Great news from Kirsty Gray and Sylvie Valentine this morning. There is a new international genealogy conference to fill the void left by the demise of Who Do You Think You Are?
THE Genealogy Show
From one of the show directors, Kirsty Gray, “I am delighted to announce that Sylvia Valentine and I are Ministers of Magic aka Show Directors for THE Genealogy Show 2019 which is being held at the NEC in Birmingham, England. We already have an international board in place including genealogy stars such as Jill Ball, Ruth Blair, John Boeren, Liv Birgit Christensen, Mags Gaulden, Pat Richley-Erickson (Dear Myrtle) and DM Walsh.”
Our main aim is to create a terrific new show which becomes an annual highlight on the genealogy calendar. Attracting family history societies (in some cases, back) to the event, as well as providing outstanding educational workshops and networking opportunities, are at the core of the planning.
What’s not to like? NEC has 16,500 parking spaces, a raft of hotels and easy access by road, rail and plane. See you there? Check out the website www.thegenealogyshow.uk, like our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/THEGenShow, and follow us on Twitter @THEGenShow2019.
Oh, and did you say you wanted to be an exhibitor, sponsor or speaker? Details on the website!”
Thanks very much and I will see you in Birmingham in June of 2019!
Your favorite Blueberry loving Genetic Genealogist will be presenting Workshops on Friday June 1st at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Guelph, Ontario.
Friday Afternoon
DNA and the Global Family Tree
DNA and adding your DNA connections to a Global family tree. Attempting to breakdown brickwalls using DNA can be daunting. Which “Global” family Trees are truly capable of connecting you to your DNA matches? Which is best for the kind of DNA test taken? How do each of the Global Family Tree’s propagate DNA results? How do you find matches and make connections on these Trees? Working across all DNA testing Companies and all Global Family Tree Sites we will look at which “Global” family trees work best for DNA. Via hands on work, participants will work through the process of making DNA connections and help to get their DNA Global Family Tree connections working for them. – Computer Skills are essential to this workshop.
From WikiTreer-in-Chief, Chris Whitten comes this great announcement about new GEDmatch X-chromosome comparison links at WikiTree.
“Hi WikiTreers,
We just took another small step forward in our collaboration with GEDmatch.com.
As most of you know, you can click directly to view one-to-one autosomal test comparisons on GEDmatch from WikiTree profile pages and DNA Ancestor Confirmation Aid pages. You can also do Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA comparisons through Ysearch and MitoSearch “[compare]” links on WikiTree.
One thing we haven’t had until now is easy X-chromosome comparison links. X comparisons can be especially powerful for genealogy because there is a more limited inheritance pattern on the X than the autosome and almost everyone who has taken an autosomal DNA test (all 10 or 12 million of us!) has X chromosome test results too. There is a lot of untapped potential for DNA confirmation using X matches.
Here’s an example of how you might use this. Look on your DNA Ancestors page — this is the “DNA” link on the pull-down menu that starts with your WikiTree ID — and scroll to the X Chromosome section. These are the ancestors from whom you inherited your X DNA. Choose one of the distant ones and click the DNA Descendants icon next to their name.
On your ancestor’s DNA Descendants page scroll to the X Chromosome section. These are the descendants — yourself and your cousins — who are likely to match each other on the X. If more than one of you are on GEDmatch you can click the “[compare]” links to see whether you match as you would expect.
Here are a couple examples of DNA Descendants pages where you can see the new GEDmatch comparison links:
Maybe a more informed genetic genealogist will follow up here with advice on doing the actual DNA confirmations, or with other ideas for using this new feature.
Onward and upward,
Chris
P.S. A big thank you to John Olson, Curtis Rogers, and our other friends at GEDmatch for enabling us to create these links. Thank you to Blaine Bettinger for his early and ongoing evangelism for X chromosome usage. (We used Blaine’s charts to create our XDNA ancestor and descendant pages.) And thank you to Mags Gaulden, Kay Wilson and the other DNA Project members for their leadership on these subjects, most especially — especially — thank you to Peter Roberts, who suggested this feature and helped it all come together, as he has with many of our DNA features.”
This is just great Chris (and Peter),
X-DNA is often overlooked, but can be a powerful tool because it’s inheritance is very specific. Click on your DNA link as Chris suggested and look at how this sex chromosome is inherited.
For a female:
From your Dad and his Mother.
