DNA Day, celebrated on April 25th each year, honors the discovery of the DNA double helix by James Watson and Frances H. C. Crick, and the beginning of DNA research as we know it. But, more immediately for us, it’s an excuse for all the DNA testing companies to offer great price-saving deals. If you were thinking of taking a DNA test, now is a great time to save some money.
The companies always reduce their fees during events such as this, as well as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, during the summer, and around the Christmas holiday. Check out the websites for Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and MyHeritage for deals this week or even special one-day-only deals tomorrow.
One of the companies. FamilyTreeDNA, promotes various projects, as their site describes: “Projects create opportunities for people to work with others to explore their common genetic heritage. Family Tree DNA encourages customers’ participation in projects. Membership is free and voluntary.”
One of the projects they promote is the Robbins/Robins DNA project. Their website is: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/robins/about. There are no restrictions on membership in this project and while the focus is on Y-DNA (passed from father to son), the results from mitochondrial (passed from mother to children) and autosomal (the DNA we receive from both of our parents) tests can also be included in the project’s results. That’s good news for those of us who are not Robbins surnamed males – our Robbins descent comes down one of the many other lines of our family tree – who otherwise would not be able to use Y-DNA results to trace a direct male-Robbins ancestry. I’m no expert in DNA and genealogy, despite attending lectures and seminars (such as the one last week my local genealogy society put on), and am always learning something new about it’s complex role in genealogy.
DNA projects and research are an important focus of today’s family history, but the science goes hand in hand with the paper trail that genealogists develop from their research.
Robbins Roots 
Thanks for sharing this information. I’ve been wanting to do this but haven’t been sure what to get. I re-reviewed the page and it sounds like my dad would have to do the test (male) and we’d need the Y67 kit minimum. Is this correct? Anyone here tried this?
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Someone with more expertise than me hopefully will respond but with DNA (FamilyTreeDNA specifically that is) it’s always best to test for as much as you can afford. I’ve only gone as far as the Y37 because I don’t have a Y-DNA project that I’m part of (there are only a handful of us Mittges around) and it’s not been particularly helpful. With a more common name like Robbins, with deep American roots, I would think you would get quite a lot of information and matches, even at higher levels like Y111. (Then there’s the Big Y test but that’s out of reach. financially, for a lot of us). I would contact the administrator of the project for more information.
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