Research Like a Pro Podcast – Native American DNA with Roberta Estes

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I love to see families working together. Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder are a lovely mother-daughter genealogy team and hostesses of Research Like a Pro, a podcast through their genealogy research company, Family Locket. Their Research Like a Pro podcasts help genealogists “take your research to the next level.”

I was so pleased to be invited to join them for a discussion about my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy.

For those of you who don’t normally listen to podcasts and don’t have a podcast app, you don’t need one. You can just click to listen online, or they have kindly transcribed the session. The transcription is automated, so not exact, but still a great tool.

Interviews are interesting because the back and forth is so revealing and includes information not found in the book. As it turns out, their family had a Native American story too – and it was very similar to mine. That oral history which was accepted as fact in my family is what launched my search many years ago.

They “cheated” and opened by asking me about what drives and inspires me. I’m not interviewed live very often, and don’t think I’ve ever been asked this question before. If you’d like to hear me talk about what motivates me and gets me out of bed every morning, aka, “life’s pennies,” click here.

Of course, most of the hour was spent discussing Native American records and resources, including DNA evidence. We discussed ethnicity and how to actually USE it (yes, you can), vendors, their products and resources, Y and mitochondrial DNA, third-party tools, and how to integrate these resources successfully.

As a bonus, let me give you one of the tips I talked about that’s not in the book. Declined enrollment applications for the Five Civilized Tribes. If your family wasn’t enrolled, they might be found in the declined applications, which often provide a HUGE amount of family information. Here is a list of those resources at FamilySearch. Don’t miss the Cherokee by Blood book series by Jerry Wright Jordan and the Extract of Rejected Applications of the Guion Miller Roll of the Eastern Cherokee series by Jo Ann Curls Page.

Also, as an aside, in some cases, DNA testing has proven using Y or mitochondrial DNA that the declined enrollment was in error and the family did, in fact, have Native ancestors. That’s both heartbreaking and validating.

This was such a fun and informative hour. I swear, we talked about everything. While this podcast is focused on finding Native American ancestors, the DNA tools, tips, and research techniques are certainly relevant and useful for everyone, so please join us and enjoy!

If you don’t have my book yet, you can purchase it here:

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2 thoughts on “Research Like a Pro Podcast – Native American DNA with Roberta Estes”

  1. Thought the article was interesting, But one of the links does not work. The “life’s pennies,” click here. does not seem to work. It could be my browser, I have it lock down a lot. But I even went to your site and tried it from there, but the link did not work? not a big deal, keep up the good work and I” keep reading.

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