Tag Archives: General Information

Genealogy Proof Series: Gathering Location Resources

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This is the first article in the Genealogy Proof Series.

Most genealogists, even if they don’t realize they are genealogists yet, begin by creating a small tree of their known ancestors. Most people know who their grandparents are, and by asking a few questions, can probably complete another generation or two.

If your parents were born in 1950, your grandparents would have been born about 1920, and your great-grandparents may have been born around 1890. You probably have concrete facts about your parents. Their birthdates, birth location, marriage location, and so forth. They probably have the same information about their parents. However, with each generation reaching back in time, the information becomes less precise and less reliable. Memories fail people, and the information they were provided may not have been accurate in the first place.

For example, my mother told me what she knew about her maternal grandfather, which wasn’t much. He died when my grandmother was 20, several years before my mother was born.

As the information becomes thinner, the need for additional information and confirmation of facts becomes crucial. Furthermore, when utilizing new resources, you may discover information not previously known about close generations. One of the best resources for that is old newspapers.

Our ancestors are more than birth and death dates. I like to piece their life together, complete with historical events, both national and local, and how they influenced and affected their lives.

This first article explains how I gather and utilize location resources for each ancestor.

Before we start, let’s talk for a minute about where we are going and how this series will be organized.

The Genealogy Proof Series Roadmap

It’s difficult to put the steps in a specific order because often, I get very distracted and go right down a rabbit hole.

In other words, I’ll be working on gathering resources for a specific county, but then I find a listing for what I think is my ancestor, and before you know it, I’m off on the chase. I really, really try NOT to do that because it’s actually very distracting to the process as a whole.

It’s also difficult for me to select an order to write these articles. For example, do I write about Leveling Up, determining what you need for each ancestor, first or last?

I’ve chosen to write about that topic last because I want to step through how to gather and use the resources before we get distracted by what you need to do with individuals in your tree. It’s way too easy to go after that bright, shiny object:)

Gathering and Organizing Location Resources: This article is about how to find location resources for the area where your ancestor(s) lived. I suggest starting at the beginning, meaning your closest ancestors. You know where your parents and grandparents lived, so start there.

If you think there’s nothing there that matters because you know everything about your family – I guarantee you surprises are waiting. They may surprise you, touch your heart, or even shock you, and they are just waiting to be discovered. But before you can logically extract everything to do with your family and surname, you need a comprehensive list of what is available for your county and region.

You’ll also need to keep a record of what you looked for in that county, and when, because you may very well need to go back and access those records again in the future.

Recording Your Data: After you have a list of what’s available for your specific counties, in the next article, we’re going to talk about extracting information and recording it in a spreadsheet. If you don’t like spreadsheets, you can do the same thing in a table. But it’s critical that you record it someplace.

You’ll also index and transcribe it as you go so you can reasonably retrieve it. This is why I utilize spreadsheets – they are made for filtering and sorting.

Surname Searching: You’ve found location resources, but where do you find surname resources? For example, what about books written about the Estes surname, or internet resources? Some will be in books or webpages about the location, but certainly not everything.

How do you find additional resources?

Proof Table: Now that you HAVE data about all the people in a region or regions where your ancestors lived, how do you prove that the Moses Estes or George Estes in Halifax County, Virginia is YOUR Moses or George Estes? What about men with the same name? What if there is no definitive proof in ONE document?

We will discuss the Genealogy Proof Standard and create a proof table for every single generation because you need proof for every single generation.

Including DNA.

(If you’re beginning to think you might dislike me by the time this series is finished – I fully understand. If it helps any, some days I’m tired and mad at myself.)

DNA: How and when can you use DNA as part of your proof argument? What about the different types of DNA? When are they useful? Are they conclusive? How do they bolster or refute other evidence?

Can you resolve conflicts between DNA and a paper trail, and if so, how?

Leveling Up: Leveling up is a methodology of determining where you are in the process of evaluating EVERY PIECE OF EVIDENCE available about each ancestor.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

For those of us who have been working on genealogy for a long time, it’s easy not to think about using new resources when they become available. For example, the 1940 and 1950 census, new full-text AI from FamilySearch, and new newspaper resources like OldNews.

What do you need to do yet for each ancestor to bring them to current?

Writing It Up: Now that you HAVE this information assembled, what will you do with it? I fervently hope you’re going to write or record it for posterity. I’ve chosen the 52 Ancestors series that I’ve been writing weekly for several years, but there are other ways, too. Genealogy is about resurrecting and honoring the lives of our ancestors. The more factual information you can saturate the airwaves and internet with, the less “bad information” can take hold. Genealogy is a team sport.

Gathering and Organizing Location Resources

This article is focused on gathering and organizing resources for where your ancestor lived, NOT on retrieving the records in those resources for your ancestor and their surname. The next article will cover retrieving and recording the data using a consistent methodology.

If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m a spreadsheet person, but I also use MSWord documents to organize and utilize resources from time to time, especially if the text is long. I have one Word document for every ancestor.

I’m going to use a chart as an example, understanding that you will create your own resource-tracking tool that you’re most comfortable with.

The first consideration is that you probably have at least three ancestors in any specific location. By that, I mean at least two parents and one child. You may have significantly more ancestors and family members from that location.

Conversely, those same ancestors may have moved from location to location – even state to state or cross-country, so you may have multiple locations for the same ancestor(s).

In my family, I have clusters of ancestors in the same county. For example, my early Estes line, along with their wives’ lines including Combs, Younger and Moore, resided in Halifax County, Virginia for about 4 generations or more than 50 years. The first generation, Moses Estes (1711-1787) who moved to Halifax County by 1771 came from someplace else, and the last generation, John R. Estes (1787-1885), moved to Claiborne County, TN about 1820, not long after his marriage.

I searched Halifax County records for at least four surnames and multiple generations.

This means I needed to compile the various resources for Halifax County across a significant amount of time.

Resources for Resources

There are multiple places to find available resources for a specific county and state.

We will use these to complete our own research list by county. In the next article, we’ll be checking each one of these resources for surnames.

FamilySearch Wiki

The first thing I do when beginning to compile resources is check the FamilySearch wiki.

Googling “Halifax County, Virginia FamilySearch wiki” brings up a lovely compilation of resources.

You’ll find general information by category, followed by very specific information and multiple resources for each category.

Click on any image to enlarge

Also note that the county website link is given, along with the county formation history further down the page. Don’t neglect to check each county’s individual resources and parent county, if relevant.

If you’ve checked the wiki, or any resource list before, check back often because things change.

I enter each of the resources into a spreadsheet for that county. This is NOT the same thing as making a list of information discovered for an individual ancestor or surname. We’ll get to that later.

Don’t limit yourself to just the years that you know your ancestor was living in that county because records pertaining to that family may exist before your ancestor arrived and long after they left. Other family members may have preceded them, while lawsuits, deeds, and other records may refer to them decades after they left or died.

Here’s the beginning of a list for Halifax County,

Resource State County Link Year Range Surnames Findings
Virginia Bible Records Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore One was donated by the Tune family.
Halifax Biographies Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore
1782 tax list Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm, http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/halifax/census/1782/1782tax.txt 1782 Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore 5 Estes, 1 Combs, 2 Younger 6 Moore
Slave Draft for Defense of Richmond Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/halifax/court/1862slavedraft.txt

 1862 Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore 2 Younger, 2 Moore

I enter the county and state in two fields, so it’s sortable. If I’m checking multiple counties using the same resource, I enter the resource twice, one for each county and the surnames in that county that I searched for.

For example, this link for Virginia Bible records takes you to a link for Halifax County Bible records on the USGenWeb site. I listed the surnames I checked for. I also noted the Tune donation because I know from prior research that the Tune home is on the old Marcus Younger land and the families intermarried. When you search any county for another surname, be sure to add it to the list so you don’t have to wonder later if you checked for that surname.

For county histories and biographies, check to see if they are available digitally. In the next article, you’ll want to search for and record all instances of your surname, even if it’s NOT your ancestor, because of the FAN club, Friends and Neighbors (thank you ,Elizabeth Shown Mills). Those people may or will help you identify which ancestors are yours. Not to mention fleshing out their lives.

Tax lists are often used to replace or supplement the census. You should be able to determine if the lists are recorded in procession order or alphabetical order. Clearly, procession order is much more relevant because it shows who lives nearby or are neighbors. This may help you identify specific individuals, especially when there are multiple people with the same name. In the case of John Estes in Halifax County, Virginia, the tax list placed “my” John by his father, George, which was a huge clue. Eventually, on a tax list that was stuffed in the back of a deed book in the Clerk’s Office, I found another tax list with the note, “S. G.” by my John’s name, and another note on the “other” John that lived in the north end of the county. “S.G.” meant son of George, as that designation had been used and spelled out for other people elsewhere in the same tax list. I’ve never been so grateful to the taxman in my life!

The Slave Draft for the Defense of Richmond is a fascinating document transcribed by a volunteer from the court minute book.

From Minute Book 20 page 169 Halifax County, Va

At a Court Held for Halifax County on Monday the 4th day of April 1862. Present Beverly Sydnor, Howell Chastain, John M. Craddock, William Moorewell, James Kent, Henry C. Logan, James Richardson, E. A. Coleman, Archer A. Farmer

The court in consideration of the Draft from the Governor of the Commonwealth for laborers on the Public Defense near Richmond do order and direct that the Sheriff of this County do proceed for ___ to require the following named persons to deliver to him the said Sheriff at News Ferry Depot, Boston Depot, Clover Depot and as may be convenient to the parties on ___ the day of ___ at such see hours as he may designate the Slaves between the ages of eighteen and fifty five years directed to be furnished by each person in the said following list and proceed with them to the City of Richmond and deliver them to the Agent of the Confederate Government and take receipt for the Slaves furnished by each person.

Then, by district, the name of the owner, and the number of enslaved persons sent.

This information may provide insight into who enslaved others at that time, which may provide insight into families that were slaveholders historically. Additionally, it may provide important hints and clues for African American researchers who seek their family and may have adopted the surname of their former enslaver after the war.

Also, please note that these records may not be entirely accurate. For example, there’s a list of ministers who performed marriages, and my Rev. William Moore is not listed, but I actually have the list of his marriages, returns made in his own handwriting obtained in the courthouse in Halifax County.

If you remember, I found my way to GenWeb through the FamilySearch Wiki. When I finish listing the GenWeb resources, I need to return to the FamilySearch wiki to list any further resources.

You may find lists of out-of-print books for land and property records and other record types. I sometimes find out-of-print books for sale at www.bookfinder.com.

If you own the book, note that it’s in your own library.

To locate books, check the WorldCat entry, but also check both the FamilySearch Catalog by county, the Fort Wayne Public Library and other book resources as well.

Surnames

While the goal of this exercise is to document and record location resources, if you stumble across surname resources, certainly don’t ignore them and think you’ll find them later – you might not.

I suggest starting either a second spreadsheet, or new tab on this spreadsheet for each surname.

I maintain a separate spreadsheet for each location and one for each surname or group of surnames on the same migration path. For example, my Combs, Estes, Moore, and Younger families are migrating from the Virginia Colony into the new frontiers, so I track them together from Amelia and Prince Edward Counties, where they are first found through Halifax County.

Ok, back to searching for our county resources.

FamilySearch Catalog

To search the FamilySearch Catalog by county, sign in and then click on Search, Catalog, and Place.

I was given the choice of British Colonial America or the United States. I’ll check both to be sure I have all available resources.

Selecting “Land and Property,” one of the items displayed is the Antrim Parish Vestry book. By clicking on that entry, you can see that it’s available in the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. Maybe it’s available elsewhere too. I’ll check in a bit.

I build research lists from these resources routinely.

The entry for deed books shows that some are available online only at either the FamilySearch Library or a Family History Center (camera with key), which may be located near you. Other images are available online with no location requirement, indicated by the camera without a key, just by clicking.

These may or may not be indexed, and an index may be available elsewhere or by using the new FamilySearch Labs AI full text transcription tool. AI is not available for all records yet.

FamilySearch Labs

Next, try FamilySearch labs for additional assistance. I wrote about this new AI full text transcription tool, here.

You’ll see two features which may help you.

Using the “Find Help with AI Search” feature, type in what you’re searching for. I find the Full Text Search” to be much more helpful.

Click on “Go to Experiment.”

Typing “Halifax County, VA” into the search box returns resources from unexpected places. For example, county histories from elsewhere that reference Halifax County, or a Divorce degree, or a deed book from another county.

These are unexpected gold mines that you’d never find otherwise.

Note that this search is literally an exact match, so Halifax County, VA, is NOT the same as Halifax County, Virginia.

However, adding a surname to the location narrows the results substantially.

While normal deed and other books are indexed by the grantor and grantee, the FamilySearch full text search reveals EVERY instance of that name, including when referenced in another document. This feature is an absolute game-changer!

I can hardly wait to revisit my earlier work to see what’s new, but that’s part of the Level Up process.

It’s important to note that FamilySearch is adding new types of records to the AI collection almost daily, so check back often. Not everything uses the full-text transcription feature today, and while it’s quite accurate, it’s not 100%, so read carefully for yourself.

FamilySearch Book Search

You can also search for books by location or surname.

