A great many of the attendees on the 29th annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour bought the DNA testing kits offered currently by Ancestry.com. Crista Cowan and then Anna Swayne, both from Ancestry, came and taught us all about their new testing opportunities.
Crista said to picture a fan chart with you in the “bulls-eye center.” The Y-DNA line, your paternal line, goes off to the left. Not a “fan” but a narrow line. Your maternal line, the mtDNA line, goes off to the right, again in a narrow line. Most DNA testing heretofore was for either the paternal or maternal line but seldom both and never for all the potential matches in between.
So, said Crista, “what about any matches from the rest of the folks show on your fan chart???” She had a good point. We don’t want just matches from a few of our ancestors, but from as many of them as possible! She explained that this Ancestry DNA testing practically guarantees some cousin matches for each submission. (Realize of course, that your submission is tied to your tree as posted on Ancestry.com.)
Well, a bunch of us were eager to embrace this new opportunity. Here are photos from tour last December showing folks lining up to buy the kits from Anna Swayne and then some of us having a “spit party” out in the hall:
The test consisted of collecting 1/2 teaspoon of your spit (no bubbles, please) in the tube…… as demonstrated by Carol. Then we removed the funnel-end to the tube, screwed on the top-preservative end and shook it for fifteen seconds. Into the mailing box it went next! We should all be getting our results in a couple of months.
For more information about Ancestry.com’s new DNA testing, and/or to order a kit for yourself, click to this link: http://ldna.ancestry.com/atFAQ.aspx
The Salt Lake Christmas Tour offers a whole long list of genealogical opportunities; hope YOU are considering signing up for next year.