On Monday Dec 19, it felt like I might have sprained my ankle. It was my first squash game of the day and I planted my foot and I felt a tiny pop in my ankle. It wasn’t too bad and I tried to continue but less than a minute later I felt another pop in the ankle. Now it felt like a badly sprained ankle. I ...
Okay. Let’s do what we did last post for autosomal this time for the X chromosome. I’ll assume you already know the unique pattern of how the X chromosome get’s passed down, where males get their one X from their mother and females get one of their Xs from their mother and the other from their father. ...
Back to Behold, but still DNA. I am adding some DNA features to Behold that I know I need and are not in any genealogy programs currently out there. Basically, I want to know the expected (i.e. mean) amount of autosomal, X, Y and mt DNA that each person will share with main person (or people) selected for ...
I happened to come across a post by Robert Davis on the Ulster Co NY Y-DNA group at FamilyTree DNA. Robert said: Double Match Triangulator …would be of use in finding links (common matches) between two individuals that are not themselves matches. and hence the ICW tool of FF is of no use. That was an ...
With the #RootsTech #InnovatorShowdown coming, and with DMT entered, I wanted to get one last update to DMT in while I could. You can get the new Version 1.3 here. My realization of DM Theorem 1 (and Corollary 1) made me want to change the DMT overlap detection algorithm somewhat. Now each Triangulation Group ...
I haven’t seen a list of 2017 Roots Tech Ambassadors anywhere. So here’s the people I’ve found: Alison Taylor, USA – Pictures and Stories Allison Kimball, USA – Simple Inspiration Amy Archibald, USA – Revealing Roots and Branches (Ambassador Coordinator) Amy Johnson Crow, USA ...
When I think of something in the middle of the night, I just have to write it down as soon as I get up. My mind’s background processor has been absorbed in figuring out how to get the output from Double Match Triangulator to display the two halves of each Chromosome pair. It’s tricky. Currently, DMT is ...
I’ve been watching with much interest on the RootsTech Devpost site, some of the great programs that are being submitted to the showdown. Prior to the submitted programs being announced, I was able to find many of them because of the videos they produced on either YouTube or Vimeo, or through their entries as ...
For the 2017 #RootsTech Innovator Showdown, a requirement is that the submitted program must be accompanied by a 60 to 90 second video uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. As of eight days ago, I had my Double Match Triangulator program all ready, I had the required project page all filled out at Devpost.com with ...
Today, Nov 24, 2016, I celebrated my 60th birthday. It was so nice to also celebrate it yesterday with my Australian genealogy friends who were wishing me the best when here in Winnipeg it was still the day before. But that was not all it was. This was also my last day of work as I head into ...
I’ve gone through the 1.1.99 version of DMT I created about a month ago, have made some improvements and have now produced the 1.2 release. You can find and download the new version on the DMT page. If you don’t have more than one Chromosome Browser Results (CBR) file from FamilyTreeDNA of your own to ...
Over at the ISOGG Facebook group, Rich Capen asked if it would be possible for Double Match Triangulator to compare GEDmatch kits. Well, that spurred my interest to see if I could. My uncle’s Chromosome Browser Results (CBR) file at FamilyTreeDNA is very big because he is Ashkenazi. I just downloaded a new ...
I’ve released a beta of what will be version 1.2 of DMT. It has all the new functionality. I just haven’t updated the help file yet. Once the help file is updated, I’ll re-release it as 1.2. With the deadline for the RootsTech Innovator Showdown coming up, I wanted to get some major enhancements in. ...
Lots has happened in the past few weeks. I’ve booked my flights, hotel and registered for RootsTech 2017 in Salt Lake City from Feb 8 to 11. I was there in 2012 and 2014 so its been a while and I’m looking forward to renewing some acquaintances and meeting other genealogy software developers, geneabloggers ...
First to reassure you, I am back working towards finishing Behold Version 1.3. But I do have to put up this post before I forget about it. Two days ago, I announced my free Double Match Triangulator program on the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG)’s Facebook page. It is a closed group, ...
I’ve now released my new freeware program to provide a new view to help people analyze their autosomal DNA matches from FamilyTreeDNA. It is called Double Match Triangulator. I actually released version 1.0 a couple of days ago, but fixed a bug and version 1.0.1 is available at www.beholdgenealogy.com/dmt. ...
Most people might think releasing a freeware program is easy. Just write it and make it available. Right? Well, there’s a bit more in it than that. When I came up with the idea for Double Match Triangulation of autosomal DNA using the chromosome match files produced by FamilyTreeDNA, I knew I’d need a ...
(This article was revised 11 Aug 2016 to fix some incorrect statements) Be careful if you’re triangulating at FamilyTreeDNA. I just found out they can match twice on a segment. If you look in your Chromosome Browser Results file which is downloadable from the Chromosome Browser page, you may find matches ...
