Ethical Genealogy

-
Have you heard of the new book by journalist Libby Copeland: The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are. American Ancestors and the Boston Public Library had an interview and Q & A with her this week, full of stories and insight.

I was struck by the advice from one of the "search angels" in her book, who says that she no longer tries to persuade people to DNA test. After hearing Judy Russell's webinar DNA Rights and Wrongs: The Ethical Side of Testing, I think I would have to agree. To our cousins or others we would like to test, we owe a complete description of what testing entails, and we need to offer them fine-grained choices such as: 
  • whether their profile will have their name or an anonymised nickname,
  • what email will be associated with a kit,
  • whether or not they will allow sharing of the test results, and to whom,
  • whether or not they want to access the test results,
  • if there are unexpected results, do they want to know those results? and so much more.

On her blog Forming Consent, Judy Russell offers some help to us as we discuss and assess these choices. First, the Board for Certification of Genealogists offer the Genealogists' Code of Ethics: https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/code/. In my opinion, every genealogist should read and consider carefully this code, whether or not you plan to certify with BCG. You can download a copy of the code at the bottom of the page.

To get specific about DNA testing, there is the Genetic Genealogy Standards, drawn up by many leaders in the field, such as CeCe Moore, Blaine Bettinger, Angie Bush, Ann Turner and Debbie Parker Wayne, to name a few with whom I am familiar. Again, the standard is available to download from the site.

Blaine T. Bettinger has provided freely a checklist you can provide to your prospective test-taker to clarify their preferences. I personally would add a question about allowing (or not) access to kit results by law enforcement. Judy Russell's blog post also links to Beneficiary Designation Form by Bettinger, a Consent Form for a Project by Debbie Parker Wayne and a  Consent Form for a Family Member also by Wayne. Depending on your research plan, any or all of these could be useful to you.

You might want to read more about informed consent at Before we buy that kit…

By the way, I've not yet read The Lost Family. I have asked the King County Library system to buy a copy.

Valorie Zimmerman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a...
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int...
Read more