Re-inventing Genealogy (Article describing Genealogist and the hobby itself)

This article was first written by James Tanner and reposted from Genealogy Star

There are four major types of genealogy programs: those that store information, those that provide information, those that teach about genealogy and those that assist in doing research. The distinctions between these four types of programs are blurred because there are a few multifunctional programs particularly those that have associated family tree programs and include a large database of digitized genealogical records. There are also a number of utility programs that supplement the activities of the larger online database/family tree programs. There are also a smaller number of games, activity programs, and even a few specialized scanners and other computer associated devices aimed at the larger genealogy market.

Several articles written in 2014 observed that "Genealogy is a 2-plus billion dollar industry that is expected to grow to nearly 3 billion by 2018." See for example this article from Forbes dated 23 November 2014 entitled, "Opportunity Is About To Knock So Get Ready To Open Your Door." This observation was made before the advent of the sale of the presently popular genealogical DNA testing kits. Online estimates of the growth of just the DNA testing market run from about $10 billion to over $22 billion in the next few years. How do these growth estimates compare to other market sectors? Well, reality is sometimes ignored when you start talking about money. For example, the worldwide market for yogurt is expected to be almost $89 billion in 2019 and grow to $107 billion dollars in 2023. In short, the market for yogurt is expected to be about four times the total of the entire genealogical DNA market. By the way, the genealogy DNA market is largely concentrated in four or five very large companies.

So what could possibly drive innovation in the genealogy market? What could happen to grow the market beyond current estimates that are largely based on the growth of DNA testing?

Right now, genealogy is mostly a solitary pursuit that has only begun to be computerized. The initial innovation in genealogy has focused on digitizing paper-based records. However, to liberate the information from their digital surrogates, the indexing process is still highly labor intensive. Granted, some genealogists can use the raw digitized records using time-honored techniques of searching individual records one at a time, but these individuals are not generally very few in number compared with the user base of the large online genealogy companies. Despite advances made in optical character recognition and handwriting recognition, these technologies have gained little traction in the genealogy companies. Automated record search programs rely entirely on indexed records.

Additionally, technological changes even those that measurably increase "genealogical productivity" face stiff resistance from tradition-bound genealogists. Overall, the genealogical community is highly fragmented and exchange of information obtained by individual researchers is, with few exceptions, locked into proprietary formats. The only widely accepted data exchange program for individual users, GEDCOM, is woefully out-of-date.

The small cadre of professional genealogists and those amateurs with similar skills are mostly unconnected with the much larger corpus of both serious and casual family historians. Professional genealogists are almost uniformly prohibited from publically sharing their work with the general genealogical population either by professional restraints or individual contract obligations. The idea of sharing genealogical information is further stifled by reason of the fact that many genealogists of all levels of expertise claim "ownership of their work."

It would appear that this genealogical logjam will prevent any real progress towards data unification and overall technological progress. What is needed is a way to re-invent genealogy. The first step in this direction needs to come from establishing a way to create a uniform data standard for the exchange of genealogical information. However, as long as each company, large or small, has its own proprietary set of data standards, such exchange of information is unlikely to occur. Since about 2012, The Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. or FHISO, has been working to implement data exchange standards, but although progress has been made in some areas, quoting from the FHISO.org website:
What file format will this standard generate?

We believe it is unrealistic to produce an all-encompassing standard with the resources currently at FHISO’s disposal, and were such a standard to be produced, it runs the risk of being ignored, much as other attempts at a new standard such as the GenTech Data Model have been.
Instead, our intention is to develop a series of standards each covering a narrow area. Over time, these will fit together to form FHISO’s new data model, but at first they are likely to be used in existing data models, in particular GEDCOM and GEDCOM X, which the FHISO Board have identified as the two dominant non-proprietary data models at present.
We have so much of our family history heritage that is lurking in fragments all over the internet and in libraries, historical societies, archives, and myriad other locations that are waiting to be integrated. Presently, genealogists have to individually remake the wheel. We have to individually create our own methods and every generation has to repeat and redo the work done previously. There is one small glimmer of hope in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, but it will take dedication and years of work to create a reliable and trustworthy Family Tree. Meanwhile, we if we want to re-invent genealogy, we need to encourage and support efforts to integrate the data now scattered in millions of family trees into a workable one-source database that will help to eliminate duplication and help to correct the existing errors.

