DNA Newsletter August 2010

If you have been looking for the newsletter and failed to find it, that’s because we have not sent one since last April! In this long-overdue issue, we cover our major new product, the Neanderthal Index, the latest Jewish DNA research and various news such as the erupting controversy on American Indian DNA from the Middle East (see X files below).

Customer Comments of the Month

New Worlds of Exploration

This is the only test on the market in which the company goes through a lot of the painstaking footwork and searches for matches in databases for you. For me, it turned out that one match that was provided was a family from Holyoke, MA where I was born and my family lived...one of the family descendants was my best friend (although he did not bear my surname but the name Epstein). Our children, who deemed themselves to be sisters, turn out to be "cousins." Ah, the marvelous world of genealogy and DNA!

Eugene B. Berman, Enfield, CT

How Neanderthal Are You?

After blogging about it in “Most Humans Part Neanderthal,” we introduced a Neanderthal Index add-on to our DNA Fingerprint Test in May of this year. The new autosomal predictor of Neanderthal DNA in your genome based on matches with archaic populations like Basques and Berbers is a company exclusive and has sold well. You do not need to retest; just send us your name and report date and we will get yours under way. You can order online or call us at (480) 292-9820 (M-F 10-6 Pacific Time). We are planning on offering fine art prints of the Neanderthal man drawing we commissioned of New York artist Noli Novak, famed for her stipple headcuts for the Wall Street Journal.    

Jewish Genetics

Two major research articles on Jewish DNA appeared in June. As reported by Nicolas Wade in the New York Times, the studies settle an old controversy. One of the surveys of genomic DNA was conducted by Gil Atzmon of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Harry Ostrer of New York University and appears in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The other, led by Doron M. Behar of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa and Richard Villems of the University of Tartu in Estonia, is published in the journal Nature. The two teams reached similar conclusions independently and simultaneously. Their findings refute the long-standing contention that Jews “have no common origin but are a miscellany of people in Europe and Central Asia who converted to Judaism at various times.”

Critics of the new research findings point out that there are still no known markers for Jewish ancestry in genomic DNA. They obviously are not among our customers, however, since those who have purchased the 18 Marker Ethnic Panel available since last year are routinely screened for Jewish I, Jewish II and Jewish III. An explanation of these three autosomal markers was recently posted in DNA Communities, our sister site. If you haven’t added the panel and discovered whether you have Jewish markers, order it today with your customer discount!    

Road Trip

Principal Investigator Donald Yates met with leaders of the two Federally-recognized Cherokee tribes in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in late July. He discussed the ancient Greek origin and decipherment of the so-called Sequoyah syllabary with United Keetoowah Band Chief George Wickliffe, who is a language instructor and tribal historian as well as elected chief of the Keetoowah Cherokees. Chief Chad Smith of the better-known Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma was in Washington for the day. Yates met instead with aide Pat Ragsdale at tribal headquarters. The meetings were facilitated by mutual acquaintance Mack Bettis, who lives in Tulsa. Complimentary copies of the manuscript of Dr. Yates’ book Old Souls in a New World: Greeks, Jews and Egyptians in Native America and the Cherokee DNA Project, now in Phase II, are being prepared for both chiefs in addition to Larry Echo Hawk, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior, a key figure in Cherokee government who was in town for a family funeral.

Staff News

A big welcome to Kim R. de Beus, Assistant to the Principal Investigator.  Since 2005 she has worked in the criminal justice system, her current position being Policy and Statistical Analyst for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.  Kim has a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology and M.A. in the same field, both from Arizona State University.  Prior to criminal justice work she worked 20 years in the medical field for a large specialty practice focusing on patient care, triage and satisfaction.  We are happy that Kim is retiring from the criminal justice field to begin full-time work with DNA Consultants.  She will begin by managing a collaborative project with Jewish Voice Ministries International and serve as a DNA Communities moderator.

Belated Justice from Defunct Agency

Congratulations to the members of the Central Band of Cherokee, a Category 4 Bureau of Indian Affairs tribe scattered around the 1806 Congressional Reservation centered on Lawrenceburg in central Tennessee. The tribe under Chief Joe Sitting Owl White received official state recognition as an American Indian Tribe from the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs on June 19.  It operates the Cherokee Museum and Cultural Center located on Bell’s Route of the “Trail of Tears” at #1 Public Square in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee (zip code 38464). For more information, call (931) 762-3733. Members’ DNA results form part of our Cherokee collection, believed to be the largest such in the world.

 

 

 

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X Files

Watch DNA Consultants Principal Investigator and Native American historian and advocate Donald N. Yates, Ph.D. and author Rod L. Meldrum take on the controversy surrounding Haplogroup X from Barry McLerran and Rick Stout’s newly released documentary film The Lost Civilizations of North America. The wide-ranging video “destined to be a paradigm changer for many people” can be purchased on our site for $19.95. Did all North American Indians come across the Bering land-bridge tens of thousands of years ago or did some, including the Cherokee, originate more recently in the ancient Middle East? You decide.
 
The Lost Civilizations of North America (DVD) was released by North American Discoveries in Bountiful, Utah, and Acuity Productions in early August. Boasting exceptional quality production values, it appears to be the latest word on the controversy between academic anthropologists and so-called diffusionists. (Click to order)

Remember, you can use your special discount code dnaplus to get 10% off any order. You can also share that code with friends and family. So browse our tests or email us today!

Best regards,
The DNA Consultants Staff
Published by:
DNA Consultants
Home of the DNA Fingerprint Test
26438 N. 42nd Way
Phoenix , AZ 85050
Tel. toll free 888-806-2588
www.dnaconsultants.com