RLP 235: Adding DNA Status to the Airtable Research Project Base

Nicole Dyer (0s):
This is Research Like A Pro, episode 235, adding DNA status to the Airtable Research Project Base Welcome to Research Like a Pro a genealogy podcast about taking your research to the next level. Hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder accredited Genealogist professional Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team@familylocket.com and the authors of research Like a Pro, a Genealogist Guide with Robin Wirthlin. They also co-authored the Companion Volume research like a Pro with DNA, Join, Diana and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research and solve difficult cases.

Nicole Dyer (40s):
Let’s go. Hello everybody and Welcome to Research Like a Pro.

Diana Elder (46s):
Hi. Nicole. How are you today?

Nicole Dyer (48s):
Hey, I’m doing great and I learned a really neat tidbit about Chancery records.

Diana Elder (52s):
Tell us about

Nicole Dyer (53s):
It. I’ve been reviewing the chancery suit for John West in Fauquier County and he was the plaintiff and as I was adding it to my research report, I was wondering could it be that this is a different John West and I found that there are quite a bit of people with that name in Virginia and in Tennessee. So I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t attaching it to the wrong person. And somebody in our newsletter email list emailed me back when I mentioned it in our newsletter and she told me some great tips. She said to be successful chancery suits were filed in the home county of the defendant so the complainant could live anywhere and should the decree be against the defendant, the local authorities would attach, collect, or observe that the loser or defendant did what he was ordered to do And.

Nicole Dyer (1m 39s):
it was the local county sheriff who would carry out the order within his own jurisdiction and he wasn’t expected to travel outside his area for the convenience of the complainant. So it kind of makes me think this John West guy could have been from a different county and in the record of the chancery suit it even had him swearing that the petition was accurate in different county in Prince William County, which was a neighboring county to FA year County. He filed it in Faulk County but swore that it was accurate in front of a justice of the peace in Prince William County.

Diana Elder (2m 8s):
Wow, that’s really good information and so important because sometimes whenever we see someone’s name in a record in a county, we just assume that means residents in that county and we should not do that. Right. Should not assume things.

Nicole Dyer (2m 24s):
Really good point that and I’m so glad to to learn that And. it just reminds me how important it’s to understand the records and how they were used and how they were created and why and the law behind it.

Diana Elder (2m 35s):
Right. and I have seen in probate records how the county sheriff was supposed to go out and interview women and all sorts of interesting little things that they were supposed to do. So that’s fun that they had to carry out the order in the own jurisdiction and they weren’t expected to travel just for the convenience of the complainant. Right. That’s

Nicole Dyer (2m 54s):
Great. Well What, have you been working on?

Diana Elder (2m 56s):
Well I spent all day yesterday working on reviewing client reports that our team members have been working on. So I spent some time reviewing a DNA project and a project in a few different areas of the United States. So it was fun. I always enjoy reading, research and thinking about how to correlate all the different pieces of information that we find when we are researching, which is what these reports are all about. you know, you research for 10 or 15 hours, then you’ve got to write the report that correlates everything. What does all of this mean and I think that is one of the most challenging things of doing client work?

Nicole Dyer (3m 34s):
Absolutely. Our announcements for today are that the next research Like a Pro with DNA Study Group begins February 1st, 2023 and goes until May 10th. Registration is still ongoing. We’ve got a few spots left and we’ll continue to take people registering until about the week before it starts. And we started a new Webinar series called the Research Like, a Pro Webinar series. This is going to begin January of 2023 and each month we will have a case study featuring in the research Like a Pro and research Like a Pro with d n process. Diana is gonna be in January. Then I’ll share a case study in February. Then we have our colleague Alice Childs and accredited Genealogist who’s gonna be in March.

Nicole Dyer (4m 18s):
And then we have a call for a presentations on our website. So if you want to present some project that you have a completed report for, then please let us know. We’d love to have you and we thought it would be a fun opportunity to have other people sharing their case studies where they’ve used the research Like a Pro process on their own research to share that. So please join us. That would be great. Then we’re excited because coming up soon is Roots Tech and the Roots Tech Conference is one of our favorite conferences. That was our first conference we ever went to and we just learned so much from all the presenters there and we have always enjoyed attending and we’re excited that it’s back in person this year and we are giving away two free passes to two lucky listeners.