Allen County Public Library

The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana is one of the largest genealogy libraries in the US. You can search their site for locations, keywords, or surnames, here.

While these resources are generally not available online at this library, they alert you that they exist, and you may be able to find them elsewhere.

The one HUGE exception is the one-of-a-kind PERSI index.

PERSI

The PERSI, or Periodical Source Index is maintained by the Allen County Public Library as well, here.

You can search by location.

Click on a category that displays the results.

At the bottom of each page, you can open a form to request a copy of the article.

Ancestry.com Card Catalog

At Ancestry.com, you can search their Card Catalog by title or location.

Be sure to try different spellings and abbreviations, like VA for Virginia, or remove the word county, etc.

The results display a list of records for Halifax County in their collection.

You can click on the link to this book to search by surname or keyword.

These local histories are wonderful tools for fleshing out your ancestor’s stories because they tell us what was happening in their community during different time periods that would have affected and influenced their lives.

For example, in one of these histories, I discovered that one of the Revolutionary War generals and his troops marched right down the road in front of my ancestor’s home. It’s no wonder that he “contributed” brandy, food, and fodder for their horses.

Newspaper Sites

At Newspapers.com, you can see which papers were available and when.

You can also add a surname or first and last name.

Unless there’s a story about someone’s ancestors, there’s no point in looking for people who lived there in the 1700s and early 1800s. These are the publication dates, so an earlier ancestor could have been included in a 25 or 50-year history column in the local paper.

This same technique works with other genealogy Newspaper sites, too, including MyHeritage with a subscription and separately, their new OldNews site which contains newspapers not included in the MyHeritage subscription.

Also check out the Library of Congress digitized newspaper collection, here.

Newspaper Archive is available with an NGS membership, here.

Fulton County (not limited to Fulton County) and GenealogyBank are two additional newspaper resources.

MyHeritage

At MyHeritage, you can search by location or Newspapers as well.

MyHeritage has one book about Halifax County.

By clicking on the book, you can add additional search criteria.

Estes is mentioned 16 times in this book.

Library of Congress

Don’t forget about the Library of Congress, which has its own Historical Newspapers section, here.

You can also search by county or surname in the search box at the top. The images are all copyright-free.

State Archives

Don’t forget about your state archives.

Most have wonderful search capabilities and specific collections.

For example, the Library of Virginia has been indexing individual county chancery records dating back to the county’s formation. Chancery suits are where you find all the juicy stuff because people are asking for remediation and explaining why.

The index is here, and you can search by a combination of county and surname.

There are 59 records in Halifax County fitting this description, mentioning Estes in any capacity, reaching back as far as 1795.

Don’t neglect later cases because many times later cases tend to be lawsuits filed about much earlier estates and property divisions. They also tend to provide relationships in their narrative.

You’ll also notice that often, the plaintiff and defendant aren’t Estes, but they are clearly mentioned somewhere in that case, perhaps in a deposition.

Clicking on “View Details” displays the entire case file.

The resources at each state library are different and vast, so take a look and check back for new offerings and features.

Google is Your Friend

Google can turn up amazing resources, but it can also lead to some unsafe sites, so be careful and don’t just click without thinking.

Google “Halifax County Virginia genealogy society.” You’ll receive eight results that may have databases, members, or donated materials, but these resources may not be complete. For example, I wrote and donated a Moore genealogy to the local museum, which doubled as a genealogy society, and that “book” isn’t listed anywhere in any resource list.

You’ll often find multiple groups focused on the county of interest. These groups will likely have dedicated and interested volunteers and other researchers.

RootsWeb

Ancestry shut down the RootsWeb mailing lists, but they are still out there even though you can no longer add information.

If you Google “Halifax County, Virginia Rootsweb,” you’ll be shown several pages and entries, some of which may or may not be useful to you.

One link provides a list of the 1860 slaveholders compared to the 1870 African Americans on the census. This could be extremely useful!

Google Books

Another underutilized tool is Google books, found here.

Some of these resources you’ll not find elsewhere.

Also, check out the other Google features, such as Images, Maps, and more, which may lead you to other resources.

I love old maps where sometimes you’ll find old stream names, landmarks, or even settlers’ homes with their name.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is an initiative found at the Internet Archive to digitize out-of-copyright books for public consumption.

You can read more here.

Genealogical.com and American Ancestors

Don’t forget about book publishers that specialize in genealogy books like Genealogical.com and American Ancestors. Both are searchable, offer both hardcopy and e-books, and American Ancestors sells used books too.

Facebook

Last but not least, Facebook has many groups, including county-focused genealogy groups.

Sign in to Facebook and then use the Facebook search for the county you want.

Some groups maintain a list of resources.

Be sure to check both “Files” and “Features,” then use the Facebook search function to search for your surname(s) or other relevant locations or keywords in the Discussions.

In Summary

As you step through this process, it’s easiest if you include links to the various sites so that you can extract names in the next step. Links make it easy to return in the future and quickly review to see if anything has been added.

Even if you don’t find anything relevant at the site, be sure to NOTE THAT. That way, you never have to wonder and replow that same infertile ground. For example, if you determine that none of your four surnames are in a book written in 1937, they will never be in that book. If you don’t record that you looked, you’ll be left to wonder a few years from now and you’ll find yourself looking again.

However, a new book about that county might be written in the future, so it’s important to continue to look for new resources.

It’s also important to know that you searched for Estes, Moore, Younger, and Combs in Halifax County because you might, someday in the future, need to search for a new surname, like Hart. This way, you know what you did and did not search for in the past.

Why might you need to search for a new surname? Brick walls fall. Sometimes, the FAN Club turns out to be an important key to unlocking relationships that may extend back in time to earlier locations. People did not live or move in a vacuum.

I’ve made every one of these mistakes and nothing makes me unhappier than having to look something up, AGAIN, because I failed to record what I did.

The same advice holds for hard-copy books in research libraries. If nothing else, I take a picture of the front or inside cover and the index so I know what to record and that nothing was found. I wish I had done that from the beginning. Live and learn.

The biggest lie I’ve ever told myself is, “Of course I’ll remember that!”

Your Turn

It’s your turn now. Happy hunting!

Our next articles in this series will discuss how to record data from these resources so that it is both useful and findable again.

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RootsTech 2024: DNA Academy and Ancestry Announcements

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March the 1st. Remember that old saying about March? If it enters like a lamb, it will leave like a lion, and vice versa.

Look what greeted us on the morning of the second day of RootsTech.

Whoo boy.

The good news, if there was any, was that this was Friday’s forecast for Saturday, and of course, it might, just might, be wrong. Fingers crossed!

The second day of RootsTech was jam-packed, as you can see in the MyHeritage booth below. I wondered if one reason for the extra-large Friday crowd was the weather forecast for Saturday.

I had just finished my booth talk for MyHeritage titled “Leveraging Triangulation – From 3 to Many” and stepped aside to take a picture.

This half-hour presentation defined triangulation as a three-legged stool and discussed when and how to use triangulation at MyHeritage.

I covered:

  • How to use close relatives, including parents, to determine which side your matches are on.
  • Why you can’t use immediate family members for triangulation.
  • How to use triangulation with Shared Matches and the Chromosome Browser
  • How to use and verify Theories of Family Relativity with triangulation
  • AutoClusters as a triangulation roadmap
  • Using AutoClusters and triangulation to determine which DNA descends from whom
  • Bonus hints

Maybe I should turn this presentation into a blog article. What do you think?

DNA Academy aka An Afternoon in the Life of a Presenter

I only had about 45 minutes between the end of the MyHeritage session and the beginning of my class, “DNA Academy: Pulling it All Together – Tests, Vendors, Tools & You.”

I’m very grateful that RootsTech provided the opportunity for this experimental full-afternoon session, which provided the underpinnings for other DNA classes and sessions.

I had practiced and practiced to ensure the slide and topic pacing was fast enough to get through all the slides but not so fast that I would lose people.

Losing someone in a class of this duration means that they miss everything thereafter – and that could be a lot more than your normal 45 to 50-minute class.

Therefore, I needed to be prepared to take questions during the class. That’s always a bit risky because some questions are more like a short story, and you don’t want to run out of time at the end for your slides.

So, yes, I was a bit nervous. I was also concerned about technology gremlins named Murphy that seem to be ever-present. I absolutely did NOT need gremlins attending too.

There was no time between sessions for any kind of a proper lunch. No time to stand in line for food. However, I had to eat since I would have no break until after the class ended at 4, and then only after all of the attendees had left. On Sunday, I had purchased Lunchables at the local grocery store, so I bought a container of fruit and a bag of Doritos at one of those quick grab-it places on the way to my classroom and had a picnic in the back of the room as attendees began filtering in.

I headed for the front of the room with my laptop bag just as the tech person arrived to assist with setup. RootsTech encourages speakers to use RootsTech-provided equipment since they know it’s set up correctly to work with the AV equipment. That makes sense, but I always bring mine, just in case.

RootsTech also generously provided a stool so I wouldn’t have to stand for the entire afternoon.

Our first challenge was that the audio wasn’t working correctly, and never really did. We worked on it until the session started, and I even sent for the tech after the session began.

Eventually, after much fiddling around, I gave up and took the lavalier off. I held it near my mouth for the entire afternoon after finding that “sweet spot” with the assistance of everyone in attendance. We needed to find the mic position where people in the back of the room could hear me, it wasn’t so close it sounded like I was spitting, and we weren’t getting feedback. That seemed to be about a quarter-inch window. It was not ideal, but it worked, and I was very grateful for the audience’s help and patience. Teamwork!

The second challenge was that the RootsTech laptop defaulted to “Presenter View,” which means that your Powerpoint slide is in the upper left quadrant of the laptop screen, the next slide is shown at right, and “speaker notes,” if you’ve created any, appear at the bottom.

I don’t use speaker notes because I don’t want to sound like I’m reading aloud. Therefore, I never use Presenter View. I use the slides to remind me of what to say, and I know what’s coming next.

I initially thought, “Fine, so long as the slide advance works.” It wasn’t until after I began, and after the AV tech was long gone that I realized how small the RootsTech laptop screen was, meaning how SMALL my current slide was. To my horror, I realized that I couldn’t clearly see some portions of my slides.

OH NO!!!

I couldn’t exactly take my glasses off, lean over the podium, and squint. No, that would never do. I also couldn’t move the laptop closer without disrupting the setup and cables.

I also couldn’t see the movie screen to my left that attendees were viewing because I was positioned directly beside the screen and only slightly forward. I could see that the image was showing on the screen, but I couldn’t read anything on the image from that angle.

Crumb!

Therefore, I really had no good or detailed view of my own presentation – for 2.5 hours.

All I can say is that it’s a VERY good thing that I obsessively practice ahead of time, because that’s the ONLY thing that got me through.

I asked for the tech again to assist with the audio issues after trying multiple ways to adjust things myself, and he sent a message back to just move the lavalier up on my clothing. It was already as high as it could be placed, so not helpful.

Why am I telling you this? Often, people often don’t realize how much is beyond the speakers’ control and how much we just roll with the punches as best we can. Attendees are acutely aware of their experience, especially when it’s sub-optimum, and often blame the speaker.

One attendee asked if I could raise the image projection on the screen towards the top. I couldn’t control the image location at all. I knew that if one person couldn’t see because the image was too low on the screen, other people probably couldn’t either, and I felt awful.

Speakers are used to overcoming challenges, but no one wants to attempt to simultaneously overcome and compensate for several issues in the same presentation.

I wound up apologizing more than once to the class. These people had been kind enough to choose this long class and I wanted their experience to be the best possible.

I was very grateful for the people who said something positive afterward and for this person who left feedback on my blog.

A number of people were unhappy because the session wasn’t either live-streamed or recorded. Speakers have no way of knowing or influencing which sessions RootsTech selects for broader consumption. I’m sure they want to livestream a mixture of topics that would interest a variety of people.

I’ve reached out to Legacy Family Tree Webinars to see if they are interested in this class, although I would need to divide it into thirds. I want to leverage this effort and make it available to others who can benefit.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars are free to everyone for the first week, then available in the subscription library.

Does this sound like a good idea?

Ancestry Announcements

After DNA Academy ended, I headed back to the show floor. The second day of RootsTech is always the “late night” with activities until about 7:30. They close earlier, around 5, on the first day, and at 3 on the final day.

I was interested in Ancestry’s announcements and if I had missed anything from the earlier recorded session.

Of course, Ancestry was selling DNA tests. At RootsTech, Ancestry announced that it now has 25 million testers in its database.

Sitting inside the booth, I saw Crista Cowan, the Barefoot Genealogist who is also Ancestry’s corporate genealogist. I noticed the cast on her wrist and felt terrible for her, trying to navigate RootsTech and minor other activities, like, say, eating and presenting and the basic activities of daily living. Been there, done that, and it’s no fun. Crista said that she had discovered that one cannot create PowerPoint slides in a cast, especially when it’s your dominant hand. And I thought I had challenges.

Like I was saying about speakers compensating and making it happen, one way or another…

I’m not going to steal Crista’s thunder about how she became “The Barefoot Genealogist,” but if you don’t know, you can watch her RootsTech presentation here.

