DNA SIG

This month, we explored MyHeritage DNA. First, some news items: We talked about Jefferson-Hemings DNA:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/did-thomas-jefferson-father-sally-hemings-children-after-more-than-decade-research-answer-finally-firmly-hand-180989331/https://www.monticello.org/slavery/jefferson-and-sally-hemings/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-againhttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752809v1 And a more recent case of using DNA to identify/confirm parentage: https://www.firstalert4.com/2026/09/30/adopted-st-louis-man-discovers-his-biological-father-is-michael-mcdonald/ Some resources for AncestryDNA’s Ancestral Origins update and … Read more

We apologize for the technical difficulties at the end of this meeting, and for the delay in this post. We were mostly done – we would have covered a couple of more slides about clustering … Read more

This month, we explored 23andMe. First, some news items:https://www.npr.org/2026/06/23/nx-s1-5866455/revolutionary-war-continental-army-camden-south-carolina-marylandhttps://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/new-relationship-prediction-tools-dna-matches Here are some articles that may be helpful for navigating and using 23andMe: 23andMe blog: https://blog.23andme.com/ https://www.23andme.org/ancestry/ancestry-composition-guide https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003184973-Country-Matches-and-Genetic-Groups https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004342967-DNA-Ancestry-Timeline https://www.23andme.org/blog/articles/meet-your-chromosome-painting https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004659068-DNA-Relatives-The-Genetic-Relative-Basics https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170958-DNA-Relatives-Detecting-Relatives-and-Predicting-Relationships https://www.23andme.org/blog/articles/update-to-dna-relatives https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/211831798-How-23andMe-Sharing-Works https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/221689668-DNA-Relatives-In-Common-Report-Feature https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/235201447-Getting-Started-With-the-Haplogroup-Reports … Read more

Love them or hate them, AncestryDNA ThruLines and MyHeritage Theories of Family Relativity can be powerful clue-generating tools — but only when used thoughtfully. We discussed what the tools can and cannot tell us, and … Read more

In honor of Father’s Day, we talked about the men who contribute to our DNA, and how using Y-DNA can help with some of our genealogical puzzles.  FamilyTreeDNA Recently updated its blog post about their … Read more

Tracing our female ancestors can be difficult. We explored how mitochondrial DNA, X-DNA, and autosomal DNA can help. FamilyTreeDNA Recently posted several blog posts about using mitochondrial DNA that may be helpful:https://blog.familytreedna.com/largest-mtdna-haplotree/https://blog.familytreedna.com/mitochondrial-dna-testing-how-it-works/https://blog.familytreedna.com/mtdna-tips-for-genealogy/https://blog.familytreedna.com/using-mtdna-genealogy-research/https://blog.familytreedna.com/what-is-mtdna/https://blog.familytreedna.com/mtdna-haplogroups-explained/ Learn about the … Read more

First, a couple of news items: Here are links to some things discussed during the April meeting: Ancestry’s Enhanced Shared Matching: https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/pro-tools-dna-matches And some of the links we discussed: DNA Painter’s Matrix Tool:

First, news from FamilyTreeDNA about their new next-generation testing for Family Finder tests: And more information about 23andMe’s new clustering tool: Here are links to some things discussed during the March meeting: 23andMe:https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036068393-The-23andMe-Family-Tree-Featurehttps://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/35757285869335-23andMe-Reconstructed-Ancestors-Overview Ancestry:https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Grouping-and-Filtering-AncestryDNA-Matcheshttps://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/shared-dna-matches-the-only-dna-tool-you-will-ever-needhttps://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/solving-a-virginia-mystery-using-dna/https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/pro-tools-dna-matches/https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/DNA-comparehttps://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/using-custom-clusters-to-find-dna-matcheshttps://myfamilypattern.com/custom-clusters MyHeritage:https://education.myheritage.com/article/how-to-use-labels-to-break-new-ground-with-your-dna-matches/https://education.myheritage.com/article/autoclusters-for-dna-matches/ … Read more

Here are some links to thinks we talked about this month. Blaine Bettinger’s “A Triangulation Intervention” blog post which talks about the different reasons matches will appear on a shared matches list: https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2016/06/19/a-triangulation-intervention/ Paula Williams’s … Read more

From tools to strategies to education and more, we talked about some ideas and strategies for working with our DNA results and perhaps some new things to try or revisit in the new year. First, … Read more