On Monday, April 25th, we’ll be celebrating the 63rd anniversary of the discovery of the structure of the DNA double-helix by scientists James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. Looking back it is easy to see what a true revolution this was for modern biology, genetics and, yes, genealogy.
Today, DNA testing is becoming an integral part of rigorous genealogical research and prestigious journals are turning down papers when the genealogical question being addressed calls for DNA evidence and it wasn’t included in the research. Who could have seen this coming just 15 short years ago??
For the next few days it will be a little cheaper to purchase those DNA test kits thanks to the annual sales associated with this anniversary. “DNA Day Sales” are underway effective April 21st and will run through 11:59 PM on April 26th. With both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day coming up soon and summer reunions on the horizon now is your best chance to stock up.
The sale price for the most popular (and most complicated) tests – autosomal DNA kits are $79 at both AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA. There is currently no sale announced for kits from 23andMe (which doubled in price last fall to $199).
There are even bigger sales with FamilyTreeDNA’s many options for Y-chromosome (paternal) DNA tests – some as much as $69-$105. And the price of their best mitochondrial (maternal) DNA test has been reduced by $50 for the sale.
Here is a table of all of the sales we know about (let us know at library@vtgenlib.org if anyone finds others):
So don’t delay if you are considering buying a test kit soon. These prices only last until midnight on Tuesday!!
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