Goodbye, Rick, and More!

This is our last goodbye to Rick who is setting off on his cross-country trip with his wife this Friday.  With stops along the way they are headed to their temporary rental in North Carolina and their house building project.  Rick has been a valued member of our genealogy community and someone who has helped many over the last few years.  He will be following the Genies through our blog, but his presence will be greatly missed.  Fond farewell, Rick!

In other news Thomas MacEntee alerts us to a webinar he is presenting today along with a special deal.  We all use others’ research and he’s presenting his strategy for doing that successfully.

FREE WEBINAR What's Been Done: Using Someone Else's Genealogy Research presented by Thomas MacEntee. We’ve missed the live presentation but it is free at Legacy Family Tree Webinars until September 11^th.  

“Whether you are new to genealogy or you've been working on your family history for years, incorporating the research of others can always be tricky. Here's how to develop a proven strategy to benefit from the work of other genealogists.”

Thomas’ special deal is a 15% discount on an annual subscription to Legacy Family Tree Webinars.  The best part of the subscription is 24/7 access to the 749 webinars with handouts available in their library.   Use this link to access webinar or subscribe:

https://mailchi.mp/genealogybargains/lft-webinars-whats-been-done?e=cb7c45b1c4

Another area getting publicity lately is “genetic counseling”.

Our Ferndale Library Manager Sarah sent along this article from Forbes written by her cousin Ellen Matloff.

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenmatloff/2018/08/24/consumer-genetic-testing-will-change-your-life-in-fact-it-probably-already-has/#45e325557377

A google for The Atlantic magazine turned up numerous articles about genetic counseling.  One mentioned Brianne Kirkpatrick, a genetic counselor who is also a genealogy hobbyist.  She was also interviewed by the Extreme Genes podcast #249.  She is described as “the only genetic counselor who specializes in people who get unexpected results in their DNA testing.”  She describes the grief that results from these surprises.

https://extremegenes.com/2018/08/26/episode-249-genetic-counselor-specializes-in-shocking-dna-results-the-archive-lady-discovers-touching-story/

Kirkpatrick has small private groups online and others have started Facebook groups, such as DNA NPE Friends.  We can remember this so we can help people in our group who face this situation.

More than 12 million people have undergone DNA testing so far and Genome Biology projects that by 2021 that number will rise to upwards of 100 million.  It has certainly moved into the mainstream of commerce and journalism.

Until next time, enjoy!