I have the basics of my Double Match Triangulation program working, but before I can release it to the world (as freeware!), I must put it through its paces and test it with some real data and ensure that it will correctly analyze and display the data and relationships. Since I’ve only DNA tested my 93 year ...
My DMT (Double Match Triangulation) program that will make use of FamilyTreeDNA chromosome segment match data is nearing completion. As I was looking through some of the results it was producing, I got an unexpected surprise. I found there were some people my uncle Harry matched to in his Chromosome Browser ...
In Part 1, I gave you a flavour of the mass-triangulation that I am doing, which I called EAST: Extreme Autosomal Segment Triangulation. Triangulation is a technique to determine what parts of your DNA come from what ancestors. That will help you determine how your matches are related to you. What is new about ...
You’ve heard of extreme sports. Well this, I think, is the genetic genealogist’s equivalent. In DNA or Bust, I told about getting my 93 year old uncle’s DNA analyzed. Our Endogamous Ashkenazi heritage layed 7,017 matches upon us. That was one month ago. Since then, FamilyTreeDNA have updated their ...
At the #OGS2016Toronto Conference yesterday (Sunday June 5), one of the last sessions was a panel discussion with the topic: the Future of Genetic Genealogy. On the panel were four distinguished genealogists who know their DNA: Maurice Gleeson from London, England. DNA and Family Tree Research CeCe Moore ...
#OGS2016Toronto – These are all the blogs I know of that have posts about the superb conference I just attended in Toronto. I’m only including blogger posts, not the official conference site posts. If there are any I’m missing, please let me know and I’ll update this list. Updated to include posts to ...
Wow! #OGS2016Toronto - What an experience! This was a superb conference. My time there was so chock full that I barely had time to breathe. I met and talked to so many people, but even so, there were so many more I would have liked to talk to. I only made plans a couple of months ago to go to the Ontario ...
Update: August 12, 2018: This notation has been revised.
See my blog post: BGRN Revised.
I’m leaving this older post here for historical context.
Yeah, I know. BGRN is a horrible acronym. So if you can get to the end of this post and can think of a better thing to call it, I’ll ...
It was Judy Russell @legalgen on our recent Unlock the Past Genealogy cruise who implored me to get my 93 year old uncle DNA tested while I still can. Judy made me realize that it was necessary. I have always understood the importance of DNA research as a valuable science to help discover relationships that ...
@OGSConference. I had noticed that the Ontario Genealogical Society was holding their annual Conference in June. The Sunday program had several speakers I really wanted to hear. Lara Diamond will be talking on “Movement Between Towns in Eastern Europe” and “Jewish Genealogical Research in Ukraine”, and ...
Just before I released the last version of Behold a month ago, a user asked if there was a way to display all the burials and nothing else. They wanted to check out all the cemeteries in a city they were going to. I thought Behold could do that already. In the Organize Tags page, I allow selection of which ...
An article by Keith Riggle yesterday: “Where Are the Free Family Tree Maker Updates” caught my attention. Keith indicated that the Family Tree Maker database was based on the SQLite database software. That surprised me. SQLite is a multi-platform, speedy, single file database with a small footprint ...
@Sparkpost to the rescue. As I recently mentioned, it’s been over 4 years since my last Behold Newsletter. This was something that I really had intended to get going again. In 2010, I was having trouble with the mailing service that I had been using, and I started looking for a new one. Back then I selected ...
This seems to be the current meme going around. Put together an ancestral birthplace chart of the states and countries your ancestors are from. Many people have very interesting and diverse backgrounds. Not me. Mine’s not too exciting: And my wife’s is even less so:
I just released a new version of Behold which contains lots of little adjustments and fixes to the display of facts that was finalized in Version 1.2. I recommend you upgrade when you get a chance. Unless you had the old version 1.2 running alongside, you might not even think that anything is changed. ...
We programmers try very hard to keep our programs free of bugs. The bad bugs are the ones that make our programs crash producing a system error, or make our programs freeze requiring the use of Task Manager to end the task. An example of a simple way in my programming language Delphi to make the program crash ...
#UTPCruise - These are all the blogs I know of that have posts about the wonderful cruise/conference I just returned from. If there are any I’m missing, please let me know and I’ll update this list. (I hope you don’t mind Randy, but I like your format and I’m following it) Updated to include posts up ...
A couple of weeks ago, Dick Eastman posted an excellent article with the same title. It received over 70 comments, including a couple of mine. During the just completed Unlock The Past genealogy cruise, we had a panel discussion on a similar topic: Future Proofing Your Genealogy. Helen Smith coordinated a ...
