Courtesy Pixabay In the past ten or twelve years a new fiction genre has gained popularity--genealogical crime mysteries. Some rely on historical research to solve modern day mysteries while others use modern research resources such as DNA to solve cold cases, and some, both. Some of the new literature is nonfiction as people present their search for family through adoption and other family dynamics. As a result there is a wealth of entertaining reading material available.  By now, most of you are familiar with Nathan Dylan Goodwin and his Morton Farrier, Forensic Genealogist series which has its tenth book in progress. Nathan has also written two books in his Venetor series which focuses on solving cold cases with DNA. Nathan is presently researching for the third book in that series as well. At this point you loyal readers are expecting me to list other authors and, if I do, I am sure to neglect somebody's favorite so I suggest you go online to your local library or Amazon books ...

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...

6 generations of McBees, Willises and Smiths Don't Forget to Check GEDmatch While continuing to build the trees of my McBee DNA matches, I thought about two parts of GEDmatch that allow me to search for my mother's matches, even though she died years before autosomal testing was available. Both of the tools featured here are "Tier 1" tools, which means you need to pay for a month or more to use them.  GEDmatch - Free and Paid My mother's kit, LX517332, is a "Lazarus" kit which I created from the kits of my sister and myself, my father, me mom's brother, and all the cousins I could persuade to upload to GEDmatch. The reason my father's kit is part of the construction is that GEDmatch compares his data to that of my sister and me, and removes our matches to him, which leaves the DNA that we inherited from her. Even after my Tier 1 membership is over, I still have my mom's kit, along with my "super kit" which combines all of my autosom...

 Hi folks, if you saw my post last week,  Wikitree, and the Value of Half-Relatives  then you know that I was excited to know that the one DNA segment that my mystery match and I shared was from one shared ancestor, my second great-grandfather Elias Henry Baysinger.  Elias Henry Baysinger 1832-1900 Elias married three times and had 15 children, one of whom died at birth or within days of birth and is buried in the same grave as my second great-grandmother Sarah who was the second wife and mother of ten.  My match descends from the third wife, Lydia, so the shared segment comes only from Elias, and from neither wife.  What can I do with this segment data beyond "painting" it? Gedmatch Free Tools The first tool I used was at Gedmatch , called People who match both kits, or 1 of 2 kits , a free tool. I often use this kit to find out who a mystery match is, because as the ungainly title of the tool says, it creates a list of those kits who match both kits. If s...

 I came across a useful feature of Wikitree yesterday; I was updating the Biography of my first cousin Pat, who died yesterday. Rest in peace, dear cousin. New DNA Clue Before I left her page I noticed a new name on the right, where DNA Connections are found. I've blurred the name of my new-found relative, but this is what I saw:  Search for a Match My first step was to search for him on 23andMe -- not found. Then, a one-to-one comparison on Gedmatch -- no shared segments. Nor with my sister, or another first cousin either.  How about with my uncle? Yes!  35.1 cM , quite a healthy segment for a third cousin. One to One Gedmatch comparison between my uncle and his Baysinger match Find Common Ancestors Next step: check the match's tree. His parents were private, but his grandfather's name was familiar, and in my own Ancestry.com tree. As I examined our two ancestral paths back to our common ancestor, an important aspect became clear: we share only a single ancestor, no...

 Collaboration is magic! Your own work, experience and inspiration combined with others who share an interest, create more than seems possible. See  The Magic of Collaboration (and Wikitree)  for more about that. But how to begin?  First, collaborate with relatives Pick up the phone! Set up an interview Write a letter Send images, information and questions, through the mail or email, or shared documents such as Google Drive Ask them to share images and questions too Invite them to your Ancestry or MyHeritage tree Share a timeline for your family Next, collaborate with DNA matches Start with the closest and largest matches, and put them into your tree Use the site tools to figure out who they are (shared matches, dots) Use the site messaging system; give them your email and some information • As you learn one site, upload to another, 1, 2, 3! • Sometimes you will need to build their trees for them; invite them to the tree • Keep sharing as you find more information • ...

Why Use Multiple Sites? The most effective research advice is to focus your efforts by asking a question, and creating a plan to find the information you need to answer that question. No one site has all the sources, information, matches, or cousins. I'm going to quote here from Wikipedia : The Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) is a guideline for establishing the reliability ("proof") of a genealogical conclusion with reasonable certainty. It is important within the genealogical community for clearly communicating the quality of research performed, such as by a professional genealogist. It is also useful for helping new genealogists understand what is needed to do high-quality research. It has five elements: reasonably exhaustive research; complete and accurate source citations; analysis and correlation of the collected information; resolution of any conflicting evidence; and a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.    - summarizing Board for Cert...