Monday, December 31, 2018

Two Months Until RootsTech 2019!


Well 2018 sure has flown by! It feels like we were just saying goodbye to the last few beach days of the season, and then the trees changed colors, and just as I was getting ready to start thinking about Christmas it was Christmas Eve and my tree still wasn't up! Don't worry though, y'all, I got it up Christmas Eve night just in time...

Suffice it to say, time has gotten ahead of me. And though wishing the time away is never a good thing, there is a perk that comes with us getting closer to the end of February. It means we're closer to RootsTech 2019! In fact, we're just two months away from the largest genealogy conference...and by far the most I've ever felt like a kid in a genealogy candy shop.

*Just* *TWO* *More* *Months!*

So as we're approaching RootsTech, let's look at some of the new developments that have come out about the conference. I'm already pumped about going, but I hope you'll be as excited as I am too!

Featured Speakers

These are the folks we're going to listen to, to learn from, and to collaborate with. They are experts in various genealogical specialties, from genetic genealogy to regional and ethnic studies. They're our friends, our coworkers, and our community's icons. And you'll be together with them for days to connect over our shared passion of family history.

To see the full list of featured speakers click here and scroll down past the keynote speakers to the Featured Speakers section. If you click on a speaker's photo, it'll take you to their short bio. But make sure you also check out the full schedule for the week so you can see all the classes they're offering! Trust me, you'll want to make your schedule before you go.

Keynote Speakers


Our keynote speakers have been announced! We'll get to hear from Patricia Heaton - from Everybody Loves Raymond - on Thursday February 28. On Friday March 1, we'll have Saroo Brierley the author of his biography A Long Way Home that was turned into the successful film Lion. Last, on Saturday March 2, the talented Hawaiian ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro will take the stage. You can check out more on all three of our keynote speakers here.

Preparing for RootsTech

Not sure how best to prepare for the conference? Check out this video series that will help you with everything you need from getting registered to learning about RootsTech. Now that the schedule is public, and we know who our speakers are, you're all ready to start planning what classes you're attending and when you'll have free time to see other area sites. With such a jam-packed schedule, and so many amazing speakers, you're going to have to manage your time well...and that means preparing beforehand.

In the new year, I'll discuss some of what I'm doing to prepare for RootsTech and what I hope to get out of the conference this year.

*****

Two months may sound far away, but February 27, 2019 will be here before we know it! With each passing day I'm getting that much more excited about the new learning opportunities, and the new and old friends I'll get to see this year at RootsTech. Plus, I hope to get out and see more of Salt Lake City this time around! It's such a beautiful city...and that view!

Who are you most excited about hearing from at RootsTech 2019? Is there a keynote speaker you hope to meet? How are you going to prepare for RootsTech this year?

Whether you're spending New Year's Eve relaxing with family and friends or busily sleuthing in the records of your ancestors, I wish you a blessed evening and a Happy New Year! Keep striving to encounter your ancestors through family history research and remembering the past made present.


*Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash*

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Organizing DNA Matches


Some folks are just more organized than others. When it comes to our work space or our home, some of us like to keep some happy clutter...while others have a place for everything. And the more we get serious about our genealogical research, each one of us will have a different organizational style for our work.

Our genealogy will never be finished, nor will we probably ever find *every* record for any given person. And that's even more true when it comes to our DNA records. Each DNA match that we find is a new record of sorts, a new documentation that may serve to reinforce our paper research. So how do we properly organize all of these DNA matches that are forever growing in number?

In this post, I'm going to share one possible way that you can go about organizing your DNA matches, and some of the benefits of keeping your matches organized.

Organization brings clarity

When we first look at our DNA match list - be it on AncestryDNA, 23andme, MyHeritage, or FamilyTreeDNA - our first feeling might be anxiety. AH! SO MANY matches! Particularly for those with colonial American ancestry, it's common to have thousands of matches at an estimated fourth cousin or closer level. That can be overwhelming!

After we get past the shock of the fact that we're connected to thousands of people in our match lists, we need to get to some work to narrow down our connections. This means we need to organize ourselves somehow. But before I get to that, we should talk about the "why" of it all.

