Imagine finding a DNA match who has the surname you’re researching within their family tree, and their ancestor is a known descendant of your 5x great grandfather, who you have yet to identify. If only you knew this was the match you’ve been waiting for to break down that stubborn brick wall. Well, this is … Read more
In the last post, I presented a strategy for expanding a genetic network of shared matches all within a DNA testing website. The strategy is called Viewed Match Switching. Now, I present a similar but more holistic strategy using Gephi network graphs. This process is more demanding of our mental and computational resources, but it … Read more
You’ve done the hard work in identifying a genetic network and analyzing the matches (Part 5). Now comes the fun part — conducting documentary research. Not that the other steps were not enjoyable and were void of documentary research, but now we get to apply our prior DNA observations within new record groups and attempt … Read more
Ping Pong is the perfect metaphor to describe how to use both documentary records and DNA to break down genealogy brick walls. The strategy begins by analyzing evidence from documentary records and then using your findings here to guide the analysis of your DNA matches. Next, use the patterns observed within your DNA matches to … Read more
Pension applications can provide valuable insights into our poor ancestors’ lives including vital statistics. Several case studies highlight the rich information found in these sources. #ancestry #genealogy #familyhistory