Finding My Roots (Part III)
This past April (2018). I took myself on a little vacation. Perhaps a vacation is not the best word, for the primary purpose of my trip was to visit my father’s grave, something I...
Finding My Roots (Part II)
Now (if you’ve read the first entry in this series) you know a bit about my mother’s family and the difficulty in finding out more about my maternal Greek ancestry. Invasion, massacre and civil...
Do Not Fall into this Common Genealogy Trap…
This article might start off sounding a little smug. It is not meant to. My intention is to help you to find your correct ancestors, or at least start on the right path, and...
DNA Testing and Ancestry
In this modern age, science is lending a helping hand to genealogical research. Sites like 23andme, Family Tree DNA, and Ancestry.com offer a service to people who can pay for it—DNA testing. While the...
Is That You, William? How Do You Know When You’re On The Right Track?
Brick walls – every researcher has a couple. They sometimes stand for years, those annoying barriers between you and that elusive ancestor you have been chasing for what seems like forever. Now and then,...
The Genealogy of Adoptees
I am the only biological child in my family, but my parents adopted five children once I was in college. Whenever I think about genealogy, I think about them. Of course, they are an...
My Experience with 23andMe.com
One of the more interesting things I’ve done in my life was to get my genetic testing done with the goal of finding out my genetic background. The results that showed me where my...
DNA testing: a lifeline for adoptees searching for their roots
One of the most promising applications of DNA testing is its potential to provide information to a population with limited access to genealogical records: adoptees. While adoptees can obtain certain records, the venture...
A Cautionary Tale: What DNA Testing Cannot Tell You
In 2007, the New York Times featured an article about Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. Mr. Gates hosted a televised...
What We Can Learn from Genetic Testing
In the last decade, the use of DNA testing as a tool for genealogical research has become both popular and controversial. As more people have expressed a desire to use scientific analysis to verify...
