2017 SCGS Webinar Series

Want to continue your genealogical education throughout the year but have a limited travel budget? The 2017 Jamboree Webinar Extension Series of the Southern California Genealogical Society offers some of the best offerings from its Jamboree conference presentations throughout the year and makes them accessible to you in your home. 

My presentation partner Beth Balkite and I make an appearance next October 18th as we present Family History + Health History Lead to Personalized Healthcare:

Genealogies record family relationships. Health histories reveal causes of death, disabilities, chronic diseases, or known genetic disorders within families. How can you build an accurate family health/medical history? Should you? Can genealogists lead the way to personalized healthcare/medicine?

For those of you who are not familiar with Beth's background, here is a summary of why I am delighted to partner with her:  Beth Balkite was a certified genetic counselor for over 30 years. She is an alum of the Graduate Program in Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College. She worked as a genetic counselor in Connecticut at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Yale University, and Norwalk Hospital prior to joining Genzyme Genetics as manager of Clinical Genetics Services in 1993. In 1998 she was hired as Genetics Education Strategy Advisor for GlaxoSmithKline. She has continued as a genetics educator in several capacities before retiring in 2012. She has studied her own family history for years and is now one of just two genetic counselors to practice and teach genetic genealogy. She is an instructor at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI) at Duke University in Durham, NC, where she teaches a course “Applying DNA to Your Family Tree.” In the summer of 2016 she taught a session in the Advanced Genetic Genealogy course at GRIP (Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh). 

Hope you will join us for this presentation and discussion.

A full description of the 2017 offerings is now available for this rich and diverse series.

Genetic Genealogy Reading List

I just returned home from at trip to California for Genealogy Jamboree sponsored by the Southern California Genealogical Society Society (SCGS) which was preceded by an excellent day long pre-conference "Family History & DNA." 

Those of you unable to attend or to remotely view the streamed sessions could benefit from the excellent reading list prepared for inclusion in the syllabus of the DNA Day attendees. The "DNA & Genealogy Reference Books" list was complied by Bonny Cook on behalf of the DNA Interest Group of SCGS and the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG). I believe Alice Fairhurst deserves credit for the companion list of "DNA Web Sites of Interest to Genetic Genealogists." You may find both of these lists useful in building your knowledge of genetic genealogy.
 

Jamboree Live and Streaming

With good reason the annual Jamboree sponsored by the Southern California Genealogical Society and held each June at the Burbank Airport Hilton is one of the biggest and best genealogy events in the US.

When I lived on the West Coast, I attended each year except when I worked on the other end of my family tree by being present for the birth of a grandson in Nashville.

Now I live in Nashville. I was torn as to whether or not I could justify attending Jamboree. As some of you may know, this is the year I am quitting the American Library Association "cold turkey". After attending 42 consecutive annual conferences and almost all Midwinter sessions, it was time to move on. Over the years I had been an active member of almost every committee or task force of ALA that had to do with personnel, education and ethics. Actually, I had originally intended to make my exit two years ago. However, I was offered the one assignment I could not turn down -- chair of the genealogy committee. I have constructed a "methadone" schedule to ease my exit from ALA.

In February I attended my first RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City. Any conference there has the double attraction of being near the Family History Library. The Library is within walking distance from our time share where I long have been spending two weeks a year to do research. My second week there this year will be in August during The Federation of East European Family History Societies Research Workshop.

The 9th International Genetic Genealogy Conference sponsored by FTDNA for project administrators is, to me, a must attend event. It will be in Houston on November 9-10. 

As I was creating my post-ALA professional schedule, I was torn about kind of "group" meeting to attend between February and August. I really was not thrilled about NGS in Las Vegas. Next year in Richmond is much more appealing.

Then the Southern California Genealogical Society and the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG) upped the ante. They added a full day FAMILY HISTORY AND DNA: GENETIC GENEALOGY IN 2013. It is hard to imagine a more prestigous I was hooked and immediately registered. I even agreed to facilitate one of the discussion groups the last hour of the day. If you can be in Burbank that day, you will be in for a treat.

