Your Genetic Genealogy~ Is It As Accurate As You Think?

Good morning and Aloha! 
It has been breezy but also rainy here on Oahu this morning and it makes for great sleeping weather, so what am I doing up? It's 9 a.m. that's why; I cant sleep in like my husband can, he can sleep through a tsunami! If I were only that lucky...but anyway, I have been wondering about the accuracy of DNA in our genealogy. 

Image Source:

DNA Genetics

How do we know this is truly accurate, as DNA is taken from the living, not the dead? The genetic genealogy tests can be expensive, depending on your own economic standpoint. So just how great is this anyway? I've been reading up on several different articles that pertain to this topic and in my opinion, I wouldn't waste my time or money on something that isn't 110% accurate. I'm not saying that a person shouldn't do this type of testing, if it leads them to finding their missing links in their families history. By all means, go for it if that's what you want to do. I am merely expressing my own opinion. After reading the following article, I became a little skeptical. There are many companies offering these types of services that promise to trace your lineage through means of a DNA test, whether it's paternal or maternal, the price goes up depending on your needs. Read this article from another blogger, who seems to have done her research and then let me know whether you think this type of test is something you would do. 


Genetic Genealogy Blog




To My Readers: Have you tried this sort of testing to trace your ancestral roots? Did you have any success? Please post your success stories! Below is a company offering this type of service. What do you think?


DNA Ancestry Project

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Learning "Legacy" Family Tree Software

Good morning all! This morning I am finally learning and teaching myself more about the Legacy software created my Millenia. What's so great about this program versus others out there? I have tried many different ones, but I seem to get along with this one the best, and it has come in under the #2 spot in the Genealogy Software Review for 2011! But just to let you know, I tried the standard version, which is free by the way; but I absolutely love the options and features that are offered for the deluxe version!




PROS: "Legacy can directly search Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Genealogy.com and many other online services."
CONS: "Although this is a powerful database application, some others are more visually appealing." 
(Data Source: Genealogy Software Review)


This program is cost effective especially when you look at what Legacy offers, some of the features that I found so far that I like the most are listed below.

• Mapping feature which allows you to utilize the Microsoft Earth to pinpoint the places in your ancestors lives, automatically from within the program.
• The Source Writer! I can't forget to mention that- and who wouldn't like to have their sources written out for them- just type in the necessary information, and you're good to go!
• Interview Reports- currently there are over 1000 pre-written interview forms you can use to interview family members or others when researching your family history. Cool huh?
• Along with attaching pictures, sounds, and video to individuals, events, locations, and sources, you can now also attach any other kind of document (PDFs, Word files, etc.).
• Recording DNA marker test results from different companies offering this type of service

But this is just a few of the features I like, that the deluxe version offers; there are plenty more! On the Legacy web site, they are offering several webinars on different topics, that you can listen in on, if you wish. I'll post the links below.

I'm not getting paid for the content of this blog posting; I am just merely expressing my opinion on  the software itself and the features that I enjoy so far.

Legacy Webinars- Listen Now

Legacy Family Tree Software Download

Image Source: Getty Images

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Lessons Learned

Since I started researching my heritage, I've learned a few lessons. The first and most important being, not to trust or make assumptions about the quality of research done by others. You will see family trees posted on the web, names that may be familiar to you, but check it out on your own. You will need to search for the documents yourself. I was always told by my husband, Michael to check, double check, and triple check! Okay. I get it, finally. People are bound to make mistakes. So how do you find these documents? Check out the links on my page, that should lead you in the right direction, at least for starters. Vital records offices are located around the globe, so I would most likely start with what you already know; i.e., full name, date of birth, place of birth and who the person's parents are. You may even have this information saved somewhere, funeral notices such as the "In Remembrance" cards you receive for a family member who had passed away. This will give you a lot of information as well.

It is possible that while researching a family member, that you may never find information on them, for whatever reason. Say for instance, I was searching for one particular person recently, and I came up with nothing, no matter where I searched. It was like this person ceased to exist!

Sometimes you just hit a brick wall and cannot go any further, at least on that particular branch. But your family tree has many ancestors, some with unique names and others that are so similar that even the parents have the same name as their own child! This makes your search even more difficult.

When you start creating your family tree, the possibility of finding more ancestors to add becomes endless, or so it seems. As you keep going farther back, you have double the ancestors to search. Parents, grandparents, great great grandparents times how ever many! I think I have 13th Great Grandparents and that goes back to probably mid 1600's or so. I will never cease to find more relatives to add, my family is huge and you end up with cousins upon cousins and their marriages, and their parents and so on. I'm sure you get my point already. 

If you are seeking true source documents to back up your research, try Social Security Indexes, archives, military draft cards, census records, obituaries, libraries that offer microfilmed documents, passenger lists, or even immigration lists etc. This should help get you going in the right direction, so don't take one persons family tree website as confirmation that the data is set in stone! 

Has anyone ever tried the DNA testing that the Ancestry web site has been offering? If so, what do you think of it?

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