Strategies to Find the Most Challenging Ancestors with Autosomal DNA Data

This presentation discusses strategies to show how DNA results can be used to identify family adoptions and other Non-Paternity Events. These events may occur at any point in one's genealogical paper tree, and sometimes may cause major surprises for DNA users. A case study is presented in which

This class presents case studies to show the strategies to best use offline records to give a more effective balance to genealogy research. Offline records may include newspapers, books, property, church, government, and other records.

Case studies are presented to show how to avoid the biggest mistakes, including trusting family myths; believing that the posted family trees are accurate; connecting the wrong "same name" people; and believing that all original family records are accurate.

This presentation describes strategies to find early 1800s United States data. A case study illustrates the use of different record types to trace families backward in time from Illinois through Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Key online sources include newspapers, historical books, property records, marriage records, military…

What can a genealogist do when key direct evidence is missing or inadequate? James M. Baker, PhD, CG, will offer step-by-step approaches for using inferential and analytic thinking to solve these challenging genealogy problems, including the use of naming patterns, birth/marriage witness data, inheritance data, sibling research, timelines, and family...