Organizing our DNA matches gives us clarity of vision. It makes sure that we know what we're looking at. When we first look at our DNA matches - without organization - it can be like standing at the edge of a vast forest of trees. What lies within? How do we get through? We have no idea from our vantage point. But...if we look from above - from a bird's eye view - we'll have a view that tells us the best way forward.

When we organize our DNA matches, we can make our match list more manageable and useful for us. Instead of being just a list of names, we'll see our list as a helpful tool for our genealogical research.

Getting organized

When we're surrounded by clutter, even sorting things out into piles can make all the world of difference! And when it comes to our DNA matches, that initial work can be done with the tools that our DNA testing companies give us.

With AncestryDNA, there are two tools which I first recommend everyone use: stars and notes. I recommend everyone start initially by determining which matches are on the paternal line and which are on the maternal line. Then choose which side you're going to star. After this, you can click on shared matches and star all of the closest matches that are shared with those other starred matches. It's not fool proof (you may match someone through both your mother and father) but for most folks it'll be a good place to start.

After you have most of your closest matches starred - or not starred - then you can add notes. I rely on these notes because they remind me of how a person matches the DNA test taker whose results I'm working on. Once I figure out how this person is connected, I also add them and their line into the tree associated with the DNA test. It will make your family tree grow pretty fast, but trust me it will pay off in the long run. It makes determining those more distant DNA matches so much easier!

With this first level of organization, you'll have starred matches and notes on all of your closest DNA matches. And, you'll also have all of your proven DNA connections as people within your family tree as well.

Charts?! Sheets?! Say it ain't so!

So far, everything I've shared with you is what I had been doing for the last few years. I thought to myself - self - you've done good! I thought this was enough to keep my DNA matches organized for the work I was doing. But then...I realized "good" wasn't enough! I want to do excellent work. So I need excellent organization. And one way to have excellent organization is to use charts.

I must admit up front that I do not keep charts and sheets for matches of every family line of my family. I actually only have begun this work on two of my lines. Why only two? Well, these are the lines that I'm most preoccupied with right now. I'm sure I'll do this for more, but for now this is serving to keep me organized and this has been paying off. So how do I organize my charts, and what do I use?

I'm a big believer in Google for my research. I use Google Docs for writing notes for myself and Google Sheets to make free spreadsheets. The huge perk is that they automatically save as I work. For Google Sheets, I am able to make charts that document the DNA connections for my matches. I use these sheets for family lines that I'm looking to get greater clarity in, or that I'm trying to prove or work further back past a brick wall. Since I have tested many family members and have access to some of our close and distant cousins, I can note in Google Sheets how closely each DNA match connects to each of these individuals.

How I use Google Sheets

In the first column in Google Sheets, I note the DNA match name and/or username. The next columns are for your DNA tests that you administer that you want to compare to this user's DNA. For example, when I'm looking at my Williams & Adams cousins Google Sheet, I compare each AncestryDNA user to my aunt, my father, two of my dad's second cousins, my third cousin, and two fourth cousins. You can certainly use this format even if you're only comparing each AncestryDNA user only to your DNA test results, but it gets increasingly helpful when you're comparing to multiple sets of results.

The next column I label "notes" and I use this to note how exactly this AncestryDNA user connects to the family line I'm researching. An example of one user's connection to my Adams family, I wrote, "William Adams & Mary Moore; William; Motier; William E; Linwood C; Linwood P" in the notes column. This shorthand represents this particular AncestryDNA user's descent from the ancestral couple I am studying. It also lets me know the line in my family tree to look at when I want to look at this match. It also shows me which children of my focus couple have given the most matches. This is particularly important in doing descendancy research with your DNA results

The last column I use to include a link to the AncestryDNA user's profile. From their profile page, I can contact them and I can also check back to see if they administer any other DNA test results. I can also look back to see if they've increased the information in their family tree. Also, I might want to compare this user to another person whose DNA results I now have access to.

In each row, I look at a different AncestryDNA user. In each column, I write the amount of DNA that these two people share. I get this number from the "i" symbol next to each match on AncestryDNA. For example, I might write "54.9 cM across 4 DNA segments." This is helpful because later I can look at my Google Sheets and see how large of a connection actually is between two individuals. It's much more specific than simply an estimated fourth cousin.

I use this format for two family lines I'm researching: the Stratton family and the Williams & Adams family from Powhatan County, Virginia. My Stratton Google Sheets form has - as of 27 Dec 2018 - 63 AncestryDNA test results organized and compared to four people. My Williams & Adams form has 49 individuals whose DNA is being compared to seven people.

