A genetic genealogist uses DNA testing in conjunction with traditional
genealogy research, in order to learn more about our roots.
>> That's really amazing. you know, we have an individual,
in our course named Sterling, who is actually submitted his DNA
sample to 23andMe, and gotten results back, and he has been
able to find a, as close a match as a second
cousin on the relative finder. Now, if you were chatting with him, and
he was looking for a next step, what advice would you give to
him, to sort of deal with trying to reach out to that person
or possibly, you know, finding other connections
that he could get more information from?
>> There's a couple different things he should do. First of all, he may want
to join one of our adoption DNA
mailing lists. We have extremely helpful search angels
on those lists, who started out as traditional adoption search angels.
So, they know how to work with the records, and if
he has any non-identifying information, that can really help to use
that in conjunction with his DNA results. So, we can help to
teach him on those lists, what he needs to do next.
And sometimes, you know, do more than just teach him, but
hand hold, and if he gets real close to the answer,
one of the search angels will jump in and help. And when
I say real close, a second cousin is
really close. So, he probably could find someone
who'd be willing to help him work through
these matches, and try to identify his birth parents.
>> You actually run a very popular blog called your Genetic
Genealogist. And I'd love for you to tell us a little bit
more about, how you, you started that blog, and what it means
to you, and what people use it for today. I guess that
means that I have to start at the beginning a little bit. Which is that, I was a
genealogist, just hobbiest, and I've always loved genetics. It's
not my career in the past, I wasn't trained
in it, but I've always been drawn to it,
and always really loved it. And so when autosomal
DNA was introduced for genealogical purposes, by 23andME, I
jumped in with both feet. I was so excited.
it was actually Catherine Borges who is the director
of ISOGG who first showed me what they were doing,
and I just fell madly in love, and it
completely took over my life. So it went from being
a hobby, to a full-time volunteer position, and now
a career. And part of that was starting my blog.
I was answering a lot of questions all the time,
of people who needed help, right away. And so I
wanted a way to be able to answer those questions,
and not have to keep repeating the same answers over
and over. I was also doing some really fascinating research
with my own family, and wanted to have a place
to write that up. And, I was corresponding with 23andMe
a lot, people who worked over there. Right away I
established a good relationship with them. And it was actually
one of them who recommended that I start a blog.
It was Alex from 23andMe. He's not there
anymore, but he was one of the early employees
there, and he said, you know, you should
write a blog. And so, I'd never done anything
like that, and I enjoyed it right off the bat. It was so fun to share my
research and get input from everybody, and help people
learn what to do with their results as well.
>> Well you know, we're really intrigued that
you say, you know, genetics is a passion
of yours, but it wasn't actually what you studied. Can
you tell us a bit more, about what you did
before you got into this, and sort of what your
segue was? Were you just super, super-nerd, spend all your
free time in genetics, or was this just a, a
really fun hobby for you? Genetics was always something that
I was interested in, but I had not studied it.
In fact, I was a music and theater major in college,
and I have fallen in love with genetics just prior
to that, in my senior year in high school when I
was in AP Bio. We had a little genetics section as
part of our course work, and I absolutely loved it. So,
I should have taken the clue then, and I, I
loved it enough that I did think about changing my major,
and I even investigated it. But I already had a scholarship
for music at USC, and they didn't have a genetics undergraduate
program, or I very well may have done it.
But, I just stuck with my original plan. And,
many years later, here I end up back again
loving genetics, but this time it took over my life.
So, I had started as a genealogist, in 2002
I think was when I really got involved, and I
was looking at making a family tree for my
niece's wedding. And I, the type of person who jumps
in with both feet, and I did that, and
got kind of obsessed. And did geology for a few
years, before I got really interested in the genetics part
of it. we were just using Y DNA and MT
DNA at the time, which I still thought was interesting,
but I wasn't quite as fascinated as I am with
autosomal DNA, and that's really become my focus. Although I
use the other type in conjunction with it many times,
especially in adoption searches. So, how did I
get into it? So, I started writing a
blog, and I got so many questions from
people, and so much interest, that it's literally started
taking over my life. I had tons of comments on the blog, I had tons of
private emails of people wanting help. Particularly, people
who were searching for close family members, like adoptees.
And people who had discovered close family members, and hadn't
expected it. there's so many people out there that this
is happening to, you would be surprised. And I sometimes
wonder if there's much more of that, in our society than
we realize. But then I think it's also possible, that
the people who are drawn to testing are the people
who maybe felt a little different, or felt like something
was missing in their lives. So to go from entertainment, and
then end up in a science career, in my
forties, is definitely not something I would have ever
imagined, but it is so fascinating. Everyday I wake
up in the morning, and I immediately want to
jump out of bed and run down to my
computer, and see what new fascinating things have transpired
overnight. And believe me, there's always something. There's such
a huge demand for this. And maybe a year
ago, some people had come to me and asked me, you know, if they wanted to have a
career in genetic genealogy, was there was there a
demand for it? And it's changed. Really then, maybe a
year ago, two years ago, there wasn't much of
a demand for it. And in the last year or
two, it has literally exploded. So now, I absolutely
would say that there is room for genetic genealogy consultants
people who are willing to learn what we're doing, and
if they have a background in genealogy that would be
great. And if they don't that's fine too, they'll have
to learn both sides of it. So they'll have to learn
the DNA part, and the genealogy part. But if they're
adventurous, and they're looking for a new career, and they love
detective work, because that's exactly what this is, then I
would strongly recommend that they look into this as a career.
>> in, in, in the
same vein, is there any other specific advice, or resources
you would give to someone who's particularly moved by this
subject, and wants to investigate about the possibility of studying
more? Are there some places they can go to sort of
[COUGH]
learn more about how to become a genetic genealogist that you recommend?
>> Yes. Because the field is so fast
moving, there are very few books that really address
the subject. And everyday we have someone asking, you
know, is there a genetic genealogy for dummies book.
And there isn't, not yet at least. And
that's because those of us who've tried to write
them, find that they are so quickly outdated, that
trying to get something published is very difficult that's
up to date. So, we always recommend that you
read the blogs, you read my blog, Blaine's blog,
Roberta Estes blog, there's some other really good ones
out there. Kitty Cooper has recently started writing some
fantastic resources. And most of all join our mailing
list, because that's where you really get help from
the experts. And the people who've been doing this
from the very beginning, are very generous with their
time, and they're on those lists. So join the
International Society of Genetic Genealogy, it's free. It's ISOGG,
isogg.org, and then you'll get an invitation to join
the DNA newbie list, which I happen to administer
and, you can go there and ask the most
basic questions. and we have people who have been
on the list for quite a while, so we
also have more intermediate discussions, and sometimes even venture
into more advanced. So just keep reading
everything you can, that's how I learned this.
>> Great, CeCe it's been a pleasure chatting with you. I hope
you'll join us again, maybe in the discussion forums for our course.
>> That would be great I'd love to.