4th: Family Tree DNA Holiday Promotion

Family Tree DNA have announced a holiday promotion, reducing the prices of selected kits order and paid for by 31 December 2009.

So, if you've been thinking about what dna testing may be able to do for your genealogy research, now is a good time to jump in, or to track down those distant cousins that you need to prove this theory or that and convince them to join.
From their announcement:
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Y-DNA37 – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)
Y-DNA67 – promotional price $209 (reg. price $239)
mtDNAPlus – promotional price $139 (reg. price $149)
SuperDNA – promotional price $488 (reg. price $665)

Orders for the above tests need to be placed and paid for by December 31, 2009 to receive the sale price.

In addition here are the newly released permanent prices for the Full Mitochondria Sequence:

New kit (mtDNA Full Sequence) … $279
Upgrade from HVR1 … $229
Upgrade from HVR2 … $209
mtDNA Full Sequence after testing Y-DNA … $249

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So, if your surname is one of those already on the DNA Projects Portal pages, follow the Join Project links for your Surname to be automatically enrolled in your project.
(I note that Family Tree DNA's Product page doesn't yet reflect these prices).

For further information on what DNA testing may or may not be able to tell you, read the FAQs on both the WorldFamilies Network or the Family Tree DNA pages.

9th: mtDNA pricing special offer to 31st Oct 2009

Those of you who have already tested you mitochondrial dna with Family Tree DNA should have received notification by now of a substantial price reduction to upgrade your mtDNA results.
(The full sequence mtDNA also appears to have been reduced).
The message says, in part:
=========================
A new price for the full mtDNA test will be introduced in November but until then we are offering our current customers a promotional price through October 31st, 2009:

$179 (was $410) for those who have already tested up to HVR2 (the order item is HVR2 to MEGA)
$199 (was $420) for those who have already tested HVR1 (the order item is HVR1 to MEGA)

To Order:
Log in to you personal page at www.familytreedna.com

Click "Special Offers"
Select "mtHVR1toMega or mtHVR2toMEGA from the dropdown order list
Click "Continue" to proceed to the payment screen and complete your order

Orders need to placed and paid for by the end of the day, October 31st, 2009.

Depending upon the time that it takes to process these upgrade orders using our new hardware, we may experience a back order or lag time in November. If this occurs we expect to resolve the backlog in December, so to avoid any delay in attaining your results please place your order early in this sales cycle.
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8th: Links to area projects included

Links have been added for two area (rather than surname related) dna projects, those for Devon and The Border Reivers.

Check out the A-F index, projects denoting an area rather than a surname, are, unsurprisingly, shown with (Area) after the project name.

Most of the updates to the site have been project specific.
As always, check the individual surname blogs for the latest activity.

27th: General update

Lineages sub section of the DNA Projects Portal has had a general update to fix several missing links.

Only a few days to go to the end of the Family Tree DNA Summer Sale. Be in quick if you've been thinking about representing your family in a DNA project.

Check out the Wanted! pages for your surname in the Lineages section link above for those lines particularly needed to help solve mysteries.

And, as always, check out the individual project diaries at right for what's new.

3rd: Another promotion

Hot off the press from FamilyTree DNA:
(extraxted from an email to Group Administrators)
=========================
In light of this success (our recent Y-37+mtDNA sale ) and in conjunction with many reunions or events where one of us will be speaking, including the Clans Gathering 2009 and the Highland Games in Scotland, we have decided to offer for the month of July a variation of our recent promotion:
Y-DNA37 – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)
Y-DNA67 – promotional price $199 (reg. price $238)
mtDNAPlus – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)

These are the best prices, marker for marker, of any company in the market.
IMPORTANT: since this promotion will run through the month of July, we encourage you to spread the word starting now, as the natural tendency is for people to order at the last minute, and we will not extend it beyond this month
....
Bennett Greenspan
President
www.familytreedna.com
713-868-1438
"History Unearthed Daily"
=========================
This is an excellent price for the Y-DNA67 test, which is recommended for the projects I personally am involved with on this site.
Be in.

2nd: Upgrade promotion results

Some of the upgrade promotion results are starting to come through (batch 309 at least), so check out the individual project diaries at right for any updates.

