Why Document DNA Test-Takers' Parent-Child Links Before Research Planning

Nicole Dyer discusses the importance of documenting DNA test-takers' parent-child links before research planning in this Research Like a Pro with DNA Office Hours presentation. She explains that when she writes research reports and uses Ancestry Pro Tools to add additional test takers (descendants of her research subject) to demonstrate adequate DNA sharing, the documentation of these lines of descent takes considerable time and effort. She recommends that genealogists complete as much of this documentation work as possible before research planning so they can include it in their research plan, rather than discovering gaps in parent-child evidence later when they write their reports. She describes starting test takers as people whose DNA matches researchers have access to view, and she notes that with Ancestry Pro Tools, researchers can now see how shared matches share with each other, which allows them to add more pairwise matches into their evidence. She emphasizes that each parent-child relationship in the line of descent requires source citations such as obituaries, census records that show relationships, or other documentation, and if researchers cannot provide this evidence, they cannot use those test takers in their final proof arguments or reports. She shares her method of documenting these lines in appendices, where she lists each parent-child link with its corresponding source citation in paragraph format rather than footnotes, and she includes tables that show how descendants share DNA in pairwise comparisons.

This is an excerpt from a monthly office hours session in the Research Like a Pro with DNA independent study course. To join the Research Like a Pro with DNA online course, and learn how to integrate DNA evidence into your genealogy research, click here: https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-ecourse/. To view more questions and answers in this series, go here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbWohRttmiAgotMNnIAdpQt24eQG5CTbV.

Видео Why Document DNA Test-Takers' Parent-Child Links Before Research Planning канала Family Locket