Experienced genealogy researchers know how important it is to craft a source
citation for all the evidence that we find that documents our ancestors. But when it comes to
DNA evidence, many of us really want to pull our hair out. But today's video,
we're going to talk a little bit about some of the challenges of creating DNA source citations
and some solutions on creating those citations. As well as some conclusions. As many of you know,
it is important to create a source citation so you can always go back to the record that you
found during your research. And there are lots of templates that can help you create the citations.
And what's great about these citations is that if you want to go back to them. Well, in this case,
I could go back to FamilySearch. But if the record disappears from FamilySearch or it becomes
no Longer available from for home access. Then I can actually go to the Fremont County, Idaho
court records to look at that record. But with DNA evidence, there's too much of volatility
and change in the data sets that we're consulting. Algorithms changed. Processing change. Features
change. And not only that, people are adding and removing their DNA evidence to the places
that we consulted frequently. And because of that going back to this triangulation may be impossible
in the future. And so what are we supposed to do? The other problem is. With record research,
we can find multiple birth records in a collection for a couple. And then, we can craft citations for
each of those recordsets. But when it comes to DNA research, maybe we can, and I've seen some
people put forth information that they could. But in many discussions Andy and I have had,
and we've had with another genetic genealogist. It's really, really hard to create a specific
citation very similar to you, the ones you would have for each birth record. Not only that, we have
to be aware that DNA can only predict so much. So let's say you have a match where you share
875 centimorgans. Well, you could rightly assume that's the first cousin. However,
if you go over to the Shared Match Tool over on DNA Painter, you're going to realize that there
are a lot of different relationships that that relative could be. And when I say it could be,
we're talking. Sometimes it could be a 98% confidence it's any one of those relationships.
The other limitation is DNA by itself cannot tell you if this person beLongs to your father's side
or your mother's side. You need other inputs in order to make that make sense. Whenever you've
done a scientific experiment or read a scientific research paper that's been published in a journal,
one of the key factors is that information has to be reproducible by other researchers
for your conclusions to be able to stand. But in genetic genealogy, remember I talked about
the volatility. It's also very difficult for other genetic researchers to reproduce
the same research steps that you did. Part of it is accessibility. There's a lot of limitations,
and so one day, you can create a WATO tool - What Are The Odds? You can create a Leeds Method
chart. You can create a cluster chart. But not everybody can have the same clusters and Leeds
chart for themselves. And that's a good thing. But it also complicates the ability for someone
else to reproduce your work. If you've made it this far in the video, some of you are going,
"Why are you making this complicated? Why can't you just answer my question?" Well, you needed to
know the background before we can go forward. So how are we going to create a DNA source citation
for something that's constantly changing and that somebody else might not be able to reproduce?
Well, we often say- it depends! If you're trying to create a source citation for an online tree,
then I'm going to recommend you follow the advice that's in this
article over on WikiTree. I have found this guidance to be very sound. So let me walk you
through just a couple of sample recommendations they have. So this citation is if you have a close
relationship. And you can see this, and you can copy and paste it from that blog
post that will be in our show notes over on FamilyHistoryFanatics.com. Become very
familiar with our website. There's a lot of great resources on it and information there. So let's
break this down. I have a close relationship. Now I'm not going to tell you the person's name.
You would substitute the person's name for first cousin once removed. You'd actually put that
person's name in. But to protect their privacy because they're living, I'm not going to share
their name. But we start off with telling you what type of relationship, what company it was on,
and who the matches were. I'd then go forth and tell you who the common ancestor is, and how
I'm related to that common ancestor, and how my DNA match is related to that common ancestor.
And then I wrap up with the predictability information that was found on the website that
I used. You can reproduce this on every genetic genealogy website that has DNA Shared Matches.
You just swap out the pertinent information and craft a citation. But recognize that I couldn't
figure out that information of how I was connected to this person until I compared my tree to the
other person's family tree in Ancestry initially because I can't test my mother and father. They're
both deceased. Ancestry couldn't tell me that this was a paternal ancestor. I had to utilize
my cousin match, her tree. It was a her. Her tree and compared to my tree in order to figure
it out. So there are some limitations in this citation. There's some assumptions behind them,
and you just need to be aware of it. Now the next citation that WikiTree recommends is one
for when you're triangulating people together. So this involves you and two other people or
a relative in two other people. But it's a triangle, so it involves three people and how
they're related together. So, in this case, I have my match, and I match N Caldwell and M Townley.
