Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies

I've been sworn to secrecy for the last two years but I am now pleased to announce the publication of a new book Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies, edited by Debbie Parker Wayne. I contributed a chapter on "The promise and limitations of genetic genealogy" where I had great fun speculating about what the future holds for genetic genealogy. There are another thirteen chapters contributed by many well known names in the genealogy world. I've not yet seen the book or had the chance to review any of the chapters so I'm very much looking forward to reading it when my copy arrives.

Debbie Parker Wayne has worked really hard behind the scenes to bring this much-needed book to fruition and I am very grateful for her patience and encouragement.

The book is currently on sale on Amazon. On the US site the book is showing as being available for shipping within the next one to two days. On the UK site delivery is expected within the next one to two months. A Kindle version will be available in May 2019. For US readers who are going to the National Genealogical Society conference in May you will be able to buy a copy from Books and Things who will be exhibiting at the conference. For details see here.

Here is the description of the book from Amazon:

Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies helps intermediate researchers move up to the next level and advanced researchers apply the new DNA standards and write about DNA. This new book offers an in-home course in advanced genetic genealogy. Case studies demonstrate analyzing the DNA test results, correlating with documentary evidence, and writing about the findings, all incorporating the updated standards for using DNA. Full-color illustrations help the genealogist incorporate these techniques into personal or client research projects. Each of the fourteen chapters was written by a professional genealogist with DNA experience. 

Eight chapters study real families (some using anonymized identities), including methods, tools, and techniques. Jim Bartlett covers how to triangulate a genome (mapping DNA segments to ancestors). Blaine T. Bettinger demonstrates the methodology for visual phasing (mapping DNA segments to the grandparents who passed down the segment to descendants, even when the grandparents cannot be tested). Kathryn J. Johnston shows how to use X-DNA to identify and confirm ancestral lines. James M. Owston describes findings of the Owston Y-DNA project. Melissa A. Johnson covers adoption and misattributed parentage research. Kimberly T. Powell provides guidance when researching families with endogamy and pedigree collapse. Debbie Parker Wayne combines atDNA and Y-DNA in a Parker family study. Ann Turner describes the raw DNA data and lab processes. 

Three middle chapters cover genealogy standards as they relate to DNA and documentary evidence. Karen Stanbary applies the Genealogical Proof Standard to genetic genealogy in a hypothetical unknown parentage case illustrating start-to-finish analysis. Patricia Lee Hobbs uses atDNA to identify an unknown ancestor and that ancestor's maiden name, moving back and forth between documentary and DNA evidence. Thomas W. Jones describes best practices for genealogical writing and publishing when incorporating DNA evidence. 

Three concluding chapters deal with ethics, emotions, and the future. Judy G. Russell covers ethical considerations. Michael D. Lacopo describes the effect on relationships when family secrets are uncovered, surfacing issues for all concerned. Debbie Kennett covers the current limitations and future promise of using DNA for genealogy. An extensive glossary, list of recommended resources, and index are included.

Disclosure
If you click on the Amazon UK links in this blog it is vaguely possible that at some point in the distant future I might receive a microscopic payment from Amazon as part of their affiliate scheme to help support my writing. Using the affiliate links makes no difference to the prices you pay. 

Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond by Emily Aulicino

Emily Aulicino is one of the pioneers in our genetic genealogy community and she has been involved in this exciting new discipline since the very early days. She is the administrator of 13 DNA projects at Family Tree DNA and is a popular public speaker in America where she lectures frequently on the subject of genetic genealogy. I first met Emily back in 2009 when she came to London for Who Do You Think You Are? Live. She's been back every year since then and I always enjoy our annual get-togethers.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that Emily has written her first book Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond.  I hope to review the book in due course but I wanted to get word out first because I know that this much-needed new book will be in great demand. The book has a strong focus on autosomal DNA, and will be particularly valuable to anyone who wants to get to grips with the methodology of chromosome mapping, phasing and triangulation.

Here is the description from the back cover:

Finally, in the rapidly evolving field of genetic genealogy an up-to-date resource is here! Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond provides genealogists with the knowledge and confidence to use DNA testing for family research. The book guides genealogists in understanding various tests and determining what DNA segments came from which ancestor. The book explains how DNA testing helps when written records stop and discusses how testing proves or disprove oral family history. Learn which tests help adoptees; understand why you resemble your relatives and how testing can connect you with cousins you never knew. Discover how to encourage potential cousins to test and learn guidelines for becoming a project administrator, genetic genealogy speaker or facilitator for your genealogical society’s DNA interest group. Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond helps experienced and fledgling researchers become genetic genealogists able to use DNA testing to resolve genealogical roadblocks.

Here is the list of contents:

List of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 A Brief History of Genetic Genealogy
Chapter 2 Building Blocks for Understanding DNA
Chapter 3 Types of DNA Tests
Chapter 4 To Test or Not to Test
Chapter 5 Testing Goals and Test Candidates
Chapter 6 Convincing a Person to Test
Chapter 7 Choosing a Testing Company
Chapter 8 What to Do While Waiting for Results
Chapter 9 What to Do When Test Results Arrive
Chapter 10 Upgrading a Test
Chapter 11 Triangulation
Chapter 12 Chromosome Mapping and Phasing
Chapter 13 Being a DNA Project Administrator
Chapter 14 Creating a DNA Interest Group
Chapter 15 Becoming a DNA Speaker
Conclusion
Appendix A Success Stories
Appendix B Quick Steps
Appendix C Testing Companies
Appendix D Autosomal Statistics
Appendix E Additional Resources
Appendix F Glossary

The book is available from Amazon in both the US and the UK both as a paperback and as a very reasonably priced ebook. In the US the book is also available from AuthorHouse and Barnes and Noble. It can also be ordered on request from your local bookshop.