Nicole Dyer (5m 5s):
And so if you are interested in a three day pass to Roots Tech 2023 in person a $98 value, then please enter our giveaway. And the way you enter the giveaway is by going to family locket.com and going to the blog post about this episode. It’ll be labeled RLP 2 35 and just leave a comment on that blog post telling us how you use D N A in your research. Then we will use a random number generator to select two winners and we’ll contact you by email to let you know if you win. And we will also announce the winners on our Family lock Facebook page.

Nicole Dyer (5m 45s):
So if you win the pass, you’ll have access to all the onsite classes, the keynote and general sessions and the expo hall. And if you have already purchased a Roots Tech Pass, you can get a full refund. And there are instructions for that on the winner certificate So. we hope you’ll enter our giveaway

Diana Elder (6m 2s):
Right. It’s So fun to be able to give away passes to Roots Tech So. we hope you’ll all take advantage of that opportunity. Well today we have a listener’s spotlight and our listener’s name is Laura and she says, I’ve been listening to your podcast for over a year. I’m particularly inspired now to write about the family research trip I took with my now deceased father back in 2010. Our day trip took us from Connecticut to Montclair, New Jersey where my father’s mother was raised. She was born in September 19 hundreds. So a similar timeframe to your family trip story. We found the gravestones of her parents, grandparents and several aunts. I photographed her family’s house much more civilized than a dugout.

Diana Elder (6m 43s):
We also saw the saw the harp that had been donated to a local historical society and had been brought over by my third great grandparents from England in 1830. Thanks for reminding me of a delightful trip with my father to learn more about his family. I plan to write more about the research ahead of time and the other things we learned.

Nicole Dyer (7m 1s):
That’s nice.

Diana Elder (7m 2s):
Yeah, so thanks Laura for writing in. I think it’s so neat to document those family history trips and I know I certainly loved taking one and writing about it. So today we are talking about adding DNA status to Airtable. A few months ago in September, I created an Airtable base for tracking research projects and the research status for each ancestor. And after I had done it, Nicole and I were talking here on the podcast, you remember and we, we had the idea that we should add DNA information for each ancestor as well. and I have done several projects. I’ve done a lot of work with dna, but I didn’t really have one central place to track what I was doing for each ancestor.

Diana Elder (7m 47s):
And so we’ve been working on getting the Airtable base for tracking ancestor projects all updated with dna. And so that’s what we are going to talk about today and I’m so excited to have this done and I’m really excited to go through and think about each ancestor and where I am am at with my DNA research. So just as a reminder for everyone, if you maybe didn’t listen to that podcast or didn’t see the blog post, I have created an ancestor tracking table and I divided mine into paternal and maternal bases. So I have one Airtable base just for my dad’s line, one from my mom’s line because they don’t connect and I wanted those separate and I just list my direct line ancestors and then I have all sorts of fields for determining where I am with my research for documentary research.

Diana Elder (8m 41s):
I talk about have I done just basic research? Have I met the genealogical proof standard? Have I written about them and I have some notes about what I need to do. I have Links to my Google Drive folder for each ancestor and Links to research logs Links to their place on the family search family tree or my ancestor tree and my ancestry tree. And then I have a field that Links to projects. And so any projects I’ve done are linked to another table in the base because I was finding that I would do these projects and forget I had done them on ancestors. And so I wanted to make sure I knew what I had done on each person.

Nicole Dyer (9m 22s):
Yeah. So when you say project, you mean like you wrote a report about them and you went through like the steps of research, Like a Pro to find out about them and then rewrote a report basically?

Diana Elder (9m 31s):
Exactly. And so for instance, I’ve got Eli and Eisenhower and I did a project on her and she’s linked to the project table and there I give the objective, I put the summary of what I discovered, the locations, the ancestors I talked about in it. And so then I get give a lot more information on that project And, it helps me remember that I did that project and I have the date that I did it because honestly the years go by and you forget what you’ve been doing. So I’m pretty excited about that and I’m really excited that we’ve worked out how to do DNA with it.

