Events

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[VCGS and Conejo Valley Genealogical Society DNA SIGs are coordinating topics and are alternating hosting meetings for our combined DNA SIG memberships. (Note that CVGS’s DNA SIG meets on Friday afternoons.) This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the CVGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the CVGS DNA SIG email list you may contact Colleen Yinger (csyinger@roadrunner.com) to be added.]

Don will introduce you to DNA databases that allow free raw DNA data transfers. We will visit MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, as well as some other, lesser known databases such as LivingDNA, Geneanet, and mitoYDNA. You’ll see how to load your the raw data file that you downloaded from your testing company to fish in more “ponds”.

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[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the VCGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the email list you may contact the webmaster at webmaster@venturacogensoc.org to be added.]

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[VCGS and Conejo Valley Genealogical Society DNA SIGs are coordinating topics and are alternating hosting meetings for our combined DNA SIG memberships. (Note that CVGS’s DNA SIG meets on Friday afternoons.) This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the CVGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the CVGS DNA SIG email list you may contact Colleen Yinger (csyinger@roadrunner.com) to be added.]

Case study presentation by Lauran Elam. This presentation will include a case study and discussion of strategies for using DNA to find unknown ancestors when matches on the line in question connect through their own genealogical brick walls.

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[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the VCGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the email list you may contact the webmaster at webmaster@venturacogensoc.org to be added.]

Bill Marlatt will share a presentation of various DNA methodologies used to confirm a lineage.

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[VCGS and Conejo Valley Genealogical Society DNA SIGs are coordinating topics and are alternating hosting meetings for our combined DNA SIG memberships. (Note that CVGS’s DNA SIG meets on Friday afternoons.) This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the CVGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the CVGS DNA SIG email list you may contact Colleen Yinger (csyinger@roadrunner.com) to be added.]

Angie Bush, MS, is the Region 1 Director for the National Genealogical Society, and the chair of the Genetic Genealogy committee. Her day job is as Genetic Genealogist Researcher with Ancestry ProGenealogists in Salt Lake City. Angie has been interested in her genealogy since she was very young. After college, she spent several years working in biotech while continuing to pursue her genealogy hobby. With the growing popularity and introduction of autosomal DNA testing in 2012, she decided to combine her two loves into one career. Although she spends a lot of time working on recent unknown parentage cases (adoptions, unknown fathers), her favorite type of research to do involves solving decades old “brick-walls” using a combination traditional records and genetic evidence. She is a popular speaker and presenter, and enjoys attending conferences where she can connect with others who share her passion for genealogy. Ms. Bush is a Utah native and lives in Sandy, Utah.

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[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the VCGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the email list you may contact the webmaster at webmaster@venturacogensoc.org to be added.]

Learn from 4 case studies how DNA was used to overcome a brick wall that stood since the 1950s using Y-DNA, solved the mystery of the mother of two sisters using mtDNA, a surprise revealing step-grandpa was really dad using autosomal DNA, and lastly, one that solved a case of an unknown father by using the X match. Also included is an overview of the 4 types of DNA used in genealogy: Y-DNA, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), autosomal DNA (Family Finder) and X Match and how to decode the confusing terms of DNA.

Professionally, Cheri Mello is a math teacher with degrees in psychology, sociology, human and child development, and master’s in education. She became a National Board Certified Teacher, the most prestigious and highest teaching credential in the educational world.

The genealogy bug was planted in Cheri, a South Bay native, with the 5th grade history project. Her maternal grandmother gave her some material for her project. She used it later for a Girl Scout badge and pulled out the information many times and wondered about her family and how she could learn more. Some of this material is still incorporated into her current presentations.

Cheri began her active adult research over 25 years ago, after the death of her remaining grandparents. She has done research in many states, even taking trips overseas in search of her Portuguese ancestry. Thirteen years ago, she became involved in DNA, and was recruited as the Project Administrator for the Azores DNA project. She runs five DNA projects and manages mailing lists involving PortugueseAzorean genealogy. Cheri lectures now not only on Portuguese and DNA topics, but a host of other topics including software programs and Find-A-Grave.

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[VCGS and Conejo Valley Genealogical Society DNA SIGs are coordinating topics and are alternating hosting meetings for our combined DNA SIG memberships. (Note that CVGS’s DNA SIG meets on Friday afternoons.) This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the CVGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the CVGS DNA SIG email list you may contact Colleen Yinger (csyinger@roadrunner.com) to be added.]

I’m very honored to be presenting to DNA-SIG again this month. Last time, I shared one of the more complicated unknown parentage cases I’ve ever had the pleasure of solving, but this time I am going back to basics.

On a practical level, I‘ll be using my daughter’s match list to demonstrate how you can use AncestryDNA’s color-sorting system to isolate the matches most likely to connect through a brick wall at the great-great-grandparent level.

On a more philosophical level, I’ll be looking to boost the confidence of anyone feeling intimidated by the “genetic” aspect of genetic genealogy, by explaining how I use the same principles I might apply to solving the daily Wordle, or any other logic puzzle, to tell me which matches on a list are most likely to be relevant to a particular research question.

Bring your questions, bring your stories, we’ll have fun sorting with those rainbow dots!

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[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the VCGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the email list you may contact the webmaster at webmaster@venturacogensoc.org to be added.]

Learn how adoptees and others find biological parents and siblings through DNA testing. Review the case that started it all and see today’s recommended strategies. View examples of surprise discoveries and see the tools used to identify relationships.

Richard Hill was the first adoptee to identify his birth family through genetic genealogy DNA testing.  This was so remarkable at the time that his story was later told on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.  In 2012 he described that story in his book Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA.

His presentations on DNA testing have been well received at national and regional conferences, including RootsTech, the National Genealogical Society (NGS), the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, and Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE in England.

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[VCGS and Conejo Valley Genealogical Society DNA SIGs are coordinating topics and are alternating hosting meetings for our combined DNA SIG memberships. (Note that CVGS’s DNA SIG meets on Friday afternoons.) This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the CVGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the CVGS DNA SIG email list you may contact Colleen Yinger (csyinger@roadrunner.com) to be added.]

Mags is a Professional Genealogist specializing in Genetic Genealogy as the founder of Grandma’s Genes in Ottawa. Growing up in a family full of family historians, Mags was primed to become a Genealogist.

After earning her Bachelors Degree from Columbia College, she began to work her own Genealogy as a “hobby”. This 35-year “hobby” eventually led her to a Leader role with WikiTree, where she currently leads: The DNA Innovators Project and The United Empire Loyalist Project. She also leads the Gaulden, McElmoyle, and Templeton Name Studies and the Gaulden, McElmoyle, and Templeton DNA Group Projects.

Mags is an international Genetic Genealogy Lecturer, Blogger, and Social Media Maven. She serves as Admin for Facebook groups including the ISOGG Facebook Group. She is a former member of the Canadian Casualty Identification Team.

Through her non-profit work with mitoYDNA.org, Mags and other genetic genealogists are providing a free and accessible YDNA and mtDNA database for the Genealogy Community. “Doing DNA Right”, mitoYDNA.org.

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[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out to the VCGS DNA SIG via email about 12 hours prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the email list you may contact the webmaster at webmaster@venturacogensoc.org to be added.]