Genebase was temporarily down from 3:15 PM to 11:20PM PST on Wednesday December 24.  The site is now back up.

November 20, 2008

Y-DNA Haplogroup R Subclade testing has launched.  This test examines a panel of 27 SNP markes which are specific for 27 subclades of Y-DNA Haplogroup R.  Individuals who are confirmed members of Y-DNA Haplogroup R or have a ”strong” R prediction based on the results of the Y-DNA STR tests will qualify for this upgrade.   

New Genetic Tests Launched September 2008:

• September 19, 2008, Y-DNA Haplogroup L Subclade Panel - For confirmed members of Y-DNA Haplogroup L to further refine their L subclade.  Now available!
• September 22, 2008, Y-DNA Haplogroup J Subclade Panel - For confirmed members of Y-DNA Haplogroup J to further refine their J Subclade.  Now available!
• September 24, 2008, Y-DNA STR 91 Marker Upgrade - Uncover up to 91 STR markers in the Y-DNA for unprecedented resolution in Y-DNA comparisons.  Individuals who have 20, 44 or 67 markers will be able to order the upgrade test.  Now available!

New Genetic Tests Launched October and November 2008:

• Y-DNA Haplogroup G Subclade Panel.  Now available!
• Y-DNA Haplogroup E Subclade Panel.  Available Oct 30, 2008, now available!
• Y-DNA Haplogroup R (R1a, R2, R1b) Subclade Panel.  Available November 20, 2008, now available!
• Y-DNA Haplogroup I Subclade Panel.  Available Oct 30, 2008, now available!

Coming up!  New Genetic Tests Available December 2008

• Y-DNA Subclade Q Panel.  Available December 22, 2008
• Y-DNA Subclade O Panel. 

An announcement will be posted here once each test is launched and users will be able to access the tests at the Genebase Store. 

The DNA browsing feature at Genebase has been updated today.  Check it out by logging in to your account and clicking “My DNA”.

The new DNA browser will allow you to view all of the tests that you have taken in one place.

Please give this update a try!  This update is especially helpful for those members who are tracing multiple lines and want to consolidate all of their tests at one location. 

The tree merge feature has been updated to allow individuals to merge their accounts into existing family trees. 

To merge your account into an existing family tree, go to the tree, find your name/profile in the tree, go to the profile page, and click the “activate profile” link. 

This feature is especially useful for individuals from the same family tree who have started separate and accounts and want to link the existing accounts into a single family tree.

The Y-DNA STR marker table will be updated later today from Version 3.3 to Version 3.4.  Click here to view the STR marker table with the corresponding motifs counted for Version 3.4 at Genebase. 

Please note that you will not need to do anything to upgrade to Version 3.4.  All markers in the database will be automatically updated to the counting system used in Version 3.4 and all new markers added to the database will be Version 3.4. 

To follow is a summary of changes to the marker table for this upgrade:

GEDCOM upload feature has been updated:

1.  Prior to August 18, 2008, the GEDCOM upload was not able to distinguish between living and deceased individuals and uploaded all individuals as deceased because status is not a GEDCOM field.  The user had to go back into the tree to manually change deceased people back to living after the upload is complete.  The new GEDCOM upload has a greatly improved filtering system to estimate the status of individuals in your upload.  If you had previously uploaded a GEDCOM prior to Aug 18, 2008 and had not yet linked it to your profile (ie not yet converted it to primary), we would recommend re-uploading your GEDCOM.

2.  GEDCOM uploads after Aug 18, 2008 contain more detailed date information.  If you uploaded your GEDCOM prior to Aug 18, 2008 and have not yet linked it to your profile, we recommend re-uploading.

3.  Improved linking of GEDCOM files.  The merge wizard has been improved to allow users to more easily integrate and merge GEDCOMs into their existing account. 

Please give these new features a try if they are applicable to you.

A new Help Center is now available.  Commonly asked questions will constantly be added to the Help Center.  To get to the Help Center, click the “help” link at the top of the page or the “Help Center” link at the bottom of the page.  Users can browse topics in the Help Center or search for answers using the search feature.  If an answer to your question cannot be found, you can submit a ticket to us using the ticket system provided in the Help Center. 

To view the results of your tickets, go to the Help Center and click the “View Tickets” link.

Two new testing panels are now available: 

1.  mtDNA H Subclade SNP Test - This is an upgrade test for individuals who are confirmed members of Haplogroup H wishing to refine their results.  Click here to find out more about this test panel. 

2.  Y-DNA STR 44 to 67 marker upgrade - This is an upgrade test for individuals who have 44 Y-DNA STR markers and would like to upgrade to 67 markers to increase their resolution.  Click here to find out more about the Y-DNA STR test panel. 

The Y-DNA STR 20 marker panel has been upgraded to include markers from the Y-44 panel that are most useful for the DNA clans indigenous research database.  This upgrade allows users with only 20 markers to maximize the number of populations that they can search using the indigenous DNA database.  All new Y-20 participants will be tested using the new panel.  Existing participants will be automatically upgraded to the new panel at no charge, but the upgrade will take place over an extended period of time due to the large number of participants in the system.  If you have any questions or would like to opt out of the upgrade, please contact us at support@genebase.com.  Please note that this upgrade only applies to Y-20 participants.  Please note that once the upgrade takes place, your “overlapping” markers will change for comparisons as you will be searching using a slightly different marker set.

The navigation bar on the left side of the Genebase main page has been updated to allow better access to the DNA Ancestry features.  The vertical navigation bar now allows Users to click directly in “Paternal Line” or “Maternal Line”.  Also, Users can now access the “Ancestry Tools” section directly from the same vertical navigation bar.