15th: No excuses left

Family Tree DNA are again offering a summer discount which provides an excellent entry into the world of dna testing - enough markers for genealogically significant matching (their Y-DNA37 test), with an mtDNA test thrown in for good measure.
The total cost is cheaper than their normal Y-DNA37 test alone and at $US119 significantly cheaper than the usual cost of their combined Y-DNA37 + mtDNA.

Tests have to be ordered and paid for by Jun 30th.

To join in the fun and see what you may or may not discover about your genetic heritage, go to either World Families Network, of direct to Family Tree DNA, and join up.

As usual, see individual project diaries at right for changes.

14th: Upgrade promotion

Family Tree DNA have announced an upgrade promotion (not for new kits).

Emails are being sent to eligible participants with instructions on how to claim the discounted upgrade prices (reputed to be an average of 25% off the normal cost).

Note the instructions in the email:
To order this special offer log into your personal page and click on the special offers link on the left hand navigation bar.

As an indication, normal upgrade prices are in the vicinity of $US 49 for each of 12 to 25, 25 to 37 markers, and $US 99 for 37 to 67 markers.

So, if you want to see how your results might match at a higher level, get in while this lasts (only for the week from May 14th through May 23nd).

13th: DAVIDSON and McADIE

The DAVIDSON supplementary pages have been revamped in line with the earlier changes to the other surnames. However, these pages only contain those who match the Chirnside family of John DAVIDSON, a very very small extract from the main DAVIDSON project.

See each particular project blog for other updates (eg McADIE).

6th: Further to yesterday

Following on from yesterday's refresh, the Portal section of the website has also now been fully reloaded, including the new McADIE project in the throes of being established (one member already).

Each project may now have up to 3 DNA Study links:
1 for the basic project information held on Family Tree DNA
1 for the summary results and patriarch lineages held on World Families Network
and another for any more detailed results, and dna signature charts with analysis held on the Lineages portion of the DNA Projects Portal web site.

Whereas listing in the Portal section of the website is open to anyone caring to send me an email, the latter two generally only apply to those surnames of interest to the webmistress.

5th: Site revamp

The lineage portion of the DNA Projects Portal has had a revamp.

The program I use to build these pages (Second Site) has just been released with a new version that makes it much easier to present dna results both in grids and in "signature charts" (click on the links for examples).

Therefore most of the surname pages now have a dna results and charts section incorporated in these pages instead of referring you off to other sites.

See the individual surname project diaries for any project specific details.

2nd: Full site update

With a rash of FAIRBAIRN updates received, and assorted new pages related to the new WIGHT project, the DNA Projects Portal site has had a full reload.

The new WIGHT project has one member already.

More members most welcome in all the projects.

31st: WIGHT project added

The newly created WIGHT Surname DNA Project has been added to the DNA Projects Portal.

As usual, check the project diaries at right for individual project updates.

17th: DAVIDSON results received

DAVIDSON DNA results in, and related pages updated. Only very low level matches available, yet to be explored.

16th: RICHARDSON match/update

Some of the RICHARDSON related pages have been updated to reflect the newly received results, including a distant match (yet to be explored).

11th: Full Lineages section update

The full Lineages section of the DNA Projects Portal has been reloaded to ensure all latest results are reflected.
Check the individual project Diaries (top right) for further details of what may have changed.

5th: Site updates

Site has had a general information update, check the individual project diaries at right for further details.
A link to Wikipedia for the E haplogroup has been included as one of the ROWE project shows as belonging to "E1b1a".
Main changes are a couple of ROWE lineages have been brought in from the WorldFamilies site, and several FAIRBAIRN project updates.

17th: Project updates - SINTON and FAIRBAIRN

Check the SINTON and FAIRBAIRN project diaries for their new results.
Their respective Projects Portal Lineages (SINTON, FAIRBAIRN), and related information, updated as a result.

9th: Assorted content updates

Check out the FAIRBAIRN Project Diary for new members, and content explanations.
Ditto DAW(E).

3rd: Finlayson

Some additional details added for the FINLAYSON dna project to expand on the info available at the WFN pages.