… but 96 in a thousand … so far …
Doing genealogy right, and particularly integrating DNA into our genealogical research, requires education.
The Legal Genealogist insists: this isn’t optional.
If we’re to have a prayer of properly using this type of evidence, we have got to learn more about it — and to try to stay up with new developments.
Right.
And just how do we do that? In this busy world with competing demands and limited time, just how are we supposed to get the education we need in a field that has components of science and mathematics and just plain logic — and is changing all the time?
Not one genealogist in a million could do that, , we might think.
But we’d be wrong.
At the moment, the chances would be 96 in a thousand… and growing.
Because, at the moment, there are 96 DNA-related webinars we can all access at home from Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Ninety-six of the soon-to-be 1,000 webinars recorded on that site — Legacy Family Tree Webinars host Geoff Rasmussen is presenting the 1,000th webinar on Friday, September 20, at 2 p.m. EDT.1
Now… before I go on … a truth-in-blogging moment. I’m a presenter for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. When anybody buys a membership to the webinars,2 and then watches one of my 24-going-on-25 webinars,3 I get a small financial benefit. And, additional truth-in-blogging, one of mine is about DNA — DNA ethics, to be exact.4
There are 95 others — with five more including one in French scheduled before the end of 2019 — and every one of them can be part of a thorough grounding in properly using DNA evidence.
We can start, for example, with Blaine Bettinger’s Foundations in DNA series:
• Genealogy and DNA
• DNA Overview
• Y-DNA
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Autosomal DNA
Overall, Blaine has 17-going-on-18 recorded webinars we can study, from beginner (“The First 5 Things to Do with Your New Test Results”) to advanced (“Advanced DNA Techniques: Using Phasing to Test DNA Segments”).
Maybe you’ve heard about DNA Painter and want to know more. Its developer, Jonny Perl, can give you “An Introduction to DNA Painter.” Want more about third party tools? Check out Michelle Leonard’s “A Guide to Third Party Tools for DNA Testing.”
Want to see examples of how genealogists have used DNA in their own research? Check out Nicka Smith’s “Case Studies in Gray: Identifying Shared Ancestries Through DNA and Genealogy” or Michelle Leonard’s “Combining DNA and Traditional Research — In-Depth Case Studies” or Tom Jones’ “Using Autosomal DNA to Solve a Family Mystery” or Elizabeth Shown Mills’ “FAN + GPS + DNA: The Problem-Solver’s Great Trifecta” or Shellee Morehead’s “DNA and the GPS solves a mystery: Hamiltons in Colonial New England.”
What test you might be interested in knowing more about won’t be a problem in the webinar lineup. You can find offerings about YDNA (the kind of DNA passed from father to son to son down the generations that helps us learn about our direct paternal lines),5 mtDNA (the kind passed from mother to child that only females pass on, so it teaches us about our direct maternal lines),6 and autosomal DNA (the kind we use to find cousins to collaborate with and shed light about all our genetic ancestors in roughly the past five or six generations).7
Language shouldn’t be a barrier, either: there are DNA-related webinars in Italian, Swedish, German, Dutch and French.
So you want to be the genealogist in a million who really understands using DNA as evidence in genealogical analysis?
Check out those 96 in a thousand offerings (and more to come), on Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Not one in a million,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 15 Sep 2019).
SOURCES
- That’s 1 p.m. CDT, noon MDT, 11 a.m. PDT and 6 p.m. GMT. See “1,000 Webinars: History, Bloopers, Inside the Tech, and what’s next,” Legacy News, posted 13 Sep 2019 (https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/ : accessed 15 Sep 2019). ↩
- For $49.95 a year, it may be the best bargain in genealogy. See “Webinar Memberships,” Legacy Family Tree Webinars (https://familytreewebinars.com/ : accessed 15 Sep 2019). ↩
- See ibid., “Presenter: Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL.” ↩
- Ibid., “DNA Rights and Wrongs: The Ethical Side of Testing,” recorded 2 Jan 2019. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (https://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Y chromosome DNA tests,” rev. 4 Sep 2019. ↩
- Ibid., “Mitochondrial DNA,” rev. 22 May 2018. ↩
- Ibid., “Autosomal DNA,” rev. 13 Aug 2019. ↩
I’d like to add that these webinars also come closed captioned, which is a bonus for hard of hearing folks like myself!
Excellent point, thanks for mentioning that!
Buying a membership to Legacy Family Tree Webinars gives you access to the full library of previously recorded webinars (such as the ones Judy recommends in her post) plus downloadable “handouts,” but you do not need to try out the service. You can usually watch the initial presentation of a new webinar live and the replay for a week after that, however you won’t be able to get the handout.
Meant to say,”…you do not need to buy one [a membership] to try out the service.”