Judy G. Russell, a nationally known genealogy lecturer and lawyer known as the Legal Genealogist, will speak May 2 to the Georgia Genealogical Society on the theme of your ancestors and the law.
The four lectures will cover: “Private Laws of the Federal and State Governments,” “Facts, Photos and Fair Use: Copyright Law for Genealogists,” “Property Rights and Wrongs: African-Americans and the Courthouse,” and “Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions: the Family Black Sheep.”
Russell’s topics cover a wide range and should hit on something everyone doing genealogy has faced or has questions about. If you have heard her before, these talks are not necessarily the same as in other seminars.
Her appearance will be held at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. Check-in is at 9:30 a.m., with the program running from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Cost is $25 for GGS or Atlanta History Center members, $35 for nonmembers. Lunch is on your own.
Mail payment to the Georgia Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 550247, Atlanta, GA 30355-2747, with a postmark deadline of April 24, or register at gagensociety.org via PayPal by April 29. For further information, check the website or contact Laura Carter at gagensocprograms@gmail.com or 706-369-9420. Russell's blog is at legalgenealogist.com.
DNA updates
Recently I learned of some more DNA sites that might help people better analyze their results.
One is Genome Mate at genomemate.org, described as a tool for managing DNA comparisons. Another is DNA Explained by Roberta Estes at dna-explained.com. She offers a lot of interesting discussion points and surely could be useful in many ways.
There are some terms that it helps to understand in DNA analysis, such as IBD or Identical by Descent. IBD means people match via DNA and have a common ancestor. However, a “false positive” would be a result that negated an IBD. If you are kin to certain people several times over, as I am, you could have a “pedigree collapse,” making it appear you are closer kin to certain people than you actually are.
Family Tree Magazine
Family Tree Magazine is celebrating 15 years in print. Each issue is full of genealogically useful information, and they are offering a DVD including all 96 issues. Go to familytreemagazine.com, click on the "shop" tab and then on "CDs/DVDs." This should be a valuable resource for anyone doing genealogy or for any genealogy library.
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