Author: connielavon

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2024 – A Good Year to Be a Genetic Genealogist

Every year brings new tools, websites, and approaches for genealogists to try. 2024 was exceptional! Here are four innovations that transformed my work, ranked by their impact:

1. BanyanDNA

Leah Larkin (the DNA Geek) and Margaret Press (of the DNA Doe Project) teamed up with developers and statisticians to create BanyanDNA, a tool many of us didn’t know we needed. This web-based app lets you draw complex family trees and check if the shared cM amounts match your diagram. And you don’t have to limit yourself to one DNA tester. Any pairwise comparison of DNA between any two people on the tree can be included.

BanyanDNA has become essential for me. I can run 1,000–10,000 calculations to simulate recombination randomness, validating my tree or finding the best placement for a mystery person. It even handles intricate relationships, like cousin marriages or double connections.

For example, I mapped a cousin marriage between the children of two of my 3x-great-grandparent couples: Holloway Key and his wife Catherine, and Thomas Adam Walker and his wife Julina Allen who lived in Benton County, Tennessee. In the image above I used red lines to show the descendants of the Key couple and blue lines to show the descendants of the Walker-Allen couple. The pink and purple lines represent where the two Key brothers married two Walker sisters. My mother, Gladys, and two of her siblings are DNA testers and I’ve shown three of their matches who are related to them through both couples. This kind of situation can throw off the expected amount of shared DNA, but BanyanDNA can handle it. Below is a validation run that shows me that there is one match that falls outside the expected range of shared DNA. Often when I see that result, it means I have drawn the tree wrong or mistyped the amount of shared DNA.

Summary:

I use BanyanDNA to:

  • Diagram complex trees
  • Record shared DNA between large numbers of DNA testers
  • Validate my work using statistical simulations
  • Place unknown matches on the tree.

What you need:

  • A good understanding of relationships and family trees
  • Shared DNA amounts (see Enhanced Shared Matching below)
  • A willingness to learn how to use BanyanDNA. There are recorded tutorials here, a BanyanDNA User Facebook group, and office hours for free (publicized on the Facebook group). Leah Larkin offers a webinar tutorial for a small fee.
  • Basic statistical skills to interpret the calculations.
  • Patience! Large trees with many matches take time!

2. Enhanced Shared Matching at Ancestry

MyHeritage has long offered excellent tools for genetic genealogists, like downloadable DNA segments and AutoClusters. This year, Ancestry followed MyHeritage’s lead and introduced Enhanced Shared Matching, which shows the shared DNA between you, your matches, and their mutual connections.

The image above is a privatized look at Enhanced Shared Matching at Ancestry. My DNA match is CP and I know how I am related to her. With Enhanced Shared Matching (available with an additional subscription), I can see not only how much DNA I share with our shared matches, I can now see how much DNA CP shares with them. I sorted this list by how much they share with CP which helps me discover more about her family. For example, the first match, a, shares 603 cMs with CP but only 51 cMs with me. 603 is in the range of a first cousin to CP. Match a has a 9 person tree with only two visible people on the tree whose names are not found in my family tree. But knowing they are possibly a first cousin to CP means I can likely figure out their exact relationship to me.

All of the Enhanced Shared Matching data can be entered into BanyanDNA so I can validate this branch of my family tree.

Summary:

I use Enhanced Shared Matching to:

  • Understand how my matches are related to each other.
  • Place matches without full trees on my tree.
  • Supply data for BanyanDNA calculations.

What you need:

  • A ProTools subscription (currently $10 USD/month)
  • Knowledge of shared DNA amounts
  • Tree-building skills
  • Ability to research DNA matches with incomplete or no trees.

3. Full text search at FamilySearch

FamilySearch, the world’s largest free genealogy resource expanded its capabilities in 2024. Its new Full Text search of historical records (available at FamilySearch Labs) uses AI-driven optical and handwriting recognition to unlock thousands of previously unindexed records, such as land deeds and probate files. For those working on reparative genealogy, the Freedmen’s Bureau Records are part of the collection that can be accessed.

