Posted on 06/15/2005 11:34:14 AM PDT by blam
The Genographic Project
Public participation, including yours, is critical to the Genographic Project's success.
Here's how you can get involved:
Purchasing a Public Participation Kit will fund important research around the world—and open the door to the ancient past of your own genetic background.
With a simple and painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA. You'll submit the sample through our secure, private, and completely anonymous system, then log on to the project Web site to track your personal results online.
This is not a genealogy test and you won't learn about your great grandparents. You will learn, however, of your deep ancestry, the ancient genetic journeys and physical travels of your distant relatives.
To insure total anonymity you will be identified at all times only by your kit number, not by your name. There is no record, no database that links test results with the names of their contributors. If you lose the kit number there will be no way to access your genetic results.
As your own genetic ancestry is revealed you'll also see worldwide samples map humankind's shared genetic background around the world and through the ages.
If you'd like to contribute your own results to the project's global database you'll be asked to answer a dozen "phenotyping" questions that will help place your DNA in cultural context.
This process is optional and completely anonymous, but it's also important. Each of us has a part in the ancient story of humankind's genetic journey. Together we can tell the whole story before it's too late.
Order a Kit The Participation Kit costs U.S. $99.95 (plus shipping and handling and tax if applicable). The kit includes:
1. DVD with a Genographic Project overview hosted by Dr. Spencer Wells, visual instructions on how to collect a DNA sample using a cheek scraper, and a bonus feature program: the National Geographic Channel/PBS production The Journey of Man. 2. Exclusive National Geographic map illustrating human migratory history and created especially for the launch of the Genographic Project. 3. Buccal swab kit, instructions, and a self-addressed envelope in which to return your cheek swab sample. (You can download a pdf of instructions or the consent form. You will need Acrobat Reader.) 4. Detailed brochure about the Genographic Project, featuring stunning National Geographic photography 5. Confidential Genographic Project ID # (GPID) to anonymously access your results at this Web site
The purchase price also includes the cost of the testing and analysis—an expensive process—that will take place once your sample is sent in.
Return Your Kit Once you have completed the cheek scraping process, you will secure the scrapers inside the transport tubes, sign the informed consent form and mail the tubes and form off to the lab.
That's it! In about 4 to 6 weeks—the time necessary for the laboratory to correctly analyze your DNA—your results will be ready. In the meantime, visit the Web site to see where your sample is in the analysis process.
Get Your Results Samples will be analyzed for genetic "markers" found in mitochondrial DNA and on the Y chromosome. We will be performing two tests for the public participants:
Males: Y-DNA test. This test allows you to identify your deep ancestral geographic origins on your direct paternal line.
Females: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This tests the mtDNA of females to identify the ancestral migratory origins of your direct maternal line.
To be clear—these tests are not conventional genealogy. Your results will not provide names for your personal family tree or tell you where your great grandparents lived. Rather, they will indicate the maternal or paternal genetic markers your deep ancestors passed on to you and the story that goes with those markers.
Once your results are posted, you will be able to learn something about that story and the journey of your ancestors. The genetic profile you receive is more than a static set of data. It is like an ongoing subscription to your genetic history. Your profile might become more detailed as the Genographic Project amasses more data from around the world, so be sure to return to the Genographic Project Web site for project updates.
Public participation is critical to the Project's success. By purchasing a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit, you will not only contribute to the impact of this great endeavor, but you may discover something about your own genetic past as well.
A Note on Privacy To ensure the privacy of participants, we have built an anonymous analysis process. Your Participation Kit will be mailed with a randomly-generated, non-sequential Genographic Participant ID number (GPID). Although we will have mailed a Participation Kit to your address, we do not know the random code included in the Kit. When you send in your DNA sample with your consent form, they will only be identified by your GPID. Therefore, your cheek cells will be analyzed completely anonymously.
In order to access your test results, you will need to access the Genographic Project Web site and enter your GPID, so it is very important that you do not lose your GPID. See the Genographic Project Terms and Conditions for more information. Also, be sure to visit our FAQs.
For International Participants (outside the United States and Canada) Public participation may be restricted in some countries where the export of genetic material requires government approval. China is one country that has such restrictions in place. The Genographic Project will work with the relevant authorities to achieve the broadest level of public participation possible.
I bought three test kits - one for my mother, one for my father, and one for my husband.
My husband did his already but results not back. My mom keeps forgetting to do hers.
But the one for my dad is problematic. He thinks it's the type of DNA testing you do for paternity. I tried to explain the difference but it's not sinking in.
Maybe if he sees something about it on TV he'll understand.
Dear Mr. Tet6,
While we appreciate your DNA sample, we would ask that
next time, you LICK the envelope closed.
Thanks
THe editors NG.com
The only way to use this as a paternity test would be if you are male and you and your father each take the Y chromosome test and they come out with different haplogroups -- but this really isn't designed for that.
I know, I just decided to crack wise a bit for some Father's Day levity, that's all. :-)
BTW, now you should get your mtDNA tested -- you will need to use another company though.
Dang, I meant to get my dad's mtDNA tested, too. Will have to get a second test for him. I think you can order them from ancestry.com.
He's 72, better quit dilly-dallying.
My husband and youngest are neanderthals :O
Maybe i'm zulu..
ping for later reading....
Oh, no prob. I bought a kit for my dad for father's day and he started accusing me of wanting my paternity tested, so I am a mite hypersensitive.
Lol.. I like the way you think.
Maybe they'd come back to tell you that you have a fido felinis.
I floated the concept past my sister today. But I'D have to pony up the $100, or it'd never get done. < |:(~
$99 is actually a bargain for this type of test, but even better is that they're using the money to fund genetic testing on indigenous groups all over the world. I am SO looking forward to those results.
For example, one fascinating study of DNA recently showed that modern day Jews are closely related to Kurds, who live in Northern Iraq. Maybe from when they were in captivity in Babylon?
Don't have the bucks- I'll wait for a cheaper kit, or maybe they'll put a booth in a mall someday!
I did my geneaology back to 1400's, nothing but French and Spanish, but I'd like to see if there's a touch of the Scot in there! Why else would I love bagpipe music and men in kilts?
Apparently, you don't sign the consent form. You just mark what gender you are and that is consent. But they have no idea from whom that sample is pulled. Was it you? your child? a sibling? a neighbor?
The consent form doesn't even allow your signature, you just black in a dot. It really is anonymous.
Yup. Mosul sits on or near the ancient city of Nineveh(sp), that's where the Northern Tribe(s) were exiled. If you remember FReeper 'Lost Tribe', he believed the Northern Tribe were Celts.
You don't sign your name on the consent form. I have one right here. You black in a dot that says male or female. That's all.
Why are people so paranoid? What can they do with the information that can be used against you?
Maybe you should handle the forms with latex gloves so they won't get your fingerprints. Sheesh.
Using a female relative is a lot cheaper than using another company! Family Tree DNA affiliated with ancestry.com, costs $219 for the mtDNA test!
http://www.familytreedna.com/ftanc5.html
I think I will call a female cousin of my dad and ask if she will take the test if I pay for it and share the results. She's also interested in genealogy, and this line is one of our "brick walls."
I can't imagine what they'd be thinking at the DNA place. :-)
I signed up for this weeks ago and just got my kit last week. Been too busy to even open it but I plan to get it back in the mail next week. Pretty exciting stuff, for those who are interested.
Tracking your DNA..
They claim privacy..Do you beleive it?
In 1940 the federal government asked information about race--they said it would never be used against those who responded--yet the government used those same figures to intern Americans of Japanese descent.
It was also illegal for American-Japanese to bear arms.....
HHHmmnn.......
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