GRIP 2014: Leading with DNA

The nationwide moveable village of genealogists appeared in the form of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh at La Roche College in suburban Pittsburgh on Sunday the 20th and disassembled Friday the 25th. In between, friendships were renewed, projects discussed, books were bought, business cards were exchanged, genealogy TV was watched, sleep was in short supply, and a lot of teaching and learning happened in six courses.

This third annual session of the institute arguably places GRIP in a leadership position among genealogy institutes, as it offered the first ever full five-day course on genetic genealogy, coordinated by Debbie Parker Wayne, with top-notch faculty CeCe Moore and Blaine Bettinger. (Who knew that three collaborating instructors could be so good in such different ways?)

The trio taught 73 students in two sections and were generously applauded by the students at the final session. The course lived up to its title of "Practical Genetic Genealogy," based on biology but focusing on multiple genealogical applications, and will be offered twice at GRIP in 2015. (Note: in January the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy will include a similar course as well as the first-ever advanced DNA course.)

I took the course as a comparative newcomer to the subject, and I am now astonished to recall  discussions (not very long ago) about whether there was really enough information to fill a five-day course on the subject of DNA! Clearly there has been enough information for quite a while. Now, if anything, there is too much material to pack into one week, especially when one tries to include the exercises and workshops that newcomers need to sharpen their understanding and skills.

Six years ago DNA was still an optional side order in genealogy, useful at most in researching only the direct male and female lines -- a small fraction of our ancestry. With increased computing power, technological innovations, and deeper understanding of autosomal DNA, it is now no longer a side order but part of the main course. Moore demonstrated the power last January, at the Professional Management Conference of the Association of Professional Genealogists. (For instance, by comparing the DNA of second cousins, genealogists can often identify specific segments as the "genetic signature" of the cousins' shared great-grandparents.) That taste drew many researchers to GRIP this summer

As Wayne said in the concluding session at GRIP, there was a time when genealogists complained about having to learn to use computers; now they're indispensable.

I expect that similarly, and in an equally short time, knowing and applying DNA evidence will be as commonplace and integral to proving our conclusions as computers have become, and as property and probate records have long been. For individual genealogists and genealogy educators alike, there is no alternative to keeping up.



Photo credit: GRIP Facebook page with permission 
https://www.facebook.com/GRIPitt/photos/pb.217409114950759.-2207520000.1406378822./825947214096943/?type=1&theater

Harold Henderson, "GRIP 2014: Leading with DNA," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 25 July 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Methodology Monday with NGS Magazine on women and DNA

The April-June issue of NGS Magazine includes two introductory "gateway" articles (including further references) that can help us jump-start some potentially neglected aspects of our genealogy:

* Jane E. Wilcox on "Finding American Women's Voices through the Centuries." In research on five centuries of records on her surname family, "The records where I most often 'heard' their voices were court records, letters, journals, and newspapers."

* Debbie Parker Wayne, CG, on "Using Autosomal DNA for Genealogy." Unlike more familiar male-line Y-DNA and female-line MtDNA, autosomal DNA involves the other 22 chromosomes. Over the generations DNA from the two parents is mixed but some comparatively long segments are retained. To make the ancestral connection, both automated and hand analysis of matches and an accurate document-based family tree (preferably including collaterals) is needed. "The atDNA test offered today for genealogical purposes looks primarily at five hundred thousand or more individual locations or markers on the chromosomes. The value at each location of one person is compared to the same location of another person . . . . It takes work to determine who a common ancestor is."


Jane E. Wilcox, "Finding Women's Voices through the Centuries," NGS Magazine vol. 40 (April-June 2014):28-32.


Debbie Parker Wayne, "Using Autosomal DNA for Genealogy," NGS Magazine vol. 40 (April-June 2014):50-54.



Harold Henderson, "Methodology Monday with NGS Magazine on women and DNA," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 16 June 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Moderately Recent Blog Posts That I Have Enjoyed

I don't pretend to cover the profusion of genealogy blogs, nor to produce a legitimate "best of" list, hence the title. But I did enjoy these in their different ways.

Debbie Parker Wayne ("Deb's Delvings in Genealogy") did something I almost never do -- commented on a newsworthy development in genealogy -- and in her soft-spoken way cut right to the bone.

Joy Neighbors ("A Grave Interest") gave a nicely illustrated appreciation of Oak Hill Cemetery in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana.

Chris Staats ("Staats Place") inquired about the various pronunciations of his surname. I'm thinking there may be ways to research this if you can find the right records. (If only some of his male-line forebears had written rhyming doggerel about themselves!)

Judy G. Russell ("The Legal Genealogist") offered a touching remembrance of the least-known member of her family who shared a May 5th birthday. This post is also a model for those bloggers who want to combine personal reminiscences with good source-citation practices. May their tribe increase!


Harold Henderson, "Moderately Recent Blog Posts That I Have Enjoyed," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 8 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Two of the Best Genealogy Blogs Going

The Demanding Genealogist by Barbara J. Mathews of Connecticut (methodology) -- for instance, "Playing Dominos: The Illumination of the Non-Authoritative."

Deb's Delvings by Debbie Parker Wayne of Texas (specializing in law and genetics) -- for instance, "Research, Proof Standards, and DNA Testing" -- also her posts on these topics on the Transitional Genealogists Forum.

Both blogs are by Certified Genealogists, but the reason they're both high up on my home page is that I never read them without learning something.

Eavesdrop on the lawyers

Texas-based researcher Debbie Parker Wayne has a nice list of legal books and resources with genealogists in mind, including some by state (there's something for all five of our focus states). This is more than just a law dictionary, it includes current statutes as well as some histories of pertinent matters like marriage and inheritance laws.

Maybe this post belongs under methodology, as Tom Jones makes a strong case in his lecture "Inferential Genealogy" that you have to know the law in order to interpret the evidence, or even to recognize it as evidence. So in Wayne's phrase, you probably do have "ancestors hidden in the statutes."

Breaking news: Just out from Stanford University Press is Lawrence M. Friedman's Dead Hands: A Social History of Wills, Trusts, and Inheritance Law. I haven't seen it, and the blurbs focus on current hot-button issues -- leaving it open whether he goes back far enough, and deep enough, to interest genealogists. But any book with a title like this has real potential. Hat tip to the Legal History Blog.

Weekend Warriors Methodology Edition

Bearing in mind Tom Jones's concern that our genealogical education tends to focus more on records than on what to do with them once we have them, I'll try to occasionally branch out and take note of outstanding methodology materials, even if they don't refer specifically to Midwestern work.

Over on the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) mailing list, Debbie Parker Wayne points to a great one: a series of posts by legal historian Emily Kadens at Legal History Blog on working in archives. (Kadens's specialty is 18th-century European legal history.)

Working in Archives #1.

Working in Archives #2 (advance preparation).

Working in Archives #3 (using the archives).

Working in Archives #4 (transcriptions). She's definitely been there: "Archival work is very 'in the moment,' and so you always feel as if your memory will be vivid. But it won't be. And I hate the feeling later of wondering whether I missed something...."

Hopefully there will be more. And, echoing Tom once again, don't be too focused (even though I have linked to those specific posts!). Check out the rest of the blog. I plan to keep an eye on it and see what I can absorb and put to use.