ISOGG Newsletter February 2009

Vol. 2 No. 2 Feb 2009

From the Director - African DNA Primer for Black History Month
Have you seen the PBS show African American Lives hosted
by Dr. Henry Louis Gates? The show profiles many famous African
Americans like Oprah, Maya Angelou, and Quincy Jones among
others. Nearly all those profiled were DNA tested and their ancestral
origins were shared. Most led back to Africa with matches to genetic
cousins in different tribes. However, matches with tribal names does not
necessarily mean that the person testing is from that tribe, it just means
they have genetic cousins in that tribe. This is due to intermarriage
among tribes. Think about it, if you are from Peoria, do you think
everyone in Peoria has only married other Peorians?
The haplogroups identified as originating in Africa on the Y-chromosome
are A, B, and some branches of E, particularly subclades E1a, and E1b1a.
For mitochondrial DNA, haplogroup L primarily signifies African DNA. On
occasion, some people are surprised when European DNA results are
revealed. This was exactly the case for Dr. Gates; he has European DNA
on both his Y-chromosome and mitochondrial lines. Testing his relatives
may reveal African DNA origins on his mother's paternal line or his father's
maternal line. Dr. Gates had such a positive experience with hosting
"African American Lives 1 & 2" that he decided to launch his own DNA
company, AfricanDNA.com, which is the first of its kind to offer DNA
testing and genealogical research services for African Americans.

-Katherine Borges
ISOGG Director

U.S. version of "Who Do You Think You Are" to premiere April 20
The widely popular United Kingdom television series, "Who Do You
Think You Are?" is coming to the states on April 20 @ 8-9 p.m. on NBC.
While the series has aired in Britain for several years, with different versions
airing in Ireland and Wales, it is brand new to the U.S. "Friends" star, Lisa
Kudrow, bought the U.S. rights to the show. Like its UK counterpart, the
US version will undoubtedly use DNA to inform celebrities about their genetic
heritage.

Meanwhile, on the side of the Atlantic where it all started, the Who Do You
Think You Are? - LIVE! conference will be hosted in Olympia, London on
27 Feb to 1 Mar. This year's conference will host the largest DNA venue to
ever debut in the UK.

Bl~aszkowski DNA Success Story
By Marvin Blaski

     Since the late 1880s, there were two Bl~aszkowski families living in Chicago.
Both families had come from the Kaszubi section of northern Poland and
apparently lived within 30 miles of each other according to different records.
Both families were very close in Chicago. My ancestral family records are in
the Parchowo church records. Their records came from an old family bible.
     I decided to have my DNA and the DNA from a male member of the other
family tested by Family Tree DNA. Our 37-marker test results were identical.
I added the 67-marker test which resulted in one small difference. My 67th
marker had one more repeat than that with the other family.
     Then, I decided to ask the President of the PGS-CA to review my family
history book and data to see what I should do. After reviewing the data, she
recommended getting the civil death record of the grandfather in the other
family. I only had the obituary from the Polish language newspaper. The
informant for the civil death record said that his father, Bernard, was born in
the same Polish town that my grandfather was born in and was born on the
same day as the next younger brother of my grandfather. My grandfather had
six brothers and one sister. Two died in Poland and, besides my grandfather,
four came to the U.S. in 1887. The one remaining brother, the next younger
brother of my grandfather, disappeared - no record.
     It appears that the next younger brother changed his given name from Stephen
Augustine to Bernard and left Poland in 1885, two years before the rest of the
family. Why did he leave in a hurry? Stephen was 20 years old and probably
the invading Prussian Army wanted to draft him so he changed his given name
and took the next ship to the U.S., two years before the rest of the family. There
is other data to support this conclusion.

This is an update to the Blaski DNA success story first published in 2007
on ISOGG's DNA Success Stories page.

For more DNA success stories or to submit yours, visit:
http://www.isogg.org/successstories.htm

DNA in the News

Get the pictures out - Lake County News-Sun - 14 Feb 2009
Genealogy helps uncover truths passed down the generations -
nj.com - 12 Feb 2009
Neanderthal genome will unlock secrets of human evolution -
Times Online - 12 Feb 2009
DNA-onderzoek helpt de genealogie - Ed.nl - 3 Feb 2009

For more articles:
http://www.isogg.org/newsarchives.htm

NEW ISOGG page - DNA Testing Surprises

http://www.isogg.org/ts.html

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