This Week's DNA News for DNA Researchers

For people interested in DNA:  Here are three situations that are brewing in the DNA community.  I will lead with the Family Tree Maker situation because I have not mentioned it before, then continue to Ancestry’s change to the centiMorgan threshold for DNA matching to 8 cM, and then the GEDmatch/MyHeritage breach.

#1  Family Tree Maker experienced an unrelated breach last weekend.  Ancestry has announced that Family Tree Maker’s breach did not affect data on Ancestry.com.  I am not a Family Tree Maker user so I have not received personal information about this.  Also, my regular bloggers are not talking about it.

#2  From our meeting, Ancestry’s change to increase the centiMorgan threshold for DNA matching to 8 cM.  A summary from our June 20 Genies minutes starts here:

Ancestry has announced that in August of this year, it will be removing DNA matches of fewer than 8 centiMorgan (cM).  They have announced it will be late August. It currently reports DNA matches down to 6 cMs. What we will be getting, they say, is more accurate reporting of segments and the length of the longest segment.

What we will lose is access to potential matches with family trees that can be helpful, despite the low numbers. Judith says if you wish to retain matches with 8 or lower cMs, you will need to do one of the following:

· Assign your DNA match a color dot

· Contact the DNA match link directly

· Have a note in place for that DNA match

Where are dots? The dots can be found on the DNA match list on the right side by the note.  They are used to assign family connections (e.g., maternal matches = green, paternal matches = blue). There are 24 color choices to enable sub-group matching. Matches can then be viewed as a group. Judith suggested looking at your common ancestor lists and making sure you have dots assigned for all, especially those as low as 6-8 cM.  (end minutes)

If you have kits for any people in older generations, that is the place to preserve the small-segment matches.  This is especially true if you have parents, aunts, or uncles.  For example, I have my mother’s brother and my father’s brother.  They have segments similar to mine but technically they should be larger than mine.  I do almost all my DNA research in their kits.

This blogpost from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings gives detailed descriptions of the changes he made to preserve the small segments: https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/07/ancestrydna-changes-coming-soon-what-im.html

Roberta Estes, a most-experienced genetic genealogist, wrote here:  https://dna-explained.com/2020/07/16/ancestry-to-remove-dna-matches-soon-preservation-strategies-with-detailed-instructions/.  Indeed, she has again given very detailed instructions.  You can skip to Preservation near the end. 

For the future, the DNA blogger I like for timely, concise news is Dr. Leah Larkin at https://thednageek.com/blog/.   Dana has a good blog about which small-segment matches to save and especially instructions about how to save Thrulines matches.

#3  Breach at GEDmatch, a third-party DNA provider owned by Verogen.  I reported that the problem on July 19 was not a security breach but now it is being reported as an “attack”.  The website was down for multiple days and now the website has this message.

We have completed a thorough review of the site for security vulnerabilities and have made changes where appropriate to ensure the security of your data. If you note any issues that are of concern, please submit a request tracker ticket for resolution. For our Tier 1 members we will be extending your membership by 1 week.

They engaged a cybersecurity consultant to identify the attacker and motive plus to secure the GEDmatch website from future attacks.  The notification to users from Verogen is at the end of this post. 

In addition, there appears to have been a “malicious phishing attempt” affecting GEDmatch users who downloaded their DNA from MyHeritage to GEDmatch.  So far the assumption is that the GEDmatch attacker was able to steal email addresses.  They sent emails to MyHeritage users with a link to a MyHeritage look-alike site asking for users to login so they could get their passwords.  The link is to myheritaqe.com.  Hard to notice that they substituted a lower-case Q for the g in MyHeritage.  MyHeritage has been promoting their two-factor authentication for quite some time to guard against this sort of hack.

Caution:  Be alert for fake emails from any of the companies but especially one that you downloaded to GEDmatch.  Change your password if you downloaded your DNA to GEDmatch.

The MyHeritage blogpost is here.  They are not aware of any data compromised on MyHeritage.

Also, Ancestry.com calls for us to use their security feature called “two-step verification”.

 

Email from the management at Verogen:

Dear GEDmatch member,

 On the morning of July 19, GEDmatch experienced a security breach orchestrated through a sophisticated attack on one of our servers via an existing user account. We became aware of the situation a short time later and immediately took the site down. As a result of this breach, all user permissions were reset, making all profiles visible to all users. This was the case for approximately 3 hours. During this time, users who did not opt-in for law enforcement matching were available for law enforcement matching, and, conversely, all law enforcement profiles were made visible to GEDmatch users.

 On Monday, July 20, as we continued to investigate the incident and work on a permanent solution to safeguard against threats of this nature, we discovered that the site was still vulnerable and made the decision to take the site down until such time that we can be absolutely sure that user data is protected against potential attacks. It was later confirmed that GEDmatch was the target of a second breach in which all user permissions were set to opt-out of law enforcement matching.

