ROOTS & BRANCHES

Combining genealogy and DNA has been on an increasingly logarithmic path in the last 15 years or so.

I have been mostly an outside observer to whole technology march (not just in genealogy – I’m pretty scrupulous about making sure my iPhone is at least one version – and maybe two! – behind the latest and the greatest).

I’m just not what the tech world calls an “early adopter” since I’m more attuned to the proverb that states “pioneers take all the arrows.”

Which is not to say that I’m not fascinated by what DNA has wrought in the genealogical world. Since I attended my first genealogy DNA lectures at a National Genealogical Society conference in 2000, I have periodically ducked inside the technology tent in order to get myself up to speed with what’s going on.

But many times when it comes to DNA, I do what the guys on the “Pawn Stars” TV show do when they are confronted with something that requires scientific knowledge and precision and say: “I’m going to have to call in an expert.”

A lot of the time that expert is Diahan Southard, who bills herself as “Your DNA Guide.” She started with her college degree in microbiology and added her in-on-the-ground-floor experience with the then-cutting-edge Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation team more than a decade ago.

Her “Your DNA Guide” venture includes offering private consultations as well as the best-written laminated quick guides in the genealogy field, currently numbering 10 in all, with titles as follows:

• Getting Started
• Y Chromosome DNA
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Autosomal DNA
• Understanding AncestryDNA
• Understanding Family Tree DNA
• Understanding 23andMe
• Next Steps (for working with autosomal DNA matches)
• Organizing Your DNA Matches
• Gedmatch: A Next Step for Your Autosomal DNA Test

From my previous “peeks inside the tent,” I knew DNA genealogy basics: the Y chromosome test is paternal ancestry (usually the surname line), mitochondrial (or mtDNA, for short) follows the mother’s mother’s mother’s (etc.) ancestry and autosomal DNA refers to the “jumble” of genetic material that is reshuffled from generation to generation, half from father and mother.

With her keen gift for analogy, Southard tells her readers to imagine that autosomal DNA is a suitcase filled with primary genealogical records, but with a random half of the records from some lines of the suitcase owner’s father and another tossed-together half from the mother.

She explains concepts that are second nature to DNA experts but trip up others, for example: Your genetic pedigree is not the same as your genealogical pedigree. Because of the random reshuffling and only half coming from mother and father, many ancestors’ DNA is not represented in your own DNA, making it difficult to find them using your genetics alone.

She also explains many of the more complicated concepts that just keep coming: Triangulation (using three persons’ DNA to help figure out which ancestors are in common); phasing (in which the raw DNA data to analyzed to determine which are paternal or maternal in origin); and X one-to-one (using the X chromosome of two men to narrow down their relationship to being maternal).

You can contact Southard by e-mail at guide@yourDNAguide.com, or through her Website at www.yourDNAguide.com.