Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

AncestryDNA announces Genetic Communities

By 6 Comments

When I was at RootsTech, an executive from Ancestry showed a tantalizing video during an opening session about the “genetic communities” that Ancestry DNA customers would see in their profile.  It’s a big step beyond the ethnicity estimates they previously offered.

Yesterday, Ancestry announced that the genetic communities are starting to be rolled out. They also provided a help page with more information on genetic communities. Here’s the accompanying video:

You can bet that I rushed over to my Ancestry DNA results to see if I’d been placed in any genetic communities. I was delighted to see that I had one genetic community listed in my profile (so far). It is the Settlers of Southern Appalachians community and reflects my father’s mother’s side of the family (the Rascos) who were Alabama settlers.

The whole thing is a bit mysterious to me (but that’s true of DNA in general) and I’m anxious to learn about this new feature and whether I might eventually be connected with more communities. So I signed up for a free webinar from Legacy Family Tree called Exploring AncestryDNA’s New Genetic Communities, presented by renowned genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger. It’s tomorrow, March 30, at 1 pm Central time. I’m not available at that time but I was thrilled to read that the recording will be available free of charge for seven days.

I’ve been ignoring my DNA results for at least a year now, but I sense that might be ending, since yesterday I purchased the Getting Started with DNA and Genealogy Boot Camp from Hack Genealogy. It’s $25.95 for three hours of recorded webinars and 10 pages of handouts, available for a year. I used the coupon code GETDNA to get $6 off that price. (That code expires March 31.)

I don’t want to get too distracted from the single family line I’m exploring in 2017, but I am looking forward to learning more about how DNA can help me in my research. AncestryDNA’s Genetic Communities might be really helpful!

Some RootsTech sessions available to watch on demand

By 2 Comments

If you weren’t able to attend RootsTech or watch the Live Stream of certain RootsTech sessions, you now have the chance to watch most of those sessions on demand (and a few more). I was disappointed to see that LeVar Burton’s Friday keynote isn’t available. It was a terrific speech that was very moving.

RootsTech has made it easy to click and watch the videos. Here’s the list. (Click on the day name to get access to the videos for that day.) There are a few I wasn’t able to attend that I plan to watch!

Wednesday, February 8

Innovator Summit General Session (Full session or individual speeches)
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Liz Wiseman

Industry Trends and Outlook panel
Speakers: Ben Bennett; Craig Bott, Grow Utah; Heather Holmes, TapGenes; Nick Jones, JRNL, Inc.; Robert Kehrer, FamilySearch

Innovation—Best Practices and Applications
Speaker: Cydni Tetro

Innovator Showdown Semi-Final
Speakers: Innovator Showdown Semi-Finalists

Metadata—Writing on the Back of Digital Photos
Speaker: Alison Taylor, Pictures and Stories

Thursday, February 9

RootsTech General Session (full session and individual keynotes)
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Jonathan and Drew Scott, Steve Rockwood & MyHeritage

Getting Started in Genealogy
Speaker: Kelli Bergheimer

DNA: The Glue That Holds Families Together
Speaker: Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide

DNA Matching on MyHeritage
Speaker: Dana Drutman

Jewish Genealogy: Where to Look and What’s Available
Speaker: Lara Diamond

My Ancestors are in My DNA!
Speaker: Angie Bush

Family History Is Anything but Boring
Speakers: Crystal Farish and Rhonna Farrer

Friday, February 10

RootsTech General Session: African Heritage presentations
Speakers: Kenyatta Berry, Sherri Camp, Melvin Collier

Innovator Showdown Finals
Speakers: Jason Hewlett & Innovator Showdown Finalists

Mothers, Daughters, Wives: Tracing Female Lines
Speaker: Judy G. Russell

Censational Census Strategies
Speaker: Mary Kircher Roddy

Next Steps in British Research
Speaker: Amy Harris

Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage
Speaker: Sunny Morton

You Found It Where? Unusual Records
Speakers: Rorey Cathcart, D. Joshua Taylor, Rich Venezia

Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records
Speaker: Jen Baldwin

How to Preserve Your Family Heirlooms
Speakers: Anna Graff, Jennifer Hadley, Katie Smith, Andrew Thomas, Tyler Thorsted

Saturday, February 11

RootsTech General Session (full session and individual keynotes)
Speakers: Cece Moore, Buddy Valastro

Journaling Principles That Work
Speaker: Steve Reed, JRNL, Inc.

Don’t Just Be a Searcher, Be a Researcher
Speaker: Crista Cowan, Ancestry

Creating Google Alerts for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Katherine R. Willson

Introducing the Paperless Genealogy Guide

By 2 Comments

Paperless Genealogy GuideI’ve partnered with “Mr. Paperless,” Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap, to create a guide to going paperless in your genealogy research. I think it will be really helpful for those who would like to go paperless but feel overwhelmed by the prospect.

Brooks and I are presenting a session at RootsTech today (Go Paperless: Streamline and Digitize Your Genealogy) and we worked on the presentation and the guide at the same time.

You can read all the details about the Paperless Genealogy Guide over at DocumentSnap and download it for $9 there.  The guide covers how to name and find your digital documents, along with different types of scanners, and strategies for protecting your precious documents. And it ends with a checklist to walk you through the actions you need to get going.

My genealogy life is much easier now that almost all of my documents are in digital form. I can carry all my research with me, find it easily, read it easily (no more magnifying glass!) and determine very easily what I have and don’t have for a particular ancestor.

If that sounds good to you, hop on over and check out the Paperless Genealogy Guide! It can be yours instantly for $9.

RootsTech’s livestream schedule

By 2 Comments

RootsTech has announced its schedule of sessions being streamed from next week’s conference. If you can’t make it to Salt Lake City, you can at least watch some of the keynotes and breakout sessions. (Alas, my session on Friday morning, Go Paperless: Digitize & Streamline Your Research, isn’t one of them.)

Here’s the schedule. The sessions will be streamed live on the RootsTech homepage and then afterward recordings will be posted on the website for a limited time.

Visit the Sessions page on the RootsTech website for descriptions of each of these sessions.

Wednesday, February 8

9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | Innovator Summit General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Liz Wiseman

10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m. | Industry Trends and Outlook
Speakers: Craig Bott and Guest Panel

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Innovation—Best Practices and Applications
Speaker: Cydni Tetro

Thursday, February 9

8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Jonathan and Drew Scott

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Getting Started in Genealogy
Speaker: Kelli Bergheimer

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | DNA: The Glue That Holds Families Together
Speaker: Diahan Southard

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | DNA Matching on MyHeritage
Speaker: Dana Drutman

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Jewish Genealogy: Where to Look and What’s Available
Speaker: Lara Diamond

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Family History Is Anything but Boring
Speakers: Crystal Farish and Rhonna Farrer

Friday, February 10

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Levar Burton, Special Guest Panel

10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. | RootsTech Innovator Showdown Finals

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | Mothers, Daughters, Wives: tracing Female Lines
Speaker: Judy Russell

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Censational Census Strategies
Speaker: Mary Kircher Roddy

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage
Speaker: Sunny Morton

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records
Speaker: Jen Baldwin

Saturday, February 11

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Cece Moore, Buddy Valastro

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Journaling Principles That Work
Speaker: Steve Reed

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Don’t Just Be a Searcher, Be a Researcher
Speaker: Crista Cowan

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Creating Google Alerts for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Katherine R. Wilson

That’s a lot of free information! I hope you can take advantage of it.