Using both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA (at-DNA) in the previous two blog posts, the ancestral origin of John Wilson (1716-1799) appears to be in an area east of Enniskillen, which is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The purpose of the final blog post is to use documentary evidence to corroborate previous findings and use historical writings to provide rich context to John Wilson’s story of immigration to America. For the documentary portion of the research, the relevant time periods span the late 1600s to capture the period leading up to the birth of John Wilson in 1716,...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is a discussion of the book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. Heidi Mathis, one of our researchers, joins us to discuss the general idea of American Nations. The book gives us a hypothesis to understand U.S. history as we research our ancestors. Also, the book excitingly has DNA evidence to back up the hypothesis it proposes for understanding U.S. history. Links American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America – https://amzn.to/3E0IvGR (affiliate link) Merging DNA and...
With 2021 coming to a close, we reflect on lessons learned. What progress did we make in our research? What do we want to learn in 2022? One of my favorite things about family history is the opportunity to research in new locations and times – opening up the opportunity for using new records and methodologies. One of the hot topics in the genealogy world is DNA and it comes as no surprise that seven out of our top ten viewed posts focus on helping you understand more about how to use DNA in your research. We also published two...
Do you sometimes feel frustrated as you try to sort out the connections between DNA matches and shared ancestors? I do, and I think we all need help with this from time to time. The AutoKinship tool at GeneticAffairs.com can quickly offer possible solutions to the problem. AutoKinship can help you construct a family tree of DNA matches that point to shared/common ancestors when there are few clues about who those ancestors are. How can this help you? The AutoKinship tool can reduce the amount of time you need to spend to discern connections between yourself and DNA matches. This...
As genealogists, we formulate a hypothesis about our ancestors to make progress in our research. That hypothesis is a lens, a way of organizing the myriad of facts we discover, which we hope will lead us to locate further records, helping us prove or disprove our hypothesis. I like to try to use the same idea to try and understand the history of an ancestor’s time. I want to avoid getting too bogged down in history’s details, yet still, gain the context I need to see the world more through an ancestor’s eyes. Where can we get a hypothesis to...
It is an excellent time of year to think about the things we are thankful for! I’ve been thinking about DNA-specific blessings, and I made a list of my top 5. What are you grateful for in the realms of family history and DNA? I’m thankful for: DNA tests that can help us discover ancestors whose names and lives are lost due to time and memory. Newly discovered family members. Renewed connections with cousins and distant family members who share a love of family history or at least have an interest in it. The opportunity to increase knowledge about genealogy...
No, it’s not a game show or a board game – it’s a fantastic tool in the hands of serious genetic genealogy researchers! What are the Odds? (WATO) is a tool developed by Leah Larkin, and Jonny Perl at DNAPainter.com. You can use this tool to further your research in cases where you don’t know how a person fits into a family tree, such as in adoption or unknown parentage research cases. It can also be used as a sanity check when building a family tree to help you see if you have placed a DNA match into the correct...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Diana’s experiment to see if doing surname searches at each DNA testing website could help her find matches about a research question. She then used the results of her searches to decide if she had enough matches to work on this research objective. Mary “Clemsy” Cline, born in 1818 in Missouri, is one of our brick walls. Diana talks about using the search features at AncestryDNA, 23andMe, FTDNA, and MyHeritage to filter her match list and find DNA matches with the surname Cline in their family tree. Once she found matches...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is part two of Nicole sharing about her takeaways from “DNA as Genealogical Evidence – Advanced,” an institute course coordinated by Karen Stanbary at IGHR this summer. We discuss targeted testing, coverage, performing and writing about pedigree evaluations, Y-DNA STR testing as a comparative test, finding the most efficient pathway to solve an objective, clustering with Node XL, multi-kit analysis, and overcoming burned counties and pedigree collapse. Transcript Links IGHR Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at the Georgia Genealogical Society website https://ighr.gagensociety.org/ Genealogy Standards, second edition at Amazon https://amzn.to/3yDwoNd NodeXL – Visualising...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about “DNA as Genealogical Evidence – Advanced,” an institute course coordinated by Karen Stanbary at IGHR this summer. IGHR stands for the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, an weeklong intensive study program hosted by the Georgia Genealogy Society. Nicole took the course over the summer and shares some of the golden nuggets she learned from the case studies and other lectures. Join us as we discuss the Genealogical Proof Standard, DNA testing as an active vs. passive tool, and visual phasing. Transcript Links IGHR Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at...
