National DNA expert to speak at genealogy workshop

Diahan Southard, one of the nation’s top lecturers on DNA, will be the speaker at the Georgia Genealogical Society’s all-day workshop on September 21 in Macon.

The event begins at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. and will be held at the Anderson Conference Center, 5171 Eisenhower Parkway, Suite D. After registration and checkin from 9:30-10 a.m., and business announcements, Southard’s first lecture at 10:15 will be “Five Tips to Make Sense of Your DNA Testing.”

After a break, she will speak from 11:30 until 12:30 on “Three next Steps for Your DNA Test Results.” Lunch will be on your own. The program resumes at 2:15 p. m. with “Connecting Your DNA Matches.” After another break, the final lecture at 3:30 will be “A Day with Your DNA.”

The cost is $40 for GGS members, $50 for nonmembers. Postal mail deadline is September 11. PayPal deadline via the GGS website gagensociety.org is September 17. Mail check to GGS, P.O. Box 550247, Atlanta, Ga., 30355-2747. Southard has 18 years of experience in the genetic genealogy industry and is a well-liked speaker at national genealogy conferences. In her Your DNA Guide (yourdnaguide.com), she offers separate published and laminated guides to various DNA tests and testing companies. She is one of the best speakers for explaining DNA testing for beginners and advanced, and she’s well worth hearing. It’s a great chance to hear a national expert close by.

DNA testing is more than finding your ethnic heritage

Many people who have done DNA testing still seem to overlook, or don’t know, that all DNA tests link you to real people, cousins and other relatives. Most genealogists are not doing DNA testing just to learn ethnic heritage, which is an inexact science at best. They use DNA results to verify kinships you have already discovered in courthouse and through other research. Sometimes, if needed, the test results can help you tear down a genealogy brick wall, as it has helped me. If you need to stress ethnic heritage to get a relative to take a DNA test, do so, but always check to see which real relatives you are matching via DNA.

Widen your research scope

Researchers often have too narrow a research focus and overlook, or don’t think it’s necessary to research, all other close relatives. Sometimes the bachelor uncle’s will or estate might link other family members together. If someone moved out of state, his or her estate might have more information you need, due to the probate laws in effect in that state at the time of death. Other states have different legal notice requirements that could provide valuable information not found in court records.

Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P. O. Box 901, Decatur, GA 30031 or gagensociety.org.

AJC FILE PHOTO