 We can assure you that your DNA information was not compromised, as GEDmatch does not store raw DNA files on the site. When you upload your data, the information is encoded, and the raw file deleted. This is one of the ways we protect our users’ most sensitive information.

 Further, we are working with a leading cybersecurity firm to conduct a comprehensive forensic review and help us implement the best possible security measures. We expect the site will be up within the next day or two.

 We have reported the unauthorized access to the appropriate authorities and continue to work toward identifying the individuals responsible for this criminal act.

 Today, we were informed that MyHeritage customers who are also GEDmatch users were the target of a phishing scam. Please remember to exercise caution when opening emails and clicking links. Never provide sensitive information via email. If an email seems suspicious, contact the company in question directly through the phone number or email address listed on their website, not via a reply to the suspicious email. You can reach GEDmatch at gedmatch@verogen.com or (858) 285-4101. At this time, we have no evidence to suggest the phishing scam is a result of the GEDmatch security breach this week. We are continuing to investigate the incident.

 Please be assured that we take these matters very seriously. Our Number 1 responsibility is to protect the data of our users. We know we have not lived up to this responsibility this week, and we are working hard to regain your trust. We apologize for the concern and frustration this situation has caused.

 Sincerely,

Brett Williams
CEO, Verogen Inc.

 

Minutes from July 20, 2020 Meeting

FERNDALE GENIES MEETING MINUTES

 

DATE: July 20, 2020

IN ATTENDANCE:  Judith C; Sylvia W; Bill R; Rick; Linda B; Peggy; Elizabeth D; Susan M; Judy S, Judy B;

CHECK INS

Sylvia has not worked much on genealogy this month, busy with gardening and other projects. She recommended that people study how all censuses work, UK and US and how they can be mined for good information once you know what symbols, numbers and abbreviations in each column mean. She gave the example of studying the 1840 UK census for one ancestral family and finding out how single and double forward slashes told you who was living in the same building but separately, and when the next building’s occupant list began, as the 1840 UK census doesn’t give house numbers.

Judy S reported sad news about a cousin 2xR who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She is trying to get him to save everything and talks with him to jog his memory about details. She is responding to messages on My Heritage and learning about a potential ancestor who was a Lt. Governor of S. Carolina after Reconstruction.

Peggy has had a couple of things happen. She has found information about her gt. Grandmother’s sister with whom the family had lost contact and has received lots of clues about the family. She was given a handwritten family journal that was begun in 1852 and kept for many years which has proven to be a wonderful resource.

Judy B reported that her husband’s grandfather kept diaries starting before his marriage in 1906 with fascinating entries. This prompted a discussion on the importance of transcribing such resources as handwritten diaries and letters and giving them to various organizations. Which ones might be interested? Suggestions included: local historical societies, state universities, Family Search centers, etc.

Bill says he is setting aside time each week to work on genealogy. He asked the group about scanning documents. He has two family bibles with all the family dates entered, one starting in the 1840’s and the other in the 1870’s. How can you safely scan from an old, delicate, large format book? Suggestions included a local museum or library, no-touch scanning with iPhone, National or state Archives, and the central library in Seattle which has an active genealogy department as well as being a Family Search Center, that is likely to have the tools. Judy S offered that Elizabeth Joffrion at Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, is a good resource. The phone number is: 360-650-3283.

Rick is trying to see if he can restart his Ancestry subscription. AARP offers a special on a 6-month World subscription, but Rick does not want the World subscription and will look for alternatives to rejoining. Other ways to access Ancestry were discovered, such as library and historical society subscriptions. These free public subscriptions are usually limited to being able to use the research tools only, not being able to update or get hints for your tree, and no access to your DNA information. Meanwhile, Rick and his wife have been busy moving into their new home and have been exposed to COVID-19 during this process. Rick reports that he is asymptomatic and that his wife has had mild symptoms but is on the mend. We wish them continued recovery and good health!

Linda B says she has not done much research this month. She has an old cookbook from her mother, who loved to bake. She found it very interesting how old recipes were kept and used. She is still looking for the site of her grandmother’s burial plot. She is trying to find a photo of her grandfather’s plot to see whether her grandmother is there too.  She reports that the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison is a great resource for anyone looking into families who settled in Wisconsin.

Elizabeth D found a fascinating story about a man looking for a birth father who was an American GI during the war, and how he was found through DNA technology. She is going through boxes and sending her children photos and reminders of their childhood.

Susan M is continuing to recover from knee surgery. Like Elizabeth, she is working on albums for her children. Good luck with the knee recovery Susan!

Judith reminded us that this is the 6^th anniversary of our Ferndale Genies! Judith has been working on her understanding of DNA and showed us the book: Your DNA Guide: The Book by Diane Southard. She has a website called Your DNA Guide and this is a companion book. It is expensive, at $50 but Judith feels it is very useful and likes the way it is constructed. It comes across as “very conversational” as if she is talking to you directly. Diane Southard uses a method of helping you create your own plan to do your own research. It is not about using chromosomes but about using clustering and shared matches. She asks questions that most people ask and sends you to the pages you need.