And I tell you exactly where we're related. We share 18 centimorgans across
chrome, on chromosome 7. That's the beauty of the MyHeritage Chromosome Browser. The
most recent common ancestor- very similar to the previous one. There's this statement of
who did the validation and what we used to do it. I found that one kind of interesting/ I actually
do like it. So you know who to talk to about this triangulation and what tool they used. And then
you finally wrap up and tell us how A is related to B. And A is related to C. And how B and C are
also related. So that's a pretty lengthy source citation. But good job, folks over at WikiTree,
for coming up with this. I've really found that to be wonderful. The only problem with those
citations is what happens if you don't know how you're related to your DNA match? So I'm going to
answer your question with a question. What do you do when you have records for unidentified persons?
Well, if I find a baptismal record that has ten different people being baptized in the San Gabriel
Catholic Church in New Mexico. Unless I know how they're related to somebody,
I don't even bother with that information. I mean, I could create a source citation. But unless
they're part of a brick wall. Unless I think they might be related somehow, I just let it be.
So let's not create source citations for people we haven't figured out. Let's just leave them
in our spreadsheets and on our DNA Match List. And once we figure them out, and if we need to
create a source citation, then we can go ahead and do that. The other problem with these two sample
templates of source citations is what if your research is more complex? For instance,
who is the father of my grandmother? That was actually very complex. Well, in that case,
you're probably need to make a DNA Research Report. And in that report, then you can create
source citations. Now over in the Show Notes over on FamilyHistoryFanatics.com, you'll find a link
to this great article. I have to give kudos to Family Locket for talking about how to create a
research project step by step using DNA. And so let me just show you what I did based on their
recommendations. So I started with my research objective identified the father of Louise Long,
born Marie Anderson, daughter of Agnes Anderson. And then I gave my background information.
It sounds a lot like the Research Plans and the Research Reports we've talked
about here on this channel. And be sure to go over to FamilyHistoryFanatics.com
to pick up a template for the Research Plans and the Research Reports over on our Resource Page.
The next thing I did was I began to talk about the body of my report.
Because there are living individuals in this report, you're not going to see their names. But
a female DNA matched would actually be replaced with the match's name. However, we have a female
who matched the daughters and a granddaughter of Louise. And then I go step by step telling you
how she was connected. And then I need to make some citations. So for myself matching that
female DNA match, here's my citation. Very similar to the ones recommended by Family Locket,
we also have to create citations for when we don't match someone because the lack of a match can help
to prove or disprove a theory as well. And notice I just changed the little section. I say, "no DNA
matches we're shared." And so that is a negative match or a no-match citation. Now, this is one
I'm not entirely sure I like, but I included it in case you want to create such a citation. If you're
going to cite DNA Painter tools, or a Leeds Method chart, or a cluster chart created by MyHeritage,
this is something you can, the format you can use in order to create a source citation. Now
once you've finished creating your report, the most important thing is to make that report
accessible. And what you're going to do is you're going to upload that conclusion report. Maybe
you've figured out your third great grandfather that nobody's been able to figure out, and you
attach that that grandfather to the family tree. Privatize the names of the living people and then
upload that document to Ancestry, to Findmypast, to WikiTree, to FamilySearch, to all the things.
Upload your report, and then you're going to create this citation. And you can use that
as a source. So if you go to FamilySearch and you click on sources, you can add a new source
and then share this source citation. And you're telling people where that report is. You can
also say, "Hey, look in the memory section. I've uploaded it as a document." Those are what I would
recommend in more complicated situations of your DNA evidence. Because you can't really do. Well,
it would be too complicated to do some of the shorter citations. So create a report and
cite that report in your online trees. Now out of respect for your time, I'm not going to cover this
topic, but I'm going to direct you to our blog over on FamilyHistoryFanatics.com. Because there
was a wonderful discussion over on Reddit about Source Citations and which parts are necessary
and which parts aren't. Andy and I talked about it, and we came up with our own thoughts, and we
wrote them down in the blog post. So if you're interested, check the link in the description,
and then you can go read about that discussion. Now I hope this answers many of your questions
about creating citations for DNA evidence. If you have more questions, be sure to use the comment
section below. Now, these are just the opinions of Andy and I considering a lot of the research
we've done for clients and for training you guys how to do your research. I invite you to continue
exploring the opinions and the recommendations of other genetic genealogists out there and make a
decision for yourself. It's kind of like watching home improvement videos that Andy did when he was
trying to tile our bathroom when we lived in Iowa. He watched a lot of different videos,
and each person had a point. And then he utilized all of that information to decide how he was going
to do the tile. And the bathroom was wonderful. I hated moving away from my Princess Bathroom.
If you have more questions about doing genetic genealogy research, be sure to use the comment
section below. If you're ready to learn how to do more DNA research, check out
the playlist above. And as always, this is our latest video. Now, I'm running out of time....