DMT Version 1.5.1 and IAJGS and DMT Workshop - Tue, 18 Jul 2017

I fixed a few bugs in Double Match Triangulator that I found while preparing for my workshop at the IAJGS Conference on Monday. I also changed DMT to display people ordered by longest segment rather than total segments, and released it as Version 1.5.1.

I’m looking forward to giving the workshop. We’re dealing with a lot of endogamy among these participants and there are still many advances to be made in the field of Triangulation with regards to developing methods to find common ancestors and map a person’s chromosome segments to those ancestors.

I expect to learn as much as the 25 or so participants of my workshop. Each will have slightly different sets of matches, different sets of people they’ve DNA tested, and interesting problems to overcome that I have not seen before. I look forward to hearing their questions, comments and suggestions and using this information to further develop Double Match Triangulator.

I gave all the participants a 4 page handout with some preparatory work they should do to download and assemble their own Chromosome Browser Results file along with a few CBR files for a few of their DNA relatives. This way the workshop will be more useful as they will will be analyzing their own data.

Over half the people will be bringing their own Windows laptops that have Excel 2007 or later on it. Currently DMT is a Windows program and uses Excel libraries to create the Excel output files that we will be analyzing. The others, some of whom will have Macs or iPads, are currently out of luck (unless they have a Windows emulator) and will have to used a workshop-supplied Windows computer or sit with their neighbour. I have plans to eliminate DMT’s dependency on Excel and to make a Mac version, but alas, not available yet.

It should also be very interesting to compare everyone’s DNA matches with everyone else. With endogamy, most participants will show up in other participant’s match lists and vice versa. Wouldn’t it be exciting if we had a few discoveries of genealogical cousins at the Workshop?

This will be my first IAJGS Conference. I look forward to it and to the opportunity to personally learn more about genealogical research in my ancestral towns from some of the experts who will be in attendance. The banquet on Thursday night will feature Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of the PBS program “Finding Your Roots” who will speak on “Genetics and Genealogy in America”.

 
Henry Louis Gates will highlight the week

And of course, I’ll get to see many of my genealogical friends again, and meet some others for the first time. Isn’t that always the best part of any Conference?