Publication of DNA and Social Networking

My long-awaited book DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century has now been published and I was very excited to receive my advance copy in the post this morning.  I feel very privileged to have been asked to write the book, and it is a humbling experience to see my own words in print. I was almost trembling as I opened the envelope and was able to see the book in print for the first time! I could feel my eyes moistening, and it took me a few minutes to summon up the courage to open the book, knowing that if there is anything I've forgotten or have got wrong it's now too late to make any changes. This book has been particularly challenging to write because there has been a constant stream of new developments in both fields. After submitting the manuscript I had to make a substantial number of amendments in an attempt to keep everything as up to date as possible, with the last changes being made in August. I suspect my book might even be the first book to mention Google+, the new social networking service from Google.  Google+ was in beta-testing when I updated my proofs but is now open to all. The publishers have done a magnificent job with the book. It is printed on good-quality paper, and the illustrations, although necessarily in black and white, have all been reproduced to a very high standard.

The contents of the book are as follows:

Foreword by Chris Pomery
Preface
Acknowledgements

Part I: The genetic genealogy revolution
Chapter 1 The basic principles
Chapter 2 Surnames and the paternal line
Chapter 3 Before surnames: haplogroups and deep ancestry
Chapter 4 The maternal line: mitochondrial DNA tests
Chapter 5 Cousins reunited: autosomal DNA tests
Chapter 6 Setting up and running a DNA project

Part II: The social networking revolution
Introduction
Chapter 7 Traditional genealogical networking methods
Chapter 8 Genealogy social networking websites
Chapter 9 General social networking websites
Chapter 10 Blogs
Chapter 11 Wikis
Chapter 12 Multimedia
Chapter 13 Collaborative tools

Appendix A DNA websites
Appendix B Testing companies
Appendix C DNA projects
Appendix D Surname resources
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

It will be a few more weeks before the book arrives in the shops and with all the online retailers, and the official publication date is now 28th November. The book will be available direct from Amazon.co.uk or from The History Press. A Kindle edition is also in preparation, and the publishers are currently waiting for Amazon to upload the PDF onto their website. The book will eventually go on sale in North America, Australia and other countries but it will take time for it to go through the distribution channels in these countries, and it probably won't be on sale overseas until the spring. In the meantime the History Press and Amazon UK both accept orders from overseas. I will also maintain a small stock of copies which I can sell myself at family history events.

© Debbie Kennett 2011