So, what else is in Crista’s presentation? What has Ancestry announced?

  • Family Groups. Ancestry announced the ability to create a group of people in a family who are working on a common goal, facilitating collaboration.
  • The Family Groups feature will be available to all accounts, LDS, paid, free, library, whatever.
  • You will be able to assign tasks to people in the group. For example, Mom could be assigned to scan the family photos, upload them, note who they are and other relevant information
  • A “Memories” feature will support either recording or uploading audio which can tell the story of a picture.
  • A new Family Plan, currently only available in the US, allows you to pay for one subscription and add four people. I have seen pricing, but Ancestry has many different plans, and I’m unclear what is and is not included in the Family Plan. So if you’re interested, I’d suggest reaching out to Ancestry.
  • Ancestry continues to add historical records at a rapid pace.

  • Ancestry was indexing 2-3 million records per day. With the launch of the 1950 census, which utilized handwriting recognition and AI, they are now indexing millions more each month, according to Crista’s slide.
  • Ancestry is re-imaging Newspapers.com pages using the same technology, which provides much more than OCR, which is plagued by issues such as image quality and lack of intelligence.
  • One example of new features is that previously, some people were mentioned only by association, such as Mrs. John Doe. Now, Mrs. John Doe can potentially be recognized as Susan Doe or even Susan Jones Doe, based on other articles and information.
  • Ancestry has created a new Stories and Events Index, which indexes the records by category, such as marriages or law and order.
  • However, and this is important, these new re-imaged records are NOT found when you do a global search through Ancestry because, in layman’s terms, there are so many that they crash the system.
  • Ancestry added 16 billion records from newspaper collections last year. You can find a hint or go directly to the newspaper database. Check the specific collection because you may not find the information searching generally.

You can find the Historical Newspapers Collection under the Search tab.

Crista was also being plagued by technical gremlins to this point. It’s obvious that she was well-practiced too, as she barely missed a beat.

Crista encourages people to use the Card Catalog to view the new newspaper record collections.

Here’s what’s showing in my Card Catalog Records Collection view.

  • Moving to DNA announcements, Crista stated that with 25 million people in the database, Ancestry has 88 ethnicity regions and now more than 2500 DNA Communities.

  • The 88 ethnicity regions represent ancestors 500-1000 years ago, while the 2500 communities are formed by a genetic network of people related within approximately 200 years.
  • Ancestry now has 120 million family trees that are mined for location information.
  • Ancestry introduced 203 Communities in Ireland this past year. Crista mentioned that this means that those communities are as granular as counties and that now she knows where to search for her Irish ancestor. I hope she has only one Irish ancestor, and he’s close enough in time. I’m also hoping that the granularity of Communities provides very specific hints.
  • Ancestry added 413 African American Communities in the southern US and Caribbean – some to within a 10-mile radius.
  • Ancestry added 352 Mexico Communities.
  • More Communities are planned to be released every 3-4 months or so during this next year. In other words, you’ll need to check from time to time, as there won’t be a specific large update for everyone.
  • Traits and Communities, by parent, will be added within SideView

If you recall, SideView features now require either a full subscription, or a Plus subscription for DNA features. You can read about that here and here.

Pro Tools

Crista shifted gears here to discuss Pro Tools, which she described as tools that aren’t necessarily for pros, but are new ways to view family history.

Pro Tools is NOT the same as the DNA SideView features that are behind the regular Ancestry subscription or the Plus paywall.

Pro Tools was recently introduced. Crista didn’t mention this in the video, but Pro Tools costs an ADDITIONAL $10 per month, regardless of whether or not you have a full, World, or Plus subscription. In other words, you’ll pay another $120 per year to access Pro Tools

There are two schools of thought about this.

  1. Some people are furious that Ancestry added an entirely new subscription instead of adding these functions to the full or Plus subscription level.
  2. Some people are glad that Ancestry didn’t raise the cost of the full subscription by $120 per year, allowing people NOT to subscribe to these new Pro-Tools features if they don’t want them.

New features will be added under Pro Tools soon.

New shared matches view:

  • The predicted relationship and how many cMs your shared matches share with any other shared match will be available in the first half of 2024.
  • If shared matches triangulate.

Future Enhancements

  • Ability to group shared matches into custom groups with one click using “select all”
  • Ability to sort by your matches’ closest matches
  • Highlight matches that have triangulated shared segments

Nope – No Chromosome Browser

People have been speculating for some time that Ancestry might have been going to add a Chromosome Browser. Nope, they didn’t.

Crista didn’t mention this, but discussion elsewhere revealed that the triangulated segment information will NOT include:

  • The number of triangulated segments
  • The size of triangulated segments
  • Segment location information
  • A chromosome browser

At this point, I have no plan to subscribe to Pro Tools. I feel like Ancestry is essentially teasing us. “Yes, you have a triangulated segment with two other people, but, sorry, we’re not going to tell you where it is.” It’s like they get us right up to the edge of something useful, within sight and sniffing distance, then, boom, dropped like a hot potato. To add insult to injury, we have to pay separately for the teaser, even with a full subscription. The best we could do, I think, is hope that one or some of the triangulated people have a tree so we can determine who the common ancestor or ancestral line might be. If we’re really lucky, there might be a ThruLine formed.

I’ll leave it at that, but I am not one bit happy about the features that are still excluded, and that the included features require yet another subscription.

I realize that after years of saying that segment information violates Ancestry’s perception of privacy, it would be difficult for Ancestry to reverse its position at this point.

Standing in the booth later, someone commented that they were surprised that Ancestry is going to provide estimated relationships between shared matches and shared cM amounts to each other. Crista said that Ancestry had needed to “work out some privacy stuff” first.

Perhaps this is the furthest Ancestry feels that they can move without entirely reversing their long-standing chromosome browser privacy position.

For those who want to work with segment information and a chromosome browser, you can upload your Ancestry DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. You’ll find step-by-step instructions here.

After visiting the Ancestry booth, I moved on to other vendors on the show floor.

Goldie May

I hadn’t heard of Goldie May until Drew Smith introduced me recently. Thanks Drew!

You can take a look at their genealogy organizational tools, but their best feature for genealogists who give presentations is the ability to blur names in screenshots.

This feature, available under Goldie May Pro for $24 per month, senses names and blurs them along with associated profile photos for you. The lack of blurring is one reason I never do anything live or make “how-to” videos.

Right now, this feature only works for Ancestry pages, but hopefully, it will soon work for pages of other DNA vendors and DNAPainter.

DNAPainter

Speaking of DNAPainter, they are one of my favorite third-party vendors. And just in case you’re wondering, I’m not related to Jonny, and I pay full price for my subscription, just like all of you.

I mention this only because DNAPainter appears in just about every presentation I create about autosomal DNA and matches, regardless of the vendor – except Ancestry, of course.

I saw Jonny sitting at a table, showing someone how to paint their matching segments.

One person who attended the conference agreed to a 10-minute DNAPainter lesson after dinner with a friend – only 10 minutes, though, because he was tired! Although his friend was long asleep, he was still painting at 4 AM  and had surpassed the 50% mark of his painted chromosomes assigned to known ancestors. I think we have a new convert!

You can find DNAPainter instructions here.

On the corner of the table was a shared cM relationship map, one of the free tools that Jonny offers in collaboration with others in the community.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture of Jonny in his very cool striped tennis shoes that look amazingly like painted chromosomes.

I remember the first time I saw Jonny in 2018, looking very nervous at RootsTech, standing by himself in a small booth the first year he introduced DNApainter. I had never heard of DNAPainter.

In 2018, Jonny was a candidate in the new tech innovation contest, which he won. This motivated me to try DNAPainter myself, leading to another award at the beginning of 2019.

How things have changed in six years. Now, EVERYONE knows Jonny Perl. He was included in the 25-year genetic genealogy celebration as someone who has shaped the industry, and he’s no longer standing nervously alone in his booth. Also, he has way cool shoes now!!

In fact, it’s hard to find Jonny alone at any time to take a picture.

I just love success stories!

More Friends on the Show Floor

I knew Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, was at RootsTech and presenting, but I hadn’t actually seen her yet. By now, I’m sure almost everyone has had the opportunity to hear Judy speak, but I’ve often said that if Judy were talking about dirt, I’d attend because it would be funny, witty, and educational.

I found Judy, in her second-generation signature pink jacket, hanging out with Janine Cloud in the FamilyTreeDNA booth.

Friday was the late evening at RootsTech. People were getting tired and hungry, and most attendees had already left by 7:30 when the Expo Hall officially closed.

In the center of the hall, near the front, FamilySearch had a “garden” or “park” area with park benches and fun games like chess.

As I was walking out, I noticed Bennett Greenspan, at left, playing park chess with Katherine Borges, Director of ISOGG, the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, at right.

I had a good chuckle as I realized that assembling the DNA of our ancestors and applying it meaningfully to our genealogy is like playing chess.

Warning

We had been hoping all day that the weather forecast would change for the better.

Maybe it wouldn’t snow at all.

Maybe it wouldn’t snow much.

Uh-oh!!

It was cold, and the wind was blowing hard as we exited the Salt Palace, whipping our hair into our faces and eyes.

Everything felt ominous. Even the locals were worried.

Attendees were heading home early, and even those who had to stay and work on Saturday were trying to change their flights to Saturday afternoon in the hope that they could escape before the brunt of the storm hit.

Airlines were contacting passengers with weather advisories, saying they could change their flights without charge. They were hoping to get people out ahead of the storm.

The various weather services showed different scenarios. One reported that it would be 33 degrees and rain until just after lunch, when it would turn to snow.

Another predicted that it would be 31 and blizzard conditions with 4-6 inches of snow and whiteout conditions by noon.

What? “Hurricane-force gusts”? You’re kidding, right? But they weren’t. This was no joke.

No one knew what to expect, and local people were bidding us adieu, saying they weren’t planning to be back on Saturday.

What would we wake up to on Saturday morning? What about flights? And hotel rooms? What would we be facing?

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RootsTech 2024 – Celebrating 25 Years of Genetic Genealogy

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On the first day of RootsTech, we celebrated the milestone anniversary of 25 years of genetic genealogy. Right now, we are at the intersection of two incredibly powerful tools: genetics and AI. Both technologies are revolutionary and have changed and are changing the genealogical world overnight. What an amazing time to be alive!

Day 1 is Just Beginning

Day 1 is just the beginning, although pre-show activities have been occurring for a day or two. Everyone is excited. The energy on the show floor and as attendees talk is palpable – a form of human electricity.

I’m going to share some of RootsTech’s flavor with you, so come along with me as I attend a few sessions, give my dozen sessions, and meet people.

First, I need to provide some caveats.

  • I wasn’t able to attend very many sessions
  • I didn’t get to half the expo floor booths
  • I was only at one keynote, but fortunately, most were recorded

I managed to overcommit myself “just a bit,” and I just couldn’t be in two places at once. Thankfully, recorded sessions are available here.

One of the reasons that I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped is because I kept running into people. There was more hugging at RootsTech than at a bear-hug festival. The fun of taking selfies is a thing – a modern-day bonding experience and lots of group selfies are floating around on social media.

I truly love my fellow genealogists, many of whom I’ve discovered are cousins, and some of whom have become lifelong friends. They are brothers and sisters of heart -people who I can’t imagine NOT having in my family. This group of troublemakers is the perfect example of that, with Lianne Krüger, Mags Gaulden, and me in the back and Janine Cloud in front. I think we look like a girl band. Perhaps we’ll call ourselves The Chromosomes. 😊

The first thing on my agenda for Thursday was a book signing for my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy.

Penny Walters wandered by while I was signing and said hello.

Penny, the queen of selfies, constantly has to instruct me on how to do this successfully. It seems I either shut my eyes or I’m smiling so hard I’m laughing. One day, Penny, one day!

Thanks, Penny, for taking this picture of me with my book.

Following the book signing, Janine Could, Groups and Events Manager at FamilyTreeDNA, and I had an AMA, Ask Me Anything session in the FamilyTreeDNA booth about determining if you have Native American ancestors. Our stories are so complementary.

I was raised with and participated in Native cultural traditions. Janine wasn’t, but she is an enrolled Cherokee tribal member. After we had known each other for several years, we discovered that we’re related, but not through that line – at least not that we know of.

The great thing about AMA sessions is that the speakers are literally there to answer your questions. During the conference, lots of people took advantage of the expertise of speakers and their fellow attendees.

Remember

Last year, I met Charis, in the middle between me and Janine. Charis made my day when she told me that she was driving by the Salt Palace a week or so before RootsTech, saw that I was giving a Native American session, and knew she had to attend.

We talked for a long time, and I wondered if I would see her again this year.

Sure enough!

I saw her walking down an aisle, so I knew she was attending. I wanted to give her a hug but I couldn’t at that moment.

She stopped by the FamilyTreeDNA booth and asked Janine if she thought I’d remember her.

You remember people that make you feel good, and she really did.

Someone once told me that people often remember you for how you make them feel.

This year, Charis attended my sessions, and it felt good to see a friendly, smiling face in the audience.

After one class, she waited for me until everyone’s questions were answered. I asked if we could sit down in the quiet at a vacant table in the back of that hall for a few minutes to visit.

