Online DNA School with Focus on Ireland

The following announcement was written by the North of Ireland Family History Society, and appeared recently in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

This September sees the return of the popular DNA School run by the North of Ireland Family History Society and this time it is online. Previously it was held in-person at the society’s research library near Belfast and the society frequently got comments from people living overseas wishing they could attend. The society hopes that the new online DNA School will attract the Irish and Scots-Irish diaspora or indeed anyone wanting to make the most of the opportunities that DNA research allows. There is huge interest these days in using DNA to help with genealogy research and the aim of the school is to make the whole subject more understandable by helping attendees improve their skills and knowledge.

A spokesperson said that the society is very pleased that Jonny Perl, the developer behind the popular DNA Painter tool, will be a speaker this year. Jonny has family roots in Northern Ireland where the society is based so he is an ideal instructor.

Classes will last for around 90 minutes – usually a one-hour talk followed by a question and answer session. All four types of DNA will be covered (X, Y, mitochondrial and autosomal). Classes will provide practical advice to allow concepts to be understood and new skills to be learned. There will be a focus on making progress on DNA research within Ireland, however, classes are suitable for anyone using DNA research to trace their roots. There are two sessions each day, at 3pm and at 7pm BST, so 10am and 2pm ET for anyone wishing to “zoom” across the Atlantic.

The DNA School will be held from Monday 6th to Friday 10th September. The full class list is:

· Achieving Success with DNA

· Using DNA Painter

· Using X Matches in your DNA Research

· The Advantages of Y-DNA

· The Advantages of mtDNA

· The Leeds Method

· The DNA Family Matching Tool

· Stories from the Ballycarry and Islandmagee DNA Projects

· Using the Chromosome Browser Effectively

· Ethnicity Estimates

The classes are £10 each or all 10 classes can be booked together at a discounted rate of £80.

To book online and to find more details, please visit www.nifhs.org/courses

Unexpected Websites

A recent article from Family Tree Magazine suggested several websites that are not commonly used by researchers. Here are a few selections from their list for you to explore.

ArchiveGrid is a collection of over seven million archival material descriptions. You will have to take a look at their research section.

https://www.oclc.org/research/areas/research-collections/archivegrid.html

Digital Public Library of America: This online library has more than 11 million digitized items from libraries, archives and museums. 

https://dp.la/

HistoryPin is a UK-based site that boasts more than 400,000 member submissions of old photos, each plotted on Google Maps. You can search by location.

https://www.historypin.org/en/

RootsTech 2022

Here is a reminder to go back to RootsTech 2021. The sessions are still available for viewing. You have time to catch up before next year's offerings!

FamilySearch today announced that RootsTech Connect 2022 will take place on March 3–5, 2022, as a fully virtual family history event. After welcoming over one million visitors from over 240 countries to its 2021 online event, RootsTech Connect 2021 was the largest in the history of RootsTech, and spectacular proof of humanity’s interest globally in discovering our roots and connecting to each other. Building on its success, RootsTech Connect 2022 will remain completely virtual and free. Registration will open in September 2021.

Free Civil War Records

The following announcement comes from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. Visit http://bit.ly/3hhIMNz to learn more.

In remembrance of the Battle of Gettysburg, Fold3 is offering free access to more than 100 million records from our Civil War Collection until July 18th.

So if you're looking for information on the Civil War veterans in your family tree, now is the time to explore service records, pension files, casualty lists and more.

*Access to the records in the featured collections will be free until 18 July 2021 at 11:59 p.m. MT. Registration required.