In recent years DNA has become an amazing tool for helping solve our genealogical brick walls. For example in Part 5 of this series the fact that Burkhard Schlag’s descendants were fairly close DNA matches to his FAN club’s (i.e. nieces and nephews) descendant’s, provided important clues for tracing Burkhard’s parents. However using DNA with recent German ancestors may be more challenging than with some other communities. Germans may have an advantage with their church records and other documentary evidence, but may be somewhat at a disadvantage when it comes to using ethnicity and DNA. What do we need to...
If you’re like me and overwhelmed by DNA and this new wealth of information for genealogists, I am going through my experience with the Research Like a Pro with DNA e-course to help those looking for a way to get started! This is the fifth post in the series. In the fourth step of the RLP with DNA process, Analyze Your Sources and DNA Matches, I went through the traditional genealogy records I had collected previously and analyzed the sources as original, derivative, or authored; the informant of the source as primary, secondary, or undetermined; and the evidence in the...
Many Americans have been told by relatives that they have Native American ancestry and want to find out if the story is accurate. DNA testing has the capability to help people determine if they inherited any DNA from Native American ancestors. At RootsTech 2020, I attended a class taught by DNA expert Roberta Estes entitled “Native American DNA: Confirming Those Stories.” I am sharing some of the helpful information from Roberta’s class and including links to her website, DNAeXplained, for more information. Her lecture was my favorite class from Rootstech 2020 because she has so much experience about this topic...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the locality guide step of the Research Like a Pro process, and how you can use DNA information in this part of the process. Even if you don’t like to travel, your DNA has been places! There are myriad places where our countless ancestors lived over the course of time. Many of these ancestors passed their DNA on to us. We each have a multitude of DNA segments that can be traced back to specific ancestors or ancestral couples. An exciting aspect of DNA research is that it can help us...
You sent off your Ancestry DNA test in the form of a tube of saliva and you just received your results. Are you surprised? Excited? Puzzled? Wondering what to do next? Why not explore your ethnicity results and learn where in the world you come from. The science of DNA can seem daunting to the beginner, so I invite you to join me as I learn about DNA and how to use it for genealogy purposes. I’ll be posting regularly about my discoveries, so follow along and see what you can learn. My genealogy paper trail has so far led...