Charis pulled out a bag with a card and gave it to me, saying she hoped I didn’t think it was weird or anything. I was stunned and quite moved.

Her name is Remember, the theme of Rootstech this year.

I cried. Charis’s gift was so thoughtful in so many ways, as was the card – and she had no idea how personally this touched me.

We talked for a long time, and while I’m not going to share details, I remembered how it felt to be young and have your life’s trajectory shifted in ways you can’t control.

I remembered what it was like to have hopes dashed.

I remembered when I was “just doing what I was doing” every day, not realizing that I was making memories – not just for me but for others as well.

I remember when Douglas explained the concept of GodMothers to me – and I wasn’t young.

Douglas told me that I had GodMothered people through our combined educational ministry (and I’m not talking about church here) and through my own individual work. Of course, the first thing I thought when Douglas said that was, “No, no, not me,” but then I remembered my mother’s “simple” ministry to others. I remembered how my step-father changed my life both with his actions and a few simple, well-placed words. I remembered the kindness of others when I desperately needed it – and still do.

I remembered.

I remembered that we all have a mission, a ministry, even if we don’t realize it. Even if we don’t understand it. Even if “all we do” is a simple kindness every day.

I remembered that some people’s lives are meant to intersect.

Charis is doing GodMother work, or maybe God’s Mother’s work, every day of her life.

Charis gives me hope for the future.

Thank you Charis, for Remember, and for helping me remember. And for being the next generation of GodMothers and shining your light for others to follow in generations of GodMother footsteps.

Remember.

Genetic Genealogy Turns 25

A few weeks before RootsTech, Diahan Southard emailed and asked me if I’d be interested in and willing to write a short, roughly 3-page “chapter” for a book she was preparing for RootsTech, celebrating the 25th anniversary of genetic genealogy.

Additionally, Diahan would be hosting a panel where some of the contributors would share our remembrances, beginning with the earliest days and ending with more recent innovations.

You can watch the session here.

It’s not hyperbole to say that genetic genealogy changed my life. It also changed the trajectory of my career.

I was very proud to be included on this panel with Diahan and Bennett Greenspan, both of whom I have known since the beginning. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined an event like this – let alone being on this stage on this incredibly memorable day.

Diahan shared her story about beginning her career at Sorenson Molecular Institute with Scott Woodward, who joined us and told his story via video.

Bennett Greenspan spoke about his inspiration as a genealogist, and how and why he founded FamilyTreeDNA in 1999.

Bennett introduced Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA to the consuming public, planting the seeds of an industry that would flourish and ultimately become a household word in the genealogy community.

Tim Janzen spoke about the role of Y-DNA from the first 12-marker panels to the Big Y-700 today. The landmark discovery that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with Sally Hemmings occurred as a result of Y-DNA testing and drew attention to the possibilities for solving long-standing mysteries – known or unknown.

Leah Larkin discussed the tipping point of autosomal DNA in the genetic genealogy industry.

Aimee Haynes with DNA Angels, an adoption search organization, explained how autosomal DNA, in particular, answers questions for adoptees, giving identities and histories to millions of people who “don’t know who they are.”

Diahan asked me to speak about ethnicity and genetic genealogy, and I actually managed to find my original ethnicity test from 2003. That image in the middle with the red dot and “parenthesis” bands was the extent of the information returned, in addition to the percentages. By the way, those percentages weren’t accurate either, but it was a beginning.

However, ethnicity, with associated segment information at FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe, has paved the way for painting both ethnicity and match segments with Jonny Perl’s DNAPainter.

Jonny spoke about his inspiration for DNAPainter and how he initially developed it for his own use. Now, just a few years later, everyone loves it!

Lori Napolitano spoke about the evolution of Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG), also known as IGG, including a collage of people whose remains have been identified and a separate collage of perpetrators of violent crime who are now off the streets. She addressed the successes along with the challenges.

Lori’s 3 or 4 minutes were extremely balanced, presenting both sides of the coin, and I strongly encourage you to listen beginning at about minute 36.

Diahan has compiled these people’s contributions along others for a total of 34 vignettes in the book So Far: Genetic Genealogy – The First 25 Years 1999-2024.

  • Megan Smolenyak-Smolenyak
  • Scott Woodward
  • Bennett Greenspan
  • Ann Turner
  • Ugo Perego
  • Diahan Southard
  • Scott Fisher
  • Roberta Estes
  • Tim Janzen
  • Jim Bartlett
  • Blaine Bettinger
  • Daniel Horowitz
  • Debbie Kennett
  • Kitty Cooper
  • Angie Bush
  • Michelle Leonard
  • Paul Woodbury
  • Kelli Bergheimer
  • Judy Russell
  • Dana Leeds
  • Drew Smith
  • Diana Elder
  • Nicole Dyer
  • Leah Larkin
  • Nathan Dylan Goodwin
  • Mary Eberle
  • Mags Gaulden
  • Aimee-Rose-Haynes
  • Jonny Perl
  • Brianne Kirkpatrick
  • Laura Olmsted
  • Cheryi Hudson-Passey
  • Margaret Press
  • Penny Walters

The stories and visions of these pioneers and industry influencers are fascinating.

The eBook is free by scanning the QR code below or click here.

The following day, I found Diahan’s booth and was able to thank her for this labor of love.

Printed copies of Diahan’s book were available for sale in her booth, Your DNA Guide, and I was surprised how many people sought out attendees who wrote mini-chapters and asked us to sign our pages. What fun!

Diahan and I go back a long way. In the greatest of ironies, in the very early days, the Skidmore Family Association retained Diahan to “tell them what she could” about early Y-DNA tests of 51 Skidmore men. Initially, I was very concerned that the family association might have gotten themselves aligned with someone who was less than competent – but then thrilled when I discovered that consultant was Diahan. Better yet, my own line was one of 8 individual Skidmore lines that Diahan identified and was represented by several testers. Back then, Diahan was working with only a few STR markers and of course, today, we have Big Y-700 tests.

Sunny Morton, another author, joined us for a lovely photo in Diahan’s booth.

I’ve always been incredibly grateful to Sunny for taking me under her wing during my first year speaking at RootsTech, where I had 4 or 5 days to prepare a presentation to cover for another speaker who was unexpectedly unable to attend. Baptism by fire, for sure.

Another reminder that people remember you for how you make them feel.

Expo Hall Show Floor

In between sessions and events, I wandered around the show floor to see the booths, their offerings, and my friends. Many of these people are probably your friends, too, or you have seen their names in the community.

Near Diahan’s booth, I found Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer, pictured above, a lovely mother-daughter professional genealogist pair who founded Family Locket. Should I say this? I especially love the baby genealogist peeking at us from behind. I’m thinking in another year or so, it will be a three-generation endeavor.😊

I was excited to run into Marian Pierre-Louis, who facilitates the smooth running of Legacy Family Tree Webinars and slays technology gremlins left and right! Another person I’m grateful to!

Geoff Rasmussen, founder of Legacy Family Tree, both the Legacy Family Tree Software and the webinars, was staffing the booth. If you haven’t tried these amazing genealogy webinars, all webinars are free initially and for 7 days and are then available by subscription in the webinar library.

Here, Geoff and Marian appear together. What a wonderful team. I’ll have a new webinar in the library before year-end.

Further down the row, I found Geneanet. If you’re not familiar with Geneanet, they are the last totally free resource that I’m aware of that allows the free uploading of your tree, regardless of size.

I use Geneanet often, especially when searching for Europeans. One of my favorite trees at Geneanet belongs to professional genealogist Karen Theriot Reader, and it documents more than 166,000 Acadians and their descendants—along with sources.

Yes, there was food, although not as much as in earlier years. However, these lovely mini-bundt cakes were TO DIE FOR. Unfortunately, I never did manage to purchase a chocolate one.

Maybe I’ll just have to cross my fingers for next year.

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RootsTech 2024 – MyHeritage is ON FIRE with 13 Announcements

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I’ve got to tell you, MyHeritage has outdone themselves.

I had a hard time just keeping track of their announcements, which totaled 13 – a baker’s dozen.

You can watch the MyHeritage RootsTech keynote by Aaron Godfrey, here.

However, there are a few things not in the video, so let’s take a look at a quick summary of what’s new.

DNA Uploads with Free Advanced Tools Forever Extended Until March 10th

MyHeritage just extended their DNA upload that includes ALL ADVANCED TOOLS FOR FREE, forever, to March 10th so click here now to upload every kit you manage. This is a great deal. Hint – new ethnicity results are coming soon and you’ll be saving $29 on each kit you upload.

20+ Billion Records

MyHeritage has just passed the 20 billion record mark and is continuing to add. That’s billion, with a B. These records are available to customers with a MyHeritage subscription. If you don’t have a subscription, you can try a MyHeritage Subscription with a Free Trial, here.,

Additionally, right now, subscriptions are 50% off, but I don’t know how long that price lasts.

I love my MyHeritage subscription, and if you try it and don’t like yours, you can cancel and be charged nothing during the 14-day trial period.

I particularly like that the local newspaper where my grandparents lived is available on MyHeritage, and no place else. In addition, MyHeritage has integrated with FamilySearch, which is digitizing and indexing records like wildfire. That collaboration has provided me with information from European sources, including archives.

MyHeritage Wiki

MyHeritage has been working on their new Wiki, a community encyclopedia for genealogy and DNA, for almost a year now, although it was only recently released.

Photo courtesy of MyHeritage

I’ve been honored to write several articles for the newly announced MyHeritage Wiki, including the definition of DNA itself:

Take a look at the new Wiki, here.

You can filter in a number of ways, and you can even sign up to be a contributor.

Check out their blog article, here.

AI Record Finder

The AI Record Finder is the world’s first AI chat-based search engine for historical records.

I should probably tell you that, at this point in time, I do use AI, such as ChatGPT, very cautiously, and I’m inherently suspicious because AI tools sometimes hallucinate. It’s a new technology with lots of glitches and unknowns, so let’s see how MyHeritage is using this tool. It should be much more reliable since it’s in a controlled environment. I need to be convinced. 😊

The AI Record Finder is under the Research Menu. Just type your question about your ancestor.

I’m cheating and giving MyHeritage a tough one. I typed, “Please tell me about Solomon Ferwerda, who died in 1768 in Groningen, the Netherlands.”

MyHeritage returned three possibilities in their database, including their affiliated databases. One is a MyHeritage tree and two are records from FamilySearch.

Don’t limit yourself at this point.

I happen to know “my” Solomon is the first person, but I played around a bit before selecting the “right” Solomon. Why? Because there’s a lot that I don’t know about his life. It’s possible that the second and third records are ALSO the right person, so be sure to review everything.

Clicking on the middle or right record for Solomon shows that, indeed, this record from FamilySearch comes from the Dutch Archival Indexes, so it’s not “just someone’s tree.”

We do know the Ferwerda family is from Leeuwarden, but we don’t know when Solomon was born, nor if he was married twice. I only have the name of his second wife and one child, Jan, who was born the year he died.

The two FamilySearch Dutch archive records are from Leeuwarden, so maybe, just maybe, I’ve discovered something new about Solomon. How exciting!

I need to click through and check this out further.

I didn’t expect to like this tool, but so far, I really do. But wait – there’s more.

AI Ancestor Bio

You can click to have MyHeritage generate an AI bio of an ancestor for you.

The bio takes a few minutes to generate and will be available for download in the chat and will also be emailed to you. You can easily share with others. Getting other people interested in genealogy often encourages them to take a DNA test. DNA tests are still on sale for $39, here.

Solomon Ferwerda’s AI bio was completed quickly and arrived in pdf format. We know so little about him, I knew it would be short. I must say, I really enjoyed the “Historical Context” section that discussed the surrounding events that would have affected his life. That’s incredibly important and would have or could have influenced the decisions he made. Maybe the warfare and political unrest caused him to move from Leeuwarden to Groningen for some reason, where he died the year his son was born.

Here’s Solomon’s bio.

Here’s a link to the RootsTech lecture about the MyHeritage AI tools by Ran Snir, the VP of Product.

MyHeritage blog links for AI Record finder are here and here.

You can watch Telling Your Family’s Story with MyHeritage’s AI Features by Janna Helshtein at Legacy Family Tree Webinars, here.

I can’t wait to play with the MyHeritage AI tools more.

Updated Ethnicity Coming Soon

This is going to make a lot of people happy!

MyHeritage is in the process of updating their ethnicity results, increasing their regions from 42 to 80, with significantly optimized granularity in Europe. I initially misunderstood and thought the new results were available now, but they won’t arrive until summer.

I understand from talking to a Jewish friend involved in MyHeritage’s R&D effort that their own results are substantially improved and that they have now been placed in Armenia where their ancestors are from. They are no longer generically “Jewish.”

New Profile Pages with Hints

Daniel Horowitz said that everyone calls Smart Matches and Record Matches hints, so now MyHeritage has updated profile pages and is adding them to the profile page and officially calling them Hints.

You can still find Smart Matches and Record Matches listed separately under Discoveries, but on everyone’s profile, they are called Hints.

On Solomon’s profile page, scroll down to view his journey based on the information you’ve entered or accepted into your tree.

