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

Happy Birthday, America!

Have you wondered...

if you had a Revolutionary War Patriot or Soldier in your ancestry?  Dick Eastman posted on his newsletter a good article that may be of help. [Not mentioned was the 1840 U.S. Federal Census list those living in the household that are getting military pensions.  - JGW]

See his article at: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/07/how-to-find-a-revolutionary-war-patriot.html

Happy July 4th.!

From TSGS

- Graphic created by Steve Oberlin, copyright 2009 by the Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution.

Irish Researchers - Take Notice!

Released by findmypast.com (copied from Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter [EOGN]):

On June 30, 1922, the Public Records Office of Ireland, located at the historic Four Courts in Dublin, caught fire during the Irish Civil War. Tragically a considerable amount of Irish records were destroyed. The fire has had lasting effects – still felt today – as Irish family history requires a unique approach to research than other heritages. To commemorate this anniversary and encourage exploration of Irish genealogy, findmypast.com will offer its full collection of Irish Birth, Marriage and Death indexes free of charge from June 27 to June 30. Anyone searching for their Irish ancestors can access the full Irish record collection by registering for free at findmypast.com.

Despite a great loss of records in the historic fire, there are still many opportunities to discover Irish heritage, with countless fascinating stories to be found from the records that survived.

FGS 2013 Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Federation of Genealogical Societies’ 2013 Conference is quickly approaching. As most of you know, this year the conference is in Fort Wayne! It will be held August 21-24 at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, which is just a block away from the Allen County Public Library (ACPL). On top of the great lectures, workshops and luncheons, this year’s conference features extended research hours at The Genealogy Center at ACPL.

Conference details and registration are available online at https://www.fgsconference.org. The deadline for the Early Bird Discount is July 1st. Make sure to purchase your tickets to luncheons (especially the IGS luncheon), workshops and special events early to guarantee your spot.

If you would like a print brochure or need some for your local society or library, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/bjhaeok.

The Society Showcase is a great, affordable way for societies to highlight what they offer. FGS Member Societies can reserve a table in the Exhibit Hall for only $25. These tables are for promotional purposes and selling memberships and may not be used for other sales. Learn more about the Society Showcase at https://www.fgsconference.org/exhibits/society-showcase/. If your society would like to sell other items, there are still 1 booth available in the Exhibit Hall (https://www.fgsconference.org/exhibits/).

Society Publicity Contest – FGS Member Societies are also eligible to win a free conference registration to FGS 2014 in San Antonio, Texas if they help publicize FGS 2013 in print and online publications. You can find graphics and articles to use in society publications at https://www.fgsconference.org/media/society-publicity-contest/. You’ll also want to make sure you fill out the contest form and let us know each time your society publicizes the conference in order to be entered to win.

Indiana Librarians will be excited to learn that all conference sessions qualify for LEUs. Librarians’ Day is Tuesday, August 20 with sessions for librarians who serve genealogists. Visit https://www.fgsconference.org/program/librarians-day/ to find out more.

The FGS 2013 Publicity Committee would appreciate your help spreading the word about the conference to your local societies and fellow genealogists.

We hope to see you in Fort Wayne in August!

Tina Lyons
FGS 2013 Publicity Chair
conferencepublicity@fgs.org

- Submitted by Don Counts, TSGS President

Family Reunions and y-DNA

Going to St. Louis this month.

My WEST Family Surname Group # 5 will hold their annual family reunion this year in St. Louis.  Those in attendance will be related to each other proven by matches in their y-DNA.  Many of us have found the documentation of records to confirm the y-DNA results.  In many cases it was the y-DNA that confirmed the documentation.

Our group used FamilyTreeDNA for our testing... Group #5 is still the largest of 39 groups of West families with 19 individuals.  Below is a table of the current status of the West Surname Project.

Number of Y-DNA participants	339
Test kits returned	311
Y-DNA results posted to web page	310
Number of Family groups identified by DNA	39

We now have Y-DNA results for 310 WEST-surname 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 WEST's participate in the project, the benefit to all WEST researchers increases. 

With so many West families being unrelated, it makes it more difficult to find cousins and very hard to find ancestors.  There are many tools to help us in our research... the more we can use the better chances we will have to break down "brick walls" and to find new cousins to help us research records in courthouses and libraries.  We have been able to resolve many long standing questions for researchers in our line of the West's and we are beginning to coordinate and focus our research more to solve other mysteries concerning our family history.

Our West family reunion is a great opportunity to get together in person and discuss approaches to zero in on issues that we can attack at different levels & directions.

If you have not yet tried DNA testing, check it out... you may be very much surprised at what you might learn.  Long-time TSGS member Chris Myers just recently took a y-DNA test.  Let us all wish him success in what he might learn!

- Compiled by JGWest (AKA: Nate Flynn, the Librarian)

Evansville's Oak Hill Cemetery Tour May 2013

Panoramic view of the crowd attending this interesting tour of Evansville's largest cemetery.

Dennis Au & Chris Cooke conducts this tour on an annual basis.

Click on the photo above for a larger image.

On the left side you can see Indiana Bones in the yellow shirt and hat.

Next to Indiana to the right in the blue blouse is Becky West.

On the other side of Indy in the red blouse is Deb Travers.

Many TSGS members were present: John & Becky West, Deb Travers, Sue Newcom, Irvin & Connie Conrad, Karin Kirsch, Kathy Wilson, plus at least 3 more.

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/.