From your Mother and her parents
For a Male:
From your Mother and her parents
It’s so specific. The Confirmation Citation is really informative too:
* Maternal relationship is confirmed by a 108.0 cM X chromosome match between John Kingman GEDmatch T782948 and his second cousin once removed Kelly Miller GEDmatch A721343. Their MCRA is Charles Cyrus Babst.
Take some time to look at some of those X-Matches WikiTree has posted for you. You might get a pleasant surprise.
Roots Tech 2018 was another great event – the biggest event where WikiTree has a BIG presence! I counted 22 WikiTreers who came round for our Group photo on Friday. MANY, MANY more popped in and out of our great booth location over the entire conference and signed one of our Banners from Last year (thanks for the photo Erin Breen).
Location, Location, Location
Thanks to our tenure at Roots Tech and our industrious Forest Elf, Eowyn Langholf, we were one of the first booths to see when entering the Exhibit Hall. Literally, you came in the front door, looked to your left and saw a wall of Orange. What a great location this year.
Not once did I hear someone say they had trouble finding us or that they had to look very far. We were often the first stop on attendees day or two or three in the Exhibit Hall.
WikiTreers from near and far
The WikiTreers who came to man the booth, the Roots Tech Team, hailed from near and far. Aleš (and Family) win the distance contest – they traveled from Slovenia. The rest of us came from, England, Canada and the US. As best as my tired brain can count we had 15 Roots Tech Team members in attendence.
The Booth
We had a new booth format this year. In years past we spent a lot of time standing in and around the booth talking to people and running in to find a place to sit with visitors to share and explain WikiTree. This year we added a bit of a Bistro feel (no, no baristas, no latte’s – dang it). We had small tables and chairs set up and our WikiTreer’s showed up with plenty of laptops, Netbooks, Ipads and the like. We all spent time chatting with people, but a good bit of time was spent actually doing the thing we do, collaborating with the attendees and their limbs already on our great big ole shred tree!
I can’t tell you how great it felt to type in a Surname and have my booth guest squeal with glee that thier GGGwhatever was there looking back at them. Soon followed by another squeal when I revealed the DNA test connections of their ancestors, on their ancestor profiles! Being at Roots Tech is so rewarding on personal level.
Every year our booth is the booth for fun and enlightenment (of the Genealogical kind).
Roots Tech 2018 Conference Other Activites
There are other activities going on at the Conference and a few of us were able to take in some classes. We also spent time roaming around talking to people on the fly or posting Live FB Videos of happenings. We got to meet a lot of new people and meet up with old friends.
I have more pictures to post but at the moment my fingers are refusing to type more…
Like impromptu WikiTree lunches and breakfasts and dinners and trips to the Family History Library, strolls through the pre-snow covered streets of Salt Lake City and After Parties and Geneabloggers Tribe goings on, skiing at local resorts and…
The last Blog Post was all about the 70k Document. It’s a Descendants of John Gaulding compilation document from a DNA connected (who is not connected to my Gauldings yet) cousin who is the keeper of a lifelong Gaulding researchers research. Up to speed? If not please read the, My Dad Has a Y DNA match to two Gauldings.
Making DNA Match Connections
I, personally, have DNA cousins and also people who should be DNA cousins, who are not a match to me, that I have wanted to connect for quite a while. The cousins who we think share a Gaulding MCRA (Most Common Recent Ancester) with me are of course the ones I want to connect first and especially the Y-DNA matches.
BUT, I have this friend and we have known for 3 or four years that we have the Gaulding Surname in our respective limbs of the Big Ole Shared Family Tree that is WikiTree. We have never been able to make that connection until…
You guessed it, the 70k Doc.
I know I should be tracking down those Y-DNA connections so I can confirm my fathers line back forever…
I couldn’t resist Liz and our shared wonder at the fact that we do not match via DNA. Yes, I am absolutely my fathers daughter and he matches two other Gaulding Y-DNA testers. We are Gaulding’s for sure and according to the 70k Doc we share my fifth great grandfather, John Mathew Gaulding.
Why not a match?
Matching a MCRA at our 64, 4th great grandparents is about as far back as you can go with auDNA. Give or take a shake or two. Knowing Liz and I match further back than our 64, 4th Great Grandparents at our fifth makes a non-match a definite possibility.
