I attended Karen Stanbary’s course, DNA as Genealogical Evidence at the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research (IGHR) this summer. IGHR is hosted by the Georgia Genealogical Society, and this year, it was virtual. That made it a no-brainer for me to attend! Today I’m sharing some of my takeaways from the course. The instructors included Karen Stanbary, Michael Lacopo, Paul Woodbury, David Rencher, and Kimberly Powell. It was a great group of instructors. Each lecture was a case study including DNA and documentary evidence. We didn’t have typical homework assignments each night, but introspection questions to help us become...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the DNA Standards in the Board for Certification of Genealogist’s Genealogy Standards manual. These DNA standards were added in 2019 as part of the second edition of Genealogy Standards. We discuss some applications of the DNA standards to our own work and ideas for how to meet them. Links How to Write and Publish a Proof Argument with DNA Evidence by Nicole at Family Locket Genealogy Research in the 21st Century Part 4: Learning to Use DNA and Standards by Nicole at Family Locket Genealogy Standards – book by the Board...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the FamilySearch Family Tree and how to add your conclusions in a way that meets the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). We go through each of the 5 elements of the GPS and discuss the opportunities in the tree to provide source citations, reason statements, and written conclusions. Links How to Improve the FamilySearch Family Tree by Applying the Genealogical Proof Standard BCG Ethics and Standards – Board for Certification of Genealogists discussion of standards and the GPS Genealogy Standards by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (affiliate link to Amazon) –...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the Kinship Determination Project (KDP), the narrative family history work sample portfolio element submitted to the Board for Certification of Genealogists. The KDP element shows your ability to prove parent-child links as well as tell the story of a family in their unique place and time. There are three formats of narrative family histories – narrative genealogy, narrative lineage, and narrative pedigree. We discuss these terms and the numbering systems that go with them. We also discuss proof statements, summaries, and arguments, and what these look like. Links Kinship Determination: From...
Before 2000, DNA was not a source genealogists had access to. Now there are over 29 million people in DNA testing databases. This is an enormous change. Like other sources available to genealogists before the advent of advanced technology, we still need to analyze these sources carefully, understand the context, and create research plans. Genealogy standards guide us in our efforts. Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS gave the lecture, “The Advance of Research Habits over Recent Decades—And the Downside” at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) in January. The lecture was part of the “Meeting...
Genealogists have seen amazing advances in technology over the last 40 years. These advances have made many genealogical records more accessible and increased the speed of communication. But how has it affected our research habits? Do we fall victim to the random search-and-click hunting encouraged by the slot-machine effect? What can we learn from the pre-1980 era of genealogy research? How has the addition of DNA as a genealogically relevant source affected our research? Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG®, CGL®, FASG, FUGA, FNGS addressed this in his lecture, “The Advance of Research Habits over Recent Decades—And the Downside” at the...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how to analyze a record thoroughly and find clues for future research. Nicole is preparing her portfolio to submit to the Board for Certification of Genealogists, so we are discussing portfolio element 3 – Document Work – in conjunction with this subject. For this portfolio element, applicants are given a document to transcribe and analyze. We focus primarily on parts 3C, 3D, and 3E – creating a research question, analysis, and research plan from the document. We discuss how to use seemingly insignificant clues to broaden the scope of the research...
How can genealogists know if they are using DNA evidence correctly to prove conclusions? What is required to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard when incorporating DNA evidence? Since the 2nd Edition of Genealogy Standards was published last year, I have been studying the new standards relating to DNA evidence, Standards 51-57. Then at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) last month, I had the opportunity to learn from Karen Stanbary and her team of experienced instructors on this subject. The course was titled “Meeting Standards Using DNA Evidence — Research Strategies,” with the following description: This all-new course is...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about genealogy education opportunities, including attending genealogy conferences like RootsTech. Our guest, Amberly Beck, talks about her first experience at RootsTech in Salt Lake City and how Tom Jones’ classes impacted her. She also shares about her experience speaking at RootsTech London and some of the classes she liked there. After recording the episode, Amberly shared a great thought with us. She said, “Sometimes we love researching so much that we don’t want to give up any of our research time to genealogy education. But every minute of research time we give...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to apply the genealogical proof standard (GPS) as you work in collaborative trees – specifically the FamilySearch Family Tree. We talk about each element of the GPS and how you implement it with small changes in the way you add reason statements, sources, and additional explanations about your research to the tree. Links How to Improve the FamilySearch Family Tree with the Genealogical Proof Standard – post by Diana and Family Locket Genealogy Standards, 2nd Edition – affiliate link to Amazon.com Information about the Genealogical Proof Standard on the Ethics...
