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
This is an exciting development. Today one of my 23andMe profiles was invited to add tree information from FamilySearch. Relatively few people have added family information to their 23andMe profiles, possibly because many took the test for the health information. Hopefully this will encourage more uses to get interested in the family connection aspect of… Continue reading 23andMe Collaborates with FamilySearch
DNA testing company 23andMe has been in the the news recently. This week The Wall Street Journal published IRS Greenlights Tax Breaks for Buyers of 23andMe Geneticts Tests. The tax break article describes a new ruling by the IRS. Now some costs related to 23andMe health testing can use FSA or HSA medical spending account… Continue reading 23andMe Health Test New Tax Treatment
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
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 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
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!
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