Nicole Dyer (10m 8s):
Yes, I am excited too and it’s really a good idea to help you see what level you’re at with your research on each ancestor And. It’s just fun to think about that. and I have to give a shout out to Yvette Hoitink for her great idea to do that with the documentary research and have the different levels for that. And her level up Challenge for the Airtable base that Diana created, she has some linked fields in it for the test takers. And so one of them is for autosomal D n a and this is people who have taken an autosomal D n A test that we have access to. Maybe they shared their kit with you on Ancestry or they’ve given you their login to Ancestry or to a different website, maybe you have their GEDMatch kit numbers, you can put all that information in that field.

Diana Elder (10m 55s):
What I did as I was filling this out, I was really trying to think what would be the best, and I have several people who have taken a DNA test for me just like many of our listeners. And so for autosomal dna, so for example, I am the only biological child of my father. And so I am the only test taker for him. I guess you would be a test taker for him or my other son.

Nicole Dyer (11m 20s):
But we are redundant. You’re

Diana Elder (11m 22s):
Redundant,

Nicole Dyer (11m 22s):
Karen Stanbury would say,

Diana Elder (11m 24s):
So you don’t get to be in my, our table base, you guys don’t matter. So I just have myself in there. But then for my grandpa, I have got all three of my living cousins who have tested and I have access to their dna. So that’s really neat. So I put all of their names in that field for autosomal dna. And so I’ve got myself and my three cousins and then each one of us is linked to the special table called DNA test takers where I can see what company everybody is with cuz one cousin is on family tree DNA and the other two are are on ancestry. And so I can then fill in any login information or emails, phone numbers, notes about each specific test taker because for instance, my cousin, well all of these cousins will apply to many ancestors, not just my grandpa.

Diana Elder (12m 15s):
We also share great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents. And so I can enter their names into all of these different ancestors fields because they are relevant. Does that make sense?

Nicole Dyer (12m 26s):
Yeah, that is great. and I like that, you have all these different fields in the DNA test seeks table for various things you might wanna track like their gen match kit, their email, their phone number permissions, like oh you can use this one test taker in reports and presentations and things like that. It’s really helpful.

Diana Elder (12m 44s):
Right. I envision adding other fields as well as needed for each test taker if there’s something unique that I need to add or down the road, you know, if there’s something that I feel like I want to track, but I love having just one record, one line for each test taker, but then I can use their name wherever I need to in my ancestral research table cuz they’ll apply to several ancestors.

Nicole Dyer (13m 9s):
So that’s great. So you have the ancestral research table that lists each ancestor on your paternal side and then you kind of have the link to their tree, their research status. And then you have the autosomal D N A Y D N and M T D N A columns. And so those are all linked to the test takers table. So then you can fill in which cousins have taken A Y D N A and which cousins have taken mitochondrial DNA N or autosomal dna.

Diana Elder (13m 38s):
Exactly. And of course the Y D N will only be relevant for certain lines. So I have a second cousin who’s taken, he’s a direct line for my Schultz line and so he will be entered into each one of my Schultz men’s records there on Y DNA because he’s carrying the DNA for the Schultz line. And then I have a mitochondrial tester, actually I have two mitochondrial testers and so that one’s a little trickier. You have to refer to your chart to make sure you’ve got it correct, you know, which ancestor does this test taker correlate with mitochondrial testing. But it’s really fun to see that I am starting to get a lot more of the Y D N and mitochondrial DNA filled out.

Nicole Dyer (14m 20s):
Good job. One thing that we just added today when before we recorded was a column for autosomal DNA coverage. and I thought that would be helpful because when trying to decide the level that you’re two with your DNA N research for that ancestor, it’s good to think about the autosomal DNA coverage that you have and how many test takers you have. And when you’re getting to these more distant ancestors where your own DNA only covers about 2% of their genome, you really need more test takers to help you find relevant matches. So that was fun. We added that into the ancestral research table next to the linked field for autosomal d n test takers.