From the FamilySearch Labs home page, click on “Go To Experiment” under the Full Text option. This will take you to a search page.

Use the keyword search to enter your names – that provides you with more opportunity to find your ancestors. I entered Calvin Whitney in Keywords, and Maine from 1800-1870 in the year range to discover the record below:

Calvin Whitney is my 4x great-grandfather. I don’t know a lot about him other than he died in October of 1832 in Thomaston, Lincoln County, Maine. His son, William E. Whitney, left Thomaston in October of 1849 for the California gold rush and later built four lime kilns at the foot of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, California. This deed describes the property that Calvin Whitney purchased from David Watson in November of 1827 and that Whitney had “the liberty of digging & carrying away the lime rock from said land.”

Summary:

I use the FamilySearch Labs Full Text Search to:

  • Find digitized records that are not indexed

What you need:

  • A search strategy using keywords, places, and date ranges.
  • Patience-more records are added regularly

This brings us to the final aspect of my genealogy work that changed in 2024: my use of AI.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and genealogy

AI is revolutionizing genealogy. In late 2023, I joined Steve Little ‘s f”irst offered his course on “AI for Genealogists” course through the National Genealogy Society. In the course I learned how to do the basics with AI: summarize, extract, generate, and translate. Much of my use of AI was confined to making fun images in my brand colour scheme for presentations.

Image created by DALL-E and me.

The potential for AI became clear during a reparative genealogy project. I was provided with a Civil War diary of the ancestor of my client. This project documents the people enslaved by the client’s family on Gwynn’s Island, Virginia. I used ChatGPT to transcribe the diary and to create lists of the people and places mentioned in the diary. AI saved me hours, though I still had to check its work. I asked ChatGPT to write a commentary on the contents of the diary based on historical context. It was fascinating! Here’s the conclusion:

Conclusion

The diary of Mary T. Hunley is a compelling window into the experiences of Confederate civilians during the Civil War. While shaped by the author’s biases and Confederate loyalty, it highlights the war’s disruptive nature, the agency of enslaved people, and the fragility of Southern society. It stands as both a testament to personal endurance and a reflection of the deeply ingrained injustices of the antebellum South.

I have a long way to go before I do some of the amazing things genealogists are doing with AI. There’s a great Facebook Group, Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Steve Little blogs and speaks regularly, and there’s a podcast, The Family History AI Show, to help you keep current. Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder at Family Locket also teach, blog, and podcast about using AI in their genealogy work.

Summary

I use AI tools to:

  • Transcribe handwritten documents
  • Summarize lengthy articles or records.
  • Create tables and lists from documents.
  • Create images.
  • Understand historical context.
  • Edit and refine my writing (including for this blog entry!)

What you need:

  • Awareness of privacy and copyright concerns.
  • Knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs).
  • Practice, practice, practice.
  • Careful review of AI outputs

Final Thoughts

Genealogy is ever-evolving, and 2024 raised the bar with transformative tools like BanyanDNA, Enhanced Shared Matching, Full Text Search, and AI. Each one has enriched my research and streamlined my workflows. What’s next for genealogists? I can’t wait to find out!

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Reflecting on 2023 and gearing up for 2024

It’s been a busy year in genetic genealogy! I’m getting a head start on reviewing the year as I plan for 2024.

You can still find me as a coach over at Your DNA Guide. Through that opportunity, I’ve connected with many people learning how powerful DNA can be to support their understanding of their family and themselves.

In addition to creating course content and coaching people at Your DNA Guide, I’ve worked with clients who are surfacing their family’s involvement in slavery. It’s an honour and privilege to support efforts to face history. Much of this work is on WikiTree as part of the US Black Heritage Project.

I’ve also enjoyed many great educational opportunities such as the 15th Annual Conference on Genetic Genealogy and the National Genealogical Society’s course on Empowering Genealogists with AI.

