Dear All,

Recent visitors to Ybase (at http://www.ybase.org) will have noticed some changes, most noticeably some fancy new graphics. The Ybase site has been running for just about 2 years now and, as the first publicly-available Y-chromosome database, I hope has helped people to share their results and interest in genetic genealogy with others. But it needed a well-deserved makeover.

A major new part of Ybase that has been launched today are the Ybase Forums.

The central forum is the "'Genetic Genealogy' for Newbies" forum. This is designed to focus on how DNA can help reconstruct family trees using real-world examples. It's intended to be a low-to-medium knowledge level forum and will only touch lightly on haplogroups (given that haplogroups are not relevant to surname comparisons). mtDNA and how this relates to maternal lines will also be included.

Genetic genealogy doesn't have to be confusing and this new forum is for those reading the "Genealogy-DNA for Dummies" book rather than the "Advanced Manual".

Aside from the main forum, there are the Surname forums. These have been set up as a medium for discussing 'genetic genealogy' with people of the same and similar sounding surnames. There are currently just over 500 forums set-up which contain several thousand surnames and their spelling variants (about 2,500 last names in all). These numbers will be added to as we create new forums for particular groups of surnames already under study and if any readers have a request to start a new surname forum, then this can be made also. If you just want to study the 'Havers and Havvers of North Carolina', then this can be started for you.

Each forum can have it's own Moderator and is actively encouraged. This will usually be a person who is already keen on using DNA for their surname research. I'd say the majority of people on this list would fit in that category! If you have a request to start your own DNA/surname forum, please do ask (http://www.ybase.org/createaforum.asp) or you can run one of the existing forums.

These forums can be used as an extension of your own website too (if you have one) as a great way of keeping in touch and letting others provide their input.

Lots of people who are starting up (or thinking of starting up) a DNA/Surname Project don't yet have a website and thus it can often be a little difficult to keep in contact with interested people - especially the people who are undecided. Give them the link to the forum - they can pop in and out whenever they need to. They can also subscribe to particular topics too. As an example, the link to the Adams and Addams Forum is http://www.ybase.org/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=3

For people who already have an existing Ybase record, you will have to register separately in the forums. This makes the administration side easier and lets you choose your own Username and profile details. You can of course link to your own record in your profile using a similar link to http://www.ybase.org/full.asp?RecordID=F977C (just change the last few letters to your own Record ID).

Alastair Greenshields
Principal
DNA Heritage