She was looking for her dad. He forgot he was a sperm donor. DNA sites connected them.

Melissa Daniels, a donor conceived offspring, found her biological father and donor siblings on consumer DNA testing sites like 23andme and Ancestry.com. Now, she must navigate a growing and complicated family tree. Read the full story here

Can a DNA Test Determine Jewish Status?

According to Jewish law, tribal affiliation (including whether one is a kohen) follows the direct paternal line, while the question of Jewishness follows the maternal line. Does this mean that genetic testing is a valid way of ascertaining whether one is Jewish or a kohen?

First, some basics. Females have XX chromosomes and males have XY. All females carry one X chromosome from their mother and one X chromosome from their father. Males, on the other hand, get their X chromosome from their mother and their Y chromosome from father. Since these chromosomes are passed from one generation to the next, it is theoretically possible to identify one’s ancestors through genetic testing.

Jewish Ancestry and Mitochondrial DNA
As mentioned, Jewish identity follows the maternal line. If your mother is Jewish, you’re Jewish. However, there is no such thing as a “Jewish gene,” so genetic testing cannot conclusively state whether a person is Jewish.

However, there does seem to be at least one way in which genetics may be used to help determine a person's Jewishness. This involves using what is called mitochondrial DNA (or mtDNA), which is passed exclusively from the mother through the female line.

In a fascinating study published in 2006, it was shown that 40% of all Ashkenazi Jews are descended from just four Jewish women who lived more than 1,000 years ago. The study concluded that if someone bears specific mitochondrial DNA markers, there is a 90-99% chance that he or she is descended from one of these Jewish women.

Of course, there are the other 60% of Ashkenazi Jews who do not come from these four women, as well as Sephardic Jews and converts.

Nevertheless, although still a matter of debate, there are some who hold that in a case where there is some evidence of Jewishness but no iron-clad proof, having this marker in conjunction with other supporting evidence can be used to conclude that the person is indeed Jewish.

To read the rest of the article hit Jewish DNA

Information once online is no longer there!

Reasons why you can not find what was online before is either contractual arrangements have expired or with the new rules having to follow European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)or worse yet, the web address for the site has changed.

Information of genealogical value is obtained from government agencies, religious groups, museums, genealogy societies, and other organizations under contractual agreements. The contracts specify what information is to provided, how it is to be made available and to what length of time it is to be shown. With the new guidelines in following general data protection, some sites or their data had to be removed. Companies have come and gone since the internet first appeared. Organization that posted the materials may have disappeared also.

If you kept the URL address you may have a source to check to see if the information is still available. The WaybackMachine may be your source to find the lost information. For more information on this website hit here. 

If you find a record online that is valuable to you, save it now! Save it to your hard drive and make a backup copy someplace else as well. If there is no option to save, make a screen shot and save it on your hard drive and save another copy in the cloud or some other place where it will last for many years. Just because you can see the record online today does not mean that it will be available forever.

Recommend to start slow when contacting a DNA match

Seeing a new DNA match appear in your results list can be exciting. That excitement is only magnified when the match is a relatively close one on a family on which you are stuck. Start slow and don’t overwhelm the individual with details.  Why? 1)They may be new to genealogy research completely. 2)They may have taken the test because they got it as a gift. 3) They may have taken the test just to find out their heritage percentage. What countries or areas their ancesors may have come descend or emigrated. 4) They may have taken the test to find out information about their biological parents. 5)They may have discovered in their test results things about their parents or grandparents they didn’t know and may be overwhelmed by emotion and not just the confusing results.

Start slow. Here’s one idea:

Hello. I am the administrator for this account (whether it is yours or another one that you monitor) I noticed that we are a close match–1st to 2nd cousin. Based on the percentage shared matches, I’m guessing that there is a connection to this person, who was born in this area around this time. If you are interested, I’d be happy to discuss the relationship further.

