Ancestry recently announced they have created several more AncestryDNA communities. These 225 new communities are focused on the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and French North America. The announcement is here. Ancestry communities are formed by combining information in Ancestry family trees with DNA match information. This is different from ethnicity percentages, which compares a… Continue reading New AncestryDNA Communities
Gedmatch Contacts Users about Terms of Service and Law Enforcement Use
This is perhaps a first. This morning Gedmatch emailed its users to explain the new terms of service. Recently all kits were opted-out of law enforcement searching. Some people have opted-in, but not all members of the community were aware of this change. Now the full database has been contacted (or attempted to be contacted). … Continue reading Gedmatch Contacts Users about Terms of Service and Law Enforcement Use
Gedmatch Genesis merging back to Gedmatch
Gedmatch has a new announcement on their web page. The new Gedmatch Genesis site will be replacing the Gedmatch site, so that all of Gedmatch will have access to the Genesis database and features. This change will happen June 1st. From Gedmatch: Moving to GEDmatch Genesis The transition from Legacy GEDmatch to Genesis is complete.… Continue reading Gedmatch Genesis merging back to Gedmatch
Genealogy Jamboree 2019, Free Streaming!
Next week is the annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank. If you can go, it's awesome. If not, a number of sessions will be live streamed, for free! You just need to register. The schedule of live streamed sessions is here: Friday, May 31, 2019 1:00 – 2:00 FR010 Funeral Homes and Family History: They're Dying… Continue reading Genealogy Jamboree 2019, Free Streaming!
Gedmatch, Major Change for Law Enforcement Matching
Terms of Service Change This morning the news went out in the genealogy community that Gedmatch has changed its terms of service and privacy policy. "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, ALL DNA KITS HAVE BEEN SET TO BE OPTED-OUT OF MATCHING BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, WE WILL PROVIDE A MEANS FOR THE PERSON WHO… Continue reading Gedmatch, Major Change for Law Enforcement Matching
Genealogy Jamboree 2019, DNA Streaming
One of my favorite yearly genealogy events is the Genealogy Jamboree held in Burbank, California, near the end of May. This year is the 50th year for the conference, and the seventh year for the genetic genealogy day. Online streaming options are available for the main conference and the DNA day. The DNA day lectures,… Continue reading Genealogy Jamboree 2019, DNA Streaming
Revamped AncestryDNA Match Pages
Last month Ancestry made available an update to the DNA match website. Info about that update is here: New AncestryDNA Match Page. I had a number of critiques about that update. Thankfully some of those issues have been addressed in an update this week. The overall match page is the same. The changes are on the… Continue reading Revamped AncestryDNA Match Pages
NYTimes Article “Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder”
Today is DNA day, and DNA is in the news again. This article from the New York Times looks back on the year since the Golden State Killer arrest was announced. Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder This article is a good overview of developments in the field. And… Continue reading NYTimes Article “Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder”
Register to LiveStream 2019 NGS Conference Lectures
The NGS annual conference gathers some of the most talented genealogy lecturers for a wonderful educational experience. As in recent years, the organizers are offering packages to stream a subset of the lectures online. The packages include, either of two sets of five lectures or a set of ten. Some people who attended the conference… Continue reading Register to LiveStream 2019 NGS Conference Lectures
Truth and Fiction
Not all sources are equal. When my third grader started researching a project for school this year, she hadn't learned much at school about getting information from trusted sources, like encyclopedias. She was apt to blindly trust anything on the web. In genealogy, often first we learn to cite our sources and then we learn… Continue reading Truth and Fiction
