The sixth annual Roswell RootsTech Family History Conference is scheduled for June 8.
The gathering will take place from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 500 Norcross St., in Roswell. The presentations are from the RootsTech 2019 Conference held earlier this year in Salt Lake City, with more than 28,000 in attendance. It’s one of the largest genealogy conferences in the nation.
The Roswell Rewind is a great chance to learn from the big conference’s speakers, via downloaded videos or lecture summaries. There will be three classes each hour, with information on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage. Lecture topics include: “Trace the Story of Immigrant Ancestors in 3 Steps,” “Connecting Your DNA Matches,” “FamilySearch — the Ins and Outs,” and “What You Don’t Know About Ancestry.com.”
This is a free event, with no registration required. For more information, contact Linda at 404-805-7739 or check ga_roswell@ldsmail.net. For more on RootsTech, see rootstech.org for information about future conferences and some videos of previous lectures. The Roswell center is also the location of the Genealogical Computer Society of Georgia’s monthly meetings.
Ancestry.com’s DNA and GEDmatch changes effective June 1
Ancestry.com’s DNA section will be dropping its popular DNA Circles in favor of the newly created ThruLines. So if you want to preserve any information in your DNA Circles matches, make a screen save or take a photograph of them. Ancestry is also planning to tweak the ethnicity estimates in June as well, which could mean major adjustments in the ethnic profiles of some people. These are always based on previous testers/reference populations with concentrated roots in one area. So, refinement is to be expected as more people test.
GEDmatch is also planning to move all results over to its new Genesis site effective June 1. That may take some getting used to, if you don’t use GEDmatch regularly. So again, if you like the way some matches are displayed there, be sure to make a screen save to keep, at least until you get used to the new format. There are a number of free YouTube videos via Family History Fanatics to explain the changes. Some of your downloaded kits may not transfer over easily, so take note and check everything out in June.
The Genealogy Squad now on Facebook
The Genealogy Squad is a new genealogy group on Facebook headed by several major genealogists, including Blaine Bettinger and Cyndi’s List’s own Cyndi. You have to join the group via Facebook. Should be a good forum to be part of.
