DNA Testing

My father was adopted as an infant. He was able to learn of his mother's name from court documents. She lived close to my family's home -- I often rode my bike past her neighborhood. She gave a few possible names as fathers, so my dad had his DNA tested. I am still learning (a lot) about DNA research.

I watched a video here: http://www.genealogyjunkie.net/dna-tips-tools--managing-matches.html that explained many details about DNA tests and finding common ancestors. I highly recommend it.

Almost done & some helpful links!

My family history will never be completed, but I am almost done with my family history degree! I have adopted a get-her-done attitude and am making steady progress. In just over two months I will be able to walk across the stage as a college graduate. I am thrilled!

I want to find some way to share all of the discoveries that I am making. Technology has certainly simplified parts of the family history process, especially education.

• BYU's Family History Library is one of the largest. They have made many videos about research appealing to a wide variety of skill levels. Here's the link to their youtube channel.
• RootsTech 2016 was amazing. I attended 14 sessions and watched several more when I returned home. This website includes over 20 hours of archived class videos for 2016. I especially enjoy Paula Williams Madison's talk about the benefits of indexing for her family.
• I love digitized newspapers. Wisconsin's Door County newspaper website is amazing. I love the partial word completion that helps me find alternate spellings. I have spent many productive hours learning about the comings and goings of family members (Madoche, McDermott, Jergeson/Jorgenson, and others) through the weekly newspaper. Englebret and Mary Jergeson had fourteen children, but only five survived well into adulthood. The others all died of diseases that we are now immunized for, including seven deaths from tuberculosis (consumption), plus others from scarlet fever, and diphtheria.