I’ve also provided educational opportunities for WikiTree, the Linked Descendants group at Coming to the Table, and the Indiana African American Genealogy Group. I am doing one more presentation this year for the Virtual Genealogical Association.

Next year, I’m looking forward to revamping this website, offering a hands-on course for people getting started with their DNA, and being part of an instructor team at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh for a course coordinated by my teammate at Your DNA Guide, Kelli Bergheimer. I’ll be coaching participants in all of the Your DNA Guide courses and supporting other Academy Offerings. As part of the Your DNA Guide team, I will be attending RootsTech. I’ll be speaking for a couple of genealogy societies and expect to have a chance to work with others as the year unfolds.

Working on my own genealogy has included moving more of my family to WikiTree. This includes the ancestors of my grandchildren, which has given me an opportunity to work with more DNA testers and explore records in new geographic areas! I continue to make slow progress on some of my own DNA puzzles.

Thanks for following me on this journey!

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The year 2022 in blogging

It’s that time of year when people look back to reflect and look forward to wonder. I began the year 2022 with an internal pledge to blog regularly. I set up an every-other-week reminder within my task-management software, Omnifocus for Mac (based on Getting Things Done by David Allen). I exceeded my goal and published 33 blogs here in 2022. I focused on the things I care about:

  • History and Identity
  • Impacts
  • Genetic Genealogy
  • Documentary Research
  • My Family History

In my first post of 2022 I wrote:

I study family history because it forms the foundation of who I am and how I think and act. An understanding of where I come from gives me strength and gives me pause. I have discovered inspiring stories and tragic ones. I have marvelled at the steps my ancestors took (literally) that led to my presence and wondered at their inhumanity. Curiosity and the quest for meaning shape my journey. And sometimes that meaning requires action. The action can be reporting on what I’ve discovered or taking steps to address historical wrongs.

The blog that most clearly captures that theme is this one from February. I expect to continue uncovering and facing my family’s past and sharing it here and on WikiTree.

Throughout the year, there are blog posts telling about new tools, reminders about tried-and-true research approaches, and touching stories encountered during research.

In September I embarked on several journeys. One I wrote about here. I volunteered as a peer group leader for Family Locket’s Research Like a Pro Study Group. Genealogy is good for your brain (another theme of my first blog entry of 2022), and one way I do that is through continuing education. As a peer group leader, I read many other people’s research as well as working on my own. And as is more common than not, it will take several phases of research until I consider the project “done.” (Done in a genealogical sense, meaning that new evidence could lead to a reassessment and new conclusions.)

Another journey took me on a new path. I was invited to join the team at Your DNA Guide. This launched an intense period of getting to know all the amazing offerings at Your DNA Guide and figuring out how I could support the mission: “Strengthening personal identity so people can connect to their families and communities.” I’ve contributed a couple of blog entries (you can find those here and here.) I’ve started coaching students in Your DNA Guide courses. And I’ve taken on project management for the Academy courses. It’s an exciting time in a growing company whose mission I care deeply about.

A third journey is one of friendship. A genealogy joy of 2022 is an ongoing relationship with two genetic genealogy buddies. We have plans. We have dreams. And we have real lives. Some of our plans may come to be, who knows?

So what does all this mean for 2023? I think I’m going to pause that reminder on blogging. I want to write when I feel moved to write. One recent blog was inspired by a new client who is enthusiastic about learning genealogy to face their own family’s history. I continue to be drawn to and repelled by my family’s contribution to colonization and slavery. I expect to continue to share what I learn about that here and on WikiTree. And when new and exciting things come around, I might be inspired to write. But as a task, I don’t think blogging serves me well.

Thanks for being here. And doing what feeds your soul.

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Learning more about genealogy research

The internet continues to excel at what it was designed to do: Share information. For family history researchers, the free sharing of methods and resources has transformed a pastime that was once championed by the elite eager to prove descendancy from royalty to a hobby that proves we are one family.

I’ve compiled a list of free resources and learning opportunities for people who are just getting started or want to make sure their documentary genealogy research is on a firm foundation.