The other factor might be that we didn’t inherit as much of the same DNA segment from our MCRA or that we didn’t inherit ANY matching segments of DNA from our MCRA. It’s the same as looking at a pair of siblings who have different color hair or eyes. I didn’t inherit the exact same things from our ancestors that my siblings did and it’s obvious when you look at us.
The Excitment of the Hunt
Over the past week or so, Liz and I have shot emails back and forth exploring names that might break down her brickwall. We finally did it a few days ago and couldn’t have done it without the 70k Doc. So this is revelation #1, Brickwall busting #1 and possibly pulled muscle #1 from Liz’s happy dance. Now we just need to verify all the genealogy we are looking at and we are done.
Now back to those two YDNA matches.
TEST Please!
To any male Gaulding, Gaulden, Gauldin, Golding, Goulding descendants, please test! In particular any descendant of John Gaulding of Verginia (any of them) or William Goulding of Bermuda. William names a nephew in his will, another William, who lived in New England. Be great to prove the theory that he was the father of John Gaulding of Virginia, imported by the Ripley Family.
My Dad has a Y-DNA match to two Gauldings. This means we can confirm our family connections back to our most common recent ancestor. The other two Y-DNA testers are from a branch of the family that haven’t been connected to the main trunk by anyone with published information.
Distant Cousins and Gaulding Researchers
Over the past years I have been talking to a very distant Gaulding cousin (a close relation to one of the Y-DNA testers) who has one such unpublished document. To make the family connections she agreed to share it with me. The document arrived as a 70K word rich text document converted to a Word document format. There is no consistent numbering schemes. It does not follow any genealogical numbering system nor is it chronological, skipping around from sibling to sibling in one generation then back to the generation before. The formatting, because of the conversion, has globs of spacing and the indents and lists are crazy.
Making It Make Sense
It’s taken me weeks of night and weekend work to get it into a format to print so I can look at it, make notes and correct the formatting, chronology, indents and lists systems. I started three nights ago with the meat of the document. The “How are we connected?” work of getting the siblings, parents, grandparents, great grandparents all lined up correctly so I can start the research and sourcing to make it right (the author did not include his sources either).
The author of this document (in an introduction to the document) makes no excuses, no apologies for the document format or lack of sources and rightly so since it is not intended to be published.
My hope is to get the document in good nick, genealogically wise, make the connections to confirm my dad and their dad’s DNA connection and to send the re-formatted document file back to the cousin who sent it to me. What a wonderful labor this is. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate her willingness to trust me with this researchers life work. As I work, I will fill in the missing pieces on WikiTree from his work so you can follow along there if you’d like.
Follow along if you’d like
I think our most common recent ancestor is, John Gaulding, St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent, Virginia, (abt. 1665-1740).
In June your Grandma will be presenting a 3 hour Workshop at the Ontario Genealogical Associations Conference 2018. The subject of the Workshop is DNA and the Global Family Tree. In preparation for this I’ll be posting some polls to find interesting information from you, to mix into my presentation.
I’ll post polls to Grandmas Genes Facebook Page. Please do share these polls to your pages, blogs, message boards, Twitter, holiday table and consider it a gift to the OGS Conference 2018 Workshop participants.
A good bit has been made/stated/drooled over about the ethnic results in the new age of Genealogy – Genetic Genealogy. I help people daily with their DNA, sometimes it’s to dig deeper into their Ethnicity. Deeper than the fairly general ethnicity results information one receives from testing companies. But I have never thought about the diversity of a site, a Genealogy group or a conference. Diversity in Genealogy? I was asked point blank on Sunday morning at the breakfast table a very blunt Question. “Can you tell who is ‘Black’ on WikiTree?.”
The Real Question
After my initial shock that someone would ask that of me, I realized I had/have never, ever thought about it. And I answered her with that – I have never had the need or wanted to know or even considered someones ethnic make-up while working away at the Great Big Ole Collaborative Family Tree that is WikiTree. After the questioner realized that her wording may have been askew she explained the question in full.
The question turned out to be a very good question related to identifying Southern US Colonial and pre-1865 Slaves and how to connect them to their descendants. What better way than WikiTree?
But her question is not the reason for this post.
After one incredible weekend at the FTDNA ICGG2017 and after having been asked this very blunt question, I wondered? Who are we collaborating with on the other side of our computer screens? Who are WikiTree’s, WikiTreer’s.
What’s in your Genes WikiTree?
