Courtesy  https://picryl.com/amp/media/medelssohngenealogy-27a4b2 "AI for Genealogy" is a hot topic these days, but often it is discussed as if it's new. In fact, artificial intelligence (AI) has been used for all kinds of research for a long time. It all depends on how we "AI" define it. Remember, genealogy tree diagrams such as the above diagram were a revolution in how to think about and display family relationships. New: Chatbots Chatbot Courtesy VectorPortal.Com What's new is the chatbots such as ChatGPT. A recent article at ZDnet says, "Whether unlocking your phone through face recognition or telling Alexa to play a song, artificial intelligence has filtered into our everyday lives. Now, you can harness the power of AI to do your writing, too. At your command, AI chatbots can write that paper you have been dreading to start, write code, compose emails, generate art or even write Excel formulas for you.  "ChatGPT has made quite a splash, moti

Catoctin Furnace, Frederick County, Maryland   Catoctin Furnace operated in Maryland in the 18th and 19th centuries using both free and enslaved African American labor. Harney et al. analyzed DNA from 27 individuals from an African American cemetery that was excavated 40 years ago during highway construction (see the Perspective by Jackson). The authors found genetic evidence of biological family groups, modern-day African populations with whom they may have shared ancestry, and even possible distant relatives in the United States through identity-by-descent comparisons with consenting customers of 23andMe. This study demonstrates that when studied responsibly with input from stakeholders, long-buried DNA can be used to uncover obfuscated or forgotten histories of marginalized individuals.  Corinne Simonti wrote the above abstract of the study by Harney et al. which can be seen at  https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade4995 .  "Despite the hardship evident in the remains,

Have you ever had this experience? You've recently learned about something you previously knew nothing about, and then someone asks a question about exactly this subject? I find this happening all the time, and love it. The  Black Genealogy Research Group of Seattle  recently gathered information about an ex-slave, Mary Jane Green of Everett, Washington, for a program. In an effort to gather more information, contacts and help with this research, a Wikitree profile was created for her.  I soon found that there is a project within Wikitree helping gather information about enslaved people in the US, using sources such as deeds, wills, business receipts, ledgers, even letters and oral testimony, called the US Black Heritage Project . I joined it, since I have other ex-slaves and at least one slave-owner to research.  Then there was another connection. In the International Society of Genetic Genealogists  (ISOGG)  online group , there was a discussion of an article called  Linked Desc

It's all about the chromosomes (and mitochondria) The 23 chromosomes of a human male . Courtesy: National Human Genome Research Institute X, Y and Mitochondrial DNA are less well-known and not used by many genealogical researchers. Both Y and MtDNA tests are more expensive than the more common autosomal DNA tests.  X is always tested in an autosomal DNA test. However X results are less reported (FTDNA, 23andMe) or not reported at all (Ancestry, MyHeritage, LivingDNA), with the exception of Gedmatch. Rather than covering generations of your ancestry, each of these DNA types cover a smaller portion of your tree, which some see as a weakness.  However, because of that restriction, the researcher gets a focused result, which can be powerful, if the test will help you answer your research question.  Y DNA tests were first offered to the consumer in 2000 by only one company: FamilyTreeDNA. Ancestry also offered Y and mitochondrial tests between 2012 and 2014  but not sin