Free learning opportunities about genetic genealogy continue to grow, with four new presentations posted within the last couple of days.
The folks from the Family Tree Live conference in London, England in April have posted two DNA presentations on their YouTube channel and Ancestry also posted two.
Autosomal DNA tests
I had a chance to watch Donna Rutherford’s presentation, Making the most of your autosomal DNA test, and it is one worth watching.
Ms. Rutherford, who is originally from New Zealand, covers methodologies and tips for identifying DNA matches and confirming how they fit into your tree. She talks about AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritageDNA, 23andme, LivingDNA, and GEDmatch.
The presentation is aimed at people who have tested and want to know what to do next.
I found the presentation particularly useful during the segments about the companies I haven’t yet tested with, and I picked up a few tips about the test companies I know well.
Is DNA testing for you?
For DNA beginners, Family Tree Live posted on YouTube Katherine Borges’ presentation, To DNA or not to DNA… that is the question. This talk is intended to help genealogists understand how the three different tests work and it looks at scenarios where DNA testing can provide answers that cannot be found in any other way.
Family Tree Live handouts
While there are no handouts available for the two DNA presentations, Family Tree Live has posted more than 30 handouts for other presentations delivered at the conference.
AncestryDNA’s new match list
On the weekend, Ancestry posted a 40-minute video that provides a detailed tour of the “new and improved” AncestryDNA match list, and it is presented by Barefoot Genealogist Crista Cowan.
While I work every day on my AncestryDNA matches, I learned about another way to use the coloured dots to sort matches. In addition to assigning a colour to matches from the same branch of the family, Ms. Cowan uses a colour for Still Need to Figure Out matches. Great idea.
If one video wasn’t enough, Ancestry posted a second, but shorter, presentation by Ms. Cowan, called What are Ancestry ThruLines. In this presentation, she shares how ThruLines are created and how best to use them to make new family history discoveries. She also shares some tips and best practices for getting the most out of your AncestryDNA match list. Around the 9:30 mark, she shares a tip on how to access Thrulines through your online tree — something that was new to me.