Being the Project Admin for the WikiTree DNA Project, I thought I would share a little of what I discovered while searching for the answer to this question. What makes WikiTree, WikiTree? It’s Volunteers, from the Genetic Perspective.
The Number and types of DNA tests for WikiTreer’s who are participating in the WikiTree DNA Project:
Big Y
123
Combined GEDCOMs Uploaded
261
DISTINCT mtDNA Haplogroups
264
DISTINCT Y-DNA Confirmed Haplogroups
212
DISTINCT Y-DNA Predicted Haplogroups
0
Family Finder
516
Genographic 2.0 Transfers
55
Maternal Ancestor Information
667
mtDNA
395
mtDNA Full Sequence
316
mtDNA Plus
382
mtDNA Subgroups
16
Paternal Ancestor Information
716
Predicted Y-DNA Haplogroups
188
Total Members
884
Unpredicted Y-DNA Haplogroups
0
Unreturned Kits
153
WTY
4
Y-DNA Deep Clade (After 2008)
45
Y-DNA Deep Clade (Prior to 2008)
26
Y-DNA Subgroups
12
Y-DNA111
191
Y-DNA12
437
Y-DNA25
415
Y-DNA37
410
Y-DNA67
308
And Who, Really, Are We?
FTDNA pie Chart of HaploGroups of Y-DNA tested WikiTreer’s who have joined the WikiTree DNA (FTDNA) Project.FTDNA pie Chart of HaploGroups of mt-DNA tested WikiTreer’s who have joined the WikiTree DNA (FTDNA) Project.
Who are we?
Wikitreer’s appear to be people of all origins, based on the dispersal of HaploGroups across all spectrums of the Rainbow. Especially for the Y-DNA (father’s line) testers. For the mt-DNA (mother’s line) testers there is a larger percentage of the most common Haplogroup for mt-DNA “H”. I thought this was a really interesting thing to see, how very colorful we all are.
I have another set of charts showing the “Brightest Bulb in the Pack” HaploGroup too, but you’ll have to send me some BlueBerry Pie before I will answer anything about those, or the elusive Bossy HaploGroups, or the Elf HaploGroups or the WikiTree Tribble Haplogroups. Blueberry Pie? Ah, Come on, isn’t this post about colorful things and aren’t blueberries, after all, blue?
DISCLAIMER: No BlueBerries or Blueberry Pies have been harmed in the creation of this Blog. Grandma’s Genes does not endorse nor receive payment in blueberry pies by any DNA testing Company or anyone connected to them, despite the rumors to the contrary.
This weekends BIFHSGO conference has all the traditional Genealogy lectures and Tours and Workshops and a great Marketplace Hall.
Social Media Team
I am also volunteering here at the conference since BIFHSGO is also my “home” Genealogical Society (OGS Ottawa too). Surely you have noticed my tweets about the conference as a member of the Social Media Team. As such I spend a good bit of time slinking along the back rows of lectures taking quiet pictures and tweeting briefly, politely during those lectures so you all can live vicariously through me and my Social Media Shares.
DISCLAIMER – Please do not take pictures or do social media while attending lectures unless you are a part of a recognized Social Media Team for the event.
Gadget Proximity
Since the Social Media Hub at this event is set-up in the BIFHSGO Conference MarketPlace we have the opportunity to hob nob with some of the venders while sessions are running. No it’s not downtime, because you don’t have to be registered or even pay to get into the Market Hall, so there are always people buzzing about, it’s just a break from the crush of people from the sessions.
This year the Social Media Hub is just around the corner from this conference’s main Gadget Geek Vender, Shop The Hound!
I want to buy everything they have!
A Few Eye Catching Gadgets
One thing that has caught my eye is the ZCan Scanner Mouse. If you have ever had a scratch off card? Lottery or coupon – as you scratch an image appears kind of thing? Well this is similar you run your mouse over an image or document and with each swipe of the mouse the image or document appears. It’s crazy cool and it’s easy to carry.
Shop the Hound has other Gadgets too. Need to add some bling to your headphone jack? They have has shiny, sparkly bangle for this. Want to carry a full blown, but portable, Scanner? You can walk away with the Flip Pal. Have a lot us SD storage cards from Camera’s or netbook storage floating around in every bag and drawer you have? Well, they have a little leather case designed just for this and more! Tech Gear and Gadgets specifically designed for Genealogy, can’t beat it.
Now I have to run do another WikiTree Source-A-Thon. Exhausted but still working!
next to their name.