FamilySearch: FamilySearch is the largest database of free genealogy records and guidance on how to do genealogy. The FamilySearch Wiki is one of the first places I turn when starting a new project.

  • Research Resources: This part of the Wiki includes a section on Beginning Genealogy with a section on the research process, tips on choosing software, how to use the Wiki and research tools. There is more information on this page than any one genealogist knows.
  • Guided Research: This feature of the Wiki will walk you through how to research birth, marriage and death records in many localities around the world. Use the map to identify the locality you want and follow the links.
  • Main Wiki Page: From the main page, you can find the resources available for any locality, down to the county level in the US.

National Genealogical Society: This membership group has been around for over 100 years and publishes the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the most prestigious genealogy publication. Recent diversity and inclusion efforts are encouraging.

African American Research: The continued efforts to share records related to African American history and the legacy of enslavement has meant more is possible than ever. Because of systematic attempts to hide the reality of slavery, records can be hard to find. African American research does require a great deal of persistence and unique approaches to discovering ancestors.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars presents genealogists talking about what they do best. Members have access to the full library of recordings, and many recordings are free for the first week.

  • Register here for free live webinars and check out other pre-recorded webinars on the same page.

Family History Research Companies all have free resources, often as a blog or as a series of videos. Taking the time to learn from their experts can make your research more efficient.

I set aside time every week to continue to learn more about family history research. I’m grateful there are free resources for researchers of all experience levels.

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Fun with Time Travel, AI style

Genealogy can be serious work. Searching for unknown parents, trying to untangle twisted bits of information, and checking everywhere a reasonable genealogist would check for evidence…it all takes time and dedication.

For a diversion, I recently used MyHeritage’s AI Time MachineTM to imagine myself in other places and times. The program asks you to upload as many as 25 photos of yourself: portrait, profile, upper body and full body. Tip: Hats seem to throw if off, so upload your photos of yourself without hats! I am almost always wearing a baseball cap when outdoors, and ended up with some distorted images. I wear glasses and did have a recent passport photo of me without glasses which seemed helpful. In some images there are ghosts of my glasses. I did use the photo program on my Mac to clean up a few with weird blotches that were ghosts from either my long hair or my glasses. The program takes some time and uses Artificial Intelligence (that’s the AI part). More about the technology here. When the program is ready, you then choose various places and times and have yourself placed in the style and clothing of that era.

Here are some of my favourites starting with the furthest back in time:

16th Century Royalty

The fact that so many of the choices provided in the AI Time MachineTM involve royalty reminded me of this quote from the movie, Bull Durham: “How come in former lifetimes, everybody is someone famous? How come nobody ever says they were Joe Schmo?” –Crash Davis

I’m pretty sure my family were serfs.

18th Century France

This one from 18th Century France was kind of fun. This would be the last part of the 18th Century when hairstyles were tall and exotic. The hairstyles of the day sometimes made political statements or included a ship model. If you decide you want do your hair like this, here’s a tutorial.

US, Civil War Era

By the time we get to the Civil War Era, it’s possible that photos of our own families have survived. I do have a copy of a photo of my 2x great-grandfather, Jesse Workman, in his Civil War uniform. He served in the 119th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry. There are also photos of some of my 2x great-grandmother, Sarah Jane (Ellis) Davis around this time period.

1920’s

By the time we get to the 1920’s, I have more family photos. It’s fun to see some family resemblances start to come through. The MyHeritage models were much better off financially than most of my ancestors, though!

And since it is a Time Machine, we can go forward into the future. My husband and I often talk about the fact that we really thought space travel would be common in our lifetime. Here is my fantasy future:

Future Me

If you aren’t on MyHeritage, consider giving it a try, not just for the fun AI Time MachineTM but for all the other benefits. You may find additional DNA matches (especially from Europe), helpful genetic communities, great DNA tools, and additional records you might not find anywhere else. And do have fun imagining yourself throughout history!