An at-home DNA testing company is helping the FBI solve violent crimes

The story hit the airwaves on whether your privacy was being compromised! Please read the article and then read Mr. Bennett Greenspan response to his DNA members.


The move raises privacy concerns 

FamilyTreeDNA, a popular at-home DNA test, is working with the FBI to help the agency solve violent crimes, the company acknowledged in a statement released this week. The policy appears to go beyond the privacy rules generally laid out by other major DNA testing companies.

BuzzFeed News first reported on the FamilyTreeDNA policy. The company told the outlet it had cooperated with the agency in less than 10 cases.

In its statement, the company said the laboratory that performs DNA tests for FamilyTreeDNA, as well as others, has been accepting samples from the DNA to identify suspects and human remains. The laboratory is also owned by FamilyTreeDNA president Bennett Greenspan. To  Read the full story

Here is Mr. Bennett Greenspan response:

Dear Customers:

I am writing to address the news that our Gene-by-Gene laboratory, which processes genetic tests for several commercial clients in addition to all of the FamilyTreeDNA tests, has processed a handful of DNA samples for cold cases from the F.B.I. In many cases, the news reports contained false or misleading information.

Let me start with this categorical statement:

LAW ENFORCEMENT DOES NOT HAVE OPEN ACCESS TO THE FTDNA DATABASE.

They cannot search or “dig through” FTDNA profiles any more than an ordinary user can.   As with all other genetic genealogy services, law enforcement must provide valid legal process, such as a subpoena or search warrant to receive any information beyond that which any other user can access. 

I have been an avid genealogist since I was twelve years old. FamilyTreeDNA is not just a business, it is my passion.  I fully understand your privacy concerns on a personal level.

Law enforcement has the ability to test DNA samples from crime scenes and upload the results into databases, like any other customer can, and it appears they have been doing it at other companies for the past year. The distinction is that, according to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, we expect the FBI and law enforcement agencies to let us know when they submit something to our database. We moved to something transparent, rather than having them work in a stealthy way. Other than that, nothing changed that affects the privacy of our customers.

FamilyTreeDNA has always taken your privacy seriously and will continue to do so.  We’ve remained steadfast, always, refusing to sell your data to pharmaceutical companies and other third parties.

One of the key reasons law enforcement wanted to submit their samples to us is the same reason many of you have: out of all the major companies, FamilyTreeDNA is the only one that has its own lab, and our customers’ samples never leave our company.

As previously stated, law enforcement can only receive information beyond that which is accessible to the standard user by providing FamilyTreeDNA with valid legal process, such as a subpoena or a search warrant. Again, this is specified in FamilyTreeDNA’s Terms of Service, just as with all other companies.

ABOUT OUR TERMS OF SERVICE

The Terms of Service were changed in May of 2018 to reflect GDPR requirements, and we informed our customers about the update at that time. Those changes included a paragraph that required law enforcement to receive our permission to enter the database and since it was a part of the overall update, notice was sent to every FTDNA customer. Without infringing upon our customers’ privacy, the language in the paragraph referring to law enforcement was updated in December, although nothing changed in the actual handling of such requests.  It was an oversight that notice of the revision was not sent to you and that is our mistake. Therefore, we are reverting our TOS to our May 2018 version, and any future changes will be communicated to you in a timely manner.

This is the May 2018, GDPR-compliant version, communicated to you at that time: “You agree to not use the Services for any law enforcement purposes, forensic examinations, criminal investigations, and/or similar purposes without the required legal documentation and written permission from FamilyTreeDNA.”

WE WILL DO A BETTER JOB OF COMMUNICATING WITH YOU.

I am genuinely sorry for not having handled our communications with you as we should have. 

We’ve received an incredible amount of support from those of you who believe this is an opportunity for honest, law-abiding citizens to help catch bad guys and bring closure to devastated families. We want you to understand, as many of you already do, that you have the same protections that you’ve always had and that you have nothing to fear.

We’ve also heard from supporters offering ideas and solutions to make the FamilyTreeDNA experience a more comfortable one in light of this new information.  

