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 ...

Cleaning is work! Why bother? It's your tree, after all, and you can build it any way you want!  That's true, but most of us want to share our research with others and find cousins to collaborate with! And to do that successfully, we need to clear out duplicate people,  extraneous relationships (such as step-parents who didn't raise the children),  alternative facts (such as a vague "abt. 1882") when we have the precise date of birth, immigration, marriage, or death. Having accurate, clear facts and sources make it possible to tell the story of our ancestors better. And if you are working in an online genealogy site, a clean tree will allow their matching algorithms to get you the best hints to more sources, and more cousin  matches . Best Practices Be sure to list each woman with her birth surname; if you do not not know it, leave it blank. If you know only the married name, link her to a spouse with that surname and if you do not know his forename, lea...

Some very cool new features of genealogy websites and mobile apps were introduced at RootsTech.  FamilySearch Isabella Rogers, ready to add to tree FamilySearch Unfinished Attachments  is available both on the FamilySearch Family Tree and on the FamilySearch mobile app. Read more about it at  https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-unfinished-attachments/ . Try it out and maybe this will happen for you: I made a great discovery when I found a census record in an unfinished attachment for my great-grandmother. Once I opened the record, I saw her sister’s name on the census and added her to the family tree. No one in the family had known she existed. Now she is on the family tree and with the right family. Map My Ancestors   Map My Ancestors for the mobile app:  https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/whats-map-ancestors/ This is pure joy and only available for your phone or tablet. It is thrilling to see all the work you and...

If you have recent immigrant ancestors, especially from France, perhaps you have used Geneanet . The free resources are quite good. So it was with some excitement that I saw: Geneanet now launches Geneanet DNA, a new beta test service which allows you to upload the raw data of a DNA test kit taken with any company, to compare it to other Geneanet members' DNA data. Click here to discover Geneanet DNA The FamilySearch Wiki describes Geneanet:  Geneanet was launched in 1996 by genealogy enthusiasts to help family history researchers sharing their data. They wanted their users to pay only if they want and that’s why they created the Premium service. Most of the website pages and features are available for free but you can take advantage of Ad-Free browsing, more effective search engine and access to additional records by subscribing to the Premium. The site can be viewed in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. They add: Geneanet is especially u...

There is some scorn directed at FamilySearch Family Tree because it is full of errors and some profiles have no sources, which makes it unreliable. The criticism is fair. I've found errors and unsourced profiles there. I've probably added some back when when I first began. However I find that using FamilySearch Family Tree is critical to my research, and think that I can and should make it better. I hope I can convince you to help. I still have plenty to do, as my fan chart shows: 7 generation fan chart Has it been years since you used FamilySearch? Please try it again soon. These days, there are record hints, improved record search, and millions more indexed records available. Merging duplicate profiles can still be tedious and yet it is worth your time. Duplicates weaken the tree, so clean and improve it, at least in your direct lines. Correctly list family members, relationships, and their presence in various records; you'll thank yourself later. It's ...