Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:50:41 -0230 (NDT)
From: dapike@math.mun.ca (David Pike)
To: PIKE-DNA-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: [PIKE-DNA] various items
Hi everybody.
I've got a list of things to mention this time:
1. I want to announce and welcome Stu Pike as a co-administrator
for our project. Stu has been a keen proponent of our project
since he first got involved as a project participant. We've
exchanged numerous emails, and after meeting in person at the
reunion in July, it struck me that our project could benefit
from having Stu more directly involved.
Sometime in the coming days I'll update our project's website
to reflect this. We'll also be arranging to get Stu set up
to access the administrative tools on the FTDNA website.
2. In my last email, I mentioned the "Y-DNA Matches" page
that appears on people's personal webpages with FamilyTreeDNA.
On the "Y-DNA Matches" page will be a list of other folks
in the FTDNA system with whom you have a genetic match
(that is, if both you and they set their preferences to
be told of such matches).
What I want to mention in this email is that it is possible
to also search for genetic matches in another way. At
http://www.ysearch.org
is an online database designed for this purpose. You can
perform a search by manually entering your own marker values,
but you'll find that there is an easier way to do searches
if you are willing to contribute your results to the YSearch
database. YSearch is actually a service provided by FTDNA,
so the easiest way to contribute your results to the YSearch
database is to follow the upload instructions that appear on
your personal "Y-DNA Matches" webpage with FTDNA. This is
also where to go to find the option to update your YSearch
entry whenever you obtain new markers from FTDNA [and a
special note to those who have upgraded to 67 markers: the
YSearch database has now been upgraded so that it will accept
all of the new markers].
3. At the Pike reunion in July, a number of old PFA booklets
were included in our registration packages. Several of
these contained information about a number of early Pike
families, especially in New England. This prompted me
to put together a webpage with brief details about "early"
Pike families in various locations:
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=early.html
No doubt this page is missing some families that I don't
know about (for instance, I don't have any information there
for early Pike families in Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa)
so I will try to update it as I obtain more information.
4. Some time ago, a framework for providing sponsorships to
help encourage newcomers to join our project was developed.
Thanks in part to the donations collected at the reunion
in July, the value of the sponsorships has been increased.
As they currently stand, $75 worth of support is available
to folks who have reliably traced their Pike lineage either
(a) back 8 or more generations, or
(b) back 4 or more generations to the British Isles
but who don't have any apparent connection to anybody currently
in our project. Sponsorships of $50 are also being made
available to individuals who do not reside in North America.
Full details are online at
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=join.html
5. This mailing list is facilitated by rootsweb.com, who
is in the midst of changing/upgrading their mailing list
software. Our PIKE-DNA list is scheduled to be updated
on Tuesday of next week. Probably you shouldn't notice
anything different afterwards, but I thought that I would
mention this just in case.
6. In July, FamilyTreeDNA announced that it had entered a
purchase agreement with another company: DNA-Fingerprint
based in Germany. This acquisition/merger is still in
progress but should be complete by October or November.
I expect that we'll hear more at that time. As for what
this means for us, my hunch is that we will soon be able
to order markers individually (that is, one at a time).
- David.
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