I did not yet add Leeuwarden, because I’m yet positive those records in Leewarden are his, but if I had, Leeuwarden would also be shown on his journey map. I’ll be incorporating these into my 52 Ancestors stories. I love maps! Maybe I can find old maps to include too,

You can read more about the new profiles and hints, here.

Tree Collaboration with FamilyTreeDNA

Aaron Godfrey announced tree collaboration with FamilyTreeDNA who pre-announced this at their conference in November.

I don’t have specific details about how it works, as this won’t happen for a few months yet, but FamilyTreeDNA customers will port their trees to MyHeritage which allows them to take advantage of MyHeritage’s record collections and such. Existing MyHeritage customers will simply connect their FamilyTreeDNA test to their MyHeritage tree.

FamilyTreeDNA has never been a “tree” company, so this means that users will have one less tree to maintain independently, and they can augment their research with records from MyHeritage.

I talked to Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, the Product Manager at FamilyTreeDNA to confirm that this is NOT a DNA transfer. FamilyTreeDNA matches still occur in the FamilyTreeDNA database, just like always, and MyHeritage matches still occur in the MyHeritage database. If you want matching in both databases, you still have to upload to or test at both. Only the trees are integrated, meaning when you click on a tree at  FamilyTreeDNA, you’ll see the tree displayed on MyHeritage.

The great news is that FamilyTreeDNA features such as Family Matching (bucketing) where you link your DNA matches at FamilyTreeDNA to their profile cards so that maternal/paternal bucketing occurs will still work the same way. The only difference will be that your tree will actually reside at MyHeritage and not at FamilyTreeDNA.

You’ll be able to enjoy the best of both worlds.

We will know more in a few months, and I’ll provide more details when I have them.

Invite Another MyHeritage User to View Your DNA Results

Aaron Godfrey said in the keynote that 2FA (two-factor authentication) at MyHeritage will become mandatory later this month, and with it, MyHeritage is adding the feature of being able to invite another MyHeritage user to view your DNA results. This allows people to collaborate more easily, especially if a different person is managing someone else’s DNA test.

Reimagine Multi-Photo Scanner App

This photo-scanning innovation is for your phone and allows you to scan photos and entire photo album pages – automatically separating and improving the photos. Then, of course, you just tag them to the proper person in your tree like any other photo.

Oh, and did I mention that Reimagine is free? I expected to have to pay when I downloaded the app, but I didn’t, probably because I have a full subscription.

Based on this article, Reimagine is not meant for other types of images, like pages of text or albums of clipped newspaper articles. But guess what? I downloaded the app, and it works just fine for those items! Hallelujah. How I wish I had this last week at the FamilySearch Library when I was finding pages in books I wanted to associate with a specific ancestor.

If you have album pages of photos to scan, this is golden and integrates with the profiles of people into your MyHeritage tree.

I really, really like the idea of having the ability to scan in the palm of my hand. That way if someone has a photo, you don’t have to try to take a photo of it. Gone are the days of literally dragging a laptop and scanner around with me when I’m traveling – just in case. Yes, I actually did and now I don’t have to anymore.

I cringe to think how many opportunities were lost to me before the days of laptops – but not now.

Thank you – THANK YOU, MyHeritage. What a great gift!

You can find the QR code to download the app, here.

OldNews is New News

MyHeritage has introduced a new website for old newspapers called OldNews which you can find here.

This addition doubles the number of newspapers previously available on MyHeritage.

Users can also subscribe separately to Old News for about $99/year.

MyHeritage customers use their normal credentials to sign in to either site, but accessing newspapers not previously integrated into MyHeritage will require an OldNews subscription too.

I had to try it. I entered my mother’s name.

Look, my Mom had a tonsillectomy. I never knew that. It was just a couple of months after she graduated from high school.

I didn’t know Mom spent the summer in Philadelphia, either. She was 19 at that time, and I had heard rumblings that she studied with a “prima ballerina” at the School of American Ballet. Guess where that is? Yep, Philly.

My Mom was a professional tap and ballet dancer before she became my Mom.

Understanding that Mom spent the summer of 1942 on the east coast sheds new light on this and a few other photos in Mom’s photo album, which I can now scan.

Ok, I can’t help myself. I have to enhance this photo at MyHeritage.

Much better. Another tiny piece of Mom’s life brought into focus.

I wonder what else is in OldNews that I don’t know about. Hmmmm…

You can read about OldNews here.

New All-Inclusive Omni Subscription

MyHeritage is launching a new Omni all-inclusive subscription plan that includes most of the MyHeritage products and tools, except for Filae, unless I’m missing something. Omni reportedly costs less than half the price if you were to subscribe to all of these individually. I’ve asked for a comparison chart which I don’t have yet, but I’m told will be coming soon.

Here’s what’s included:

Additionally, I asked MyHeritage about whether or not the advanced DNA tools are included with Omni, and they are. So, add advanced DNA tools to that list.

The following information about the Omni Plan is a screenshot from the MyHeritage blog article, here.

I have not been able to determine the price of an Omni subscription. At RootsTech, you were interested in the Omni plan, you submitted a Google form and a day or so later, you received this email.

I suspect MyHeritage needs to talk to you because how much it costs initially depends on your existing subscriptions, and how much time is left on those.

I reached out to MyHeritage and asked when Omni will be available to purchase, and the answer is “soon.” You can’t sign up just yet.

I have never subscribed to Legacy Family Tree Webinars, even though I’m a webinar presenter and have several webinars available there. My gift to myself is going to be Omni when it’s available because I want Legacy Family Tree Webinars, and I’d love a subscription to OldNews. I already have a full subscription to MyHeritage, and I’d probably use Geni more than I do as a casual user if I had the Omni subscription.

Artifact Testing – Maybe

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend CEO Gilad Japhet’s RootsTech session because his session and mine were at exactly the same time.

However, I asked Aaron Godfrey after Gilad’s session what I had missed that was not in Aaron’s keynote, other than Gilad’s wonderful stories.

Aaron and others told me that Gilad stated that he was personally submitting personal artifacts, such as stamps, to a third-party lab once again, to test the waters to see if DNA can now be extracted from artifacts successfully.

MyHeritage tried this a few years ago, ultimately unsuccessfully. Perhaps this time will be different, but I would not hold my breath, truthfully. Degraded DNA has quality issues, not to mention that the DNA extracted might not be the DNA of the person expected.

I would personally love this, but I am also skeptical at this point. Kudos to Gilad for trying again with his own personal items.

MyHeritage Online RootsTech Booth

MyHeritage has provided several educational videos in their online RootsTech booth, at this link. Be sure to take advantage of this free resource.

Whew, I’m finally done! I told you that MyHeritage had been very, very busy, and I wasn’t kidding. I hope I didn’t miss anything.

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Stop Risking Your Information: Facebook Games, Public Posts, Friend Lists & Hackers

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Are you unwittingly exposing yourself and risking your information on Facebook or other social media platforms?

Bad actors are becoming increasingly problematic on social media. There’s been a HUGE UPTICK recently, and we need to keep ourselves safe. Keeping yourself safe also helps keep your friends safe, and vice versa.

Please read this article and follow these steps. Share with your friends and family too.

Please don’t think you’re immune from this. You’re not. Everyone needs to do a checkup periodically.

Sometimes Facebook changes things, and hackers get more wily and cunning all the time. Bad actors are so deceptive now that you may not realize your choices and/or behavior have exposed your information.

Using lots of examples, here’s what this article will do for you:

  1. Identify and explain new threats and how they work.
  2. Show you how to modify your privacy settings to prevent unauthorized access.
  3. Determine if you’ve inadvertently let the bad guys in – and how to shut that door.
  4. Explain how to stop engaging in risky behavior that you don’t even realize is risky.

Risky behavior on social media is like the flu – people who don’t take proper precautions expose others.

You may think you’re already aware of what’s risky, and what isn’t. Hopefully, that’s true – but when the bad guys change their tactics, we all need to reevaluate accounts, settings, and behaviors.

How Does Exposure Happen

My friends, even friends who should know better, are exposing themselves on Facebook and other social media – and they don’t even realize it.

How?

Lax security settings, Facebook games, innocent-looking questions, and public posts combine to create a toxic slurry of exposure – and you have absolutely no idea that anything is going on beneath the water.

However, it’s absolutely infested with sharks!

Facebook games and questions ARE CRAFTED BY CYBERCRIMINALS.

FULL STOP!!!

You are the target, and your own emotions are the bait.

Yes, I mean you!

I’ve seen almost everyone fall victim to this in one form or another – so you’re not alone. We all learn – hopefully before we have or cause a bad experience.

Did you click on a link you shouldn’t have – before thinking? Have you ever answered any of these seemingly fun questions posted by someone you don’t personally know? Or, someone you DO know whose posting was public? Do you even know if the posting was public?

Here are some examples of bait questions?

  • How far away do you live from where you were born?
  • Name a song that takes you back to high school?
  • Where was your first job?
  • Your cowboy (rock star, stripper, animal, you get the idea) name is your middle name. (Then they show you a fun picture.)
  • Your first car.
  • Thirty random things about me.

If you enter any of that information, you’re doing multiple EXTREMELY RISKY and DANGEROUS THINGS!!!

  • Giving potential answers to security questions to cybercriminals who aggregate your data from many seemingly innocent questions.
  • Posting the results of those ” fun ” picture games gives cybercriminals access to your personal information, friends, and timeline.
  • Giving cybercriminals access to your friend list so they can be targeted too
  • Serving as bait for your friends who see your answers because Facebook shows you what your friends and family members answer.
  • Serving as bait for your friends who see your AI name or cowboy name or whatever “game” you’ve played. Facebook shows people that you’ve played this game, which serves as an endorsement, especially if people trust you.

Best case, you’re attracting attention to yourself as someone who is naïve and vulnerable. These bad actors are manipulating your emotions, which in turn leads to you oversharing.

You may be hacked, your account cloned, or even lost entirely, AND you’ll be responsible for your friends also engaging in risky behavior.

An even worse case scenario is identity theft.

Here’s the best article I know of that shows several examples. IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE TODAY, READ THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE!!!

I can hear my mother saying to me, “If everyone else jumped off the bridge, would you too?”

This is the bridge, and I’ll show you why.

That Alluringly Dangerous Bridge

Let’s look at a couple of examples. Different scams work in different ways depending on the goal of the bad actor. We will look at a few so you’re aware.

First, they catch your attention and hope you click before you think.

DO NOT CLICK.

First, lots of professional criminals troll ANY PUBLIC ANSWER.

This post and all replies are public. That little globe means the world can see the post and any comments.

Second, if you click to take this seemingly fun test, you give them lots of information about you, and the results, which are always “wonderful”, post to your feed – which provides “positive feedback” to you and lures your friends. Let’s face it; they will never tell someone they are “below average” because who would play their data-gathering game?

How do they post results to your feed? You give them permission when you click to do the “test,” even though you don’t realize you did that.

Here’s another one.

This has nothing to do with AI. It’s all hooey! Don’t be a willing victim.

NameTests

One of the most popular “games” on Facebook is some derivative of Nametests.

Seriously, do you believe some application can tell you anything useful by selecting three colors? And, ask yourself why anyone would create these “games” and purchase Sponsored Facebook ads to do something “free” for everyone. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

If you’re thinking this is just harmless fun – it’s not.

Do yourself a favor.

Type this into Google: “What is nametests on Facebook?”

Read this article, courtesy of Comparitech, an identity theft prevention company to see what you just gave away. Literally, access to everything in your profile. And you did it willingly. They didn’t have to hack your account. They simply tricked you by luring you with something free that looked like fun.

Ok, now that you’ve done it, Nametests and other similar apps have access to your account, so you need to rescind that permission.

You Just Gave Them Access to Your Friends List

I’ll step you through how to remove anything like this at the end of this article. You’ll also want to change your password and possibly enable two-factor authentication (2FA). You’ve just given some scammer the keys to your kingdom – plus your friends’ too.

That’s not the end, either. In fact, it’s just the beginning.

There’s more.

Questions, Challenges, Feel-Good and Outrage Stories

Emotions are powerful. They cause you to want to comment – or click. You throw caution to the wind. Actually, you simply forget about caution altogether. That’s the goal.

What you need to do is put the brakes on and…

STOP!

Some fishing questions may make you want to reminisce and relive the good old days.

Some look like fun. But ask yourself – why does ANYONE care about that?

Some scare you and trick you into clicking before thinking. They create a sense of either tragedy or urgency.

“Look who died.” “I can’t believe he’s gone.” And before you think, you’ve reacted with “OMG” and clicked and literally given away the farm. Not just your Facebook farm, either. Here’s how this works, with a short video from the Indiana State Attorney General.

What does the Attorney General say? “I don’t click on anything.” Me either! If you see these frightening tagged links from a friend, it means that friend’s account has been hacked or cloned. Contact them but do not message or reply to the account that sent this because you’ll be talking directly to the hacker.

Nostalgic or Emotionally Motivational Postings

Some scams are wonderful stories that make you want to share something affirming.

Some make you nostalgic.

Some make you angry or sad.

Have you seen those found dog scams where the individual claims to have found an injured dog, taken it to the vet, are trying to find the owner and need assistance with the vet bills. There’s an entire Facebook group devoted to identifying fake “found dog” posts, here.

