Sunday, October 13, 2013

Genealogy Roadshow Ends Tomorrow. Will It Return?


Apparently the Genealogy Roadshow production company is planning for the show to return to PBS next season. The final show for season one filmed in Austin is due to air tomorrow night. A website at www.grcasting.com is soliciting applications for next season. I can only assume that "grcasting" stands for Genealogy Roadshow casting.


Let's hope they are starting production early enough the second time around so that more DNA results can be included if appropriate. In the shows aired thus far this season the time schedule did not seem to allow testing results to get back from the lab in time to be included except for a couple of admixture reports. Although admixture reports can answer some genealogical questions, in most cases they are now the softest science in DNA testing. The DNA results are not wrong. However, the underling population studies are too scanty for most geographic areas to make highly accurate predictions that can be relied on to tie a set of results to specific locations at specific times.

DNA testing is not appropriate to answer all genealogical questions. However, it is strange that Who Do You Think You Are? went a whole season without any on camera testing and Genealogy Roadshow had only a token amount. Could this be because autosomal testing is the focus for Ancestry.com the lead corporate sponsor for WDYTYA? Autosomal testing is great for sorting out close relationships, but it is only one tool in the kit of a well prepared genetic genealogist.
  

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