We are listening. Our plan is to create a panel of citizen genealogist advisors who will work with us as we focus on how to make your FamilyTreeDNA experience the best one available.    

Sincerely,

Bennett Greenspan

President

FamilyTreeDNA.com

Two Sisters Bought DNA Kits. The Results Blew Apart Their Family

Another article on the expectations that come from Genetic testing. This article was written by Amy Dockser Marcus from the Wall Street Journal. Is knowing too much to handle is what the article dwells in.

Sonny and Brina Hurwitz raised a family in Boston. They both died with secrets.

In 2016, their oldest daughter, Julie Lawson, took a home DNA test. Later, she persuaded her sister, Fredda Hurwitz, to take one too.

In May, the sisters sat down at the dinner table in Ms. Hurwitz’s Falls Church, Va., home to share their results. A man’s name popped up as a close genetic match for Ms. Hurwitz. Neither had ever heard of him.

Ms. Lawson searched for the man on Facebook. When she saw his photos, she knew. He looked like their late father. Based on his age and the close physical resemblance, Ms. Lawson immediately told her sister, “He’s got to be our brother.” This was their father’s secret. He had a child they never knew about.

Then came a second shock. Ms. Lawson’s test showed she didn’t appear to have any genetic connection to this new man. This was their mother’s secret: Ms. Lawson was the product of a brief extramarital affair. The man who raised her wasn’t her biological father.

The revelations ricocheted through the family. They created new bonds with people who were once strangers. They caused tension with family they had known all their lives. And they sparked a fight between the sisters about the bonds of loyalty—and how much their parents should have told them.

Ms. Lawson, 65 years old, said she is still grappling with “the pain of knowing my life was a lie and having all these questions that can’t be fully answered because both my parents are gone.”

The hardest part, she said, came the moment she and Ms. Hurwitz, 52, realized they were half, not full, sisters.

“We held each other,” Ms. Lawson said, “and we sobbed.”

At a time of ubiquitous direct-to-consumer genetic testing, family confidences are almost impossible to keep. Companies sell their products for under $100, pitched through heartwarming ads. Millions of DNA kits have been sold in recent years that have handed over information both useful and shocking.

Sales of DNA tests are soaring as people seek to learn more about their roots. Ancestry, whose tests the sisters used, reported sales of 14 million DNA kits world-wide as of November, up from 3 million in 2016. A paper published in Genome Biology, a scientific journal, last year estimated more than 100 million people will have their DNA tested by 2021.

Ancestry provides customers who choose to do so with a way to connect online with others who are DNA matches. The company said it has “a small, dedicated group of highly experienced representatives who speak to customers with more sensitive queries.”

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Genetic counselor Brianne Kirkpatrick, founder of Watershed DNA, which provides consultations to people with DNA questions, advises clients to consider how and whether to share certain information. “If you have a secret or think something might be uncovered through DNA testing, start preparing what you want to share ahead of time when you can be in control,” she said.

Ms. Kirkpatrick sometimes suggests clients write letters, explaining details behind their children’s genetic origins, which they can give if the secret is revealed. “I have become of the mind-set it is not a matter of if the secrets will come out,” she said. “It is a matter of when the secrets will come out.”

Given the rapid growth of consumer genetic testing, people can often be identified even if they don’t take a test themselves. Some people who take tests share family trees online. Amateur genealogists and researchers can identify additional connections through obituaries, wedding announcements, and other public information.

In a paper published in October in the journal Science, researchers estimated over 60% of individuals of European descent in the U.S. now have a third cousin or closer relative in a database. “DNA tests can reveal that there is something odd going on,” said Yaniv Erlich, one of the authors and chief science officer of DNA-testing company MyHeritage. “But they don’t tell you the story of what happened.”

In Falls Church, after the test results came back, the sisters sat together and kept staring at pictures of a stranger who looked like their Dad.

Ms. Hurwitz, exhausted and emotional, told her sister she was going to sleep. Ms. Lawson didn’t want to wait another moment. She messaged the man, Dana Dolvin, telling him an Ancestry test showed he was a relative, and suggested they talk. He responded right away. It turned out he lived near Falls Church.