The March 2016 issue of the British magazine Your Family History has included on page 92, a review of the current version, 1.2.0.1, of Behold. It is a very polite half page report that gives a good overview of Behold's reporting capabilities.
"Create a fully indexed and hyperlinked report with no effort ...
#UTPCruise - The last day of a great genealogy conference and cruise.
Day #18 - Last day of #UTPCruise 10 - Diane Foster talks about photo preservation pic.twitter.com/zKCTAGI8wU— Louis Kessler (@louiskessler) March 2, 2016
2nd talk of the day #UTPCruise - Helen Smith on Genealogical Learning ...
#UTPCruise - Nearing the end.
Day 15 - Adelaide: My wife and I took a tour to the hills southeast of the city where we tasted a little wine.My favorite scenery picture I took so far on #UTPCruise is this one from the foothills southeast of Adelaide pic.twitter.com/Si6BqGI9Qr— Louis Kessler ...
#UTPCruise - Still cruisin' and it's great combining pleasure (genealogy) with vacation (cruise).
Day 12 - At sea. A full slate of genealogy programs. I took this day off.
Day 13 - Melbourne. This was a land-based program that Unlock the Past put on for the Melbourne residents. They are doing the same in ...
#UTPCruise - New Zealand was an amazingly beautiful scenery and contrasts. We head now for Sydney, Australia a city whose 4.6 million people are more than the number of people in all of New Zealand.
Our 2nd day at sea on the way to Sydney gave another opportunity for a full slate of talks.
Some of the ...
#UTPCruise - Day 6 we were tendered in Akaroa, New Zealand where I spent the day with penguins and sheep. Paul Blake gave the feature talk that evening:
New Zealand sheep checking out their Irish roots with the help of Paul Blake #UTPCruise Unlock The Past pic.twitter.com/aKfUGGbEAU— Louis Kessler ...
#UTPCruise - this is a long cruise being 18 days, and we start with many days that we dock at a new city. On those days, all the genealogy cruisers have the day off to visit the destination and to take whatever tour or to relax and catch their breath. Those days, we only have a single talk at 8 p.m. following ...
#UTPCruise - Boarded the Celebrity Solstice at 2:30 pm. We had a few hours to get our cabins organized and then headed off for supper. All the Conference participants had a corner of the main dining room in the 6 p.m. session reserved for them, and so it all began.
At 8pm, we met for the "Meet and Greet". ...
#UTPCruise - Cheryl and I arrived in Auckland after 24 hours of travelling leaving -22C temps for +25C and the extra sunshine of the longer days that come with summer.
Auckland in a cosmopolitan city of 1.5 million people, making up one-third the population of New Zealand. The world has homogenized to the ...
Brian Madsen came through and it was worth the wait. This is the earliest GEDCOM standard yet that has been rediscovered. Regarding the copyright, I did have an email conversation with Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist in November 2014 about it. Her opinion to me was: “the Church … distributed its ...
Further adventures in the attempt to rediscover the long lost early GEDCOM standards have once again come up with something significant. You may or may not remember that just over a year ago, I started this venture: Newly Rediscovered: GEDCOM 4.0 (and a bonus!) More GEDCOM Archaelogical Discoveries ...
Although I’m not at #RootsTech this year, I’ve found this the easiest one yet to feel a part of from afar. The live streaming is better than ever, and the Twitter feeds I follow include dozens of people in attendance who are doing a great job with live updates and links to blog posts about the event. On ...
Dates in genealogy are messy. Four years ago, I wrote a series of posts on some of the aspects of dates as defined by GEDCOM and some of the bad dates you see in GEDCOM files in the wild: Sort of a Date How About a Date? Out on a Bad Date In a recent post by on the RootsDev Google Group, Gary Stanley ...
Well, it took a little longer for me than the other prolific genealogical bloggers who I follow, but I’ve finally reached this milestone with this post. So a time to look back at the 1000 posts. My first post was on November 7, 2002. It was a short one just to get started. That was over 13 years ago and ...
My last post took a look at the SEX tag in GEDCOM and came up with a way to guess at it when it is not specified. Tamura Jones challenged me and thought that records that do not state the sex are rare. He asked how useful is trying to figure it out for other cases, and I should stop after my rule number 1. ...
I have come across a need to check out the SEX tag in GEDCOM. Some of the new DNA features I’m finishing up for the next version of Behold make important use of the sex of the individual. Determining autosomal, X, Y and mitochondrial DNA shares between two individuals is much less accurate when the sex of ...
It’s a new year. I was very happy to complete the tabulation of the GenSoftReviews Users Choice Awards for 2015 and send out the Press Release about it, which so far only James Tanner has posted about it (also here). Usually that takes me a full day to take the results, make up the new badges, and manually ...
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