DNA, Genetics, Genealogy: How to Research Your Origins

The popularity of DNA tests like Ancestry, 23andMe, and MyHeritage is ever-expanding, but few takers understand just how much can be learned from the data revealed—far beyond what's seen in tik tok + youtube reveals of people declaring: "I'm 10% Irish" / "23% Korean" / "36% Nigerian" and so on.

Every week your pool of DNA matched relatives increases, and discovering not only who some more of your "close" relatives are, but even distant 7th or 8th cousins, and now... even confirm direct ancestral links to ancient remains found in archaelogical sites around the world. All this can provide key, and often surprising information about your near and more remote ancestors' origins and diasporic journeys.

Meanwhile, genealogical research—through accessing documents of births, deaths, marriages, and other historic records—is easier than ever before, now that such collections around the world are being digitized and made available via online and institutional archives around the globe

When combined, DNA science and archival records work together to help provide the fullest, most accurate and complete picture possible of your forebears at this time.

For this session, I'll teach the fundamentals about how to approach your own research—what DNA tests can offer, some archival databases you can access, etc.

Please Note: You'll get the most immediate benefit if you've already taken one or more DNA tests and can therefore access this information during our time together.

You are NOT expected to share any information that you may prefer to keep private. The session would, however, benefit from a few participant-volunteers to serve as examples that I can help directly in their process. It's completely up to your own comfort levels, of course!