Louis Kessler’s Behold Blog

#FTDNA2017 - First up, another breakfast sponsored by FTDNA. This was followed at 8 a.m. by an ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy) chapter meeting, my first. It was led by Katherine Bodger, the Director and co-founder of the society. ISOGG was founded in 2005 after the first Family Tree DNA Conference. The ISOGG wiki is a vast resource of DNA information related to genetic genealogy to which Debbie Kennett adds most of the content, but it is open to anyone for editing once they are approved for an account. Leah Larkin is the editor of the JOGG (Journal of Genetic Genealogy). Derrell Oakley Teat is retiring from being the ISOGG European FTDNA Coordinator and received an award.

At 9 a.m., Matt Dexter presented his own story: “Finding His Father – An Adoptee’s DNA Experience”. Matt knew almost nothing about his parents. It took him 7 years. In 2009, he met his mother. Through extensive DNA testing and learning how to do it, he finally discovered and met his father in 2016 and found several siblings. It was quite a story.

At 10:15 a.m., Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, who claims she is a genealogist who just happens to be a lawyer, and not the other way around, presented: “After the Courthouse Burns: Rekindling Family History through DNA”. Judy explained how she solved a genealogical puzzle with DNA in a period when the genealogy records had been lost and no longer exist.

At 11:15 am, Michael Davila, the director of Product Development for Family Tree DNA gave the 2017 Product Update. He said: “A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.” He talked about some of the challenges the company faced, and went over some of the current projects. Caleb Davis followed Michael and gave information about new things with Big Y.

By now, it was very apparent that Family Tree DNA has refined their Conference after 13 years so that all the little details were just right. Of all the conferences and talks I’ve ever been to, this is the first one that left pads of papers and pens on the tables at each seat so that questions could be written for the speaker. At the end of the talk, FTDNA staff would collect the questions and give them to the speaker. The speaker would read the questions and give answers quickly and efficiently. So much better than people randomly jumping up, no one can hear them, and spouting off something not as well though out as written words would be. Staff was at the back of each room throughout the conference, listening, learning, assisting and enjoying. It was such a pleasure.

At the buffet lunch, I sat with Judy Russell. This is the 4th conference we’ve been at together in 20 months. I always thank Judy for imploring me to get my 93 year old uncle DNA tested last year and getting me into this DNA thing which has since sucked up all the free time I hoped to have after I retired.

There was a set of breakout sessions at 1:15 pm. I chose to hear Roberta Estes once again, who talked about “Autosomal DNA through the Generations”. Roberta showed a 4 generation chromosome browser chart with her mother, herself, her son and granddaughters. Roberta’s mother died 5 years before Family Finder became available. But a sample was at FTDNA and they were still able to use it when the Family Finder test came out. One thing surprised me. Roberta asked the audience how many people had half-siblings. I couldn’t believe that a third of the people put up their hands. Roberta calls half-siblings: “God’s gift to genealogists.”

At 2:30, Elliot Greenspan, the head of IT at FTDNA, gave the Year in Review, and then the plans for Future Development. The latter includes new hardware, new technology, faster updates, and new hires.

Brent Manning, the Lab Manager, then gave us a very interesting update about the lab. FTDNA launched in 2000. In 2006 they opened their Genomics Research Center. In 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed the lab and the building had to be reconstructed. They built an impenetrable fortress that worked to make it unscathed through Hurricane Harvey this year. Their lab is now 9,000 square feet taking up the entire 8th floor of their building and 50 people now work in the lab. They have been installing all sorts of new equipment and robots. The Automated Sample Sorter (to remain acronymless) was so large, they needed to remove the 8th floor window and rent a 70 ton crane to get it up there. This all means expanded capacity, throughput and ability to store millions of samples, all the while eliminating everything that can be automated. Brent summarized by saying “the future is freaking awesome, completely mindblowing” and it can’t get much  better than that.

Max and Bennett closed the conference with a Q&A period, using all the questions handed in over the past two days that hadn’t been answered yet.They covered anything and everything. My notes:  The Illumina chip switch will happen in 5 to 6 months, but Illumina made some concessions to FTDNA and mods will make for better backwards compatibility and better matching. All the new equipment and efficiencies likely will soon improve time to get results down to as little as 2 to 4 weeks. A full genome takes the same time to run as 800 Big Y tests, so full genomes are not in FTDNA’s current plans. Will FTDNA/Gene-by-Gene ever go public? “Never!!”, said Bennett.

The day began with Max Blankfeld and Bennett Greenspan greeting the entire group. After honoring the veterans, and there must have been 50 in the room who stood to loud applause, they provided a bit of information about the conference. There are 240 in attendance. About 50 people, including myself, raised their hands as first timers. FTDNA currently has about 140 employees with many assisting with the Conference.

Peter Sjolund, http://www.dnaacademy.se/, the ISOGG Regional Coordinator for Sweden, next presented information about the Swedish Haplogroup Database, and how Y-DNA and mtDNA tests are helping to map the genealogy of Sweden back to the 1600’s. Peter came out with a power drill and a skull. He explained that the current FTDNA method of DNA testing is inefficient and then proceeded to drill into the skull and said that this was the new way. Of course, he said, it should not be used on living persons. He told us about the research being done by DNA tests on the many old skeletons being found in the world. These are being recorded at: www.ancestraljourneys.com. Peter showed how these old skeletons are being used to trace the ancestral paths to Sweden. He recommends everyone submit their mtDNA data to the world GenBank at:  http://www.tinyurl.com/mtDNAtoGenbank

At 10:15 am, Janine Cloud, the do-everything person for Family Tree DNA, presented “GAP Guidelines and You” – rules for Groups Projects Managers to follow. Basically, have fun and be nice. Janine says that some days, enforcing the GAP guidelines is like herding cats, or maybe sheep. There are almost 10,000 FTDNA projects now, managed by 8,000 Admins and Coadmins.

