During our 'first Thursday' Drop In session, questions were asked by both Robyn and Phil relating to DNA. Both had been contacted by cousins (2nd to 6th removed) and were pondering how best to handle their questions.
Robyn opened up her ancestry.com account so that we could see it on the big screen, helping us to better understand the dilemma she faced in answering a request from a 6th cousin about the link they shared. Robyn was also keen to understand the meaning of the categories 'unlinked' and 'unassigned' related to DNA results on ancestry. Robyn scrolled through the list 'All Matches', comparing what was listed for close relatives compared to distant relatives. We decided that there while there was some shared DNA, links couldn't be assigned on the tree to a common ancestor because neither Robyn or the person making contact had researched far enough back into past generations to have the potential shared ancestors listed. (Both have relatively contained trees with 350 - 370 people listed). Robyn also shared the interesting observation that she has only just received an email from a person she had initially tried to make contact with 4-5 years ago. At that time not being answered was very disappointing!
Phil was keen to know what the term 'cM' meant in the DNA results description, then Robyn wanted to know about the strength of a '23cM' result. We found that cM means 'centiMorgans', and went on to watch part of two videos which helped us to understand cM results in terms of comparative results for different relatives.
Robyn opened up her ancestry.com account so that we could see it on the big screen, helping us to better understand the dilemma she faced in answering a request from a 6th cousin about the link they shared. Robyn was also keen to understand the meaning of the categories 'unlinked' and 'unassigned' related to DNA results on ancestry. Robyn scrolled through the list 'All Matches', comparing what was listed for close relatives compared to distant relatives. We decided that there while there was some shared DNA, links couldn't be assigned on the tree to a common ancestor because neither Robyn or the person making contact had researched far enough back into past generations to have the potential shared ancestors listed. (Both have relatively contained trees with 350 - 370 people listed). Robyn also shared the interesting observation that she has only just received an email from a person she had initially tried to make contact with 4-5 years ago. At that time not being answered was very disappointing!
Phil was keen to know what the term 'cM' meant in the DNA results description, then Robyn wanted to know about the strength of a '23cM' result. We found that cM means 'centiMorgans', and went on to watch part of two videos which helped us to understand cM results in terms of comparative results for different relatives.
Understanding your DNA Test
Video Are Small cM (CentiMorgan) Segments of DNA Valid?
We all found the chart, How Many Centimorgans do you share with Relatives? discovered on the web by Judy very helpful.
Items in British Newspapers - accessing articles via the State Library of Victoria
Both Robyn and Phil had instances of relatives who may have featured in British newspapers. Judy worked through a number of iterations of searching for these people through her State Library of Victoria account, which allows access to British and other newspapers. Go to State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au - the button for the Catalogue is on Top Line - then search for British Newspapers. (You will need to register to use the catalogue - this is free and renewable every year). While the searches today had mixed success, in one case possibly because the 100 year limit hadn't expired, Judy shared lots of practise wisdom, demonstrating using the Advanced Search mode during our 'expedition' to find information.
Margaret and Phil attended the second Thursday Drop In with mentor Deb, who used her astute problem solving skills to assist them to resolve problems and dilemmas. Phil was finally able to locate mention of the murder or was it suicide, of a grand aunt? in the British Newspapers, and hopefully will find more articles. Phil's dilemma - would the article he found contain enough information to be worth paying a subscription for! Margaret has been to Canberra since we last met and while there had been assisted to discover an uncle's war record relating to post-war service which shed light on some of his story, but the mystery relating to his possible involvement with a Japanese princess still unresolved. We located his record to see if we could help - the plot thickened, when the file opened up with 'files'... Margaret's dilemma - should she proceed to have them opened? Also, his file mentioned his attachment to an 'Intell' unit... What did this mean? A trove search resulted in an article in a local newspaper which suggested that an area.... . Although war records sometimes present in 'hints', we looked at how we can copy web addresses to add a weblink to a person's ancestry.com profile so other people can look at it. Deb used astute problem solving skills to help Margaret and Phil resolve their problems, and prepared a wonderful handout covering both opening war service files from the ..... site, and then going on to add them as weblinks to the person profile.
Two fascinating 'inquiry based' sessions with all contributing to following up learning needs and managing research dilemmas.
Bev Lee
Items in British Newspapers - accessing articles via the State Library of Victoria
Both Robyn and Phil had instances of relatives who may have featured in British newspapers. Judy worked through a number of iterations of searching for these people through her State Library of Victoria account, which allows access to British and other newspapers. Go to State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au - the button for the Catalogue is on Top Line - then search for British Newspapers. (You will need to register to use the catalogue - this is free and renewable every year). While the searches today had mixed success, in one case possibly because the 100 year limit hadn't expired, Judy shared lots of practise wisdom, demonstrating using the Advanced Search mode during our 'expedition' to find information.
Margaret and Phil attended the second Thursday Drop In with mentor Deb, who used her astute problem solving skills to assist them to resolve problems and dilemmas. Phil was finally able to locate mention of the murder or was it suicide, of a grand aunt? in the British Newspapers, and hopefully will find more articles. Phil's dilemma - would the article he found contain enough information to be worth paying a subscription for! Margaret has been to Canberra since we last met and while there had been assisted to discover an uncle's war record relating to post-war service which shed light on some of his story, but the mystery relating to his possible involvement with a Japanese princess still unresolved. We located his record to see if we could help - the plot thickened, when the file opened up with 'files'... Margaret's dilemma - should she proceed to have them opened? Also, his file mentioned his attachment to an 'Intell' unit... What did this mean? A trove search resulted in an article in a local newspaper which suggested that an area.... . Although war records sometimes present in 'hints', we looked at how we can copy web addresses to add a weblink to a person's ancestry.com profile so other people can look at it. Deb used astute problem solving skills to help Margaret and Phil resolve their problems, and prepared a wonderful handout covering both opening war service files from the ..... site, and then going on to add them as weblinks to the person profile.
Two fascinating 'inquiry based' sessions with all contributing to following up learning needs and managing research dilemmas.
Bev Lee