He agreed to meet at Ms. Hurwitz’s home the next day. He assumed they might be cousins.

When they met, the sisters showed him picture after picture of their late father. The resemblance was uncanny, they all agreed; the eyes, the ears, the height, even down to the glasses and love of wearing hats.

Mr. Dolvin, 62, never met the man listed on his birth certificate as his father, who was his late mother’s husband. The couple, both African-American, divorced after his birth. Mr. Dolvin, who has seen pictures, said, “I didn’t look like him.”

When Mr. Dolvin received his own test results, they indicated his DNA was 47% European Jewish. “I kind of figured my Dad was a fair-skinned person,” he said.

He wasn’t sure he would ever identify his father, or even if the man was still alive. Relatives of the man might not want to share private information with a stranger or might not approve of the fact his parents weren’t the same race.

“People don’t want to rock the boat,” he said. “They also may have different feelings toward people of color.”

The sisters say they knew their parents had marital difficulties over the years so it wasn’t a shock to learn their father had an affair. Their parents had a wide circle of friends that included people of different religious and racial backgrounds so they say they weren’t surprised their father had an interracial relationship.

“My surprise was that a child existed,” said Ms. Hurwitz. “And he looked so much like Dad.”

Mr. Dolvin wasn’t certain the women’s assumptions about their father were correct. It was hard to believe, he said, “that I finally got an answer to the question haunting me for such a long time.” He went home and wondered, “Are they really my siblings?”

Siblings share around half their DNA. Half-siblings share a quarter, and first cousins, on average, share 12.5%. Mr. Dolvin checked his report and compared the shared DNA for him and Ms. Hurwitz: It indicated they were half-siblings.

That night, excited by Mr. Dolvin’s visit, Ms. Lawson couldn’t sleep. That is also when she began to wonder why his name hadn’t come up on her results. Why did he have a genetic relationship only with her sister?

Ms. Lawson asked for help answering that question from Larry Alssid, 64, a Long Island, N.Y., psychologist, who had contacted her after he took an Ancestry test a few years ago, showing they were related. They could never figure out their connection but had kept in touch.

After hearing her news, Dr. Alssid suspected Ms. Lawson might have a different biological parent than her sister. He didn’t want to be the one to tell her the potentially shattering information. “I slept on it,” he said.

He told her to check the amount of DNA she and her sister shared in common. Soon she understood: She and her sister didn’t have the same biological parents—or father, to be precise.

“I did regret I told her because she was in shock,” Dr. Alssid said. “We still didn’t know who her father was.”

Later, Dr. Alssid consulted a family tree and gave her names of four brothers—distant relatives he had never met—who he thought could be a match.

Based on their ages, the two youngest, Jack and Ira Greenberg, he said, were the likeliest candidates.

“Jack or Ira? My mother never mentioned those names,” Ms. Lawson recalled saying. She doubted she would find the answers she wanted.

Dr. Alssid told her that a nephew of Jack and Ira might know more. The nephew, whom she emailed, told her all the brothers went by nicknames. The youngest, Ira, was known as Hy.

“That is when I knew,” said Ms. Lawson. “My mother always told me that her first love was a boy named Hy.”

Hy Greenberg was the only brother still alive. An 89-year-old retired traveling salesman, he never married and was living in Florida. His nephew called him about Ms. Lawson’s quest. He agreed to a phone conversation.

She started slowly, telling him she was doing a family tree. Did he know a woman named Brina?

He immediately recognized the name. “Yes,” he said. “I dated her, my best friend introduced us.”

Later in the conversation, she asked the key question. “I have to get personal,” she said. “Would your relationship have included sex?”

Mr. Greenberg said yes.

“You are my father,” Ms. Lawson told him. “I am your daughter.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Mr. Greenberg said.

Mr. Greenberg had never done a DNA test. He wasn’t interested. And he struggled to understand how Ms. Lawson could use the DNA test results of other relatives of his to identify him as her father. Later, at Ms. Lawson’s request, he sent in his own kit. The results indicated they were parent and child.