These posts are meant to evoke strong emotions that cause you to forget about safety and just react. It’s called motivation, and these criminals are pros.

Then, because you’re a good person, you share with your friends, or maybe they shared with you so that’s even more encouragement to engage.

Sometimes, the posts don’t even ask you anything directly.

This next post had been up for less than one day, and look how many shares and comments it had.

A couple of weeks later, it had more than 4000 likes, 884 comments, and 559 shares. Just think how many comments it actually has now, scattered around the internet on various people’s pages.

It looks so innocuous and safe, but it isn’t.

You’ve just given these people, whoever they are, an approximate age, and you’ve told them you’re vulnerable to this type of trickery. Hackers gather every tidbit they can about you so that you can be targeted on this and other platforms.

Everything on this account is public, which you can tell by the little globe, meaning everyone anywhere can see what you say and what everyone says.

The recent 23andMe data exposure is a good example of how information can be aggregated and used to breach other accounts. Furthermore, with your age and city location, which may well be available on your Facebook profile page, anyone can use standard internet search tools to find an address, a phone, family members’ names, and more. Much more!

Questions Lists

You may see these question lists posted by your friends and asked to be passed on “for fun.”

Just don’t!!! Remember, your friends and (sometimes) their friends can see responses too. You have NO IDEA who is consuming this information.

Many police organizations have warned against this. Here’s an article.

Anytime you see anything that sounds or smells like these types of posts, OR posts that are public, the first thing that should pop into your mind is STOP – in a bright red neon danger sign.

Yes, I’ve used this exact same image three times now, because you need to remember to STOP. Stop and think before doing anything.

I WANT YOU TO THINK ABOUT THIS IMAGE EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU SEE THINGS LIKE THIS ON FACEBOOK!

How does this toxic material spread like wildfire anyway?

Public Posts Paint a Target on You

The most common danger is fully public posts. Hackers take advantage of public posts when unwary people post or reply publicly.

Public posts, identified by the little globe, open the post up for the entire world to see.

It also opens you up to friend requests and comments from anyone, anyplace.

Scammers troll for anything public and scrape the contents into huge databases organized by name. They know that if you’re naive enough to fall for one scam, you might well be naive enough to fall for another. They’re hoping, anyway.

Not all public posts are scams, but replying to public posts makes you a target.

Here’s an example.

My friend, Sam, reposted this link on his page to be helpful and made it public, meaning everyone can see it from any place. Sam has his security set to “require one friend in common” before you can send them a friend request. Clearly, “Shirley” doesn’t have a friend in common with Sam, so “Shirley” can’t send Sam a friend request. So “Shirley” replied with something “nice,” hoping to entice Sam into sending “Shirley” a friend request so they can gain access to Sam’s account info and friend list.

“Shirley,” who is scantily clad, isn’t “Shirley” at all, but someone trying to gain access to as many people and profiles as possible to scam people.

Comments on Public Posts

I have adopted the policy that I DO NOT, EVER comment on or reply to public posts – even if they’re posted by my friends. Here’s why.

One of my friends has a wonderful history page where he makes several public postings daily. Unfailingly, every single person who replies to his post has one of two things happen:

  • If the people who reply or comment (Linda and Douglas here) accept friend requests without a common friend, or if they have a common friend, they get friend requests from scammers (Holman and Amanda here).

If you automatically think you’re safe to accept a friend request if the requester shares a friend with you – think again. Maybe your friend has fallen victim and doesn’t realize it. It can happen to anyone.

  • If the commenter does not accept friend requests unless the requester (scammer) and commenter (i.e., the target) have a common friend, then scammers replies to their posting with a compliment and invitation to friend them.

DO NOT REPLY or add them as a friend, and DO BLOCK these people immediately.

Here are some clues to spot fake accounts:

  • Extremely attractive or enticing photos
  • Single or divorced
  • Professional, military or wealthy-looking if male
  • Sexualized or seductive if female
  • No friends or scads of friends
  • Non-substantive public posts
  • New account
  • Pictures with puppies or animals
  • Things to instill confidence – like references to God

Hackers are so “Helpful”

My friend, Pam, had her Instagram Account “hacked” and announced that to the world in a public post on Facebook. She meant to warn her friends, of course.

Truth be told, Pam had not actually been hacked, as her password would (probably) have been changed if she were truly hacked. This recently happened to another friend and he lost his entire Facebook account, including all photos accumulated over more than a dozen years.

Pam’s password was not changed, because she could sign into her account. Her account was actually cloned, meaning a second account was set up using her profile information that looked exactly like her original profile. Then her friends were messaged from the cloned account with links to click that led to malware. Her friends also received friend requests from the cloned “fake Pam” cloned account.

Unfortunately, cloning is very easy to do. Facebook photos are, by default, public. So the bad actor takes your photo, sets up a second account that “looks like you” and then sends your friends friend requests and malicious links. Your friends accept your friend request, not realizing it’s a fraud.

I wonder how a scammer might have obtained access to Pam’s friends’ profile information to determine whom to target.

Any ideas, anyone?

Let’s see:

  • Maybe public posts.
  • Maybe games
  • Maybe answering “questions”
  • Maybe Pam’s friend doing one of those things and exposing Pam’s information, too
  • Maybe accepting a friend request she shouldn’t have
  • Maybe making “too much” public, including her friends list

Let’s see what happened when Pam publicly informed the world that her Instagram account had been hacked! Just in case you think this might be no big deal.

ALL 64 REPLIES WERE FROM HACKERS!

In fact, it’s possible that the original hacker is one of those who responded, offering to “help.”

Here’s the list of all 64 comments, with my commentary in red. Notice that all 64 arrived within two hours. Many of these profiles may, in fact, be the same bad actor.

She went to work and didn’t notice any of this. However, everyone else in the world had the opportunity to reply to one of these hackers, seeking “help,” and her friends might have been lured.

If you comment, you’re at risk too.

Then, someone with a name that includes the word Cyberspy messaged my friend directly.

Oh yeah, this instills confidence, alright.

Unknown people may directly message (DM) you.

Do not reply.

BLOCK THEM ALL!!!

If someone you know messages you with a link, DO NOT CLICK ON IT. Verify another way that they actually sent you something – meaning that their account has not been cloned or hacked. Regardless, I still don’t click on unsolicited links.

Reporting to Facebook

If you know that your friend’s account has been cloned, report to Facebook by clicking on the little three dots on the cloned profile, then “Find support or report.”

Unfortunately, there’s little to be done about the hacker/scammer replies and postings. Reporting any of these fraudulent accounts to Facebook (Meta) is worse than useless – and Facebook is the only one who can take care of it. I have yet to see them take any of these accounts down.

Block all scammers or shady postings or replies.

Your best bet is to NOT fall for any of this.

Bait

This is supposedly a food page, but if you look at the postings, they are all “bait” of one sort or another.

That bait is for you – you’re what they are hoping to snag.

First of all, this post has nothing to do with food. Several posts are of the “who remembers this” type of nostalgia bait, which is particularly attractive to older people who may be less tech-savvy.

Second, they try to make you feel guilty if you’re a grandparent and DON’T “let the world know.”

Third, they are clearly targeting older people, and if you share or post on this, you’ve given them information. Some people actually said how many grandchildren they have and where they live.

Sometimes, older people are more susceptible to scams because they are more trusting.

Stop and Think!

  • Why would anyone you don’t know be interested in this information about you?
  • Why would you willingly give something this information?

Anyone hear of grandparent call scams? “I’m in trouble. Send money.” Some even go so far as to say they’ve been kidnapped. Here’s what the FCC says about “grandparent scams.”

Scammers who gain access to consumers’ personal information – by mining social media or purchasing data from cyber thieves – can create storylines to prey on the fears of grandparents.

Often the imposter claims to have been in an accident or arrested. The scammer may ask the grandparent “please don’t let mom and dad know,” and may hand the phone over to someone posing as a lawyer seeking immediate payment.

Unfortunately, according to a recent Washington Post article, bad actors can now use artificial intelligence technology “to mimic voices, convincing people, often the elderly, that their loved ones are in distress”.

The article reports that scammers can replicate a voice from just a short audio sample and then use AI tools to hold a conversation in that voice, which “speaks” whatever the imposter types.

I know someone who was targeted this way. They said they could barely understand their granddaughter because she was both crying uncontrollably and hysterical. My friend could make out the word rape. It was terrifying and paralyzing at the same time. Fortunately, her granddaughter happened to walk into the front door as this call was taking place.

What Have You Done?

Are you wondering if you have inadvertently given access to your Facebook page to scammers without realizing it?

You need to check.

Here’s how, step-by-step!

Start by clicking your profile picture, then Settings and Privacy, then Settings, then Apps and Websites – as outlined above and detailed below.

On the left, you’ll see this menu. Scroll towards the bottom.

You can click any image to enlarge.

You’ll see this information at the top, with the following apps that you’ve given access to below.

Click on “remove” to remove unwanted apps. I clicked on “Remove” for Yelp, which displayed additional information. You can remove future access, but you can’t remove any information already shared with the other application.

When you look at an app and see the ability to log in through Facebook, this is actually what you’re doing – sharing a variety of information with that application.

Under “Preferences,” disable the ability to use Facebook to log into third-party apps.

What does signing in through Facebook or Google do? How does it work?

What actually happens when you sign in using Google or Facebook? It’s convenient, but you’re giving away data about yourself that you’re unaware of.

Here’s what LifeLock has to say.

Here’s a list of Facebook privacy settings that you should change now.

Whatever you did in the past can’t be undone, but you can remove the access and prevent anything in the future.

Stop the Thieves – Lock It Down

If you’ve done something risky, you’ll need to take additional precautions.

  • Change your password. Don’t reuse passwords.
  • If your account has been cloned, change your profile photo so your friends know which account is actually yours.
  • Restrict postings to friends only.
  • Check for and disable any applications, including games like Nametest.
  • Consider implementing 2FA. It’s under “How to keep your account secure” in the Privacy Checkup.

What are your settings?

Let’s check and see.

Privacy Checkup

Facebook makes it easy to do a Privacy Checkup.

Just click on your profile photo, then “Settings and Privacy” and “Privacy Checkup.”

I recommend stepping through every one of these topics and adjusting your permissions.

I recommend locking everything down on your profile.

Begin with “Who can see what you share”.

Scroll to the bottom, where you see “Friends and following.”

CRITICAL

To protect your friends list, and disable anyone else from seeing it, select ONLY ME.

Your next selection under “Who can see what you share” selects the default audience for your Facebook posts, Stories, and limits who can see past posts. This is a critical selection because it determines who can view your posts unless you change this setting on individual posts.

Step through each of the “Privacy Checkup” tabs and do the same for People, Pages and Lists you follow.

Next, check “Profile and Tagging” under the Settings and Privacy Menu on the left-hand side.

Step through each of these sections, especially Posts and Stories, and adjust your privacy.

It’s VERY important to prevent others from viewing your friends list which you’ll find under “Profile and Tagging.”

Some people don’t let anyone post on their profile. I currently do let my friends post, or tag me, but I’m also torn about this setting.

Next, select who can see what others post on your profile?

Make sure to check the rest of the information and if it’s displayed.

I don’t provide any information, such as where I live or went to college – nor do I display my phone number. I get enough spam calls the way it is!

See What They See

Check to be sure your account displays only as much as you want.

On the dropdown menu from your profile picture, go to the Privacy Center and Click on “Manage Your Accounts,” then select “How to clean up your profile.”

Click on “View as” to see your account as someone who is not your friend. Ensure everything is locked down, and you’re not providing information to unknown people.

Best Practices for Safety

Two types of actions are necessary to keep your Facebook account and your friends safe. Both are important – some are account settings, and others are behavioral.

Think of this like driving a car. You need safety equipment like brakes – but you must also know when, where, and how to apply them to keep from crashing.

One alone is insufficient. You need both. You also need to stop and think.

  • Lock your account down so that people you don’t know can’t see your information.
  • Lock it down so that others can’t see your friend list, so you’re not inadvertently making your friends targets.
  • Do not accept friend requests from people you don’t know.
  • View everything skeptically.
  • STOP every single time you even think about replying to something. Stop, then think. Is the post public? Who wants to know this information, and why would I give it to them?
  • If it’s public, DON’T REPLY.

Selecting Privacy for Your Posts

You select a default privacy setting for your own posts. You can also override the default and select a different privacy setting for each post if it differs from your default.

Default settings are found in the “Privacy Checkup,” under “Who can see what you share.”

You can change the privacy selection on each post as you create them. You can also change them later.

Facebook used to retain your selection for the next post, but I don’t think they do that anymore. For example, if I lost my mind for some reason and selected “public,” for this post, the default would have been “public” for subsequent posts too.

I tested this, and it appears that’s no longer the case today. That’s a good thing! You can change any individual post, but your selected default remains in effect.

It’s Time for Spring Cleaning

If your friends have their friend list exposed, they are exposing you to hackers who may want to target you. If your friend’s account is cloned, this is exactly how bad actors know to target you next.

It’s time for spring cleaning on your friend list. Let’s take stock and evaluate.

