DNA Down Under Day

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In spite of the predicted cold temperatures and rain around 400 dedicated genealogists, descended on Castle Hill RSL, for the start of three days of talks on DNA. Registration was a very smooth process and very soon hugs were being collected, from old and new friends.

9.00am had us all settled into the main theater, for the start of the day. Blaine T Bettinger, the overseas guest speaker, started with, 'Understanding and interpreting your ethnicity results.' This wasn't something I fully understood and Blaine's way of explaining it had me going, 'I get it, now!'

The rest of the day offered two or three different talks, with a variety of speakers.

Kerry Farmer, was my choice, with 'Combining DNA with traditional techniques.'  Kerry is a great speaker and I've heard her give several DNA talks, over the years, all are interesting and today's was excellent. I have only just started digging deeper, with my DNA results and this talk re-enforced that what I was doing, is correct.

I took a break, from the next session and caught-up with a couple of friends.

After lunch, it was back to the main theater for the rest of the day and three talks from Blaine. 'Evaluating a genealogical conclusion, including DNA,' was good, with Blaine giving practical ways you can check out if your conclusions are on the right track, or not.

This was followed by, 'The latest advances in third-party tools for autosomal DNA.' He showed us what companies are around to use and then talked about three of them, GEDmatch,  Genetic Affairs and DNA Painter.  I use GEDMatch and was interested in the new tools they have. Thinking of paying for a Tier 1 subscription and doing a super kit.

 Genetic Affairs was next and while it had several good tools, I'm not sure it is for me.

DNA Painter was next and while I haven't used it, I have listened to several talks about it. This is something that I might consider, down the track, if my big DNA match ever gets back to me.

Finishing of the day was 'Are you doing everything to identify your DNA matches?' I'm very pleased, with myself as I have used most of what Blaine mentioned, to try and find who my big match is. The talk also gave me a couple of different avenues, that I haven't tried, yet.

Dinner, with a bunch of Genies ended a fantastic day and we all go back, tomorrow!





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