*End of Summer Sale
*Family Tree DNA is conducting a special sale *until September 3rd* for
anyone who has been waiting for whatever reason to get a test. If you
have an FTDNA account you will want to order from within that account
because your DNA sample is presumable already in their hands. Otherwise
just go to:
familytreedna.com
and order the tests. The offers are as follows:
37 marker test @ $129 ($20 less than through the Wells project)
67 marker test @ $199
111 marker test @ 279
There is no change in the $99 charge for the Family Finder test (the
autosomal DNA test)
The 37 marker test plus the Family Finder test is $228. Yes, that is
the sum of the 37 marker test special price and the usual Family Finder
test.
The transfer is still $19 I have seen no evidence that upgrade from the
transfer to the 37 marker test is changed from $39.
I have seen no motivating reason to go beyond the 37 marker test for
most people IF they are among the 90% who match with other Wells
cousins. It is the folks who are "orphans" who might find the higher
numbers of markers useful or if you are trying to get some subtle marker
differences to narrow down to a particular branch of a family. But that
requires someone else in the project to also take the test with more
markers.
Order here:
https://www.familytreedna.com/products.aspx
*Adopting A Test*
If you are a relative or sponsor of someone who took a DNA test for the
Wells project or if you were the one who rustled up several cousins to
get tested but they never had the interest you had or the person has
died consider adopting their DNA test so we can move it to Family Tree
DNA with the project. To do so you will want to create a new account
with the order in that person's name but with your contact information.
Just follow the instructions I have sent earlier OR ask me.
*Ancestry PDF Files.*
I have downloaded all but 86 of the files from Ancestry now for those in
the Wells project. If you took y-DNA or mtDNA tests at ancestry you may
have until the end of September to get the PDF file before they shut the
access down.
The ones I have are for the folks who tested at BYU, SMGF (transferred
to Relative Genetics) or at Relative Genetics. These were transferred
when Ancestry acquired Relative Genetics. The remaining accounts have
had their original password changed from Welcome or Welcome1 to
something different. If you changed your password on one of these
accounts, please send me the new password and I will get the file for
you. It is a bit tedious if you have not done it a couple hundred times
as I have. I will be contacting those whose files I have not been able
to get in the next few days.
Anyone who actually tested at
dna.Ancestry.com and joined our project
after the Relative Genetics transfer have accounts I know nothing
about. We need you to download your PDF files before they are lost. I
will be trying to identify you folks and contact you about this but
please save me time and reach out to me first.
*Wells Project At Family Tree DNA*
We are starting to define groupings at family Tree DNA that reflect what
we have been doing since the original project was launched 14 years
ago. Each test will be placed in a sub-group matching the assigned
Family code (W001, W002 etc.) so someone can look at the tables on
Family Tree DNA and find out what family they are assigned to. Those we
can not place with one or more cousin will be left "unassigned".
We need more of you to initiate the transfers. There are several
base-line families for which it appears we still do not have anyone who
has opened a transfer account.
The urgency of getting the PDF files has relaxed because Ancestry will
give us to the end of September to get the files, but we need to do so
as soon as possible. There is no particular deadline for the transfer
at Family Tree DNA but if you don't want to have to enter your own data,
you need to get me your PDF file and set up the transfer file before we
initiate the mass data upload. That will probably take place early
October once it seems we have as many transfers set up as we are going
to get.
DO NOT try to enter your data markers despite what the box on the left
center of your account says you need to do. This will certainly result
in manual entry errors. It is just human nature. And there seems to be
no way to fix this once it happens. So leave the data entry part to me.
*Don't Want To Give Up Your Credit Card on line?*
I have had two of our participants send me the $19 to handle the
transfer payments and set up their accounts for them. I am good with
doing that for you. Please send the payment to
Orin Wells
PO Box 5427
Kent, WA 98064
*Help us With The Adoptions*
There are some tests where we know the participant is deceased. We had
people in their 80s participate in 2000 when we first started this
project and others who are no longer with us and we have nobody in their
family willing to continue the genealogy work for them. We want to
adopt as many of these tests as we can to bring them to Family Tree
DNA. If we have to priortize we will make certain there are
representative samples from each of the major base-line families. If
you would like to contribute to this effort, please send contributions
for that effort. I already had one person send $50. There are two ways
to do this. You can send the contribution to:
Wells Family Research Association
PO Box 5437
Kernt, WA 98064
Or if you DO want to use a credit card, go to the Wells project at
Family Tree DNA and contribute to the Fund at the bottom of the page.
Currently there is no money in that account, so anything that comes in
we will know is for this project OR if we get a lot of contributions we
will start a fund to again seek samples in England so those of us who
are still stumped as to where our ancestors originated in the British
Isles came from. I think if we can entice English genealogists to give
up their DNA where it is less expensive or free for them we may make
some headway. Those of you who got the free tests during phase 1 of
this project. It is a way to "pay it forward".
--
Orin Wells
253-630-5296