DESCRIPTION: Genetic genealogy has tremendous potential for resolving age-old genealogical questions and extending our pedigrees. With their large database, the ready availability of pedigree information for matches and valuable sorting features, AncestryDNA has become a powerhouse for addressing these research challenges. Learn how to use your AncestryDNA results to enhance your documentary research. We will explore the most promising and successful techniques for identifying your lost ancestors through examples from CeCe’s own research.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: DNAGedcom has many tools, but one in particular is not as well understood and used. This presentation will concentrate on DNAGedcom’s GWorks application, how you use it for mirror trees and how it might evolve in the future. The end of the presentation will discuss the future of DNAGedcom and areas we wish to get into.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: The team responsible for the successful identification of the man known as Paul Fronczak will detail the behind-the-scenes research that led to the resolution of this 50-year-old mystery. Biogeographical ancestry analysis, Y-chromosome STR testing, mitochondrial DNA testing and X-chromosome DNA analysis were essential components of this research, revealing to which specific population groups his ancestral lines belonged and providing guidance in the identification of candidate biological parents.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: Creating genetic networks from among our matches is the most powerful tool we have as genealogists for addressing both unknown parentage cases and more distant traditional genealogy brick wall research. This session provides in depth, step-by-step instruction and highlights the potential of this technique.
INTERMEDIATE

DESCRIPTION: Blaine Bettinger examines all the latest developments in the field and help you understand how these new tools can be incorporated into your research. For example, we will look at all the company privacy changes and new tools, as well as several new third-party tools.

DESCRIPTION: Visual phasing is one of the hottest new methods in genetic genealogy (using DNA results from three or more siblings). We’ll examine the method and get you started with your mapping project!
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED

DESCRIPTION: Understanding the benefits limitations of DNA evidence is a vital consideration in every genealogical conclusion. Although DNA helps solve mysteries every day, DNA evidence is not infallible. The more distant a genetic relationship, the more challenging the use of DNA evidence. Together we’ll look at some of the limitations of DNA evidence, and what we can do to avoid making erroneous conclusions in our research.
BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE

DESCRIPTION: Learn the history and implementation of utilizing DNA in applications for several of the major lineage societies including Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution and General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: It’s a familiar scene – you are trying to connect your unknown DNA matches, but get frustrated by the lack of trees and information. For both unknown family searches, and traditional genetic genealogy, you must wade through a sea of indifferent and non-responsive DNA matches to get the information you need. Join Carol as she shares tips on identifying your matches, making phone calls and sending effective messages and also creating charts to visualize your match groups. Learn best practices she uses every day in her unknown parentage casework and follow along as she shares stories and examples from recently solved DNA mysteries.
BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE

DESCRIPTION: This talk chronicles efforts to learn about the family of Joao Inacio da Silva who was a foundling born in 1861 in the Azores, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal. The geographic isolation of the islands has resulted in an endogamous population where inhabitants share multiple ancestral lines and/or descend from the same ancestors multiple times. As a result, relatives share more DNA than expected, reducing the applicability of goodness of fit comparisons and calling for the exploration of alternative analytic approaches. This presentation describes how these techniques were applied and what was learned about Joao’s family and the accuracy of a family story about the identity of his parents.
ADVANCED

DESCRIPTION: So many great new features have come out this year at GEDmatch – tag groups, connecting to trees at WikiTree, and the new Tier 1 one-to-many. This new listing has many sort and search capabilities plus uses the colored tag groups so you can often see at a glance how new matches are related. Plus there is a new Beta site for your LivingDNA or 23andMe results called Genesis.
BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE

DESCRIPTION: When you’ve got a genealogical mystery to solve, where do you start? Ancestry, 23andMe and Family Tree DNA each have strengths in terms of how they present and allow you to view and explore the data. Knowing how to use all three is a must! In this lecture we will delve into the different terminology and tools offered by each to connect the dots for the newcomer. Making connections between matches divides a match list into distinct groups and leads to the exciting discovery of common ancestral couples.
BEGINNING

DESCRIPTION: Whether we’re trying to identify a parent or a great grandparent, we can often fit our DNA matches into a family tree before knowing where we fit into that tree. What we need is science. Scientifically speaking, each possible placement is a hypothesis; the challenge is to determine which hypothesis is most likely and what the best next steps are to confirm it. This talk introduces a statistical tool to rank hypothesis. The goal is to solve DNA cases faster and more inexpensively by focusing our efforts where they are most likely to give answers.
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED

DESCRIPTION: We will explore Jewish DNA beyond Eastern European Ashkenazi. What does Sephardic mean? What does Mizrahi mean? Who are the Romaniotes? The Italki? Where and when do these groups connect? How do these categories show on autosomal results? The program will cover ethnicity results, historical events and immigration patterns to better understand what these additional categories mean for those who are looking for their family’s origins. Additionally, information on the Sephardic and Jewish heritage Avotaynu projects will be provided.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: With a deeper understanding of population genetics — the study of how the genetics of populations and groups of individuals have changed over time — you’ll find answers to these questions. We’ll delve deeper into foundational principles of population genetics and give examples of how these principles both enable and affect genetic genealogy. Arming yourself with a firmer grasp of the underlying science and reasoning behind your DNA story which includes; ethnicity estimation, DNA matching, DNA Circles, and other tools will allow you to more effectively use them.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: Learn how 23andMe analyzes different pieces of your genome to trace the story of your DNA from your ancient ancestors to your modern-day DNA Relatives. Find out what’s new in the 23andMe product and what it means for you.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: Family Tree DNA has been at the forefront of genetic genealogy from the first Y-DNA 12 marker test sold directly to a consumer. 2017 has been no different. This year we have implemented exciting new updates and changes that continue to propel the field into the future. This includes an update from Mitochondrial build 14 to Mitochondrial build 17, an update from Human Genome (hg) 19 to hg38, and new features included in our sequenced exploratory Y-DNA product, Big Y. We will also discuss new features on the horizon for 2018.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: Your personal family tree, if you could extend it really far back, would include not only every human being who’s ever lived, but also every organism that’s ever lived. So who are your “relatives,” anyway? We’ll explore a bird’s-eye view of how DNA genealogy connects to human population genetics and beyond, to evolutionary science.
ALL LEVELS

DESCRIPTION: There are many tools and resources that can be used to help break-through genealogical brick walls or recent unknown parentage cases. This lecture will focus on the methodologies, testing company tools, 3rd party tools and other techniques used by the professional genealogists at Ancestry ProGenealogists to work through these difficult brick walls.
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED