DNA Sales plus four more tips

Welcome to Ferndale Genies blog, DNA sales plus four more tips today.

#1 In celebration of Father’s Day, there are plenty of sales on DNA kits. This list comes from blogger Julie Cahill Tarr.  All sales end June 21, 2020.  Maybe.  I hear some last until the end of the month but no real evidence of that.

• Family Tree DNA is offering discounts on some of their DNA tests. Save $20 on the Family Finder test (autosomal), $10 on the Y-37 test, $30 on the Y-111 test, and $50 on the Big Y test. Visit http://familytreedna.com.
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• 23andMe is offering $50 off one Health+Ancestry kit, or $150 off when you buy two Health+Ancestry kits. Visit http://23andme.com.
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• MyHeritage is offering $30 off their DNA kits (plus free shipping if you buy two or more). Visit http://myheritage.com/dna.
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• Ancestry is offering $40 off their regular DNA kit, and $50 off their AncestryHealth DNA kit. Visit http://ancestry.com/dna.

#2 Quoting from the Census.gov, “State censuses can be as important as the federal census to genealogists but, because they were taken randomly, remain a much-under-utilized resource in American genealogy. State censuses often can serve as substitutes for some of the missing federal census records - most notably the 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1890 censuses. Many state censuses also asked different questions than the federal census, thus recording information that cannot be found elsewhere in the federal schedules.

“While not all states took their own censuses, and some have not survived, state and local census records can be found in many locations. Most states which took censuses usually did so every 10 years, in years ending in "5" (1855, 1865, etc.) to complement the federal census. These state census records are most often found at the state archives or state library. Many are also on microfilm through a local Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and online via commercial genealogy databases.”

A list of state censuses provided at this link:   https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/other_resources/state_censuses.html

For Frank, none for CT and all these for New York - 1790, 1825, 1835, 1845, 1855, 1865, 1875, 1892, 1905, 1915, 1925.

#3 This tip bears repeating from the minutes.  Judith offered this tip on Sanborn Maps which are insurance maps for coverage against fire, etc. They include floor plans and information about the property. Very useful information. 

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are online at the Library of Congress.  This link gives descriptions, key and tips on how to use.   https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/. 

ProQuest.com offered these quick facts:

Property and land-use maps of everyday life from 1867-1970
Unparalleled map views of 12,000+ U.S. towns and cities
Coverage Dates: 1867-1970

Sources Covered: More than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 US towns and cities

#4 MyHeritage is getting lots of publicity about their new Photo Enhancer feature. It can be used in combination with their Colorizing feature.  Here is a blogpost showing many before and after photos.  https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/06/introducing-the-myheritage-photo-enhancer/

Anyone can enhance 10 photos for free, which are counted separately from photos you may have colorized or would like to colorize using MyHeritage In Color™. Over ten, a subscription is required.

#5 The Family Tree Magazine has really perked up since their bankruptcy last year and the purchase by Yankee Publications.  Their free newsletter The Genealogy Insider is now a weekly with articles, their University classes, and their Shop that contains books and other items.  

This month’s issue has “101 Best Genealogy Websites”.  There’s a link in this sample of the newsletter:  http://enews.familytreemagazine.com/q/LsBOLXVfcLOfZW6EjstnL4vJCDc6W6WOYXhPfvikREQjCquQ34xJmbiwW.   I read the magazine in the free library version at RB Digital accessed through the WCLS site.

Family Tree Magazine also has a pretty good podcast in which Lisa Louise Cook interviews the staff and writers about the upcoming issue of the magazine.

Goodbye ‘til next time.

June 2020 Minutes from Sylvia

FERNDALE GENIES MEETING MINUTES

DATE: June 15, 2020 1:00 PM.

LOCATION: Online, via Zoom

IN ATTENDANCE:  Judith C; Sylvia W; Frank & Margie; Bill R; Rick; Linda B; Peggy; Linda L; Barbara B; Elizabeth D; David R; Susan M; Judy S

CHECK INS

Sylvia has been working on learning to use the DNA chromosome browser feature in several DNA websites to enhance her search for a birth parent. She has also been using DNA Painter’s tool “What Are the Odds?” (WAPO) that predict where you or a target person fit into a tree.

Bill is trying to make a timeline for his family history and going through family photos. Suggestions for timelines, anyone? Legacy Family Tree can build timelines; Roots Magic has “chronology” or “time line” though the format was not popular among our members who have used it; Ancestry has one built-in.

Margie: Margie found the date of her grandmother’s death by contacting the funeral home, which had changed names. They were very helpful and researched for her, giving her the actual date she had been looking for. 

Frank was going through old photos, found relatives in New Jersey whom he wants to contact for information on that side of the family. He’s also looking for information about family living in Manchester, Connecticut in 1958. How to go about this? Suggestions included Ancestry.com Library version – use at home free with your library card. City directories, business directories, state and federal census records. Frank wants to trace the family’s journey from Brooklyn NY to Connecticut.

Rick has been working on finding females in his tree that have no recorded maiden names. Records only show married names. He has been adding over 1000 death records to his family trees which are very useful for the information they provide on names, dates, origins, etc.

Linda B has been working with her basic tree. She has had a triumph this month in adding a whole new layer to her tree. She read family wills one afternoon and found pages and pages of testimony. She is getting old photos together and telling stories through the photos. She is still looking for a birth record for a grandmother in Prussia, and what ship she emigrated to America in. Not knowing the date, the name of the ship, or its departure and destination makes it difficult.

Linda L has been looking for a direct ancestor in the 1800s and is having difficulty with the surname. Suggestions included: was this a first marriage? Either partner may have been married before and the marriage document would reflect that. Widows who remarried mostly used their previous husband’s last name rather than their maiden name on the marriage documents.

Barbara B has been busy sifting through files and cleaning out. Not much time for genealogy this month.

Elizabeth D called a first cousin she has not had much contact with and was delighted to discover that she was also very interested in the family tree. They traded stories of family members and history. She also bought a scanner to scan slides and negatives and is excited that she has learned to use it to digitize her collection.

David reported that his wife mentioned a term he was unfamiliar with: “Irish twins.” These are two children born to the same family but less than a year apart.

Peggy has been using Google Maps to “travel around” to locations in her family history and has been able to “drive” down roads checking out what is there. She found some old run-down property on one road that might have belonged to her family. She intends to contact a local real estate agency to see if they can find out about these buildings. She has found some probate records with pages of useful information.

Judith has been busy with webinars and online research articles. People ask her, “How do you do all of this?” She believes you must focus your searches and research. She chose photo scanning and has been learning about using metadata to label and add information to photos. Bill likes to use it for pictures to describe names, location, event date, etc.  This works on any file or document.  Go to your Windows Explorer (file directory).   Right-click on a photo, select  Properties, then Details, and enter information.

Judith offered this tip on Sanborn Maps which are insurance maps for coverage against fire, etc. They include floor plans and information about the property. Very useful information. 

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are online at the Library of Congress.  This link gives descriptions, key and tips on how to use.   https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/. 

ProQuest.com offered these quick facts:

Property and land-use maps of everyday life from 1867-1970
Unparalleled map views of 12,000+ U.S. towns and cities
Coverage Dates: 1867-1970
Sources Covered: More than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 US towns and cities

Sue says she has not done too much with genealogy. She has a relative who is in the process of DNA testing, and she is waiting for the results. She is also working on albums for her kids.

Judy S is not working on genealogy much right now as she is busy with other projects. She has been researching to locate family in China – siblings - and is finding it difficult identifying a village there. She asked for suggestions on how to research Chinese genealogy. Suggestions included Family Search WIKI and other online sources.

PRESENTATION

Judith and Sylvia then gave a brief presentation on using the DNA Painter tools, and showing how WATO works with a basic, fairly simple tree to predict where a target person fits, and a more complex tree using the new Beta version of WATO. For those interested in learning, some websites include:

https://thednageek.com/improving-the-odds/

https://thednageek.com/a-major-update-to-what-are-the-odds/

https://dnapainter.com/tools/imf

These sites are either short videos or information about how to use DNA Painter and the WATO tools.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND BUSINESS

More discussion on metadate and DNA Painter tools. It was mentioned that there are links at the DNA Painter website to watch training videos and webinars, and to contact the designer, Jonny Perl directly. Sylvia has had contact with him through email and he has readily answered questions. He welcomes feedback.

Judith asked if anyone had watched the new series, “The Genetic Detective” with CeCe Moore. Several had. It is being shown on ABC channel at 10:00 pm on Tuesdays. It can be watched at other times if you have the ABC channel website, or if you save it. There are six episodes in this series, three of which have been shown. Although the focus of the episode is on the history of the case, CeCe’s search using DNA and the eventual outcome, there are some useful pieces of information to be learned. Not every DNA trail leads to the right suspect, it takes a lot of work and figuring out relationships. Relationships such as second marriages, “double cousins” etc., must be considered.

Rick asked what will happen when our monthly groups return to in-person meetings at the Library, given that more than one member is living out of state. Judith says this is something she will look into before we return to the library, but we should be able to find a way to hook up at each meeting via Zoom so that we can continue having out of state members join the meetings virtually. Bill said he would help.

WRAP UP

The meeting concluded at 2:45 P.M.

NEXT MEETING: JULY 20, 2020 at 1:00 PM, via Zoom

Genies Zoom Meeting Invitation

On Monday we will meet again for conversation.  I regularly consume blogs, podcasts and newsletters and not so regularly work on my own genealogy.  Bring your ideas and brick walls to share and I will too.

_____________________________________________

Zoom Invitation

Topic: Ferndale Genies Monthly Meeting

Time: June 15, 2020  01:00 PM Pacific Time (Virtual Doors open at 12:45.)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85026341880?pwd=NGN5Y2JaVXA2Rnl6MUJMWlkyQ3FSUT09

Meeting ID: 850 2634 1880

Password: 761562

_____________________________________________

In addition, Bill has provided us with some guidelines about upgrading to the latest level of Zoom for this meeting as follows:

Please remember that you must be using Zoom version 5 to join this meeting.  The latest version is 5.0.5.  There have been 5 software updates since version 5.0 was first released in late April.  Unless you have upgraded Zoom very recently, there is probably a newer version for you to install.  Please start Zoom at least 5-10 minutes before the meeting to allow your device to install the latest upgrade before the meeting starts.  Here is my guide to installing Zoom upgrades:

To determine what version of Zoom you are using on a Windows or Mac computer,  follow these steps:

1. Start the Zoom program on your Windows or Mac desktop or laptop.
2. Click on your Zoom account icon or profile picture in the upper right corner.
3. Choose the ‘Check for updates’ option in the drop-down menu.
4. A window will appear showing your current Zoom software version and will prompt you to download the latest version, if needed.

For other devices, start the Zoom app, open the ‘Settings’ option, then ‘About’ to view your current Zoom version number. 

To upgrade the Zoom app on a smartphone or tablet, visit the Apple App Store or Android Play Store, search for the ‘Zoom Cloud Meetings’ app and then select the ‘Upgrade’ option.

For more information about Zoom 5.0, visit:   https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/zoom-v5-0.html?zcid=1231

Phase 2 Reopening and Other Genies' News

Good Morning!

As you have probably heard, Whatcom County has moved to Phase 2 of Re-opening.  Washington has issued standards for re-opening library curbside services.  The WCLS staff has been planning for this and will start receiving returns tomorrow, on Monday, June 8.  They are already working on curbside pickup of books you have reserved.  My list of holds shows one book Ready for Pickup and two In Transit.  They will tell us when and how to start our pickup.  For now all contact will take place outside the library.  Woohoo!

There are many steps between here and opening the meeting rooms for live in-person meetings.  In the meantime we will happily continue meeting by Zoom.  Mark your calendar for Genies’ Zoom meetings on Mondays, June 15 and July 20.  That’s right.  We have to start keeping calendars again.  It’s not too late to jump on the Zoom bandwagon.  Help is available.

For Washington we have the governor’s 9-page Safe Start booklet found here:

https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/SafeStartWA_4May20_1pm.pdf

For over 65 folks, it says:  “Stay at home, stay at home, stay at home” for Phases  1, 2 and 3.  No haircuts for now.  One friend already got the word from her beautician.

On to Genealogy News:

1.       MyHeritage is a major research resource but it is one more subscription to use it.  In June they are opening a different collection each day for free access.  Many are for specific countries.  You missed a few, but for the list of the free collections for each day, click here.

2.       One of our members, David R, is interested in connecting with anyone who is interested in talking about 23andme‘s DNA health results.  Just reply to this email. 

3.       A webinar on the DNA tool What Are the Odds? caught Sylvia’s eye this week.  It is still free until the middle of next week.  No matter what your genealogy interest, go to the Legacy Family Tree homepage at https://familytreewebinars.com/.   You can sign up for an email to alert you to their free webinars every week.  They are also opening one free webinar every day. 

4.       Remember when Linda B had great success grave-finding on Prince Edward Island.  Now Linda tells us how her experience made the Billion Graves blog.

“When I visited the expo hall at Roots Tech, I chatted with the sales rep at the BillionGraves.com booth.  I told her how I used their app to find Peter's 3x great grandfather's grave on Prince Edward Island.  She asked if I would write that in an email to her and I did. 

“My story was published on their blog as part of a feature on using the app to locate a gravestone:  https://blog.billiongraves.com/find-a-gravestone/

“They added a map of PEI showing all of the cemeteries--illustrated the dilemma of locating the right one perfectly.”

The whole article is inspiring and you can scroll down to Linda’s story at:

Using the BillionGraves App to Find a Gravestone on Prince Edward Island