  • Are they your actual friend?
  • Why are they on your friend list?
  • If you’re undecided, check to see if their friend list is exposed. That’s the tie-breaker. If it is, they are exposing you.
  • If someone you know and care about is exposing their friend list, please send them a link to this article.

Let’s Practice

You notice a question on your friend’s feed about the name of your first-grade teacher.

You smile with warm remembrance.

What’s the first thing you’re going to do?

STOP!

THINK!

Public – Look to see if your friend’s posting is public.

If the answer is yes, STOP.

If you answer, you just gave someone information about you that can be combined and aggregated with other information from all of those types of questions you’ve inadvertently answered. Many are security questions and can lead to identity theft.

Games – Next, look to see if it’s one of those games.

If the answer is yes, STOP.

Groups – Next, check to see if the posting is from within a group that you’ve joined. If the the posting is within a restricted group or a non-public Facebook page or group, that may be a more controlled environment, depending on the join criteria and how closely the group is monitored by administrators. I do participate in several closed groups.

Non-public groups are designated by an icon of three people.

Friends Only – If the posting is “friends” only, the two-person icon, the threat is reduced, unless, of course, your friend has inadvertently given access to one of those scam games and, in doing so, has granted access to their entire profile. There’s no way to know. I evaluate the friend and the topic at hand when deciding to reply.

My “go to” response now, on social media, is simply “don’t reply,” unless someone has asked me a direct, non-public, question that makes sense and doesn’t relay any information that even might be useful.

So, if your friend who visited last week asks for a pudding recipe that you made for dessert, and the posting isn’t public, that’s probably just fine.

If your cousin can’t remember your daughter’s middle name and wants it for genealogy, I’m sure that’s fine to answer too, just not in any kind of a public forum. To some degree, Facebook is always public. It’s social media, after all. Message, email or call your cousin with the answer. Don’t post it.

Vigilance as a Way of Life

I know you’re going to hate me for a bit when you see that red STOP as you scroll through your Facebook feed. Right about now, you’re saying, “Roberta, please stop!”

That’s OK. Getting you to see and do that is my entire reason for writing this article. I want it to pop into your mind! I’d rather you be irritated with me than have your account compromised or lost entirely and expose your loved ones in the process. 😊

We must be ever more vigilant as scams and scammers become increasingly sophisticated. Your “scam antennae” should always be up and on high alert.

And yes, I know some of you will tell me that you don’t want to live like that. I understand. Neither do I, but if you want to stay safe – and for your friends and family to remain safe, too – you must be ever-vigilant, alert, and chronically suspicious.

If you see family members acting unsafely on social media, they probably aren’t aware, so please feel free to share this article.

_____________________________________________________________

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What Subjects Should We Explore in 2024?

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DNA testing is all about solving genealogy puzzles!

After we test, we need to fully understand what those test results are telling us.

To help, I need to know about your genealogy dreams! Who are you dreaming of finding, and what tools do you need to understand better to achieve that goal?

I have some articles planned for 2024, but I’d like to know what topics you’d like to see covered.

Of course, I always cover “breaking news” in genetic genealogy. I’ll be covering RootsTech as well.

Here are a few articles that I have in the works for 2024.

  • DNA and Pedigree Collapse
  • Big Y March of the Ages, by Dr. Paul Maier from the FamilyTreeDNA Conference
  • Highlights from Ancient Connections, by Dr. Miguel Vilar from the FamilyTreeDNA Conference
  • Meet My Extended Family – Leveraging Y DNA Testing, by Bennett Greenspan from the FamilyTreeDNA Conference

Focus

To help focus my efforts, I made a list of my own “genealogy dreams” by reviewing each ancestor and asking myself what I need to know about their life. For example, do I have the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups for each line? How can I figure out who their parents are? Do I have representatives of this line in every database? How can I address each of these things?

I’ve already started my 2024 research from a focus list I created. So far, I’ve:

  • Upgraded two cousins who took a Y-DNA test to the Family Finder, so I can use those two tests together. I need to know how closely related those two men might be, and who they match in common.
  • Upgraded a cousin to the Big Y-700 from a Y-67, hoping to discover when two lines from our common, unknown ancestor, split. That may help me know where to look, and when.
  • Encouraged a 95-year-old cousin to upload their Ancestry DNA test to FamilyTreeDNA and join the appropriate surname project. They did! Now we can compare their results within a project, which may very well solve a long-standing mystery of an unknown father all the way back in 1809! Fingers crossed!
  • Asked several cousins to also upload their DNA files to both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage. You’ll find free step-by-step instructions for how to do that, here.

It’s Your Turn

What mysteries are you focused on solving using DNA? Who are you searching for in your tree?

Please note that already published articles are available by using the search function on the main DNAexplain blog page, here. Those articles may prove quite helpful.

What topics would you like to see covered in 2024 that will assist with your journey?

Here’s to a wonderful 2024 and finding lots of ancestors!

_____________________________________________________________

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East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference – In Person and Virtual – October 6-8, 2023

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There’s a conference focused solely on genetic genealogy, and you’re invited!! Now that’s talking my language!!!

The second annual East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference (ECGGC) will take place on October 6-8, 2023, at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, just outside Baltimore.

This year’s conference is a hybrid affair, with both in-person and virtual speaker sessions and vendor booths.

The in-person conference includes lunch and costs $225, while the virtual conference is $175.

As the name suggests, this conference caters to genetic genealogists. The lineup includes wonderful speakers who I’m sure you’ll recognize, here. I can hardly wait to attend some of these sessions. The great news is that you really don’t have to pick and choose from the more than 40 sessions, because you can view recorded sessions after the conference.

Please note that while my session on Sunday at 11, Wringing Every Drop Out of Mitochondrial DNA, is listed as In-Person, it is not. Due to a change in plans, it’s virtual.

Be sure to check out the DNA Academy on Saturday evening from 6 to 8:30 PM. This event was quite popular last year.

Is there a presentation or a few that you’re particularly looking forward to?

Recorded sessions will be available until December 31st, so even if you can’t join us that weekend, or you’re on the other side of the world and the timing just doesn’t work, you don’t have to miss out. Often, in-person sessions aren’t recorded and available later, but at ECGGC, both in-person and virtual sessions will be recorded so you can watch any session through year-end. Thanks to the fine folks on the ECGGC conference committee for providing this benefit.

You can purchase a ticket, here.

This is a wonderful opportunity, and I hope to see you there.

_____________________________________________________________

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Journaling June – Are You In?

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I have two things for you today. First, a bit of housekeeping, followed by a fun challenge for June.

Housekeeping

I try to stay a few articles ahead, with a few in process at all times. Right now, I’ve burned through what I had in reserve. For the next month or so, I will probably be doing shorter-than-normal update articles.

I was fine through the filming, but I managed to catch some ugly crud that has been kicking my butt. No, it’s not Covid, according to four tests, but it’s long and stubbornly hanging on.

Who has time to be sick???

Later in June, I have a planned trip.

Plus, I’m still working. My backlog of emails is daunting and growing.

Then, Sunday happened.

I now have a completely unplanned trip that has not been firmed up quite yet.

It’s a funeral. I lost someone near and dear to my heart, with no warning.

I’m reeling.

I’m struggling between gratitude for having her in my life and grief for all of the things left undone.

I will write about this blow, eventually, but right now, I have to get past the crud and process some of this grief. It’s a beautiful story, truly, but I at least need to get through the funeral first. Being sick has complicated everything, as has distance.

As genealogists, we deal with birth and death every day. But when the Grim Reaper sneaks one in on us like this, it’s entirely different.

One of the hardest things to do is enter that death date in our genealogy software. It’s just so final and always speaks to what might have been – but can no longer be.

If anything, this death has brought home even more succinctly how important it is to make spending time with family members a priority. Just being together and talking.

What stories do they know that you don’t? Or maybe the same stories but from a different perspective, with missing details. Do they have photos that you might not? Or documents? Don’t presume that you have the same memories or perspective about the same event or family member. You’ll be surprised!

What is your favorite thing about that person? Your most cherished memories?

Here’s my absolute favorite memory with Cheryl. I’ll tell you this story soon.

You don’t have to wait until you get that call to write those stories – or tell them.

Journaling June

My friend, Appalachian storyteller Stephen “Doc” Hollen has been writing and publishing a numbered chapter of a “book,” here, every day for more than three years – at about 3:15 every morning. Actually, by now, it’s several books, but I digress.

Ole Doc Hollen is an amazing author, and by now, his loyal readers know all of these characters who live on Limestone Ridge. We can hardly wait for each morning to read the next chapter – and he often leaves us hanging despite our whining and cajoling. Sometimes we forget those “people” aren’t “real,” yet they are in a sense. The Carpenter family and neighbors are a mashup of his ancestors and people in his ancestral neighborhood.

In Doc’s recent chapters, journals of the Carpenter brothers, the original settlers, had been found in a trunk. Aunt Bess was reading and transcribing them, expanding the family genealogy. Then, miraculously, another cousin appears out of no place and…

See, now you’re hooked too.

Journaling June

Let’s just say that Doc Hollen suggested that we all participate in “Journaling June” where everyone journals during the month of June.

That’s not a huge commitment, right!

And you can do it on your own terms, in your own way.

Ironically, I was already working on an article about recording experiences.

Let me give you some ideas.

Journaling Ideas

A journal can be something as easy as a few notes every day, or something in-depth where you share your deepest thoughts. If you can’t write about yourself, write to yourself or to someone else.

Or maybe tell a story from the perspective of someone close to you.

Or focus on a favorite or specific topic.

You can also compare and contrast your life to that of an ancestor. Your upcoming June plus a June in the life of your parent or grandparent.

Or your early life and life now. Expectations versus where life’s path took you.

Here is a list of a few ideas:

  • Food
  • The kitchen
  • Chores
  • Home
  • Work
  • Mealtime
  • Hygiene
  • Utilities
  • Clothes
  • Laundry
  • Education
  • Teachers
  • Weather
  • Transportation
  • Your First Car
  • Performances
  • Passions
  • Passtimes and hobbies
  • Religion
  • Health
  • Challenges
  • Charity
  • Best Traits
  • Legacy
  • Births
  • Family Members
  • Funeral Customs
  • Heartbreak
  • First Love
  • Weddings
  • Pranks
  • Inspiration
  • Pets
  • Turning Points
  • Gratitude
  • Travel
  • Vacations
  • Secrets
  • Advice to others
  • Advice to your younger self
  • DNA
  • Holidays

I’m sure you can think of more topics to add. What would you enjoy?

What do you wish your ancestors had written about and left for you in a journal?

Will you join me in Journaling June?

Find your favorite pen and something you would enjoy writing in for a month. I use either legal pads or, sometimes, on a trip, I journal in a nice little leather portfolio binder with a removable pad. It makes me feel like an explorer!

Of course, you could photo-journal, collage, blog, paint, simply type into a document or just about anything else you can imagine.

You can even start with Memorial Day and share your family customs along with what you’re doing this year. What was the funniest thing that ever happened at a Memorial Day event in your family?

Tell me in the comments about what you’re doing for Journaling June.

_____________________________________________________________

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WikiTree Connections, King Charles III, and DNA

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By Copyright House of Lords 2022 / Photography by Annabel Moeller, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117865820

I’m not a royal-watcher, but you’d pretty much have to be dead to not be aware that King Charles III is being crowned this Saturday, May 6th.

Have you wondered if you’re related to Charles? Or someone else?

It’s easy to find out on WikiTree.

Go to King Charles’s profile, here.

Notice that under “DNA Connections,” a WikiTree user has entered the Y-DNA of the line of King Charles via an academic sample uploaded to mitoYDNA. That’s interesting!

Tsar Romanov and King Charles III both descend from a common ancestor and are first cousins twice removed (1C2R.) You can also see more about Nicholas Romanov II in the FamilyTreeDNA Discover tool under haplogroup R-M269, in Notable Connections.

Under WikiTree DNA Connections, I notice no one has entered King Charles’s mitochondrial DNA information. Of course, King Charles inherited his mtDNA from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

If you know of anyone who carries Queen Elizabeth’s mitochondrial DNA through her direct matrilineal ancestors, by all means, enter this information. If you don’t know how, you can click on help at the bottom of the page or click here. WikiTree has lots of truly helpful volunteers.

You can also enter your information if you’ve taken an autosomal, Y-DNA, or mitochondrial DNA test and are descended appropriately from the person represented in the profile.

Here’s an example from my ancestor, Phebe Cole’s profile. I entered where I tested, and my GEDmatch number.

You can add your DNA test information by clicking on the “Add” button in the top header, then DNA Test Information here.

WikiTree DNA Benefits

WikiTree is a wonderful place to:

  • Upload your DNA to the relevant profile, where it will be populated up the tree appropriately
  • Obtain DNA information, including haplogroups, about your ancestors
  • Discover cousins who descend from that ancestor and who have tested their DNA
  • Discover cousins who may not have tested yet, but might be willing

I use WikiTree regularly to fish for Y and mitochondrial DNA information about my ancestors and to see if I match cousins listed as descendants of a common ancestor.

WikiTree works in the opposite direction from the DNA testing vendors.