At 11 am, Frank Billingsley, a Houston TV weatherman, presented the story in his book “Swabbed and Found”. Frank was adopted and didn’t know who his parents were, and this was the story of his DNA journey to find them. This was the book that every attendee received free in their registration package. Frank’s presentation was very interesting and his story has many twists. He said: “The book is funny like me and cute like me. It reads like a Hardy Boys book. I hope you read it.” I waited with many others to get my copy personally signed by Frank. I look forward to reading it on the plane ride home after the Conference.

Frank’s book, Swabbed and Found, is available at Amazon:

Family Tree DNA provided a nice buffet lunch.

The afternoon started with a couple of breakout session with 3 choices. For the first session, I chose to listen to Jim Bartlett with “Specific Steps to Success with Autosomal DNA”. He started by asking how many people here have taken an autosomal test. Everyone put up their hand. He said 5 years ago, only 5 or 6 hands went up. Jim is retired and puts maybe 8 hours a day into mapping his DNA and he’s now mapped about 98% of it. See Jim’s fantastic website that I consider my bible of autosomal DNA analysis techniques at: www.segmentology.org

In the 2nd breakout session, I heard Roberta Estes talk on “Nine Autosomal Tools at Family Tree DNA & How to Use Them”. She gave all sorts of tips about less known features at FTDNA. She mentioned that Shared Origins can show matches by ethnicity. Profiles can show hidden information. Be sure to click on the “+” as well. Roberta talked about triangulation towards the end of her talk.

At 3:20, we went back to a single session. Dr. Michael Hammer presented “Top 10 Human Evolutionary Genomics”. Dr Hammer was the person that Bennett 18 years ago asked to do a DNA test for him … and the rest is history. Michael explained that humans today do not make up different subspecies or races because we only have a F_ST (a measure of population differentiation) of 15%. To be different races, 25% or more is needed. Neanderthal would be a different subspecies if it existed today, but humans are similar. His example was to show us photos of different people, and to see if we could place them as to where in the world they would come from, and no one got the majority correct. He gave a few interesting facts: Every individual has on average 100 DNA mutations. Fathers give 4 mutations  for every 1 mothers give. And the number of mutations grow as the father is older. So “watch out for old men”. He also talked about the Clint Eastwood effect, which is 7 children starting at age 34, ending at age 66, with 5 women.

Jim Brewster and Michael Sager then told the crowd about FTDNA’s Y-Haplotree & SNP Pack Update. Then Max, Bennett and Elliot answered any and all questions about anything to do with Family Tree DNA. The loudest laugh was when Bennett meant to say “The full mt” but by mistake said “The full Monty”.

For supper, I joined a group of about 25 Jewish FTDNA group administrators who were attending the conference. Many of them I had met for the first time at IAJGS in Orlando last July. It was nice to get together again.

Picture by Adam Brown reprinted with his permission:

Following supper, there was an ISOGG reception downstairs with about 50 people still there when I got there. I finished the evening off with a really nice talk with Tim Janzen. Earlier in the day I had great talks with David Pike, Goran Runfeldt, Janet Akaha and Mags Gaulden. And Brock Shamberg and I had a wonderful talk on stock market investing.

Location: Houston Texas. About 200 genetic genealogists have gathered for 3 days of talks and mingling and discussion about the state of DNA analysis. It’s very exciting for me to be with and talk to so many experts, each with a slightly different viewpoint and their own specialties in this field.

The day started with an early morning breakfast for those of us who had arrived in time. About 20 of us gathered at the Family Tree DNA breakfast buffet which we’ll also be treated to for the next two conference days and the Monday following.

I tried to talk to as many new people I could find. Following breakfast and up to the evening, it was a matter of lounging in the main hall and attendees meeting each other as they came down. I talked with many people from previous conferences I had attended, including Curtis Rogers of GEDmatch who I first met at RootsTech in Salt Lake City in February, Karen Schlussel, Brock Shamberg, Adam Brown, Gil  Bardige, Shelley Talalay Dardashti and Bennett Greenspan who I met at IAJGS in July in Disney World, Mags Gaulden and Derrell Oakley Teat who I spent time with just a month ago in Halifax, and Judy Russell and David Pike from OGS in Toronto in 2016. I still have to talk to Maurice Gleeson who I met at OGS and will surely get a few minutes with him before the conference is over.

In the evening we picked up our lanyard and name badge along with our registration package which included a conference bag, a conference t-shirt, the conference program, and the book “Swabbed and Found” by Frank Billingsley who will be talking to us tomorrow about it.

I got to meet in person for the first time and spend time with Roberta Estes, Roberta’s husband Jim, Jennifer Zinck, Jim Bartlett, Tim Janzen, Debbie Parker Wayne and Goren Runfeldt. Many of the staff from Family Tree DNA are here as well and it’s nice to meet and talk to them.

Tomorrow will be a full day of sessions from 9 am to 5 pm.