Archives

Congratulations to DNAadoption on its anniversary

Jul14

You do not have to be an adoptee to benefit from a class on DNAadoption.com – they have several one day classes which are introductions, explaining how to use your results, tailored to each specific vendor. They also have a longer basics course and many more advanced courses.

Diane, Tim Janzen, and Kitty at the 2013 Rootstech

Diane, Tim Janzen, and Kitty at the 2013 Rootstech

The inimitable Diane Harman-Hoog wrote a blog post today announcing the two year anniversary of their classes. Along with Karin Corbeil and Rob Warthen, Diane has taken DNA adoption searches into the electronic age with online courses and much more information available on that site. The many success stories bring tears to my eyes.  A few are here – http://www.dnaadoption.com/index.php?page=reunions and more can be found in the archives of the DNAadoption yahoo group.

I got to meet Diane at the 2013 Rootstech conference along with expert genetic genealogist Tim Janzen and many other wonderful people I had corresponded with via email. Needless to say I keep going back to that conference; of course, the location next to the great genealogy library in Salt Lake City has something to do with that also!

Rob Warthen has written some wonderful tools that benefit all of us genetic genealogists that are hosted over at DNAgedcom.com and are linked to from the DNA adoption site.

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Talking about Triangulation

Jul9

Next Thursday, July 16, I will give my presentation on using triangulation with autosomal DNA test results over in Carlsbad for DIG, the DNA Interest Group of the North San Diego County Genealogical Society (click here for the where and when). This was last given at the Jamboree and might be given at the next Rootstech.

TriangulationSlidesMy slides are online, but without my speech, they are not much use. However I have written up the words that are meant to accompany them in my downloads area

I like to use examples from my own research in my talks to illustrate the “how tos.” My blog post on triangulation from earlier this year does just that, specifically discussing the case of a possible third cousin once removed, postulated from the paper trail, and then proven with DNA triangulation. Other cases discussed include unknown DNA relatives matching at the same spots.

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The SCGS Jamboree is this week! Including DNA day Plus!

Jun1

The fun Southern California Genealogy conference in Burbank starts this Thursday. It includes a whole day dedicated to DNA! Many talks will be live streamed. Plus there are a few DNA presentations on other days and, of course, an exhibit hall.

SCGS-Genealogy-Jamboree--20

I have been working hard on my presentations which are on DNA day Thursday, plus I will be at a round table on Friday. This has seriously cut into my making blog posts. I have no less than three in progress articles waiting for me to have more time.

See the schedule for DNA day here: http://genealogyjamboree.com/2015/DNAday.html

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New DNA Relationship Statistics from Blaine Bettinger

May29

The question I often see is are we really 2nd or 3rd or 4th cousins? The answer is usually “maybe.” A 2nd-4th cousin designation by your testing company is purposefully vague. Best to look at the amount of shared cMs in segments greater than 7cM, number of segments, and the sizes of those segments; plus, of course, who else this new DNA relative matches!

DNA inheritance gets more and more random the further away the relationship is. The amount of DNA you share with someone more distant than a 3rd cousin is impossible to predict and even those 2nd and 3rd cousins seem highly variable. So the statistical study conducted by genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger is deeply appreciated by all of us hunting down the relationships with our DNA connections.

Shared DNA statistics from Blaine Bettinger

Shared DNA statistics from Blaine Bettinger, used by permission

Blaine has created this beautiful chart. His blog has several posts explaining the study which is the source of these new statistics. See http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2015/05/29/the-shared-cm-project/ for all his posts on this study. I had previously discussed his project when recruiting people to add their statistics; apparently he is still taking in statistics so click here to add yours.

Would you like to hear me talk?

May13

If you would like to hear me talk, I am doing two presentations in the San Diego area this weekend. One is genealogy related and  the other is on Jewish DNA.

OWOTOn Saturday morning at 10:30, I am giving my talk about The Advantages of Working with a One World Tree  for the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego  which meets over on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. Click on the image to get to my online slide deck. The notes and handout for this talk are in my downloads area.

I will explain why I think the best way to preserve your wonderful genealogical research is to contribute it to a One World Tree. Then I will tell you what I love about the trees at GENI, WikiTree, and FamilySearch, as well as what can be improved at each. Click on this link for more details: http://www.cgssd.org/

The other talk is on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla.  It is on a subject I find fascinating and difficult: how to use DNA testing for genealogy when you have Jewish ancestry. I will lead in with some basics about DNA testing. See the San Diego Jewish Genealogy web site at http://www.sdjgs.org/ for more details.

Frankly those of us that have even one Ashkenazi grandparent, like myself, look like a 4th or 5th cousin to almost every other person of European Jewish descent. This makes it very hard to work with these tests.

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