At the testing vendors, you find the match and then need to determine how they are related. At WikiTree, you check your ancestor and will find a list of cousins who descend from that ancestor and who have DNA tested. You already know at least one way that each person is related to you. Finding cousin matches by ancestor is part of my triangulation process.

Are You Related?

No known DNA testers or don’t match – no problem.

You can determine whether or not you’re genealogically related to any individual on Wikitree.

Just sign in to your account, and select the profile of the person you want to check.

Scroll very near the bottom or do a browser search for the words “your connection.”

Just click on “Your connection” or “Your genealogical relationship.”

Collaborate is Key

WikiTree is crowd-sourced, so be sure to verify your connection pathway results. If the path isn’t accurate, you can correct the inaccurate person or connection. We are all doing the genealogy community a HUGE favor by ensuring this collaborative tree is accurate.

If you’re unsure about a connection, check the sources and evidence for each generation. If you need information, contact the profile manager.

Add a comment, ask a question, add an image, or provide additional information and sources on any profile.

Ancestral Legacy

I regularly update my ancestors’ profiles with additional information when it becomes available. I appreciate everything others have shared with me over the years, and I want to be sure the information about my ancestors is as accurate as possible.

I don’t know about you, but I’m in this for the long game – for posterity. Leaving as much accurate information, including Y and mitochondrial DNA, is the very least I can do for my ancestors. After all, we wouldn’t be here without them.

So, are you related to King Charles? Is your distant cousin being crowned on Saturday?

_____________________________________________________________

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What Is a Sibling Anyway? Full, Half, Three-Quarters, Step, Adopted, Donor-Conceived & Twins

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I’ve seen the term sibling used many different ways, sometimes incorrectly.

When referring to their own siblings, people usually use the term brother or sister, regardless of whether they are talking about a full, half or step-sibling. It’s a term of heart or description. It’s often genealogists who are focused on which type of sibling. As far as I’m concerned, my brother is my brother, regardless of which type of brother. But in terms of genetics, and genealogy, there’s a huge difference. How we feel about our sibling(s) and how we are biologically related are two different things.

Let’s cover the various types of siblingship and how to determine which type is which.

  • Full Siblings – Share both parents
  • Half-Siblings – Share only one parent
  • Three-Quarter Siblings – It’s complicated
  • Adopted Siblings
  • Donor-Conceived
  • Step-Siblings – Share no biological parent
  • Twins – Fraternal and Identical

Full Siblings

Full siblings share both parents and share approximately 50% of their DNA with each other.

You can tell if you are full siblings with a match in various ways.

  1. You share the same fairly close matches on both parents’ sides. For example, aunts or uncles or their descendants.

Why do I say close matches? You could share one parent and another more distant relative on the other parent’s side. Matching with close relatives like aunts, uncles or first cousins at the appropriate level is an excellent indicator unless your parents or grandparents are available for testing. If you are comparing to grandparents, be sure to confirm matches to BOTH grandparents on each side.

  1. Full siblings will share in the ballpark of 2600 cM, according to DNAPainter’s Shared cM Tool.

Keep in mind that you can share more or less DNA, hence the range. It’s also worth noting that some people who reported themselves as full siblings in the Shared cM project were probably half siblings and didn’t realize it.

  1. Full siblings will share a significant amount of fully identical regions (FIR) of DNA with each other, meaning they share DNA at the same DNA address from both parents, as illustrated above. Shared DNA with each other inherited from Mom and Dad are blocked in green. The fully identical regions, shared with both parents, are bracketed in purple. You can’t make this determination at FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage or Ancestry, but you can at both 23andMe and GEDmatch.

At GEDmatch, the large fully green areas in the chromosome browser “graphics and positions” display indicates full siblings, where DNA is shared from both parents at that location.

I wrote about the details of how to view fully identical regions (FIR) versus half identical regions (HIR) in the article, DNA: In Search of…Full and Half-Siblings.

  1. If your parents/grandparents have tested, you and your full sibling will both match both parents/grandparents. Yes, I know this sounds intuitive, but sometimes it’s easy to miss the obvious.

At FamilyTreeDNA, you can use the matrix tool to see who matches each other in a group of people that you can select. In this case, both siblings are compared to the father, but if the father isn’t available, a close paternal relative could substitute. Remember that all people who are 2nd cousins or closer will match.

  1. At Ancestry, full siblings will be identified as either “brother” or “sister,” while half-siblings do not indicate siblingship. Half-siblings are called “close family” and a range of possible relationships is given. Yes, Ancestry, is looking under the hood at FIR/HIR regions. I have never seen a full sibling misidentified as anything else at Ancestry. Unfortunately, Ancestry does not give customers access to their matching chromosome segment location data.
  2. Y-DNA of males who are full siblings will match but may have some slight differences. Y-DNA alone cannot prove a specific relationship, with very rare exceptions, but can easily disprove a relationship if two males do not match. Y-DNA should be used in conjunction with autosomal DNA for specific relationship prediction when Y-DNA matches.
  3. Y-DNA testing is available only through FamilyTreeDNA, but high-level haplogroup-only estimates are available through 23andMe. Widely divergent haplogroups, such as E versus R, can be considered a confirmed non-match. Different haplogroups within the same base haplogroup, such as R, but obtained from different vendors or different testing levels may still be a match if they test at the Big Y-700 level at FamilyTreeDNA.
  4. Mitochondrial DNA, inherited matrilineally from the mother, will match for full siblings (barring unusual mutations such as heteroplasmies) but cannot be used in relationship verification other than to confirm nonmatches. For both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, it’s possible to have a lineage match that is not the result of a direct parental relationship.
  5. Mitochondrial DNA testing is available only through FamilyTreeDNA, but haplogroup-only estimates are included at 23andMe. Different base haplogroups such as H and J can be considered a non-match.
  6. A difference in ethnicity is NOT a reliable indicator of half versus full siblings.

Half-Siblings

Half-siblings share only one parent, but not both, and usually share about 25% of their DNA with each other.

You will share as much DNA with a half-sibling as you do some other close matches, so it’s not always possible for DNA testing companies to determine the exact relationship.

Referencing the MyHeritage cM Explainer tool, you can see that people who share 1700 cM of DNA could be related in several ways. I wrote about using the cM Explainer tool here.

Hints that you are only half-siblings include:

  1. At testing vendors, including Ancestry, a half-sibling will not be identified as a sibling but as another type of close match.
  2. If your parents or grandparents have tested, you will only match one parent or one set of grandparents or their descendants.
  3. You will not have shared matches on one parent’s side. If you know that specific, close relatives have tested on one parent’s side, and you don’t match them, but your other family members do, that’s a very big hint. Please note that you need more than one reference point, because it’s always possible that the other person has an unknown parentage situation.
  4. At 23andMe, you will not show fully identical regions (FIR).
  5. At GEDmatch, you will show only very minimal FIR.

Scattered, very small green FIR locations are normal based on random recombination. Long runs of green indicate that significant amounts of DNA was inherited from both parents. The example above is from half-siblings.

  1. At FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe, most men who share a mother will also share an X chromosome match since men only inherit their X chromosome from their mother. However, it is possible for the mother to give one son her entire X chromosome from her father, and give the other son her entire X chromosome from her mother. Therefore, two men who do share a mother but don’t have an X chromosome match could still be siblings. The X is not an entirely reliable relationship predictor. However, if two men share an entire X chromosome match, it’s very likely that they are siblings on their mother’s side, or that their mothers are very close relatives.

Three-Quarter Siblings

This gets a little more complicated.

Three-quarter siblings occur when one parent is the same, and the other parents are siblings to each other.

Let’s use a real-life example.

A couple marries and has children. The mother dies, and the father marries the mother’s sister and has additional children. Those children are actually less than full siblings, but more than half-siblings.

Conversely, a woman has children by two brothers and those children are three-quarter siblings.

These were common situations in earlier times when a man needed a female companion to raise children and women needed a male companion to work on the farm. Neither one could perform both childcare and the chores necessary to earn a living in an agricultural society, and your deceased spouse’s family members were already people you knew. They already loved your children too.

Neither of these situations is historically unusual, but both are very difficult to determine using genetics alone, even in the current generation.

Neither X-DNA nor mitochondrial DNA will be helpful, and Y-DNA will generally not be either.

Unfortunately, three-quarter siblings’ autosomal DNA will fall in the range of both half and full siblings, although not at the bottom of the half-sibling range, nor at the top of the full sibling range – but that leaves a lot of middle ground.

I’ve found it almost impossible to prove this scenario without prior knowledge, and equally as impossible to determine which of multiple brothers is the father unless there is a very strong half-sibling match in addition.

The DNA-Sci blog discusses this phenomenon, but I can’t utilize comparison screenshots according to their terms of service.

Clearly, what we need are more known three-quarter siblings to submit data to be studied in order to (possibly) facilitate easier determination, probably based on the percentage frequency distribution of FIR/HIR segments. Regardless, it’s never going to be 100% without secondary genealogical information.

Three-quarter siblings aren’t very common today, but they do exist. If you suspect something of this nature, really need the answer, and have exhausted all other possibilities, I recommend engaging a very experienced genetic genealogist with experience in this type of situation. However, given the random nature of recombination in humans, we may never be able to confirm using any methodology, with one possible exception.

There’s one possibility using Y-DNA if the parents in question are two brothers. If one brother has a Y-DNA SNP mutation that the other does not have, and this can be verified by testing either the brothers who are father candidates or their other known sons via the Big Y-700 test – the father of the siblings could then be identified by this SNP mutation as well. Yes, it’s a long shot.

Three-quarter sibling situations are very challenging.

Step-siblings, on the other hand, are easy.

Step-Siblings

Step-siblings don’t share either parent, so their DNA will not match to each other unless their parents are somehow related to each other. Please note that this means either of their parents, not just the parents who marry each other.

One child’s parent marries the other child’s parent, resulting in a blended family. The children then become step-siblings to each other.

The terms step-sibling and half-sibling are often used interchangeably, and they are definitely NOT the same.

Adopted Siblings

Adopted siblings may not know they are adopted and believe, until DNA testing, that they are biological siblings.

Sometimes adopted siblings are either half-siblings or are otherwise related to each other but may not be related to either of their adoptive parents. Conversely, adopted siblings, one or both, may be related to one of their adoptive parents.

The same full and half-sibling relationship genetic clues apply to adopted siblings, as well as the tools and techniques in the In Search of Unknown Family series of articles.

Donor-Conceived Siblings

Donor-conceived siblings could be:

  • Half-siblings if the donor is the same father but a different mother.
  • Half-siblings if they share an egg donor but not a father.
  • Full siblings if they are full biological siblings to each other, meaning both donors are the same but not related to the woman into whom the fertilized egg was implanted, nor to her partner, their legal parents.
  • Not biologically related to each other or either legal parent.
  • Biologically related to one or both legal parents when a family member is either an egg or sperm donor.

Did I cover all of the possible scenarios? The essence is that we literally know nothing and should assume nothing.

I have known of situations where the brother (or brothers) of the father was the sperm donor, so the resulting child or children appear to be full or three-quarters siblings to each other. They are related to their legal father who is the mother’s partner. In other words, in this situation, the mother’s husband was infertile, and his brother(s) donated sperm resulting in multiple births. The children from this family who were conceived through different brothers and had very close (half-sibling) matches to their “uncles'” children were very confused until they spoke with their parents about their DNA results.

The same techniques to ascertain relationships would be used with donor-conceived situations. Additionally, if it appears that a biological relationship exists, but it’s not a full or half-sibling relationship, I recommend utilizing other techniques described in the In Search of Unknown Family series.

Twins or Multiple Birth Siblings

Two types of twin or multiple birth scenarios exist outside of assisted fertilization.

Fraternal twins – With fraternal or dizygotic twins, two eggs are fertilized independently by separate sperm. Just view this as one pregnancy with two siblings occupying the same space for the same 9 months of gestation. Fraternal twins can be male, female or one of each sex.

Fraternal twins are simply siblings that happen to gestate together and will match in the same way that full siblings match.

Please note that it’s possible for two of a woman’s eggs to be fertilized at different times during the same ovulation cycle, potentially by different men, resulting in twins who are actually half-siblings.

A difference in ethnicity is NOT a reliable indicator of fraternal or identical twins. Submitting your own DNA twice often results in slightly different ethnicity results.

Identical twins – Identical or monozygotic twins occur when one egg is fertilized by one sperm and then divides into multiple embryos that develop into different children. Those children are genetically identical since they were both developed from the same egg and sperm.

Two of the most famous identical twins are astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly.

Identical twins are the same sex and will look the same because they have the same DNA, except for epigenetic changes, but of course external factors such as haircuts, clothes and weight can make identical twins physically distinguishable from each other.

DNA testing companies will either identify identical twins as “self,” “identical twin” or “parent/child” due to the highest possible shared cM count plus fully matching FIR regions.

For identical twins, checking the FIR versus HIR is a positive identification as indicated above at GEDmatch with completely solid green FIR regions. Do not assume twins that look alike are identical twins.

Siblings

Whoever thought there would be so many kinds of siblings!

If you observe the need to educate about either sibling terminology or DNA identification methodologies, feel free to share this article. When identifying relationships, never assume anything, and verify everything through multiple avenues.

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