During their first call, he shared details of his early dates with her mother after he got out of the Navy. She wanted to get serious, he said, but he told her he wasn’t interested in marrying. They briefly rekindled the connection years later, after her mother was married. Then they parted ways again.

He never imagined himself being a father, but found they shared a similar sense of humor and a love of storytelling; the conversation lasted hours. She suggested they meet. Mr. Greenberg hesitated, then said, “You want to come, come.”

In June, Ms. Lawson caught a flight to Florida and knocked on the door of her biological father. It was Father’s Day weekend. He called her darling and gave her a hug.

“Welcome home,” he said.

The visit led Ms. Lawson and her sister to have an intense fight. Ms. Lawson posted a picture of herself and Mr. Greenberg on Facebook, and added she was spending her first Father’s Day with her father.

“I was furious,” said her sister, Ms. Hurwitz. “I was in tears. I told her Dad is still Dad, and you have just negated his entire existence and everything he ever did for you with that one post.”

Ms. Lawson said she never meant any disrespect to their late father. “I felt misunderstood,” she said. “My brain was so caught up in what is going on.”

She says she feels a powerful emotional connection to her biological father. The next time she went to see him, she took her sister along.

Meeting him was difficult for Ms. Hurwitz. She kept wondering if he was the man whom her mother preferred over her father. “I didn’t know what to say or how to act.”

Getting to know her new half brother has been easier for her. And it has answered questions for him, too. “I finally got the answer that wasn’t supplied to me by people who loved me and who I loved,” he said.

Growing up, his cousins teased him about the light color of his skin, calling him “white boy,” he said. An only child, he frequently asked his mother about his origins. “Don’t worry about it,” he says she told him. He stopped asking when he was a teenager; his mother died decades ago.

“I was still curious, but no one would tell me,” he said. “Emotionally, you wish it could have been another way, but unfortunately, it isn’t.”

In the months since they met, the sisters and Mr. Dolvin, and members of their families, have met for dinners and outings. During a visit in Boston, Ms. Lawson took Mr. Dolvin around the neighborhood where she grew up, pointing out family landmarks. He refers to both women as his sisters, even though he shares a biological father with only one.

So far, the sisters’ other two siblings, both men, haven’t expressed interest in meeting Mr. Dolvin. Phil Hurwitz, 63, who was born six months before Mr. Dolvin, said he remains unsure “how I want to move forward.”

Ms. Lawson got upset with her brother Phil for not reaching out to Mr. Dolvin. She asked him when he might feel ready.

“I told her I am not putting a time frame on it,” he said. Their other brother didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Dolvin said he doesn’t think it is his place to contact the two brothers. He said he would let them decide “if they want to welcome me or say ‘hi’…” His voice trailed off for a moment.

“Maybe they don’t feel comfortable with it yet. It’s a lot to take in.”

Ms. Hurwitz said the news that both parents had children from extramarital affairs forced a kind of reckoning she wasn’t sure her brothers were ready to make.

“They have to reconsider completely who their parents were, the lessons they taught us, what they stood for,” she said. “Everyone deals with the emotions differently.”

She looked at her sister, who cried quietly at the table. “It is not up to me to judge the decisions Mom and Dad made,” Ms. Hurwitz said. “It was another world and another time.”

Ms. Lawson said, “I have a hard time when people say it’s the past, move on.”

Mr. Dolvin put his arm around her, comforting her. “I like that we are all together. I’m here. I’m sitting with you.”

There are many unresolved and hard-to-answer questions, such as whether their father was ever told Mr. Dolvin was his son. They don’t think their father knew. “I believe if he knew about Dana, he would have tried to reach out,” Ms. Hurwitz said.

Her father owned a popular kosher deli in a Boston neighborhood. Mr. Dolvin’s mother worked as a cosmetologist in a nearby predominantly African-American neighborhood. Both loved jazz; the siblings speculate the two might have met at one of Boston’s jazz clubs.

The sisters believe their mother knew Ms. Lawson was the product of her own affair. Ms. Lawson and her mother had a difficult relationship, and both sisters think the revelation explains why.

“Julie was a reminder of what Mom did,” Ms. Hurwitz says. “She had to deal with the consequences every day. How did she keep the secret from Dad?”

