January 11th Research Group Summary

There were 16 CVGS members at the 11 January 2017 research group meeting at the Chula Vista Civic Center Library Branch.

In the first hour, Randy discussed:

*  The new book, Stranger in my Genes, by Bill Griffeth.  Bill found out that he was adopted from a Y-DNA test.  The book describes his search for his biological father.

*  Living DNA (www.livingdna.com) is a new autosomal DNA testing service.  At present, it provides only ethnicity estimates, and they are focused on the British Isles.

*  Family Tree Maker announced their long-promised Update for FTM 2014/Mac 3 users - it's free to download.  The update permits synchronization to an Ancestry Member Tree.There is also an upgrade coming in the next months.  

*  A "2017 genealogy industry benchmark" post about online genealogy sites was posted at  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/genealogy-industry-benchmark-numbers.html.

In the second hour, the attendees discussed:

*  Shirley is working on the Greene family in Rhode Island and New York.  She has about 3,000 persons in her database now, but is having computer problems.

*  Karen S. downloaded the Family Tree Maker Mac 3 update, but her latest Ancestry tree didn't sync with the FTM update.  The group said that she needs to download the Ancestry tree from Ancestry, then merge it into the existing FTM tree, merge duplicate profiles, and then sync it to a new Ancestry tree.

*  Gary is reviewing his 23andMe autosomal DNA matches.  He has a second cousin match with 3.8% in common.

*  Susi put some Jones information on her blog, and a distant cousin provided more Jones data.

*  Bobbie is trying to get started again.  She has three goals for the next two years to research her German, English and French-Canadian ancestors.

*  Mary N. belongs to a German society, where a member said that sometimes when you contact a cousin family in Germany that they think you're trying to claim an inheritance.

*  Bette is a new member with ancestry in Messina, Italy.  She found the naturalization record for her grandfather in 1904 in Boston.

*  Helen S. received an email from Wales on her son's DNA line saying that 3rd great-grandfather John Williams (1805-1851) may be from Wales.

*  Virginia received an email from a FamilyTreeDNA match on her Erdman line from PA, perhaps a 4 or 5th cousin.

*  John is helping Bea each week.  They found family information in the Mexico Civil Registry, and a family member had written a book about the family.  John has had some contact with a few of his over 400 DNA cousins;  one said "none of your business."  Another match said they were related to John Allen and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower.

*  JoAnn is working on her father's ancestry in England, and found great-great-grandfather John Sadler on MyHeritage and Genes Reunited trees.

*  Sam is working on sourcing the collected material from his Tennessee research trip.

The next meeting of the Research Group will be on Wednesday, 8 February at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista, California).