Generated with AI Bing Image Creator 10 April 202, 8:46 PM If you have been thinking about using DNA in your family history research, but are not sure how useful it could be, or how to go about it, parts of this post may help.  If you have been using DNA a little, but are not finding it helpful, perhaps this post will change your mind.  Or  you have been using it, but are having trouble applying findings to the rest of your research, read on.  If you don't understand how to use the dot system to help you in your research goals, watch this Youtube (under 7 minutes):  AncestryDNA Dot System: How to Use It!   Large-size DNA Mystery Match? Don't give up hope! You have a solid foundation of research if you have: Tested on AncestryDNA, and connected yourself on your tree to your test ,  Built much of your line of interest from ancestors down to the living generation, and  Applied the dot system to all matches down to  ~25-30cM. Gold Ring Proce...

Backup icon by ByLUTFI GANI AL ACHMAD You can find articles everywhere that computer users might read, urging us all to back up our trees, our files, our DNA matches, etc.  One of our members recently brought this up in our Genealogy Chat after discussing the future of the genealogy DNA industry, which is slowing, thus making  less money for  the companies offering these services.   Back Up Your Tree If they did not back them up, Ancestry.com Y and mtDNA testers lost access to their test results and matches  as of September 30, 2014 . So there are examples of this happening before.  All of the genealogy tree-building sites offer a way to back up your bare-bones tree via a GEDCOM, which is a simple text file. If you also want to download your images and other records, you will need instead to"sync" your files using a desktop genealogy application which uploads to and downloads from the online trees. Your DNA Guide has an article comparing what is o...

DNA Dot Reform Last night I removed all my AncestryDNA ®  dots.  And then, started over. This was years of work removed, but after watching Diahan Southard's " The 5 Steps to Organizing Your DNA in 2023 ," I had to do it.  After studying Research Like A Pro , I've reformed my research practices, and heading into Research Like a Pro With DNA , I want to do that with DNA too, because it is a  really valuable record source. I realized I had been using the dots only as labels, not as filters which Southard's simple how-to enables. I'm using Ancestry as an example; the techniques will work elsewhere of course. Dot Groups as Filters Once the dots were gone, I created four groups, one for each of my great grandparent couples. Here is the view of the near end of my pedigree. I've blurred all but my great-greats, and boxed each couple to show what Southard proposes: Valorie's great-grandparent couples So my first four groups are: Cowan-McPherson, Schell-Anders...

Courtesy of Pixabay Let your family story sparkle! Tell the Story Why do we do all this family history research? My answer is, to tell the story. If we do good research, the family legends are supported by records we find, and we make the story interesting with maps, newspaper articles, photos and other artifacts, and whatever else we can find. While telling the story, we cite our sources in a way that helps other researchers retrace our steps, whether to a book, records in archives, or online site. DNA Evidence But what if there are no legends? And few records, or we're looking for an unknown ancestor? These challenges can often be overcome with the use of DNA testing and matching. It can be challenging to use this data in a way that is interesting and in a way that allows others to follow our footsteps.  Fortunately, there are some companies working hard to make DNA testing painless, and using the data much easier than it was years ago. There are also wonderful tools helping us i...

Wikimedia Commons [Valorie] Sometimes finding just one new fact, or one new resource, turns into an overwhelming flood of information. This blog is in response to a phone call from MaryLynn, who said, "I blame it all on Alexis!" Alexis recently offered  lookups in a book she discovered on her book shelf, in response to MaryLynn's blog about surveying our shelves to see what treasures we already have! [MaryLynn]  For more than twenty years I have been content to accept that my 2 great grandfather John Gamble was born about 1798 in South Carolina, information from the 1850 census for Huntington County, Indiana.  Occasionally I would have a mild curiosity about further information but I am not so foolhardy that I would search the 1800 census for a 2 year old boy. So, when Alexis mentioned that she had a book that listed petitions for land from the South Carolina Council, I asked her to look for the Gamble surname, figuring she would either find none or so many that I ...

Courtesy of Pixabay Mystery Match - What To Do Next You've checked your DNA results, possibly at a new test company, and you find an unfamiliar match sharing a large segment of DNA. While some of the companies assign a relationship, "1C,2R", that may not be accurate due to variables such as "half" siblings or cousins.  There are several tools available to help calculate relationships; one we have seen in presentations and online is the Shared cM Project 4.0 Tool v4.  https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4 You can locate yourself in the white square marked "Self" just off the center.  Relationships that share, or are descendants of one or both of your parents are in light or blue gray.  Relationships with which the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is one or both grandparents are in green, great-grandparents are in orange. The numbers in the squares represent the average shared cMs for that relationship as well as the low and high range.  Notice that ...

My longest standing brick wall has been DISSOLVED, thanks to lectures by Alexis Hacker Scholz on using probate and Carol Friedel using LucidChart for genealogy. I'm also advocating getting enough sleep and awakening slowly, and just thinking, before springing out of bed. 💤 That is where my inspiration arose, on my pillow.  If we've met and talked about genealogy, you have heard about my McBees and the mystery William McBee, known only as a name on his son Samuel B's death certificate. After Alexis' probate lecture, the gears were turning about how to look for probate files - but where to look? When I heard Carol thinking aloud, and saw her charting out a mystery DNA match, something clicked. The descendancies she was charting look like the Ancestry.com Thrulines®, so why not mine those and see if William's purported father, George Henry McBee and Martha 'Patsey' Willis, could be proven to be his parents? Not just by DNA matches, but by records. Thrulines® ...

  Where is your DNA?  I don't mean in your genes; I mean where have you tested and/or uploaded your raw data files?   Have you looked at your profile lately?  Testing companies are making changes to their platforms, refining features and adding new ones. FtDNA July 1, 2021, Family Tree DNA rolled out several changes to their site.  There is a new look to the Family Finder match page, designed to make easier searching, sorting and filtering your matches.   FtDNA reports that they have made several adjustments to the matching algorithm for more accurately predicted relationship ranges. There is a new Help Button and, coming soon, is a Chromosome Painter.  Check out the features at the site below. Updates To Matches & Chromosome Painter | FamilyTreeDNA Blog When I received the email notice of these changes I immediately thought of doing this blog.  Then the next day I saw that it was the topic for a blog written by Judy G. Russell, the ...