Both sisters acknowledge they also can’t be sure what either parent shared with the other.

When Ms. Lawson was 29 and Ms. Hurwitz was 16, their parents divorced—and then got remarried nine years later. They stayed together until he died in 2006. His wife died in 2016.

Ms. Lawson says she told her mother she got DNA test results back, but her mother wasn’t interested in talking about them. She died before the second sister took the test whose results revealed so much.

The sisters always return to how much their parents should have told them. Even now, hurt and tensions sometimes flare.

“I understand why you wouldn’t tell,” said Ms. Hurwitz. “The implications of revealing the secret have a domino effect on everyone else in the family.”

Her sister vehemently disagrees. “Every man has a right to know he has offspring,” said Ms. Lawson. “Every child has the right to know her origins. We missed 65 years together.”

Ms. Lawson wears a birthday present she received from Mr. Greenberg, a necklace of two open hearts connected by her birthstone. She is helping plan a party for his 90th birthday in March.

Since the sisters learned the truth, they said they are learning to live with the uncertainties. “I have my anger, my compassion, and my understanding, and I can separate all those emotions,” Ms. Lawson said.

Ms. Hurwitz leaned in closer to her sister. “Every family has secrets,” she said.

If you have stories about genetic testing you would like to share, we’d love to hear from you. Please write to Amy Dockser Marcus at amy.marcus@wsj.com

Three Presentations by John P Schmal in March at LA and Orange Counties

Genealogy Is Not a Race

For the most part genealogy research is not a race and rushing around to research as fast as possible increases the chance that mistakes are made. Often those mistakes end up wasting time and money, but more importantly they increase the chance that incorrect conclusions are made and shared.

Sometimes it can be difficult to “undo” those incorrect conclusions as once something is shared, it tends to be repeated by others over and over.

There are times in research when time is crucial:

1. interviewing relatives whose memories may be fading and who may be nearing the end of their life;
2. preserving records that are already deteriorating;
3. preserving records that are in danger of being destroyed.

Even if you “want to get it done before you pass on,” it’s still important to prioritize and it may be better to leave something that’s incomplete but accurate in what has been done. That will give others after you something solid to work from instead of having to redo what was done hastily.

Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill

San Diego Hispanic Saturday 9 February 2019 meeting followup

The San Diego Hispanic Saturday group met on 9 February 2019 at 1pm at the San Diego Central Library in the Commissioner’s Room on the 9th floor.  There was thirteen in attendance.

The agenda for the meeting was for each person in attendance to provide an update on their genealogy research, The group started with our traditional round table introductions. Each person provided an update to their genealogy research taking 5 to 10 minutes, giving their research status.  A lively discussion ensued as members recognized commonality in their research which included location, surnames, and records.  Carlos Yurralde discussed an additional website for Hispanic archives; such as www.panes.info  (Portal de Archivos de Nueva España). This session provided new information for everyone.

 Kareen B Stipp talked about the research of her great-grandfather, Pedro P. Alvarez, she found using Newspaper.com. She made a chronological listing of articles from 1903 to 1910 related to her great-grandfather and his troubles with the law. She made some interesting discoveries which her mother questioned the validity until they corroborated by articles in the Los Angeles Times & Herald. Everyone enjoyed hearing the results of her research.

To conclude the meeting, host, Ceasar Castro, presented a follow up on the Mexican/American War specifically on the Mexicans citizens that return to Mexico after the war. Using Samuel E. Sisneros’ Master Thesis from UTEP, “Los Emigrantes NuevoMexicanos: The 1849 Repatriation to Guadalupe and San Ignacio, Chihuahua, Mexico”, there was a lot of detailed information including the names of the emigrants. Mr Castro also talked about the Mexican citizens from Baja California that requested and received U.S. protection and transportation to Alta California for all that supported the U.S. in the war.

Watch RootsTech sessions online

Can’t make it in person to this year’s RootsTech genealogy conference? Select sessions of the world’s largest family history conference will be broadcast live on RootsTech.org. Watch sessions that are available for free, or get access to 18 additional recorded classes that will be available online by purchasing a virtual pass. Recorded content from past years can also be found in the RootsTech archives.

