DNA Testing

This special case study will walk you through how to solve multiple unknown father mysteries within the same family tree. Where can you turn when both of your maternal and paternal grandfathers are unknown and both of your grandmothers’ fathers are also unknown? It may seem far-fetched but this was the genuine situation my client was faced with – two mystery grandfathers and two mystery great grandfathers on the same tree! There were mysteries on top of mysteries in this amazing case with six out of eight great grandparents unknown and at least four mystery fathers to identify. This webinar will tell the story of how this tiny tree was reconstructed using a combination of DNA results analysis and traditional research methods.

Your DNA Match list is full of incredible discoveries waiting to be made…with the right tools and a little know-how. MyHeritage offers the most comprehensive set of DNA tools on the market, making it ideal for genetic genealogy. In this session, Ran Snir, VP Product at MyHeritage, will give you an overview of the DNA tools available on MyHeritage and show you how you can use them to make breakthroughs in your research.

It’s hard to do genealogy well without studying your ancestors’ Friends & Family, Associates, and Neighbors – their FAN club. If your ancestors are Irish, you might have no luck at all without those FAN principles. But if you combine FAN club research with DNA, you might have just the winning ticket to get you back to your Irish ancestor’s origins. In this case study presentation, learn how focused research pointed the way from Ohio to townlands in County Mayo for an 1850s-era Irish immigrant.

Geoff Rasmussen has never used DNA on his most famous case: John McCall in Tennessee/North Carolina. It’s a SERIOUS brick wall. BUT: his grandmother AND her sister have taken DNA tests, and John is their 2x great grandfather. What light can their DNA test results shed? DNA expert Diahan Southard gives him advice you may be able to apply to your own brick wall, too.

Genetic testing has taken the genealogical world by storm—but many good genealogists feel lost in that storm; and more than a few family trees have suffered damage. How do we harness the power of genetic genealogy without being swept away in the surge? This session guides genealogists through four areas: (1) converting DNA data into evidence; (2) turning that evidence into proof; (3) crafting citations that include all genetic details needed for proof; and (4) protecting privacy throughout the research and presentation of our conclusions. The session offers simple but solid ground rules—no geek speak!—illustrated by a variety of case studies.

Data management is not just an organizing system. Data management is a critical analytical tool. Research standards tell us that conclusions must be supported by “proof.” Standards insist that “proof” is more than “a document”—rather, it’s a conclusion based on a body of evidence created by reasonably exhaustive research. Meeting this standard creates a paradox: The more data we gather, the more confused we get!—unless we maintain that body of evidence in a way that enables us to digest it, analyze it, and correlate it with everything else we’ve found. This session presents a framework for projects of all types and sizes, building on sound research practices that carry us smoothly from problem analysis to problem resolution.

New record images create the most complete set of records to identify the over 5.5 million soldiers served in the British Army during World War I. This is a large topic, but research has gotten easier during the last couple of years as original resources and indexes have become available online, and new finding aids have been created. This lecture examines what records were destroyed during WWII, what records survived along with how to use the new indexes, online originals and how to interpret them. Plus put the soldier’s actions into battle context.

Take a deep dive through case studies to learn how Civil War Pensions, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and Probates/Successions come together to reveal the pre-emancipation, post emancipation, and 20th Century lives of the formerly enslaved and their families.

While many 17th-century Connecticut colonists have been researched and written about, there remain research challenges: distinguishing people with the same name, deciphering hard-to-read handwriting, understanding unique record sets, and more. This class examines the beginnings of Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook Colonies and the people who inhabited the lands prior to colonization. The class reviews published genealogical resources and record transcriptions and then presents strategies to locate and utilize primary sources. The webinar concludes with tips on overcoming common research challenges.