German Connections

It's a great time to have German heritage and live in Cincinnati. This summer Palatines to America is holding their national conference in Cincinnati from June 17th-20th. Check out their website. I am proud to be among the presenters who will be speaking at this event.

The International German Genealogy Partnership will hold an international conference in Cincinnati from July 16-18 2021. The Hamilton County Genealogical Society is the local host. You can read more about the conference here.

In anticipation of these events, and my love of DNA and its potential to make connections between Germans and their American descendants, I created an Ancestor Project that is housed on Gedmatch. I'm proud to say that in a very short period of time, 851 kits have been submitted. In addition, the facebook group has 133 members in one week. This is open to anyone with German ancestry and allows participants to use powerful Gedmatch tools to try to find connections both in the U.S. and abroad.

It became apparent that members did not understand how to use some of the tools. To this end, I created a facebook group for members who wanted to share results, connect with "cousins" and get suggestions from other members about the tools and techniques that have worked for them. It is listed as a "private" group because it is a violation of the Gedmatch Terms of Service to post DNA results in a public forum. In order to join the "German Connections" facebook group, you must supply your Gedmatch kit number to the moderator. Use the facebook link listed in the project.

I am excited about the possibilities of collaboration. Already I've received a great deal of assistance and encouragement from Tanja Bals. Tanja has also started an Ancestor Project called the Former Duchy of Oldenburg (Lower Saxony) that you can join if you have ancestors from Oldenburg. There are also several other regional German Ancestor Projects, as well as other ethnic groups, that may be of interest to you.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email me at dna.interest@hcgsohio.org

Submitted by Kathy Reed
dna.interest@hcgsohio.org

SWOHDNA News - Jo Roth Discusses "Clustering" Tools

What: Meeting of the Southwest Ohio DNA Interest Group (SWOHDNA)
Where:  West Chester Mid-Pointe Library
Who: Guest Speaker - Jo Roth
When: Tuesday, February 11th
Time: 7:00 - 8:45 pm

Directions: https://www.midpointelibrary.org/page/westchester






About Jo:
How did I miss out on Jo? Based on Jo's picture, I know I've seen her at several events, including our DNA Interest Group meetings. I knew from Nancy Chouteau that Jo has largely assumed the responsibility of managing the Cincinnati/Dayton Roots Magic User Group. I did not know what an incredible talent was right under my nose.

Jo has been involved in family history and genealogy since 1980. She is a lifetime member of the Hamilton County Genealogical Society, as well as the Clermont and Warren County Societies. She has her own website http://www.ancestorsofmjr.com/  that lists her many accomplishments and services.

Topic:
Jo has agreed to discuss one of the newest tools available to genetic genealogists -- the AutoCluster tool. Clustering is based on the method developed by Dana Leeds to organize your matches into groups that share a common ancestor or ancestral couple.  The GEDmatch Clustering Tool does the analyzing for you and gives you a visual chart showing those who match each other.  

Jo will demonstrate the use of this tool, how to change the search parameters (and how that affects your results), and what to do with the results will be discussed and demonstrated. She will also discuss the clustering tool available through DNAPainter. 

Clustering Tool

Note: For those of you who may have concerns about the purchase of GedMatch by Verogen, a forensic genealogy company, I suggest you check out the webinar with the new owner, Brett Williams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urWeQvZVJ_g

Hope to see you there.

Submitted by Kathy Reed
SWOHDNA
dna.interest@hcgsohio.org

New Video Released on Using the Lazarus Project To Break Down Brick Walls

On August 13th, Kelli Bergheimer did a presentation for the Southwest Ohio DNA Interest Group.
As a group, we frequently discuss some of the tools that are part of Gedmatch.com. Although many of the tools are free, other tools are available with a Tier 1 membership at a cost of $10.00 per month.

One such tool is called the "Lazarus" tool. This tool allows you to use the DNA of relatives of a given ancestor, such as a grandparent, to construct a kit for that untested person. Kelli explains how this can be a "work in progress" until 1500 cM of DNA have been collected. This new kit can then be used to find additional matches within the Gedmatch database. It is a fascinating tool, and Kelli discussed several techniques for identifying potential matches that can be used in creating a new kit.

The video presentation is now available on the this link, on the HCGS site, or on YouTube. Be sure to check it out.

Submitted by Kathy Reed
dna.interest@hcgsohio.org

SWOHDNA - Gedmatch - A Deep Dive

Gedmatch Output

What: Meeting of the Southwest Ohio DNA Interest Group (SWOHDNA)

Where: MidPointe Library, West Chester

When: 7:00 - 8:45 PM, Tuesday, February 13th
Who: Kathy Reed
Topic: Gedmatch - A Deep Dive

Last April, the Southwest Ohio DNA Interest Group had a session on how to analyze autosomal DNA results using Gedmatch. If you missed it, you can see thee video here. Members were encouraged to upload their autosomal results, regardless of testing company, to Gedmatch.com and experiment with some of the tools. Users should be cautioned that any other Gedmatch user can compare their kit to yours. It has the advantage of allowing you to see chromosome by chromosome how you match other users.

The April presentation was an overview of the available tools. At this session, we hope to demonstrate more of the tools in a live presentation. Included will be a discussion of the Tier 1 tools and an explanation of the new Genesis Beta feature.

To take full advantage of the session, consider uploading your autosomal results to the website in advance of the meeting. You may want to bring your laptop. As this is not a powerpoint presentation, there should be plenty of time to discuss individual questions.

We hope to see you there.

Submitted by Kathy Reed
Co-Chair SWOHDNA
programs@hcgsohio.org