Where is the summer?

There hasn’t been much of a summer yet in Ireland. That just means there’s more time indoors to do genealogy & boy, have I been indoors doing genealogy a lot!

First things first, I’ve got some reviews to share with you. The Last Close Call by Laura Griffin is a quick summer read that features genetic genealogy. For those of a more educational bent, I suggest Roberta Estes’s Complete Guide to Family Tree DNA, which is a behemoth. I made so many post-its notes while reading!

Secondly, news that I’m speaking at a conference in Ottawa in October. Sadly, Canada will remain on my bucket list for now, but the up side is that everyone can watch. Registration for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGC for short) will open in September. Full details are here. The line-up looks super.

I also have some new videos for you on my YouTube channel. If you've been wanting to transfer your DNA test results from Ancestry to MyHeritage (and why wouldn't you, they now have 8.2m people in their database), then follow my step by step instructions. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any new content.

The big news in the genealogy world this month is that Ancestry DNA has enabled enhanced matching tools. You have to subscribe to Pro Tools at a cost of $9.99 per month (the price in Sterling seems to be fluctuating) and the subscription will role over unless cancelled. When Pro Tools launched back in December, I wasn’t that impressed (here’s my review) but this new feature makes the money absolutely worthwhile, at least from a professional’s perspective. Below you see a privatised example of the capability. I can now see what DNA is shared between particular matches. This example, I can now identify that the second person is the son of the match in question, where previously Ancestry would just have shown me that the 2 people shared DNA. This is going to be an absolute gamechanger. I have already pinpointed some personal DNA matches and made quicker progress on some client cases.

As a professional, I am committed to continuous learning, especially in a field where the technology literally changes month to month! Last month, as well as travelling to a conference at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, I took part in GRIP attending 27 hours of lectures over 5 days in EST from home in Ireland. Lessons took place from 3-10pm daily and of course I worked in the morning times too! It was pretty exhausting but being able to learn directly from giants of the genetic genealogy world like Blaine Bettinger and Angie Bush was totally worth it.

Lastly for July, the Virtual Treasury has been releasing new material for their 2nd anniversary. Most excitingly, the delightful Dr Brian Gurrin (aka Dr Census - follow him on Twitter for updates) has been scouring the country for fragments and substitutes for our lost censuses of 1813-1851. He is up to 200,000 additional names but not all have been published yet. You can check out what’s been recovered along with all the 102nd anniversary (of the fire) releases here.

Be sure to check in on my website during July for other content & we’ll catch up in August, one of my favourite months.