Monday, April 24, 2006

What I Learned at VGS's Genetealogy Conference

Many thanks to the Virginia Genealogical Society for hosting me this past weekend at their Is Genealogy in Your Genes? conference in Richmond, VA. The event was all about genetic genealogy and was held in the Library of Virginia, a perfect venue (especially loved the hi-tech audio-visual toys!).

I had the chance to deliver a couple of lectures and watch others given by genetealogy guru, Donn Devine, and genogram expert, Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer. A real eye-opener for me. For instance, this is the first I learned about the lack of standardization in genograms -- did you know that that some use "A" to indicate adoption, while others use "A" to indicate alcoholism? Room for confusion, eh?! Be sure to go see Donn or Christine speak if you get a chance!

I also had the opportunity to meet a lot of terrific folks and hear your amazing tales. I think the stand-outs in my mind this time were the woman who announced that she thinks her half-brother might really be her uncle (now that's a close family!) and the fellow who wondered if he should be concerned that there's a mutation separating his results from his brother's.

Fortunately, there's what I refer to as "close kin" testing available for the brother/uncle sitation (check out GeneTree for more information), and I reassured the concerned gentleman that mutations are rare but random -- and that FamilyTreeDNA owner, Bennett Green, and his son are also separated by a single mutation.

Thanks again to the Virginia Genealogical Society! For anyone curious about genetic genealogy who lives in southern Virginia and wishes they had made it to this conference, I'll be back in the neighborhood on May 20th in Newport News at the Tidewater Genealogical Society. See you there!

posted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak @ 11:29 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 21, 2006

Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards for 2006

Once again, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards. This year's recipients were Tommy Lasorda, Frank McCourt, Madeleine Albright and Shelly Lazarus. Each of this year's awardees was extremely gracious and seemed genuinely appreciative of the honor. It was especially touching to see the Lasorda clan - 5 brothers still close after all these years -- definitely practicing what their immigrant parents taught them! I also got a kick out of Tommy Lasorda's remark that he's grateful that his dad didn't miss the boat, but if he had, he'd be Pope Thomas XXVI now!

posted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak @ 9:18 AM 0 comments

Ellis Island on The Apprentice

Be sure to set your Tivo to record The Apprentice on April 24th because the challenge centers on Ellis Island! You'll want to see what happens when commerce and history collide. Think The Donald will advise the teams to choose their ancestors wisely??

posted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak @ 9:11 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 07, 2006

Welcome to Megan's Roots World

I'm finally entering the 21st century with this blog. Bear with me as I get my feet wet. I know this stuff is supposed to be incredibly easy, but I suspect I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me -- mostly because I don't know what I don't know yet.

At any rate, I'll post bits and pieces of genealogical news that catch my attention in the hope that they'll be of interest to you as well. From time to time, I'll consolidate collections of postings into my Honoring Our Ancestors Newsletter that many of you subscribe to, so you'll have the option of getting your news instantly or from time to time -- essentially in digest mode.

Feel free to add your own comments and tell me what you'd like to hear more about. I receive lots of queries -- especially about genetealogy (genetic genealogy) and orphan heirlooms, so I'll occasionally respond to questions publicly -- because there are often others out there with the same questions on their minds. Aside from that, I'm just going to make it up as I go along! Thanks for stopping by!


posted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak @ 4:48 PM 0 comments