Thursday, September 25, 2014

Reminder: Five Days until Retirement

We just wanted to remind everyone that September 30, 2104 is approaching fast. That is the day that Ancestry.com retires the various websites it owns and the Y-DNA and mtDNA testing results/matches on its website.

The websites that will retire are MyFamily and Mundia. You need to save your data and find an alternate website.

The website Genealogy.com will change to a read-only website for its message boards and a couple other features. 

A couple months ago, the website MyCanvas was actually sold to the printer of the Ancestry.com books. So instead of retiring, that site will now continue with the new owner. (Good news for users of that website.)

The Y-DNA and mtDNA tests results pages will be removed from Ancestry.com. So for anyone out there that had a Y-DNA or mtDNA test done with Ancestry.com, remember you only have until September 29th, 2014 to download your test results and copy your matches. Ancestry.com will retire (delete) all Y-DNA and mtDNA test results and matches from its website on September 30th. Do not wait until the last minute to save your information to your computer. (Please note that AncestryDNA -- the autosomal test -- is not effected by this retirement.)  

See the DNA Frequently Asked Questions page at Ancestry.com for more information. If you purchased a Y-DNA or mtDNA test but did not use it/have it processed, there is a phone number to call and get a refund of the cost of the test and any taxes paid. Shipping costs will not be refunded. 

To download your Y-DNA or mtDNA test results, sign into your Ancestry.com account and go to "Your DNA Home Page." Go to the Y-DNA or mtDNA test page. (Note: I can't see this but it is probably similar to the AncestryDNA test page.) Essentially, for each person you had tested, click on Settings to the right of the tested person's name. Then likely to the right will be a column with Actions, select  "Download Your Raw DNA Data." (Do not select delete this test.) Follow the directions given to download your raw DNA data and then you will have a copy of that test's results on your computer. Repeat this for each test you had done. 

With your results downloaded, you can transfer your raw data to another genealogy/DNA testing company if you choose to do so. Transferring generally costs a little bit less than purchasing a new test. (Note that with a transferred test you will not be able to add/upgrade another type of test to it because the company will only have the raw data your transferred, it will not have the actual DNA sample. To have the person tested for another type of DNA you would have to have a new test kit sent.) 

Now as to your matches/potential matches, you will need to either page by page or individually print these out to paper, print these out as pdf files, or make screen captures of your matches to preserve them for future reference. If you have definite matches, you should likely print/preserve that individual match. 

You can also check the Ancestry.com community forum for DNA for other ideas on how to preserve your matches for the future.

CeCe Moore of the Your Genetic Genealogist blog, mentioned in her June 5, 2014, post a few options. She has a link to FamilyTree DNA's Y-DNA 3rd-Party Transfer options which I have included here. (The page is not found very easily on the FamilyTree DNA website.) I suggest after reading her blog post and reviewing the FamlyTree DNA transfer options, if you have questions about the transfer options at FamilyTree DNA call FamilyTree DNA's customer service and ask to speak to someone regarding which transfer option is best for you.

See you soon at the Mt Clemens Public Library! 

LE

MCGG Resource Development Session is tomorrow Friday, September 26

On Friday, September 26, at 1:00 pm in the auditorium of the Mount Clemens Public Library, we are holding one of our MCGG Resource Development Sessions.

What is a Resource Development Session? It is where those of us who want to contribute back index circuit court and other Macomb County records to create databases to help other researchers. It does not matter if you have Macomb County ancestors or not. It's a nice way to help others; learn what is involved in an indexing projects; and if you do have Macomb County ancestors ... who knows you might just find one. 

So for those of you who are in the Mount Clemens area, PLEASE JOIN US

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library! 

LE

Monday, September 22, 2014

Reminder: Finding Your Roots Season Two Begins Tomorrow Night, Tuesday Sept. 23

Season Two of Finding Your Roots will premiere tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23, 2014, on your local PBS station at 8 p.m. EDT. This is the genealogy television show headed by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

According to CeCe Moore's blog site, Your Genetic Genealogist, "The season will include interviews with Ben Affleck, Sally Field, Derek Jeter, Deepak Chopra, Tina Fey, Valerie Jarrett, Carole King, Tony Kushner, Ken Burns, Angela Bassett, Alan Dershowitz, Ming Tsai, Aaron Sanchez, Tom Colicchio, Rebecca Lobo, Nas Jones, Billie Jean King, Stephen King, Courtney Vance and several others."

