DNA testing has been a godsend for my own genealogy research. It’s helped me verify a number of lineages for which the paper trail was nonexistent or not yet been discovered.
While I had my mother’s DNA on FamilyTreeDNA.com for years, it could not be copied to Ancestry.com. I finally got her, at 98, to provide a saliva sample. The results were posted this week. The way Ancestry is set up now, once you are lucky enough to have a parent’s DNA, it states on each applicable DNA match: “Mother’s Side.”
In her account, all the results are on her side, making it much easier to figure out how to place your matches on your tree. I am hoping her 100,000 DNA matches on Ancestry will lead me to people with data on some unknown ancestors. The test measures only Autosomal DNA and can link only related people within the past six generations, since your DNA percentage halves each generation going backward.
By starting with my mother, it gives us a fighting chance to link to kin further back. On a new Ancestry DNA account, you have to pay more than just for the test itself to have access to things. Without paying extra, you can set up groups and use them to sort out your matches. I can link my mother’s account to mine so I can receive notifications. Check tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere about Ancestry and DNA. Take advantage of the DNA bargains coming around Father’s Day (June 20). Don’t pass up the chance to preserve the DNA of your parents, as well as their siblings.
Georgia Archives’ Fourth Friday Lecture
Tracey Johnson, Georgia Archives conservator, will speak on May 28 at noon on “Demystifying Conservation: Ethics and Methods Used in Caring for Georgia’s Official Records,” via Microsoft Teams. Check www.GeorgiaArchives.org for details, or the organization’s Facebook page, and later on its YouTube channel. This is part of the Fourth Friday series.
Delayed Birth Certificates
Don’t forget that birth certificates were created later for many of our 20th century ancestors, mostly in order to register for a Social Security account number. Check your family papers or online. If people didn’t have official birth certificates, they had to use other data to prove they were of age to register.
Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P.O. Box 901, Decatur, Ga., or www.kenthomasongenealogy.com.
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