*****

Before I started making Google Sheets for focusing and organizing my research, I never thought too much about organization. Because I hadn't yet reaped the fruit of good organization. But now I have a visual to aid in my research. I have a resource for my DNA match list, and I don't have to go searching through the brambles of my match list anymore. 

This is only one small way that you can begin to organize your DNA matches. This is something that has helped me, but I'm sure there are countless different ways that you can organize your own matches. The important thing isn't how you organize, but that you do take the effort to tame your match list and to make it more manageable for you. So get to work, y'all!

Do you find your DNA match list too much to handle? How do you organize your DNA matches? How has organization helped to improve the quality of your genealogical research?


*Photo by Oscar Chevillard on Unsplash*

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

A Wintry Trip to Monticello


I can thankfully report that I've gotten my "Virginian Card" back. I grew up in Virginia, and nearly all of my ancestors lived in Virginia back into the 1600's. I'm nearly as Virginian as Virginian gets, you see. But somehow - how, I don't know - I had never been to Monticello until this week. I've traveled all over the world, but when it comes to being a local tourist, I'm just not quite so good.

But as life has it, some of my best friends (Thomas and Elizabeth) are moving to Guatemala to be Orthodox missionaries with OCMC for at least two years. [More specifically, I'm their koumbaro - it's like a Godfather for an Orthodox married couple. Anyhoo, I'm gonna miss them tons!] So since they're heading out next month, we're trying to get in as much quality time as we can. What better way for history nerds to hang out than to see more of the history that Virginia has to offer? Naturally, Monticello was high on our to do list. 

Even though I went to James Madison University - not the University of Virginia - I've always loved Thomas Jefferson. He's a complex figure in the history of our nation. But he's also the man whose foresight and skill with the written word gave me the freedom to worship (or not) the God of my understanding without government interference. So I was excited to visit the home of my beloved TJ!

And then it snowed. A lot! In the Richmond area, there was over a foot of snow! For Virginians, that can be debilitating. So I was worried our trip would get canceled. Thankfully Monticello was only closed for a day, so our trip for Tuesday was on as scheduled. 

Our Wintry Trip


This was our first sight of the famous Monticello - the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was a tad disappointing at first - until we realized this wasn't the nickel image of Monticello we all know and love. Turns out, this is the front of the building, and the back side is the more famous image. I have no photos of the inside because photography isn't allowed there. But, that doesn't mean I can't reflect on some of the tour.

First, let me say that the house presents a good image of the man Thomas Jefferson. He was a man interested in learning, in business, and in having the greatest technology of his age. His home was like a natural history exhibit meets science lab meets library. It feels like it would have been the sort of home you'd want to visit for a casual visit with the cool professor you made sure to Facebook after the class had ended. There were fossils, Native American tools, walls of books, and scientific instruments. He had European conveniences like an indoor bathroom, sky lighting, beds tucked into the walls and a way to open the door without getting out of bed. The dining room was meant to be casual and the tea room made you want to sit and enjoy a good conversation.

Mulberry Row
With all that said, there is also the other side of Thomas Jefferson: the man followed by controversy. That controversy followed us inside, as a guest on our tour repeatedly challenged the facts presented by our tour guide. This guest insisted that Thomas Jefferson did not father the children of Sally Hemings and that he was a faithful traditional Christian. You'd think from his indignation that there were some grand scheme to undermine the sanctity of a national saint. I reminded the man - as calmly and lovingly as I could muster - that I was there to listen to the tour of our paid guide (not of him) and thankfully he kept quite after that. It's frustrating to me that there are so many who view updates on the study of history as revisionist history. History doesn't change; our perspective though on that history can.

After our tour of the home, we took the Slavery at Monticello tour. And it was awesome! Our guide was passionate about the topic and you could tell he really gets out of bed each day to educate and to inspire that passion in others. We saw the reproduction of the Hemmings Cabin,the textile workshop, and passed through Mulberry Row where the enslaved lived and worked. We heard details of the evidence behind the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings - which I must say was fascinating if you're a genealogist! If only my ancestors had kept such detailed records of those whom they enslaved...BUT it does inspire me to dig deeper to see what records my ancestors did keep.

