Archived Blog Posts

DNA tests to uncover Jewish origins have been offered for a decade by companies such as Houston-based Family Tree DNA.  However, most DNA tests have traditionally relied on only two small parts of the genome: the Y-chromosome and mtDNA.  These two...

Charles Byrne was a giant of a man for his times, 7 feet 7 inches tall.  He left his home in Ireland when he was 19 and traveled to London to make his fortune as a freak.  Charles died in 1783 and his skeleton was preserved by a surgeon.  Researchers in Britain...

Developments in the project from 15 December 2010 to 15 January 2011:

New Y-DNA results returned from the FTDNA lab for the following participants over the past month.   These participants were added to various groups as follows:

153938 was added to...

The following tests were underway at FTDNA as of 15 January 2011:

Due Date, Batch #, Kit #, Type of Test

01/19/2011, 389, 76446, Family Finder

01/19/2011, 389, 191679, Super DNA and Deep Clade R

01/24/2011, 387, 184013, Y-DNA 67

02/02/2011, 391,...

Apparently there is going to be an effort to extract DNA from the Flores hominin, nicknamed the "hobbit", a three foot tall extinct distant relative of modern humans.  Read more about it here at Dienekes' Anthropology Blog.