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Gordon Revisited

January 28, 2024 thednageek 19d Comments

  Several years ago, I helped an adoptee I called “Gordon” identify his biological father. (Gordon is a pseudonym, as…

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Posted in: Making Sense of DNA Filed under: adoptees, Are Your Parents Related, AYPR, BanyanDNA, complex trees, incest, simulations
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Thank You!

January 27, 2024 thednageek 18d Comments

This blog started in 2016 on a whim. Genetic genealogists seemed eager to learn about the science and math behind…

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Posted in: Lagniappe Filed under: award, education, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), Utah Genealogical Association

Introducing BanyanDNA!

December 9, 2023 thednageek 36d Comments

This is a copy of the first BanyanDNA newsletter, delivered 9 December, 2023. You can sign up for the newsletter…

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Posted in: Uncategorized
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DNA Doesn’t Lie, but It Sometimes Speaks in Riddles

November 7, 2023 thednageek 30d Comments

DNA outliers are more likely to be paternal than maternal. Here’s why.

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Posted in: Making Sense of DNA Filed under: BanyanDNA, Blaine Bettinger, crossing over, distributions, grandparent–grandchild, histograms, outliers
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Seventy Four Point Five

October 25, 2023 thednageek 19d Comments

Use this simple conversion factor to estimate centimorgan amount from percent shared DNA.

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Posted in: Making Sense of DNA Filed under: 23andMe, cybersecurity, data security, genetic privacy, percent shared DNA, privacy breach, shared centimorgans
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The 23andMe Hack

October 17, 2023 thednageek 31d Comments

By now, you’ve probably heard that 23andMe was hacked by criminals who stole the data of up to 7 million…

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Posted in: Lagniappe Filed under: 23andMe, credential stuffing, cybersecurity, data security, forensic genetic genealogy, genetic privacy, hacking, law enforcement
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Jan and the Complex Pedigree Analysis

September 29, 2023 thednageek 9d Comments

We can analyze complex pedigrees with more sophisticated methods.

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Posted in: Making Sense of DNA Filed under: Afrikaners, BanyanDNA, complex trees, hypothesis testing, pedigree collapse, relationship prediction, simulations, South Africa, statistics
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Yaniv Was Right

September 12, 2023 thednageek 40d Comments

Genetic genealogy needs to protect itself with cryptosignatures.

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Posted in: DNA Testing Filed under: AncestryDNA, autosomal DNA transfers, cryptographic signature, data security, DNA uploads, forensic genetic genealogy, informed consent, law enforcement, Yaniv Erlich
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AncestryDNA Plus: A New DNA Subscription Tier

September 1, 2023 thednageek 110d Comments

AncestryDNA is rolling out a new pricing scheme, called AncestryDNA Plus, that charges a small subscription fee to access to…

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Posted in: Uncategorized
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Maude

August 26, 2023 thednageek 16d Comments

Christine Davis of DavisDNA was perplexed. And with good reason! A few weeks earlier, she’d uploaded a female client’s AncestryDNA…

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Posted in: Making Sense of DNA Filed under: anatomical sex, chromosomal sex, monosomy rescue, SRY gene, X chromosome, Y chromosome

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