Relatively Speaking Blog

The annual RootsTech conference, one of the world’s largest on family history, convened the first weekend in March. Over 1500 sessions were held covering 185 topics ranging from family research tips, available resources, DNA tests and research techniques, how to preserve family stories and heirlooms, and some quick promotional videos for specific websites and products. Although the event is over, the opportunity to watch recorded sessions and participate continues throughout the year; sessions from last year are available as well. All you need is a free familysearch.org account to begin viewing.

Once on the sessions page, filter by a specific topic, content type, or whether you want sessions from this year, last year or both to bring up a list of presentations. Early in March I created a playlist of over 20 sessions that piqued my interest, mainly ones that covered research tips, resources available and several on using DNA to augment family research. Over the past two weeks I have begun to watch these sessions.

DNA is the topic that most fascinates me, so I chose several sessions that covered advanced DNA strategies. Some discussed clustering, something that I have done to a small degree. Clustering involves looking at a person’s shared matches to determine the possible common ancestor of the matches. On sites where family trees are linked to the DNA, it is usually easy to determine the connection. When the names on the tree are not familiar, using clusters can help to identify where the connection lies by looking at shared connections between the mystery person and known relatives. If the known connections share the same second great grandfather and the mystery person appears to be in this group, then likely the unknown connection is on this great grandfather’s line, perhaps further back, thus guiding where one should look to locate the connection.

Another session examined the technique of reviewing DNA between two related people to determine what chromosomes have come from which ancestors. Using that information, you can paint those segments to visually display inheritance. Websites like GEDMatch or FamilyTreeDNA have tools that display shared segments of chromosomes between two DNA samples, which is needed to complete the mapping. DNA painter is one tool that can be used to facilitate this process by adding the shared chromosome details to the tool, which then color codes the chromosomes.

One could start this process by looking at matches with second cousins, and potentially identify the DNA inherited from each grandparent. As more distant cousin matches are compared, the segments can be fine-tuned to determine the genes passed to those grandparents from preceding generations. One could also start with distant cousins and work toward the second cousin level in mapping out the inheritance.

To explore this concept, I quickly reviewed a match whose known common ancestor is my 2nd great grandmother on my maternal line. Shared segments appear on portions of five chromosomes, with a total of 105 centimorgans—a chromosomal measurement. Knowing the exact relationship with this DNA match, I appreciate how these particular genes were passed down to my maternal grandfather—from my Blackson ancestor—and then on to me.

DNApainter.com is a website featured at RootsTech where one can map chromosomes with different colors to represent ancestors. I created a free account and in minutes painted the chromosome with the maternal match mentioned above. Similarly as with clusters, one can use the mapped portions of chromosomes to establish how unknown matches might be connected. For instance, DNA matches that share the same color segments with the above maternal match would fit somewhere in the Blackson line; additional research would help place where the new person fits in the tree. As I think about delving into doing this with other matches, I realize my paternal line will be a challenge, as some of my grandfather’s cousins are distantly related to my grandmother’s cousins, so I will need to carefully choose which paternal matches to use for mapping those connections.

Moving on to RootsTech’s offerings on research resources, my attention turned to the session Making the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library Your Research Assistant. I knew of the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) because of PERSI (the Periodical Source Index), an index of thousands of genealogical and historical newsletters and journals from around the world. Searching the periodical index on a topic, such as a surname or place, returns a list of articles that contain the search criteria. For a small fee, the library will send a copy of the item. Several times I had ordered articles of interest for a particular surname, but I was unaware of the other genealogical services ACPL offered besides PERSI.

GenealogyCenter.org is the URL that will take you to the ACPL genealogy home page with over 5 million searchable records and images for free. Many of these are unique and not available on other websites. Perusing through the pages, a lot of information can be found for both digital images and links to other sites. Collections are not necessarily all inclusive and navigating the site will take time and effort, but it could very well help locate new information on a family line.

ACPL has free databases that can be accessed online and cover the library’s local, county and state records, as well as other states’ resources, a small repository of images of the inscriptions of family bibles searchable by surname, among other stores. The FamilySearch Digital Library contains a collection of books and resources from all over the world that FamilySearch has gathered, and the Internet Archive link has an additional catalogue of assets that can be read online and even downloaded. In addition, ACPL conducts virtual Family History and Genealogy programs that are free to the public; these can be found on its Events tab, so the learning never stops.

With the information I learned from these sessions, and with more available to watch, I am excited how these tips will aid me in my genealogy. As I learn more about DNA, I look forward to using some of the advanced tools, like DNA painter. Mapping my chromosomes to display the genes I have inherited from my ancestors will be an exciting exploration. With all the resources at the ACPL site, like the volume of online books, I cannot wait to start searching its holdings. These new resources and techniques will greatly enhance my family research skills as I work to break down brick walls and achieve my goals for 2022.