Cairns FHS has a bunch of new DIGgers… our own DNA Interest Group! Over 20 people turned up for the first presentation on using DNA in genealogy, and 15 presented for the inaugural DNA Interest Group meeting held last Saturday.
Several people couldn’t make it, but expressed their keen interest, so it looks like more meetings will be scheduled to cater for the growing interest in this fascinating topic.
Australia Post must be pleased with all these little white and yellow envelopes whizzing back and forth between Houston, Texas and Cairns in recent weeks!
That also means that we’ll have some new member results available by the next meeting, ready to discover new relatives using DNA!
Keep an eye on our Calendar of Events for the next scheduled DIG meeting, and look for topic updates in this blog and on the DNA Interest Group page.
Yes, some interesting results are coming through now. And it is proving to be a very small world!
It is indeed a small world! When my results arrived, I was eagerly going through the names of people with whom I shared DNA, and to my surprise, up popped the name of another member of the DIG group. This is a relationship which was completely unknown to either of us.
I am not from Cairns, but from Sydney, but I came across your excellent site while searching for information on DNA in genealogy. I have been unable to identify families for either of my mother’s parents, so DNA could help.
My question is, please, have you found the Family Tree database, or any other database, has many Australian results? (My interest would be families originally based in Victoria.)
Thanks.
Hi Eric, and thank you for your comment! Apologies in advance for my lengthy response:
Family Tree DNA is the best company for Australians to test with, as that is where most other Australians, British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Europeans etc test. There are two other major companies: AncestryDNA does not sell kits outside the US, so Australians can’t order (unless they use an agent), and therefore there are few Australians in its database; 23andMe is mostly US-focused – its international postage is exhorbitant ($US75 vs $10 at FTDNA), so again there are few Australians in its database; Ancestry requires an ongoing subscription to access results and has no proper analysis tools, so Ancestry users have to transfer to FTDNA or Gedmatch to analyse match results; 23andMe was initially a health-related testing company, and requires testers to opt-in for genealogy results, and many do not and do not respond to emails; and the latest 23andMe results cannot be transferred to FTDNA. If you test with either AncestryDNA or 23andMe, most of your matches will be quite remote US cousins. Because you are Australian, I recommend testing with FTDNA to find closer matches. I am from Victoria and manage 25+ kits mostly for Victorians & Brits. Many of us here in Cairns are from Victoria too, and have multiple kits from FTDNA. And we match with many other Australians and Victorians, so give it a go! And feel free to email me with any further questions 🙂
And Eric, start with the Family Finder test from FTDNA ($99US plus $9.95 postage), and if ordering before 28 Feb, use the discount voucher code 15FOR15 at checkout to save another $15. If your mother is living, test her, otherwise test yourself. DNA is diluted by half at each generation, so the older generations are best to test if available. Good luck 🙂