Yours truly with Thomas and Elizabeth Manuel

After our tours, we were able to walk around the grounds and take some more photos. It really is a beautiful site with great views of the area around Charlottesville. Thomas Jefferson had a good eye, that's for sure! Since it was just a couple of days after a snowstorm, the grounds were mostly empty of visitors. The snow had hardly been disturbed but for the occasional footprints or tracks from a passing deer.

Voila! The Nickel shot!
Reflections on a man

What struck me most about my trip to Monticello is just how American the man - Thomas Jefferson - really was. What do I mean by that? Thomas Jefferson was a Virginian. He was educated. He was a renaissance man, a leader, a businessman. Yet he was also fascinated with Europe, with having bigger and better things. He was a thinker, an idealist, a writer, a reader. And yet, he was also a man who struggled with - or perhaps found comfortable - the paradox of being a man who held ideals about human liberty who also owned hundreds of other human beings. A man who wrote the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom adopted by the General Assembly in 1786 yet had power over the religious freedom of those in his control.

Thanks for Religious Freedom, TJ!
I did not leave Monticello thinking less of Thomas Jefferson. I did however leave Monticello with a clearer vision of the arch of American history, one whose evolution has yet to be concluded. One which is forever in a state of flux and is always getting more refined as we age as a nation. The trip for me was not so different from researching my ancestors who lived prior to the American Civil War. I was faced with the necessity of normalizing slavery in order to encounter a man who enslaved others.

I was faced with the reality of something inherently brutal and inhumane and yet I had to become numb to that reality. I had to face what it must have been like to be a man who could see a woman as inhuman enough to be my property and yet human enough to be the mother of my children. I had to face in a deeper way the life of my own ancestors - namely David Stratton of Powhatan County, Virginia - who owned their own children and grandchildren. Like Beth Wylie - a cousin of mine and blogger over at Life in the Past Lane - feel even more strongly that I have a duty to preserve and document the enslaved people of my ancestors. 

A fitting end to my trip

There's nothing like a tour through Old Virginia to work up a healthy appetite! So you'd think I'd have gone over to an old tavern or found a Southern restaurant for some sweet tea, grits, or sausage gravy biscuits right? Well, these three Orthodox kids are trying our best to keep the Nativity Fast so we sought out some vegetarian fare. That took us to a delicious Indian buffet in the heart of Charlottesville. We got there just in time to eat our fill before driving back to Virginia Beach. But as we got back to my car - after walking some of the meal off - we noticed something peculiar.

4th Street at the corner of East Water Street
Both sides of the street where my car was parked had chalk writings and drawings. We were trying to figure out what it was all about. Then we noticed the name Heather in a few places. A picture of a girl. A Bible left on the sidewalk. The word hub - love - in Arabic. 

And then it hit us - we were parked at the exact location that Heather Heyer was killed on 12 Aug 2017.

It was a sobering end to our trip to Charlottesville. We had spent the day reflecting on the paradox of American idealism. We had spent the day walking through the home of Thomas Jefferson, discovering the lives of those whom he had enslaved. And then we had parked - of all places in the city - at the exact location where a white supremacist had killed a woman peacefully protesting racism. In 2017. A chilling end to our wintry trip to Charlottesville.

*****

I have a deep love for my country. I believe in ideals. I love that we are a nation that fights for ideals we haven't yet seen nor even fully experienced. I love that we are a country that looks at itself in the mirror and is able to pinpoint the parts we want to improve upon while also holding pride for all that is good and true and beautiful. 

This is how I feel the day after my trip to Monticello. I'm grateful to our Founding Fathers who designed a country that would be forever improving, forever becoming an ever greater America - never resting upon the laurels of our forefathers nor the illusion of an idealized past. I'm grateful to Thomas Jefferson - the man, not the saint - who like me had within himself ideals and dreams, passions and sins. 

It's this man whom I encountered this wintry trip to Monticello.

Have you been to Monticello? How did your visit impact your genealogical research or your study of the enslaved people of your family? How did Monticello shed light on American history for you?

Until we meet again, keep digging and encountering your ancestors through family history research and remembering the past made present!

Let's Connect at NGS 2022!

The National Genealogical Society Family History Conference is back in person this year! And y'all I am so ready to meet face-to-face!...