Emily will be in London in February for Who Do You Think You Are? Live where she will be presenting two lectures in the DNA workshop so do come along and hear Emily's talks and meet her in person. I'm sure she will be very happy to sign some books. You can see the full list of speakers for the DNA workshop here.

Happy reading! Congratulations Emily!

The Surnames Handbook

I've just received an advance copy of my new book The Surnames Handbook from the History Press. It's very exciting to see it in print at long last and it is looking really good. The book is now available from the History Press and should be arriving in bookshops, Amazon and other online stores in the next week or so. It will be a few more months before it becomes available in the US, Australia and other countries and I don't yet have a firm publication date. There will also be a Kindle edition.

This is essentially the book that I would have liked to have had available when I started out on my own surname research. It's intended as a practical guide to all the different aspects of surname research, but I've also provided some background on surnames in general, drawing on the research from all the many different disciplines that are now involved in surname research, emphasising in particular the contribution that can be made by the family historian. The focus is on surnames of  the British Isles. I would very much have liked to have written more but I was restricted to a maximum of 85,000 words and I ran out of both space and time! The book includes links to hundreds of relevant websites, an extensive bibliography, and numerous detailed appendices with information on all the essential resources for a surname study both online and offline. The text is supported by a long list of 190 references. The contents are listed below. I hope you like it!

Foreword by Derek Palgrave, President of the Guild of One-Name Studies 

Introduction 

Chapter 1: The history of surnames

Chapter 2: The classification of surnames 

Chapter 3: Variants and deviants 

Chapter 4: Surname mapping 

Chapter 5: Surname frequency 

Chapter 6: Has it been done before? 

Chapter 7: Laying the foundations - the key datasets 

Chapter 8: Surname origins - pre-1600 resources 

Chapter 9: DNA and surnames 

Chapter 10: One-name studies 

Appendices 

Appendix A: Genealogy websites 

Appendix B: Surname websites 

Appendix C: Lay subsidy rolls 

Appendix D: Organisations and journals 

Appendix E: Linguistic resources 

Appendix F: Place-name resources 

Appendix G: Population statistics 

Bibliography

© Debbie Kennett 2012

The Surnames Handbook

I have now finally submitted the manuscript of my second book The Surnames Handbook to my publisher, the History Press. The book is scheduled to be published in the UK in October and I have been told by the History Press that they have selected it as one of their key titles for the autumn.

Surnames have effectively taken over my life for the last year, and in the last couple of months I've been working on this book for very long hours seven days a week. When I accepted the suggestion of writing the book I hadn't realised quite what a marathon task it would be, simply because I hadn't quite anticipated the sheer volume of literature that had already been published on the subject. It's been a huge amount of work but I'm pleased with the way the book has turned out.This is essentially the book that I would have liked to have had available when I started out on my own surname research. It's intended as a practical guide to all the different aspects of surname research, but I've also provided some background on surnames in general, drawing on the research from all the many different disciplines that are now involved in surname research, emphasising in particular the contribution that can be made by the family historian. The book includes links to hundreds of relevant websites, an extensive bibliography, and numerous detailed appendices with information on all the essential resources for a surname study both online and offline. The text is supported by a long list of 190 references. The contents are listed below.

Foreword by Derek Palgrave 

Introduction 

Chapter 1: The history of surnames

Chapter 2: The classification of surnames 

Chapter 3: Variants and deviants 

Chapter 4: Surname mapping 

Chapter 5: Surname frequency 

Chapter 6: Has it been done before? 

Chapter 7: Laying the foundations - the key datasets 

Chapter 8: Surname origins - pre-1600 resources 

Chapter 9: DNA and surnames 

Chapter 10: One-name studies 

Appendices 

Appendix A: Genealogy websites 

Appendix B: Surname websites 

Appendix C: Lay subsidy rolls 

Appendix D: Organisations and journals 

Appendix E: Linguistic resources 

Appendix F: Place-name resources 

Appendix G: Population statistics 

Bibliography

© Debbie Kennett 2012

Kindle edition of DNA and Social Networking

The Kindle edition of my book DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century is now available on the Amazon website and can be ordered from this link.

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

My new book on DNA testing and social networking

As you will probably have noticed, I have not had much time to write for this blog in recent months. The reason for the silence is that I have been very busy working on my first ever book which, perhaps not unexpectedly, took far longer to write than I had anticipated. I was commissioned to write the book by The History Press. It is part of a new family history series, and I am contributing a volume on the subject of DNA testing and social networking for the family historian. I am very grateful to The History Press for giving me this opportunity and to Penny Law of Family History Monthly, who recommended me to the publishers on the strength of the articles I have contributed to the magazine. The book is due out on 1st October 2011, and is now listed on Amazon. The manuscript is now with the publishers. DNA and social networking have both been somewhat challenging subjects to write about, especially as there are so many new developments to keep up with. I will no doubt have to make changes when I eventually receive the proofs, and there will inevitably be some aspects of the book that will be out of date by the time it is published, though the general principles will still hold. I hope to have more news in due course.

© Debbie Kennett 2011