WEST Surname y-DNA Family Reunion

 

FamilyTreeDNA

West Surname y-DNA Project

Family Reunion

St. Louis. MO

2013

 

 

Becky & I attended this year's y-DNA reunion.  We are Group # 5 in the West Surname Project at FamilyTreeDNA (known as the leader with the largest database of participants). We now have Y-DNA results for 310 WEST-surnamed males, identifying 113 unrelated WEST lines. We are a very diverse genetic group. Our surname was adopted many times by people in different locations. As more WESTs participate in the project, the benefit to all WEST researchers increases. We have 39 unrelated groups.  West is a somewhat common name.  We have learned that odds are not in our favor that we are related when we meet someone new by the name of WEST.

We stayed at the Renaissance Airport Hotel.  We were welcomed and honored by the city of St. Louis with a plaque, special cake, flowers and a very nice reception in the city hall.  Our reunion was covered on TV and in the newspapers.  We were treated as celebrities and everyone we met knew we were in town.  You would think we were some kind of very large International Convention.  There were about 20 or so of us.  We are a "colorful" and interesting family as we were described.  We all had a great time and discussed a lot of genealogy!

- submitted by JGWest

DNA News

From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

FamilyTreeDNA has offered the following announcement:

With the end of the DNA Day promotion, we (Bennett and Max), considered how to continue offering the best prices, yet keep control in the lab to avoid delays from high volume. Since demand is directly related to prices, we decided to implement a temporary price rollback whenever lab capacity allows us to do so.

Despite an extremely successful sale, we believe that with our increased lab capacity, we are able to continue offering reduced prices on several tests. While the prices are not as low as they were for the DNA Day promotion, you will notice that these temporary reductions are extremely attractive, and should be a real incentive to anyone that did not take advantage of the sale to order now, while the prices are reduced. With this system in place, prices may go up on different tests at any time based on lab volume.

Additionally, on April 1st when we permanently reduced the price of the Y-DNA12 to $49, we mentioned that our R&D team was working towards a price reduction for the equivalent mtDNA basic test. Good news! Not only did we manage to achieve this goal, but we did it for the mtDNAPlus test that covers both HVR1 and HVR2. Therefore, we're discontinuing the HVR1-only test. Our basic mtDNA test will now be the mtDNAPlus (HVR1+2) at the $49 price point! We hope that with the basic Y-DNA and mtDNA tests very reasonably priced, a whole new group of people will be tempted to begin their own DNA experience and increase the size of your projects!
You are welcome to spread the news, and as always, we thank you for your continued support.

(signed)
Max Blankfeld
Bennett Greenspan
Family Tree DNA

You can learn more at http://www.familytreedna.com/. 

Tuesday's Meeting will Discuss DNA!

Why DNA?  Do you come up empty about DNA when it comes to a simple understanding of this great new genealogical tool?

Come to our meeting this coming Tuesday night:
 12 February 2013 6:30 PM at Willard Library – Bayard Room on the Second Floor.  

Kenneth “Ken” E. Nowlan, Jr. will present a very interesting program on “Making Sense of DNA: How Can It Assist Genealogical Research.”  How many of you have found people in your genealogical research and wondered if they were related, but could not find any proof. In today’s world there is a way to find that answer using DNA. We see on the news and on crime shows how DNA helps find the bad guys. Now you can find out how to use that technology in your research.  Ken earned his Bachelors Degree from Indiana University and his Masters Degree from University of Pennsylvania. He became a Certified Genealogist (SM) from the Board for Certification of Genealogists, he is the Project Administrator for DNA Surname Project on FamilyTreeDNA and is a Member of Tri-State Genealogical Society.

You do not have to be a member to come and participate at the society’s monthly meetings.

Staying Afloat in the Gene Pool - Genetic DNA News

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05 AUGUST 2011 - Family Tree DNA announced the launch of a new feature: Y-DNA "Third Party" uploads. This allows for the upload of 33 & 46-marker y-DNA test results from Ancestry, GeneTree and Sorenson's SMGF. The information for this blog is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com. More information is available from FamilyTreeDNA FAQ page.

Founded in April 2000, Family Tree DNA was the first company to develop the commercial application of DNA testing for genealogical purposes, something that had previously been available only for academic and scientific research. Currently, the Houston-based company is approaching 350,000 individual records – the largest DNA database in genetic genealogy, and a number that makes Family Tree DNA the prime source for anyone researching recent and distant family ties. In 2006 Family Tree DNA established a state of the art Genomics Research Center at its headquarters in Houston, Texas, where it currently performs R&D and processes over 200 advanced types of DNA tests for its customers.

STAYING AFLOAT in the GENE POOL -Genetic DNA News

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Tibor Fehér New Co-Admin
of Kerchner's R1b Project

For Immediate Release - 27 April 2010


Tibor Fehér of Hungary has joined Charles Kerchner of the USA as a new Co-Admin of Kerchner's R1b Project (a large project) hosted at FTDNA. For more details about this project see: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/r1b/


Charles Kerchner, P.E. (Retired)
Pennsylvania USA
R1b Project Founder and Admin
http://www.kerchner.com/dna-info.htm