Immigration and our Ancestors: Episode 124

This month we’re discussing unusual immigration records, plus find out which websites are best for saving and sharing your research.



Ep. 124: September 2018





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In this episode:







This Month in Family History



Family Tree editor Andrew Koch shares a genealogically important event that took place this month in years past – the Naturalization Act of 1906.



National Archives website







Feature



Our guest Rich Venezia is the founder of Rich Roots Genealogy. He specializes in 20th-century immigrant ancestry, and he assists clients with dual citizenship applications for Ireland and Italy. He’s a proud Italian dual citizen, and spoke about “How to Grow Empathy From Uncovering Your Roots” at TEDx Pittsburgh 2017. He was a member of the research team of the PBS TV show Genealogy Roadshow for two seasons, and consulted on The Travel Channel’s “Follow Your Past”.



Alien Registration Records



Passport Applications



City Marriage Returns







DNA Deconstructed



Shannon Combs-Bennett answers the question: “Why don’t I show DNA for a region that I know I have ancestors from?”



Keep in mind that these results show you only the information you inherited from your ancestors. Due to a process called recombination, the DNA passed down to each generation is a new combination of genes and only a portion of the parent’s DNA. This means your genetic family tree and genealogical family tree will not match 100%. It all depends on what you inherited from your parents, they inherited from their parents, and so on back.



Ethnicity analysis is constantly begin refined. We are lucky if you think about. As we study genealogy and genetics we are also watching science develop. As the companies learn more about ethnicity traits and control groups they put out new information on their websites. For example, AncestryDNA released new ethnicity results to their customers the beginning of September. If you test there you can compare your old results with the new ones. It is obvious by looking at them side by side how they are refining and developing the science.



The take away is this: ethnicity results will only show what you inherited. Since the science is being developed and refined as we speak expect your results to change over time.







Best Genealogy Websites



Author Dave Fryxell shares the Best Websites for Saving and Sharing from the 101 Best Websites list.







Sharing and Social Media



Facebook: Recent controversies aside, the world’s biggest social-networking site can connect you with cousins as well as with your favorite genealogy institutions.



GEDMatch: Sort of a matchmaking site for genetic genealogy,