Still shopping?

Looking for a last minute Christmas present?
The FamilyTreeDNA sale is still on  - until the end of December.
Check out the Wanted! pages on DNASurnames for your surname if you are a male and see if you can contribute your Y-DNA to advance the project's knowledge of how lineages inter-relate (or not).
Please consider at least Y-DNA37, but preferably Y-DNA67, to be of most use.

Don't forget that everyone, male or female, can contribute to dna projects and advance their family tree by using FamilyFinder, the autosomal DNA you have all inherited from both parents, and they theirs in turn. It can be a bit of a lottery if trying to prove a specific distant ancestor, but great fun.

Keep an eye on this spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CgXRKz2TySvRqSInveSIYoslO7yexAc9d-BzpNhaY1c/edit?usp=sharing
 for  coupon codes for additional $ off over and above the discounted prices.
New coupons are being issued weekly on Mondays.

DNA.Land

Found the new kid on the block for your autosomal DNA data yet? DNA.Land

Read Kitty Cooper's blog about it here, where there are links to other blogposts at the bottom.

Download your autosomal raw data file from any of FamilyTreeDNA (build 37), Ancestry or 23andme, register, upload, wait a day or so for the matches and check to see what you've learnt.
If you manage more than one kit and the participants are happy to share, you'll need a separate email for each kit.
These  hints for multiple email addresses on the one account may help

BigY/SNP packs

Those of you following Y-DNA trails towards male line surname matches have undoubtedly noticed the advent of BigY testing and the recent welcome addition of SNP pack offerings from FamilyTreeDNA.

I hope that you have all joined your relevant Y-DNA haplogroup project and followed the advice of the admins for these as to whether or not the SNP packs that have recently been offered to sort out the top levels of the haplogroup tree are relevant for your particular circumstances and existing test levels.

For those venturing forth into BigY, Roberta Estes has a useful blog post from last year:
http://dna-explained.com/category/novel-variants/

The RUNCIMAN project has recently ordered the first BigY test for its SNP testing guineapig and we await results with interest - keep an eye on the RUNCIMAN blog for the results.

The quest that got me into DNA testing in the first place was for my HENDERSON brickwall.  BigY results are in, and we appear to still be stonewalled at S7361 down the R1b tree and awaiting a breakthrough match or a growing number of people sharing the same "novel variants" to create a new branch.
Autosomal testing is providing some intriguing leads in the meantime.

GRAY atDNA

The DNASurnames lineages section has been refreshed.
Main updates are to fix one or two broken links, and to update the Geographical Project pages for Caithness to reflect that autosomal DNA testing is also of value!

This update was prompted mainly by some interesting atDNA matches down from the family of Donald  GRAY and Kathrin MORGAN. 

FTDNA privacy settings

If results/matches aren't showing up as expected on your shiny, brand new results, this post by Roberta Estes on her DNA Explained blog may show you why.

http://dna-explained.com/2015/07/27/family-tree-dna-new-privacy-settings/

Familton

Remember to also check the Surname specific blogs for activity.
The FAMILTON one has had an exciting update in that we've finally proven that two Scottish Borders FAMILTON/FAMELTOUN etc families, both weavers in the early 1700s, are indeed genetically linked - and in Haplogroup G.
As a result all DNASurnames pages have been refreshed, including adding a few twigs to the Y-DNA Haplogroup chart to specifically include the haplo G branches concerned.

Segmentology

I hope that those of you interested in Autosomal DNA are following a new blog on the scene: Segmentology.

Read why we triangulate our matches from Mr Triangulation himself, Jim Bartlett, a stalwart of the DNA-NEWBIES list, and read what Roberta Estes has to say about Jim and his new blog.

Genetic map of Britain

You may be interested in this article from The Independent

New genetic map of Britain shows successive waves of immigration going back 10,000 years

Midway down  is a link "In graphics: Britains Genetic History" to more maps and explanations

Another article from the same study on the BBC Science news

FTDNA Project Activity Feeds

If you have tested with FamilyTreeDNA, you will have received an email recently about their new MyGroups facility.

For those projects whose administrators have converted to the new feature, there are daily discount code offers being posted on the Activity Feed.
Check them out.
The codes are valid  until used (not just for the day posted) BUT can only be used once, so first in, first served.

I am still checking through the conversions of all my projects, but think I have converted them all, even without any tidy-up of the associated information, much of which is long overdue for a revision.

To access, click on the globe in the top right of your screen

and click on a notification for the project you wish to view, or the Activity Feed if none.

Why not contribute a post or question about your dna experiences while there?

For the projects I administer the settings are that the posts are private to the group, so you must be logged in to view and to post.
If sufficient interest is shown in making them public instead, this can be changed. 

Transfers to FamilyTreeDNA

Here's a code to use to transfer your Ancestry DNA matches to FamilyTreeDNA and help unlock a kit - 4 more needed :)
https://www.familytreedna.com/autosomalTransfer?atdna=tWAmyhLWmsEiWo%2f26Ao62Q%3d%3d&ekit=tWAmyhLWmsEiWo%2f26Ao62Q%3d%3d