Ancestry Health? Yes, Ancestry Health

This is a little bit disturbing in my opinion.  Maybe even creepy.  But Ancestry.com is diving into the health data field which, on the surface, sounds a bit like what the FDA prevented 23andMe from doing, at least in its original form.  But that's another story!

I refer everyone to the most excellent DNA blog by scientist and genealogist, Roberta Estes.  If you have any interest in DNA whatsoever, her blog provides an excellent resource.  She speaks "English" in her blog rather than "Scientist."  Well, she does for the most part!  Some of the entries get a little long and have a tendency to cause my eyes to glaze over, but I'm always able to get the gist of her knowledge and manage to read most of the information.  Then there's the comments...hundreds of comments from researchers everywhere.

But I digress!  Here's the link where she explains with reasonable clarity the ins and outs of the beta program: http://dna-explained.com/2015/06/06/and-now-ancestry-health/ which should be a heads-up for anyone who may be tempted to jump right into the Ancestry Health pool.

She also references Judy G Russell, a very accomplished genealogist who happens to be a lawyer, a former prosecutor in fact.  That's another blog I would strongly recommend.  You can read and subscribe to her clever, informative, sometimes personal and often humorous words published daily at http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/.

Needless to say, I subscribe to both.  Some posts I have no interest in reading but most of the others and their comments are an education in and unto themselves.

Happy researching!

In closing, I had to share this Father's Day "card" from my kids.  Matthew, Mark and Kimi collaboratively colored this cartoon for a long ago Father's Day sometime around 1995.  They're a prescient group as I recently discovered through 23andMe that I am, in fact, 3% Neanderthal!

Thanks kids!

Visit http://www.oldbones.info for more information about yours truly then "Like" my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OldBonesSearch?ref=hl

"It's All Online and It's All True!" --- Abraham Lincoln

Arthur andersen draft card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The whimsical quote in the title of this blog is something I found somewhere...probably online... and I thought I'd share it with you.  I was hoping it would be a humourous segue into today's subject.

It occurred to me as I was watching WDYTYA, that if anyone took a tally of what was discovered on line, specifically by the show's sponsor, Ancestry.com, and what needed to be researched in libraries, archives, repositories, church records, town halls, private collections, et al, that it would clearly demonstrated that no, as a matter of fact, it's NOT all online!

The amount of data that can be discovered at home by logging in to a variety of websites both free and subscription is quite definitely increasing, seemingly by leaps and bounds.  We see numbers such as so-and-so "...has added 3,500,00 records..." with some more and some less.  Without knowing how many more records there are to index and post, it almost seems as though we're nearly done so who needs the libraries, archives, repositories, church records, town halls, private collections, et al?

I've seen estimates that the internet contains 5% or less of the available data.  Others estimate upwards of 15%.  But the fact remains that even the sponsor of a very popular program dealing with genealogical research which is itself an internet based research resource still employs dozens of professionals to get the job done.  If Ancestry.com needs professionals to put their program together, how can any hobbyists or private family researcher or professional genealogist hope to do better?

I'm just sayin'!

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You've Finally Found that Elusive Relative, but.....

 

Ancestry.com (Photo credit: LollyKnit)

If there's anyone on the planet who is more enthusiastic than me regarding family research, I haven't met them.  I'm especially focused after preparing for and delivering an instructional lecture on just that very subject.  I've been lucky enough to have been able to book 6 different venues for a variety of programs.  Some are "one-night-stands" and others are 3, 4, 5 even 6 individual sessions long.

 So I'd like to start with last night.  The weather was threatening and, frankly, we didn't get all the people who signed up to show up.  So there was a smaller, cozier group.  One attendee is the head archivists at a local repository.  Imagine how I felt trying to teach someone who probably has forgotten more than I know! Another person was a middle aged man who has been researching for many years. We also had a newby, a tyro who was uncommonly enthusiastic....but not more enthusiastic than me!!

This 2-session program is a somewhat condensed version of my usual 4 or 5 session programs.  So we all had a lot of

 

English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ground to cover.  I decided that since there were more people there who were relatively experienced, I'd dive into tips and strategies to use on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Google and others.



Which (finally) brings me to the subject of tonight's blog.  And it's this:  There are 2 categories of information that can be found at any genealogy research website.  One of the more reliable sets of records are the public records such as census, probate, military, christening, birth, marriage, death and so on.  Whenever I find a "hint", if it includes public records, I'll take the time to check out those records and make a judgement as to the accuracy of the data and its relevance to the subject person.  That's the easy part!  

What's more challenging is to help "students" understand the pitfalls of privately uploaded Public Member Trees with little or

 

Maria Hernandez baptized 1920 (Photo credit: GoCal83)

no supporting documentation.  Ancestry calls these trees "Unsourced".  So many "enthusiastic" researchers are too fast to grab data and put it up on the internet to help build their trees, not realizing the danger.  If its out there, someone will download it and take it for gospel simply because it was on the internet. After all, if it's on the internet, it must be ironclad fact.  Not so fast!



Now in the interest of disclaimers, I've used the data from many of those Public Member Trees without too much worry, but only those trees that have sources already attached.  That doesn't mean that I grab it and run.  I will do the same thing as I do with the public records.  I open that member's tree and take a look at what has been attached to it for sources and go through the same process of judging the accuracy and relevance.  If a Public Member Tree has information on individuals that may have a fit in my family, it's worth the effort to move slowly on trusting someone else's work.

English: Screen capture of FamilySearch.org web site (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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"Preserve the Pensions" - War of 1812

This post is an invitation to visit the "Preserve the Pensions" web site.  You can read about the project at their site, but basically, Ancestry.com is offering to match dollar for dollar any tax-deductible contribution made to fund the digitizing of the original records that are at risk of permanent deterioration.  Fold3.com (an Ancestry.com company) will allow access to the results for free for an indefinite length of time.

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