FamilyTreeDNA has released a new set of ethnicity estimates. In this iteration, FamilyTreeDNA has defined 90 population groups, significantly more than the previous 24. A map showing the new groups is in FamilyTreeDNA blog post MyOrigins 3.0 is Here! Here is an example of the new results, for myself: FamilyTreeDNA Origins version 3 Here are… Continue reading New Ethnicity Estimates at FamilyTreeDNA
The Daughters of the American Revolution is one of the leading lineage societies. To become a member, a woman must submit documentation of her family from herself back to a person who supported the Revolutionary War. But what if the paper trail isn't complete or accurate? DNA can help. Just last month, the DAR began… Continue reading DAR Now Accepting Autosomal DNA Evidence
One of my favorite DNA websites, Gedmatch, just came out with a new tool. This is pretty cool. The tool will compare your attached Gedcom against the Gedcoms of your matches, and report ancestors in common. Here is my result when running the tool on my kit: Detail: The short minute or so to run… Continue reading New Gedmatch Tool: Find common ancestors (MRCA) from DNA matches
RootsTech, one of the major genealogy conferences of the year, is coming up next week. Many lectures will be streamed online for free. The schedule for free sessions is up: RootsTech 2020 Free Livestream Schedule. Lectures begin Wednesday, February 26th, at 8am Mountain Time. Lectures are streamed Wednesday through Saturday. There is also an option… Continue reading RootsTech 2020
DNA ethnicity estimation has improved significantly from its earliest days. In my article DNA Testing, What Do My Origin Percentages Mean? from 2016, I noted that ethnicity estimates are generally accurate to the continent level, and should improve with time. Now two of the major testing companies are attempting to pinpoint origins in regions within… Continue reading France a Weak Area in Ancestry Ethnicity Estimates
This is really cool. MyHeritage has just added a photo colorization tool. It extrapolates the colors that were likely present when a photo was taken, and adds those colors to the photo. RootsTech is coming up next week, so now is the season for announcements from genealogy companies. Judging by the positive response to this… Continue reading MyHeritage Photo Colorization
This year we celebrate 400 years since the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. Many will be celebrating this year and next year, the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrims' Thanksgiving. My daughter and I were invited to ride on the Mayflower float in the 2020 Rose Parade. We needed to wear period-appropriate pilgrim… Continue reading Mayflower Costuming for the 400th Anniversary
Did you know that FamilySearch can display a tree in fan format? And that within this fan format you can show countries of origin, which ancestors have pictures, and more? First of all, I recommend you register for a free account at FamilySearch and build a FamilySearch Tree. You can share your research on this… Continue reading Fan Trees at FamilySearch
23andMe has a cool new feature, Your Family Tree, a family tree that 23andMe builds using some of your closest matches. This is a Beta feature, not yet available to all users, but expected to be refined and released to all users eventually. If you would like to use Your Family Tree, log into your… Continue reading 23andMe Automatic Family Tree
Currently the Daughters of the American Republic only accepts Y-DNA as evidence of lineage. Hopefully autosomal DNA also will be accepted in the next few years. For the current policy about how Y-DNA can be used for DAR applications, see DAR and DNA Applications. On August 26th, the DAR Registrar General emailed " 'Sunrays' from… Continue reading DAR and Autosomal DNA
