diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index ea7f7b5..ab9cc09 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: forrel
 Title: Forensic Pedigree Analysis and Relatedness Inference
-Version: 1.6.0.9000
+Version: 1.6.1
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Magnus Dehli", "Vigeland", , "m.d.vigeland@medisin.uio.no", role = c("aut", "cre"),
            comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-9134-4962")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 8384dff..5096cb0 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+# forrel 1.6.1
+
+* Functions facilitating interaction with the Familias software have been moved to a dedicated package, **pedFamilias**. However, `readFam()` and `writeFam()` will continue to be re-exported from **forrel** for some time.
+
+* Remove dependency of **pedmut**.
+
+* In `kinshipLR()`, improve checking of argument `markers`.
+
+
 # forrel 1.6.0
 
 ## New features