PRESENTATION

Judith Culver presented her project, which is writing her memoirs and publishing it online for family. She first determined that her audience would be her grandchildren. She then decided to set it up as a chapter book, chronologically, with each chapter representing a period in her own childhood. Her father was in the military and the family had moved a lot, so she included a map showing all the places she had lived as a child. Photos of her and her family, as well as photos of objects, items of interest, etc., referred to in the story were included. Judith said it is hard to decide what pictures to include and how – labeling is necessary as is resizing and repositioning. She learned how to use text boxes.

Judith talked about actual publishing of a memoir. There are complications to formal publication, such as copyright of any pictures scanned or found on the web, printing in color vs. black and white. There are several publishing tools on the internet such as Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Sharing Stories. For now, Judith has chosen to publish her work by sending it to her family members as a Word document. She sends it a chapter at a time and reports that her grandchildren are very excited and are always looking forward to the next installment!

FURTHER INFORMATION AND BUSINESS

Judith reported that there had been a scare on the internet that GEDMATCH had been compromised by a breach. It sounded very bad initially, involving resetting of passwords, privacy, etc. She thinks it does not appear to be as dire as first presented and will be following the story, but for now we should not panic. We might wait on using it or joining, but it is unlikely to be a problem.

Of more importance is that Ancestry has announced that in August of this year, it will be removing DNA matches of fewer than 8 centimorgans (cM). It currently reports DNA matches down to 6 cMs. What we will be getting, they say, is more accurate reporting of segments and the length of the longest segment. What we will lose is access to potential matches with family trees that can be helpful, despite the low numbers. Judith says if you wish to retain matches with 8 or lower cMs, you will need to do one of the following:

·         Assign your DNA match a color dot

·         Contact the DNA match link directly

·         Have a note in place for that DNA match

Where are dots? The dots can be found next to the information about the DNA match and are used in order to assign family connections (e.g., maternal matches = green, paternal matches = blue). There are several color choices to enable sub-group matching. Matches can then be viewed as a group. Judith suggested looking at your common ancestor lists and making sure you have dots assigned for all, especially those as low as 6-8 cM.

Judith reported that despite closures, the Family Search folk have been extremely busy. All employees are working, with safety measures in place, digitizing and indexing records, so take a look at their website as new additions are taking place all the time. She is especially happy about their work on Family Search Wiki. Individuals are not able to update information. You must suggest/request an update. Their professional will do it. The library in Utah is also being updated and improved.

Please note that the Skagit Valley Genealogy Society uses Zoom for meetings. Members ($15 annual fee) can join and can bring a guest. There are two meetings each month, held on Saturdays. Check their website for information and topics. Upcoming on Saturday, July 25 is a series called “Journeys across America” where members talk about the trips they have taken. The August 8 meeting will continue the series.

A great resource for archived materials is: Archive Grid. Website: https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/.

NEXT MEETING: Monday, August 17, 2020 at 1:00 via Zoom.

 

 

 

July 20 Meeting

Another month has zoomed by.  Pun intended.  Please join us Monday.  If you haven’t used Zoom yet, it is not too late to get a Zoom introduction from me.  Don’t hesitate, just email.

_________________________________________________

Zoom Invitation

Topic: Ferndale Genies

Time: Jul 20, 2020 1:00 PM Pacific Time (Virtual doors open at 12:50.)  No chairs to set up.

 

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85158859219?pwd=TVhrd25Oam5qUUNmYUxnWnVaTlhwUT09

 

Meeting ID: 851 5885 9219

Password: 346776

 

At the meeting I’ll talk about my writing.  I finally shared Chapter 1 of my life story with my 10-year-old granddaughter Lyla.  Her email response warmed my heart: 

 

I LOVED the story it was awsome

I have to say you were adorable when you were a

Baby. And your mother and father, June and Sandy.

 

There have been various studies about the value to young people of knowing about their families and ancestors’ stories.  It gives them resilience and persistence to know that their ancestors confronted obstacles and overcame them.  In this Wall Street Journal article https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-benefits-of-retelling-family-stories-11573468201 they found “less anxiety and fewer behavior problems” and I think that’s pretty good too. 

 

Here’s a fun freebie from Thomas MacEntee, 10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Genealogy https://genealogybargains.s3.amazonaws.com/10+Ways+to+Jumpstart+Your+Genealogy.pdf

We’ll talk about that too.

 

I also bought a new book.  You know I don’t do that very often and I have been eyeing this book ever since RootsTech.  As usual, I waited until there were no more special deals. And, by the way, if you have any of my books, please identify yourself.  I don’t need them back; I would just like to know where they are.

 

Bring your ideas for show and tell and I’ll see you there.