If you cannot attend you may be able to sample some of the content the following day:

Live-Streamed Jamboree Sessions Announced

"SCGS is there for you, no matter where you are." That statement is never as true as it will be the coming 10 days, during the Society's annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.

The Southern California Genealogical Society announces its schedule of live-streamed sessions of the 2013 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. The "JamboSTREAM" webcast is free to viewers and is made available through the gracious support of Ancestry.com.

Note below that the DNA Day programs are not included in the streaming offerings. Those available are from the extensive offerings from Jamboree proper:

Live-Stream Video Schedule Friday, June 7 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM FR001: Basic Military Research   Craig Roberts Scott MA, CG 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM FR016: The Ethical Genealogist  Judy G. Russell JD, CG Handout  4:30 PM to 6:00 PM FR022: DNA Panel Discussion - Hear it from the Experts. CeCe Moore; Alice Fairhurst; Ken Chahine PhD; Joanna Mountain PhD; Bennett Greenspan Co-Sponsored by International Society of Genetic Genealogy Saturday, June 8 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM SA004: Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestor  Craig Roberts Scott MA,CG 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM SA018: Genealogical Periodicals: Where the Answers Are  Kory L. Meyerink MLS, AG, FUGA 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM SA020: Master Using Google for Common Surname Searches  Lisa Louise Cooke 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM SA032: Turning Genealogy into Family History: Creating Stories from Stats  Jean Wilcox Hibben PhD, MA, CG 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM SA041: Finding Your Family in the French and Indian Wars  Leland Meitzler 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM SA048: Staying Safe Online   Thomas MacEntee Sunday, June 9 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM SU003: A Guided Tour of Cyndi's List 2.0   Cyndi Ingle Howells 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM SU017: Scanning and Photo Retouching for Beginners: Foundations and Fundamentals  Tom Underhill 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM SU020: Strange and Unusual Sources for Irish Family History   James Ryan, PhD 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM SU029: Lessons from the Archive   Denise Levenick

All of these sessions should be first-rate. If your interest is in the application of DNA to family history, you should try to watch the late afternoon (Pacific time) panel which will also include Katherine Borges, co-founder of ISOGG, as well as the listed luminaries who are at the cutting edge of genetic genealogy. It appears that one must register for each "event" separately. Apparently the registration process is working well for those in the US and Canada but somewhat problematically for those outside these two countries.

Dr D would be very interested in the experiences of any of you who watch or attempt to watch any of these streams. FamilySearch has ambitious plans to stream some of RootsTech next February.

"Genealogy, Genetics & Ethics" in Burbank Saturday

I will be speaking next Saturday in Burbank, California and signing copies of my book, Crash Course in Genealogy. If you are going to be in that area, I'd love to see you in person.

The Southern California Genealogical Society DNA Interest Group

and the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (www.isogg.org)

           Southern California Genealogical Society

417 Irving Drive, Burbank, CA 91504

(818) 843-7247    www.scgsgenealogy.com

DNA Interest Group Meetings – 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.  

Sat,  March 31, 2012 –  Genetics, Genealogy, and Ethics

Presenter: David Dowell, Ph.D, Genealogist and Research Librarian

• 10:00-10:30         Answering questions about DNA testing.
• 10:30-12:00         Bioethicists concerns versus the public’s right to know.
• 12:00-1:00            Lunch
• 1:00-2:00              Individualized help.

  

$5.00 donation is suggested for attendance. Individualized help will be available after the formal presentation for those who want to order DNA tests or who have received DNA results and need help managing their personal page or interpreting their results. A drawing will be held for a $30 discount certificate for ordering a DNA test. Brown bag or join us for pizza for an additional $5.00.

For additional information contact Kathy Johnston at kjohns7900@aol.com or phone (310) 213-1207.

Following the regular meeting from 2:00-4:00 p.m., those who are Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) Project Administrators or Project Co-administrators are invited to remain to discuss how they are managing group projects.  The Roundtable format allows people to share expertise and create solutions to issues.

Future Meetings of the DNA Interest Group, which meets each 5th Saturday, will feature:

Sat., June 30, 2012 – Alice Fairhurst, Understanding Deep Clade Testing

Sat., Sept. 29, 2012 – Douglas Neslund, An Adoptee’s Quest