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Clock ticking to deadlines

Do you remember the television public service announcements where the announcer sternly inquired: “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”

Typically, they ran before the nightly news, and Wikipedia informs us that they were prompted by the adoption of curfews during the unrest of the 1960s.1

Well, here’s The Legal Genealogist‘s public service announcement: it’s the 28th of November. Do you have your ducks in order for the fast-approaching genealogy deadlines?

48 hours

There are two big sets of deadlines that you really don’t want to miss: one on the DNA side, the deadline for free transfers of data into MyHeritage DNA; and a bunch of deadlines for scholarships to attend genealogical institutes in 2019.

I’ve written about them both before,2 but these are really important enough to warrant this one last reminder as the clock ticks down.

The MyHeritage DNA deadline

For last many months, and for the next 48 hours or so, everyone who uploads data from another testing company to MyHeritage gets all of the features of the MyHeritage DNA testing system for free and “These uploads will be grandfathered in and will remain free.”3

After 1 December 2018 — some of the features of MyHeritage DNA won’t be free any more. You’ll still be able to upload and “DNA Matching will remain free for uploaded DNA data, but unlocking additional DNA features (for example, ethnicity estimate, chromosome browser, and some others) will require an extra payment”. Just how much that’ll be won’t be announced until later.4

Seriously, there’s no excuse for not taking advantage of this transfer opportunity. Particularly for folks who’ve only tested at AncestryDNA which lacks a chromosome browser or other tool to let you know how you and a match may relate to a third match, the additional features at MyHeritage DNA are extremely valuable — and it’s awfully hard to argue with free as a price.

Free, that is, for roughly the next 48 hours.

The scholarship deadlines

We’re also closing in on deadlines for a number of scholarships for genealogical institutes in 2019:

November 30: The AncestryProGenealogists Scholarship Program provides four scholarships covering tuition, travel and hotel expenses (maximum $2000) for one person to attend each of four genealogical institutes: the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed) (July 29-August 2, 2019); the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) (either of its two sessions, June 23-28, 2019 or July 14-19, 2019); the Institute on Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) (July 21-26, 2019); and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) (January 12-17, 2020) or the SLIG Academy for Professionals (January 20-24, 2020). Check the ProGenealogists’ website for more information.

December 1: The Frazine K. Taylor African American Research Scholarship is open to folks who work in libraries or archives and covers tuition at the Institute on Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) (July 21-26, 2019), in Course 10 – Building An African American Research Toolbox. Check the IGHR Taylor scholarship page for more information.

December 1: IGHR Jean Thomason Scholarship is open to folks who work in libraries and covers the cost of tuition in any course at the Institute on Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) (July 21-26, 2019). Check the IGHR Thomason scholarship page for more information.

So… today is November 28. By the time you read this, it’ll likely be with 48 hours — or less — to go.

Get cracking!

You don’t want to miss these deadlines.


SOURCES

  1. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Do you know where your children are?,” rev. 22 Aug 2018.
  2. See Judy G. Russell, “MyHeritage DNA changes — and deadline,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 16 Sep 2018, and “Scholarship deadlines looming,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 16 Nov 2018 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 28 Nov 2018).
  3. See “New: MyHeritage supports 23andMe v5 and Living DNA uploads,” MyHeritage Blog, posted 12 Sep 2018 (https://blog.myheritage.com/ : accessed 28 Nov 2018).
  4. Ibid. (emphasis added).
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