Nicole Dyer (15m 1s):
And then we used the coverage estimator at D N A painter to go ahead and calculate that. And one thing to think about is, you know, are you wanting to estimate the coverage at one database, like in Ancestry or in general are you just thinking about coverage at any database? And usually the word coverage refers to how many test seeks you have all in the same database. So, we might need to amend what we put in already because we just put in all the test seeks, even though some of them were at Ancestry and some were at Family Tree dna.

Diana Elder (15m 31s):
Yeah, either that or have my cousin who’s at Family Tree dna just take the ancestry test, right? Yeah,

Nicole Dyer (15m 36s):
I would do that.

Diana Elder (15m 37s):
That’s probably what I need to do.

Nicole Dyer (15m 39s):
It’s on

Diana Elder (15m 39s):
Sale. Right. I just like having everybody on Ancestry and she originally was on Family Tree DNA cuz she’s my mitochondrial tester, right? Yeah. But yeah, I just need to have her do the ancestry test as well. But

Nicole Dyer (15m 50s):
It was so helpful to just plug them in in a descendancy tree in the coverage estimator and find out that you know, with the three cousins and you, you have 65% coverage of your grandparents’ d n a.

Diana Elder (16m 6s):
That really is amazing. I love it. And I’m thinking even that perhaps for that field you could say, you know, 60% at Ancestry. Oh yeah. And then maybe 15% at Family Tree dna because if we are trying to keep all of the coverage in just one database,

Nicole Dyer (16m 26s):
Yeah,

Diana Elder (16m 26s):
That would be good to break that up, wouldn’t it? Yeah.

Nicole Dyer (16m 29s):
And I took off the cousin who tested at Family Tree dna so that it’s just showing ancestry, your coverage for your GRA your for your grandparents at Ancestry is 57.8%.

Diana Elder (16m 39s):
Yeah. Makes a difference doesn’t it? and I love on DNA painter, the coverage estimator, how every time you add a test taker you get to see the number go up and then they do give you a hypothesis or they say, if you have this person test, it’ll go way up. And often, unless people are long deceased, but it’s a great tool, love it.

Nicole Dyer (16m 58s):
It is a Really great tool. It’s very helpful. And, it will be so wonderful to go through each ancestor and see the coverage and realize, oh, I need to get more test takers for this person or whatever. Right. And, it was great to see for your, for your great-grandparents, you’ve got so many test takers, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 test take and your coverage is 55. That’s great.

Diana Elder (17m 21s):
That is Really great. And I’m excited to keep going with this because I have had people share their ancestry results with me on second great grandparents and I’m just very curious to see what my coverage will be at and I love having this table because it gives me a place to keep everything. So many times we play around with these new tools, but we don’t really record it anywhere. we don’t do anything with it, we just play with it when it first comes out and then we disregard it or don’t think about it again. So I really like having it all here, having a place to keep track.

Nicole Dyer (17m 53s):
Right.

Diana Elder (17m 54s):
All right, we’ve talked a little bit about some examples. Let’s just do for fun my great-grandfather, William Houston Schultz and just kind of show everybody how this works. So for William Houston Schultz, I’ll just do his documentary information as well. So you get a fill for who he was. He born 1877, died in 1956 and I have his on Tofl number on where he fits on my pedigree chart, he’s number eight. And then I have his localities so I can add a glance. Remember he was in Texas and California and then his research status is number three. I have a lot of research, but I do have more biographical work to do and I do need to write up a full report or case study on him, which will be super fun.

Diana Elder (18m 42s):
And then I have some notes about what I need to research. I need to research Indian territory records. There’s a lot of things I need to do to fill out his record. And then I have Links to his file on Google Drive and the research log I’ve done on him, he was part of my four generation projects. I have a link to that and I have a link to him on family search and in my tree. Now we get to DNA research status and we’ll talk about that in a minute. But so far with him I have done quite a bit of DNA work and like you mentioned, I have my test takers there. I have six test takers for him and my coverage is at 55% for him.

Diana Elder (19m 23s):
and I have a Y DNA test taker. So just at a glance I can see what I have done for my great-grandfather, William Houston Schultz. And there’s more to do. you know, for an ancestor I thought I had pretty well covered, I realized I have more to do.