Everyone has different television delivery/provider systems. So listed here are a few for your convenience. (Hopefully, none of the providers shifted their channels around since last September.) If yours is not listed below, use your television provider's schedule system or PBS Detroit's schedule system to find the PBS channel number on your provider system and to learn when the show will be re-aired again. (On PBS Detroit's schedule system you can customize the listing to your service provider by edit or change provider so the schedule generated reflects your television provider's channels and schedule.)

Digital Over-the-Air box: 
September 30, 9 p.m. on channel 56.1
October 1, 12 a.m. on channel 56.2
October 1, 2:30 a.m. on channel 56.1
October 1, 4 a.m. on channel 56.2
October 4, 8 a.m. on channel 56.2
October 4, 10 a.m. on channel 56.2

Comcast: St Clair Shores (the same channels are used in Macomb Twp.)
September 30, 9 p.m. on channel 6, channel 240 HD, channel 1006 HD
October 1, 12 a.m. on channel 287,
October 1, 2:30 a.m. on channel 6, channel 240 HD, channel 1006 HD
October 1, 4 a.m. on channel 287
October 4, 8 a.m. on channel 287
October 4, 10 a.m. on channel 287

Wide Open West: Detroit
September 30, 9 p.m. on channel 3, channel 205 HD
October 1, 2:30 a.m. on channel 3, channel 205 HD
October 5, 3:30 a.m. on channel 3, channel 205 HD

See You Soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE

Monday, September 8, 2014

New Free Webinars FamilySearch, Many Begin This Week

If you have not been checking up on the FamilySearch Blog, you may not know that the Family History Library is offering variety of free webinars. A lot are scheduled for this week.

You can learn about Probate Records, Irish Research (a lot about Irish Research), Scot-Irish Research, Danish Research, US Military Records, German Records, Norwegian Parish Registers, and Reading Spanish Handwriting.

The webinars are held through Adobe Connect Meeting and are actually classes taught at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. It appears pre-registration is not required. There is no indication if there is a limit on how many online viewers can attend.

The three links above take you to the the blog announcements for the webinars covering that topic. The link below is to the overall schedule list. From the overall schedule list, click on the class topic of interest to find the link to join that webinar and to find the handout associated with that class. (Each handout is likely placed online nearer to when the class is scheduled to start. It is recommended that you print the handout prior to the meeting start time.) There is also log-in information instructions (how to name yourself) at the class pages.  

Remember class start times are given in Mountain Time, so for our Eastern Time ADD 2 hours. (For example, a 10 am MT class actually starts at 12 pm (noon) ET.)

If you've never used Adobe Connect Meeting, there is a test link and informational overview link (though this link is kind of confusing.) From what I have seen and read, attendees do not need to install the Adobe Connect Add On as that is primarily for hosts and administers.

To find the complete class schedule list, see the Family History Library Wiki page, and look for the Live Online Class Schedule. There are a variety of classes scheduled through December.

One thing to note: I have not found any mention that recordings of these webinars will be available at either the FamilySearch Learning Center or the FamilySearch YouTube Channel. I'll let you know when I can confirm that they will or will not be posted at a later time. So just in case, if you want to see a class you better attend the class.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

This Wednesday's Let's Talk...Genealogy meeting topic is DNA and Genealogy: Revisited

This Wednesday, September 10, at 7 p.m. in the Genealogy/Local History Room of the Mount Clemens Public Library is MCGG's Let's Talk...Genealogy meeting. The discussion topic of the night is DNA and Genealogy: Revisited.

There have been changes in the DNA marketplace since our first meeting on DNA last year. We'll review the different tests, who sells what, take a look at the different tools of each company, and discuss the benefits of DNA testing.

If you had a DNA test done with any company, please consider bringing your results. By this I mean your ethnicity pie/chart or your paternal and/or maternal haplogroup result.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

 
LE