancestors RelativeGenetics Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Trace Genetics ysearch
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Thanks for the heads-up SAHM!

[CobaltBlue]

Can you recommend a good freeware program to make a GEDCOM file?

[Pharmboy]

Here's the graphic:

[martin_fierro]

GenoPro is nice for laying out a graphical family tree (though it gets tangled up when importing large family trees -- better to import a little bit at a time). It also exports well to GEDCOM.

It's free to use, but has an annoying "nag screen".

[martin_fierro]

Thanks!

I've done the Y-DNA analysis, and sis just did the mitochondrial. Results in a few weeks.

[CobaltBlue]

Thanks! Sorenson wants a GEDCOM file, and my Family Tree file is full of all kinds of personal information I would rather not send to strangers.
http://smgf.org/

[martin_fierro]

The (for-$$) Family Tree Maker program supposedly has a way to "privatize" the info in your tree for export to GEDCOM, but I'm not yet sure how to use it.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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