Nicole Dyer (19m 37s):
That’s such a great example. So you mentioned your research status level for these ancestors. So let’s just go over what each of those levels are. And so this is the research status that Yvette, Hoitink Hoitink came up with in her blog post about the Level up Challenge. And so level one is the names only, it’s where they’re named in some record, but you do not know birth, marriage or death. And then level two is you have their vital statistics and birth marriage and death research. Level three is where you know their occupations, residents, children, spouses, you’ve looked at maybe census and tax records.

Nicole Dyer (20m 17s):
Level four is where you’ve done additional biographical details about their life in land, military church records and that kind of thing. Then level five it is where you’ve met the genealogical proof standard for them and their relationships and their identity. You’ve done reasonably exhaustive research source citations analysis and correlation of evidence, resolution of conflicts and a written conclusion. And then level six is that you’ve written a source cited family history or biography with historical context. So those are kind of the six levels of research. And so you can go through your ancestors and decide, oh, I’ve gotten to about level three with this ancestor or level four, and you can assign them those, those labels.

Nicole Dyer (21m 2s):
And in the Airtable base we have a separate table with research status with all of these kind of defined. And then you can link to that in your ancestral research table where you have the ancestors names. And then in the research status you can choose which status it is. Actually, it looks like it’s a single select field, not a linked record,

Diana Elder (21m 25s):
Right? So it’s not linked directly to the research status. You just get to pick where you’re at in your research. All right. So I wanted to add a DNA research status table that would also let us assess where we are with our DNA and So. we have four fields for this one we added one So, we have the basic status and then a description of methodologies that go with that status and then some DNA tools that you would possibly use. And then we have the Genealogy standard that goes with that because we have got a second edition of Genealogy standards with several DNA standards that was put out 2019 just to kind of remind us to make sure that we are meeting standards when we’re working with DNA So, we will go through each one of the statuses and and discuss that.

Diana Elder (22m 18s):
So the first one is level zero, and this is if you have an unknown genetic ancestor, this would be an ancestor where you don’t have any DNA matches yet identified with this common ancestor. And we put yet, because if you get additional test takers, perhaps you will find someone that does have DNA that they inherited from that ancestor. And so, so far I don’t have any zeroes because I haven’t added all of my ancestors in yet. But I would imagine, you know, as we get further back on the family tree, we know there are some ancestors that we personally won’t have inherited DNA from and so they would get a zero sadly.

Diana Elder (22m 59s):
But we can fix that by adding some new test takers. Then we have level one, which would be a potential genetic ancestor, and this would be an ancestor where you have actually identified some DNA matches descending from the ancestor or ancestral couple. Often we can’t decide, we can’t determine which which one of the couple gave that DNA to us. Perhaps we have viewed hypothesis and through lines or my heritages theory of family relativity, but we’ve seen some matches out there. And some of the tools that we could use for that would be the shared matching or in common with tools that each of the company websites And it Jed match the tool titled people who match one or both kits and as I said, through lines or theory of family relativity.

Diana Elder (23m 43s):
So this is kind of like your beginning step and that would meet your Genealogy standard of analyzing D N A test results and extent of DNA n a evidence.

Nicole Dyer (23m 53s):
And then level two would be selected relevant test takers and best matches. So this is all about finding those matches that are gonna be relevant to that ancestor. And a lot of the methodologies you’ll use for this will have to do with shared matches and working on identifying the genetic network of matches descending from the ancestor And. it also has to do with identifying additional test takers. And we kind of set in a number of coverage, just kind of arbitrarily thinking like we don’t really know what the best level of coverage to get, but maybe like over 15% coverage at least to make sure you’re catching some of the matches.

Nicole Dyer (24m 33s):
you know, if you only have two or 3% coverage of an ancestor, like your chances are really low of finding relevant matches, but if you have at least 15, it seems like you would have a better chance. And we don’t know, we’d love feedback on that number. What do you think is the best number for an adequate number of coverage of your research subject? Another thing to consider at level two is have you thought about X D N A, Y D N A and mitochondrial DNA N test takers and consider if that would be relevant or useful to your ancestor. Maybe in level one you had noticed there was a through lines and you looked at it. Well, to get to level two, you have to either verify or reject that through lines hypothesis and look at the matches there, see if they’re in the same genetic network and see if the documentary evidence could be accurate for that through lines hypothesis.

