Note – this meeting is “in person” at the FamilySearch Center! This is a great opportunity to work on your genealogy! Share methods, get help finding those elusive ancestors, whether you are just starting or have a brick wall. There are computers available to apply your new knowledge immediately. Come join Shelley McFadden at these meetings and make a success.
If you are having difficulties with Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org come to the FamilySearch Center for assistance Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm in Seaside. Be sure to bring your passwords if you already have accounts.
Ancestry has a nice new help page about DNA inheritance which uses the family names analogy to demonstrate recombination that was in the RootsTech session by Crista Cowan. This can be used to describe to newbies why testing many people in a family can be useful.
This is a little bit “advertisy” but scroll down to watch the letters change. This will useful for me to explain to my sister why I want to test her! 🙂
Spring has come and it is time to remind everyone that MoCoGenSo memberships will expire soon, and it is time to renew. The dues will remain the same at $20.00 for individuals and $25.00 for families (add $7.50 for paper copy).
An important way to learn more about your ancestors and their lives is to join a genealogy society that focuses on the area in which your ancestors lived. Genealogy societies conduct research and preserve information about a specific area, and most publish some sort of newsletter, journal, or other periodical. The articles offer insight into the area and the people, and can provide help in conducting your research in an area. There are genealogy societies at the national, state, county, parish, province, and other levels. Annual membership fees are reasonable and the benefits are considerable.
The Monterey County Genealogy Society is one of these organizations right here in your own back yard. It serves its members in many ways. The board of directors is made up of members just like you.
Remember our society is only as strong as our membership, and those who get involved.
OUR MEMBERSHIP YEAR RUNS FROM APRIL 1 TO MARCH 31 OF THE FOLLOWING YEAR. For renewing members, you can renew using the membership form in your recently received newsletter. New or renewing members can download and print a copy of the Membership Application by clicking here. There will always be copies of this form at our monthly meetings.
Join me by staying with MoCoGenSo and getting the E-Newsletter.
RootsTech 2023 is still going strong. I just watched a session put on by the creator of DNA Painter web site, Jonny Perl. It was not about his excellent site, but instead was about 3rd party tools that are supporting genetic genealogy. If you get a chance, do try to watch it. Below is a link to a wonderful page of LINKS to all things genealogy, created and maintained by Jonny Perl. This list runs the gamut from sites to books. I have included this link on the GG Web Links page herein too.
Many thanks to DNA Painter for their services to us all.
The MoCoGenSo DNA Sig has resumed operations, with scheduling: First Wednesday of the month at noon via Zoom. Reserve the time in your calendar!
A DNA Discussion Group (SIG) is a group of individuals who have a shared interest in using DNA testing for genealogy and family history research. DNA SIGs typically provide a forum for members to share information, resources, and expertise related to DNA testing and genealogy. Newcomers, beginners, are always welcome!
Please let us know if you would be able to present or share some of the tools or issues you are interested in. Maybe you have a topic or a speaker that you think others might be interested in. Perhaps you can facilitate a meeting. We can all learn from each other.
Lots of things have been happening in the genetic genealogy field in recent months. Below is a new option made available at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) called Group Time Tree which shows in some of the group projects. The graph below includes my data! I will show how it works on this Wednesday.
If there is a particular tool or strategy you would like to share with others, or a genetic genealogy problem you would like the group to advise you on, get enough screenshots prepared in advance so you’ll be able to describe the technique step by step on screen, or show us the DNA-related work you’ve already done on your problem case.
My job is facilitator, or door keeper, if you would. Come join us. If you can’t make it this month, don’t worry. We plan to be here next month, and the next…
What do we do with all of our family trees, documents, photos, and random notes? On line databases, genealogy software, computer files, paper documents and an applica tion called Evernote help us organize these genealogy treasures.
Kathy Nielsen is a reference librarian and historian. She has hosted a virtual monthly program at the Monterey Public Library. “All Things Relative: Finding Family at the Library” and she has been featured on Lisa Louise Cooke’s YouTube program, Elevenses. Kathy is a co-founder of the Monterey County Genealogy Society’s Special Interest Writing Group, “Off The Charts.” Kathy incorporates her skills as a historian, storyteller, and librarian in her search for her family’s history.
Some types of close relatives, like aunt, uncle, half-sibling, nephew, niece, grandparent, and grandchild have very similar patterns of shared DNA, making predicting those relationships from DNA alone difficult. That’s why some customers might see someone incorrectly labeled as one of these relationships. To help improve detection of these relationships, 23andMe is now using a new technique that analyzes DNA from full siblings
Telling these relative types apart is especially difficult because the amount of DNA each type shares is almost identical. Because of this similarity, Bonsai relies on customers’ self-reported ages to make a decision about their relationships.
You can use this updated Bonsai method by rebuilding your family tree. To do this, you can request a recalculation of your tree through a link in the DNA Relatives FAQ page, in the question called “How do I recalculate my tree?”
The 23andMe database currently includes over 2 million customers who could be affected by this update, which translates to many thousands of relationships potentially changed. For those of you with a full sibling and a predicted half-sibling, aunt, or uncle, the updated Bonsai may produce a different (and more trustworthy) tree.
Keep in mind that unfortunately your tree annotations don’t carry over when you rerun Bonsai. Still, some of you will see changes and the predictions Bonsai now makes are much more reliable for the close relationship types discussed here.
Monterey County Genealogy Society 