For all the information you need about the way to enjoy RootsTech 2019 from home, please click on the link here to find out all the information.

Long-read DNA analysis can give rise to errors, experts warn

By Scienmag  (to read the original article hit here)

Advanced technologies that read long strings of DNA can produce flawed data that could affect genetic studies, research suggests.

New methods that can read lengthy sections of genetic material – categorised by a series of letters – are up to 99.8 per cent accurate, however, in a genome of more than 3 billion letters, this may equate to millions of mistakes in the results.

These errors may falsely indicate that an individual has a genetic difference that heightens their risk of a particular disease.

Researchers say data produced by these technologies should be interpreted with caution, as it may create problems for analysing genetic information from people and animals.

Previously, genetic sequencing technologies were focused on reading short strings of DNA. These sequences would be patched together, which is time consuming and labour intensive.

This approach is useful for reading individual genes but is inappropriate for entire organisms.
Experts from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute examined three recent studies reporting human genome sequences from long-read technologies. The data contained thousands of errors even after corrective software was used, they found.

Such mistakes could have major implications if these technologies are used in clinical studies to diagnose patients, the team suggests.

The findings are reported in a commentary in Nature Biotechnology. The Roslin Institute receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Professor Mick Watson, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, said: “Long-read technologies are incredibly powerful but it is clear that we can’t rely on software tools to correct errors in the data – some hands-on expertise may still be required. This is important as we increasingly use genomic technologies to understand the world around us.”

Scan your notes!

Your notes are important and should be back up when possible. Pieces of paper can get lost, spilled on, and destroyed in several different ways. But for some of us, paper is still where we take notes, make comments, etc. Always save digital images of those paper notes that you make.

You do not want to have to repeat that process of researching over and over again. So this is a way to back up  your research and to have access to those notes later when your files are not available. A digital image is a great way to do that. Make certain that you get the whole page when taking the picture.

Twins get some 'mystifying' results when they put 5 DNA ancestry kits to the test

Very interesting article explaining why different companies have different results based upon their source match data. It is also educational in understanding that even twins do not have exactly the same DNA percentages from their parents. To watch a youtube video on the subject hit here  To read the entire article and see the graphs from the different companies comparing the twins hit here


Chief geneticist at a popular ancestry company admits it's 'kind of a science and an art'

One set of identical twins, two different ancestry profiles.

At least that's the suggestion from one of the world's largest ancestry DNA testing companies.
Last spring, Marketplace host Charlsie Agro and her twin sister, Carly, bought home kits from AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and Living DNA, and mailed samples of their DNA to each company for analysis.

Despite having virtually identical DNA, the twins did not receive matching results from any of the companies.

In most cases, the results from the same company traced each sister's ancestry to the same parts of the world — albeit by varying percentages.

But the results from California-based 23andMe seemed to suggest each twin had unique twists in their ancestry composition.

According to 23andMe's findings, Charlsie has nearly 10 per cent less "broadly European" ancestry than Carly. She also has French and German ancestry (2.6 per cent) that her sister doesn't share.
The identical twins also apparently have different degrees of Eastern European heritage — 28 per cent for Charlsie compared to 24.7 per cent for Carly. And while Carly's Eastern European ancestry was linked to Poland, the country was listed as "not detected" in Charlsie's results.

"The fact that they present different results for you and your sister, I find very mystifying," said Dr. Mark Gerstein, a computational biologist at Yale University.

GSHA-SC General Meeting February 2, 2019

Gather more information on DNA from our speaker, Megan Lee at our General Meeting on February 2, 2019. She will help you understand and learn now to apply your DNA results!

Deciphering gravestone markers!

Have you ever stared at a cemetery symbol on a grave and wondered if it meant something or if it was merely decorative? Understanding cemetery symbolism can give you clues to understanding your ancestor’s lives.

To make your next trip to the cemetery totally fascinating, check out BillionGraves’ latest blog post written by Cathy Wallace and The BillionGraves Team, Understanding Cemetery Symbols, at: http://bit.ly/2RYYd27.