Nicole Dyer (25m 19s):
So you can verify or reject that. And then as you’re finding those relevant D N A matches in the genetic network, you’ll want to select the best matches from each independent child line of your ancestor. And the ones that we think would be best are the ones that are closest generationally and sharing the most D n a. And then make sure you add those best matches to some kind of research log. Obviously we use Airtable, but you could use anything, even a document. Then part of this level would be diagramming the best matches and putting all the relationships in to your notes or your research log. Just kind of keeping track of these matches that you would want to use in your proof argument.

Diana Elder (26m 1s):
Great. and I, love having everything spelled out there because sometimes I forget a step, like I maybe would forget to add notes. you know, there’s a lot of different things we can do. So I really like having everything listed so I don’t forget.

Nicole Dyer (26m 16s):
Right? And some of the tools that we have listed that you might use to get to this level are the colored dots and ancestry and my Heritage, the notes and the testing companies, the leads method, DNA n a, painters, coverage Estimator, and the Airtable or another research log. And then the standards that go along with level two are standard 51 about planning DNA n a tests standard 52 about analyzing DNA N test results and standard 53 extend of DNA evidence. So making sure you have enough test takers and matches.

Diana Elder (26m 47s):
All right, so let’s talk about level three. After you have selected your best matches and you have your relevant test takers, then it’s time to start doing some really good analysis. And so one of the things that we turn to is the Shared Center Morgan project on DNA painter to correlate the relationship with the amount of shared dna. This is a really good opportunity here to see if you’ve got too much DNA that’s being shared between a DNA match and test taker, which could point to maybe multiple relationships or pedigree collapse. So this is a good time to really take a look at how much D n A there is And.

Diana Elder (27m 28s):
it also is a good time to check to see if there is more than one common ancestor. So you’ll want to do pedigree analysis for the match and the test taker. Then also for this level, you will want to have verified lines of best matches with documentary evidence and then updated your family tree with DNA matches. You will have added the best matches from the diagram that you did in level two to the family tree, and then you’ll have the verified line of dissent right there in your family tree. Also, you can use ancestry tree tags to show the DNA connections and matches. So I think this is another step that we might not think about or we might forget this whole idea of updating the family tree after we have done this work of diagramming So, we wanted to add that there.

Diana Elder (28m 17s):
And in some of the tools that you’ll use, the DNA painter Shared Center Morgan project Lucidchart or diagrams.net, your ancestry tree. And then if you’re using desktop Genealogy software, maybe you are adding DNA work to that as well. And then we have the Judd Match tool. Are your parents related for each test taker? Just to make sure that pedigree analysis, we know what everybody’s family tree looks like, so that will meet Genealogy standards of analyzing DNA test results, integrating DNA and documentary evidence and specificity. So lots of things to think about and do with level three.

Nicole Dyer (28m 55s):
Yes, Genealogy standard number two talks about making sure that you have documentation for each statement. So the parent-child Links in your diagram need to be verified with documentary evidence, right? So level four would be taking your analysis to the next level and including segments and chromosomes. This would just be like identifying some triangulated segments where the common ancestor is the research subject mapping some chromosomes with D n A painter. And this is not always required for reaching the genealogical proof standard, but I think it’s good to consider it and to think about if you could find some of these triangulated segments. I wouldn’t say that you have to do it for every, every single ancestor, but it’s definitely something to think about and to look at just like you would consider using mitochondrial DNA or YD for each of your projects.

Nicole Dyer (29m 46s):
If you need it, you can do it. And that just goes along with standard 52 analyzing DNA test results,

Diana Elder (29m 52s):
Right? and I really debated whether to add, you know, segment work because it doesn’t matter with my dad because I’m the only biological child and I would’ve, you know, I, I’m not gonna paint his segments that I got because he’ll have the entire chromosome right on DNA painter. But as you move further back on your tree, it could be really helpful to do segment work. Well, level five is meeting the genealogical proof standard. And so for this one, you will want to show that you have done that reasonably exhaustive research. and I think that this correlates with using documentary evidence with your DNA evidence.

