After completion of Diahan Southerd’s mtDNA for Genealogy Course, I was hooked on getting a better understanding of the areas in which I appear to be most interested. Therefore, I have set up a study program using the following texts:

• Mastering Genealogical Proof – Thomas W Jones
• Mastering Genealogicial Documentation – Thomas W Jones
• Genealogy and the Law – Kay Haviland Freilich and William B Freilich
• Professional Genealogy – Various contributors, Elizabeth Shown Mills,ed.
• Advanced Genetic Genealogy – Debbie Parker Wayne

Setting aside time to either learn something new or to reinforce what I have learned in the past is very fulfilling. I am learning why I do things that I just thought made sense and with the knowing the “why”, things make even more sense.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, as I learn some new tool or technique, I tend to want to put it to use to firm up my understanding. This has been the result of going through the text on Genetic Genealogy and having the concept of Genetic Triangulation explained as to what it is and how to use the results. Of course, this has also led to a new project of determining the meaning of the triangulations.

Just to keep those shiny objects in sight, Ancestry has just released new ethnicity estimates, MyHeritage is now offering full genome analysis, and 23andMe is back in business with a better business plan and new ethnicity and health reports. There is now annual subscriptions attached to the testing which was one of the problems in the prior incarnation – one just bought a kit and that was the end of the income for the company. Development in Genetic Genalogy is complex and expensive. So, I am re-upping on 23andMe with a new test kit and I am getting a new MyHeritage DNA kit since the full genome analysis will only be done on submissions going forward, not on previous tests. Luckily MH is having a sale and it is only $36 to get a new test kit.

Now, I need to close off and get going to Book Club where we are discussing Lineage by Karin Wulf. It was a slow read, but Karin gives a very in depth picture of how and why genealogy evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries. Coverage of social customs figure greatly as background.