This time 2 years ago, letter codes instead of marker names were still
around, 21 markers was still the maximum and there was talk of building
a public Y-chromosome. To let everyone share and compare their results
with other genealogists, we built Ybase. After input and suggestions
mainly from Rootsweb's Genealogy-DNA mailing list and a little tweaking,
it found a home at http://www.ybase.org where everyone can freely enter into it and everyone can search it, irrespective of what company they were tested through. This ethos continues today.

We've added a mapping function today which gives users a graphical view of the Ybase entries. By giving coordinates to (a few of) the ancestral towns, we can begin to see where the paper trails stop. In the US, this
is very noticeably on the eastern coast. In Europe, the UK also has
lots of hits possibly hinting the genetic trails can be traced back to
the UK eventually. We'll add coordinates to the rest of the towns over
the next week or two.

You may note that the submission forms have a few extra fields, which
you can fill in when you next update your record.

The distribution maps can also be displayed when surnames or haplotypes are searched upon and the results presented graphically.

Admins in charge of large projects might additionally find the mapping
function useful for their own project - and see the distribution of
their ancestors around the world. We'll be providing an Excel file
shortly to more easily enter data for these larger projects. In keeping
with our ethos of treating each user the same, these files will accept
multiple results from RG, FTDNA, OA and DNAH customers.

-National DNA Day (US) - March 30th
Yesterday we saw the above day come and go. The US National Human
Genome Research Institute has put together educational material which
you might find useful - in particular, for those on broadband, the pages
at http://www.genome.gov/Pages/EducationKit/online.htm
have some excellent animated tutorials.

-Prize Draw
Every month we hold a prize draw of 5 full 43-marker tests. To enter,
you only have to place a text or graphical link to our home page of
http://www.dnaheritage.com and enter the linking page in our prize draw
entry form. 5 lucky people have already won themselves a full test each
so far. Have a web-page? Maybe your friends do. Give them the chance
of winning. It may decrease you own chances, but at least someone you
know might win!

-First Month
A big thank you to all of our DNA Heritage customers who have taken up
our re-launch promotional tests. After a big hiccup with the old lab,
we're excited about the association with our new testing facility. They
have a good track record in getting results out and have allowed us to
bring the largest test to the market. We now have more time to focus on
our customers and to get the word out to more people, raising the
visibility and acceptance of genetic genealogy in general.

The promotion has been a great success, with many people taking advantage of the promotional price - just $30 more than an FTDNA 25-marker test at the group-rate, but with 18 extra markers on top! As well as giving an
extraordinarily large number of markers with which to compare people,
and an increase in the confidence in the conclusions drawn, the new
markers should also have extra utility as time goes on as they are
beginning to be used in research labs around the globe. It might not be
too long before they are seen in population databases.

This next month will see us update parts of our website and allow people
to buy a fewer number of markers at a lower price to suit the pockets of
most, and we'll be allowing the re-creation of Surname Projects to make
managing groups that much easier. So that everything runs as smoothly
as possible from the start, we are still working behind the scenes to
get everything ready - as well as other things in the pipeline. You'll
be pleased to know that we've decided to extend the promotional kits to
an extra 75 on top of the 250 kits we had on offer, which will, crossed
fingers, give us time to complete the job!