Diana Elder (30m 33s):
If you’ve met the genealogical proof standard, you will have done that and you’ll have source citations for both DNA and documentary work. You’ll have your analysis and correlation of evidence for both your resolution of conflicts in a written conclusion. And so this is different when you add DNA to a project, you’ve got to address the DNA work as well as the documentary work. So tools for that would be your research log, which would be complete for your best matches from each company. And then your written report or proof argument showing the genetic connection and the Genealogy standards that goes with that would be integrating DNA and documentary evidence, conclusions about genetic relationships and specificity again, right?

Nicole Dyer (31m 19s):
And then originally we had ended there with level five, but then we realized when we were looking at the DNA standards that there are a couple more standards that have to do with sharing your conclusion and publishing your results. And So, we added level six, which is publishing your written conclusion basically. Now to do that, you would need to show sufficient verifiable data, which is standard number 54, and that just means that you have some of the matches available on GEDMatch to be able to be viewed or you have screenshots of the match pages. And then going along with that, you’ll follow standard 57, which is respect for privacy rights. And so it just requires messaging and calling matches and asking them for permission to share their results.

Nicole Dyer (32m 1s):
And you can do it in several different ways like I mentioned, but you do need to ask permission. And if they don’t respond to that request for permission, another option is to anonymize the matches names and make it so that it’s not obvious who they are. So that’s level six. And we did think, you know, maybe not everyone would want to publish the results or share them, but I think a lot of people do and I think a lot of times we want to be able to say, we have verified that this ancestor is our genetic ancestor. And really to do that we should be sharing our written conclusion,

Diana Elder (32m 37s):
Right? And so many times we are doing a project to actually prove an ancestor. you know, we have a good hypothesis based on the documents, but there’s just that little bit of a doubt. And when we can add the genetic proof, then that’s wonderful and we want to upload that. you know, publishing doesn’t necessarily just mean in a journal, even though it would be, it’s wonderful to do that. It could be just putting your report on family search or on your ancestry tree or on your website. you know, just getting it out there for other people who are searching for the ancestor and showing that you’ve done the DNA work to prove a relationship So, we thought that would be important to have as a level. Absolutely. All right, well we hope everyone has enjoyed learning about the different levels that we’ve identified.

Diana Elder (33m 21s):
We put some thought and work into this and you know, if you have another idea, we’re going to be sharing the link to my template for this and you can find the link on the associated blog post or the show notes for this episode and just know that once you have copied an Airtable base, you can change it to be how you want it. So you know, you can add columns, you can add different notes, you can have some fun, but hopefully it’ll be a good beginning for you to start tracking where you are with your research on your ancestors for both the documents and the dna.

Nicole Dyer (34m 0s):
Absolutely. I just think this kind of thing is So fun to just be able to have a way to track what you’ve done and where you’re at and kind of give you some ideas for research that needs to be done to verify your ancestors with DNA n evidence and documentary evidence if you’re not into DNA n evidence. So Exactly.

Diana Elder (34m 17s):
Yeah. Nobody says you have to do dna, but for those who are really wanting to get started, you know it’s pretty easy for the first few generations and you could certainly get started with your parents and then your grandparents and that’s often I think, a great way to go with getting started with dna.

Nicole Dyer (34m 36s):
Well, great Thank you for making this Airtable based template and publishing it for us to try out and I. Hope all of you are having a great week and we’ll talk to you again next week.

Diana Elder (34m 46s):
All right, bye-bye everyone.

Nicole Dyer (34m 47s):
Bye-bye. Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, research Like, a Pro, and Research like a Pro with DNA on amazon.com and other book sellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at family locke.com/services. To share your progress and ask questions, join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses to get updates in your email inbox each Monday. Subscribe to our newsletter@familylocket.com slash newsletter. Please Subscribe rate and review our podcast. We read each of you and are so thankful for them. We hope you’ll start now to research Like a Pro.