Tag Archives: Blaine Bettinger

Test more and Click more – DNA Down Under #DNADU

28 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in #DNADU, DNA, Events, Family History, My Family, My projects

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Yes – I’m a DNA Down Under Ambassador.  AND Yes – I’m so looking forward to attending DNA Down Under in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

In another blog I mentioned how the up-and-coming DNA Down Under shows had an unexpected side-effect – I was spending more time analysing my own DNA results and making some terrific progress.

Do you know how important it is to refresh the basics that we already know?

From following two of the speakers appearing at DNA Down Under via their Facebook Pages – Blaine Bettinger and Louise Coakley –  I’ve learnt again and again why it’s so important to test as many family members as possible.

I hadn’t forgotten about that but I wasn’t thinking about it enough – that is until this morning and boy did it hit home!

I’ve been a great fan of MyHeritage’s TOFR – Theory of Family Relativity.  That ‘unexpected side-effect’ blog explains my success with TOFR.  A recent update of TOFRs by MyHeritage saw my number of TOFRs shrink to four.  I was a tad disappointed but put it down to the fact that I had updated my tree on MyHeritage based on solving one of the puzzling TOFRs – and didn’t think much more about it.

So what happened this morning?  I got an email from MyHeritage saying that my sister-in-law’s DNA results were ready – earlier than expected.  She had asked me to manage her DNA Test and was possibly looking for half siblings.  She wasn’t sure she wanted to me them but was curious enough to do the DNA Test.  I know I’d be able to split her results into maternal and paternal – her son, my nephew had tested some time ago, as had her 1st cousin on her paternal side.

So as soon as I saw her results I started investigating her matches.  Already started flagging some as Paternal because of matches with her first cousin.

I hadn’t yet expanded our family tree to include her branch of the family although I have a lot of that on my desktop program and was thinking … I must add that before the next TOFR update by MyHeritage.  Of course she had no TOFRs at this stage which was to be expected.

For some reason I did some clicking – remember my title for this blog – Test more and Click more?????????

I looked at my nephew’s TOFR – and to be honest I don’t think I’ve looked at them before – too obsessed with looking and investigating my own TOFR.  So I should have been surprised but I was – he had 11 TOFRs!

That’s when it all came back to me – test as many people in your family that you can.  Of course I knew we would have different matches and of course chromosome segments because my brother (his father) and I had inherited different DNA from our parents.

I just hadn’t expanded that knowledge to TOFRs!

Hooley Dooley – do you know how much work I’ve got ahead of me????

On MyHeritage:

  • I have 5,295 matches
  • I have 4 x Theory of Family Relativity
  • My nephew has 5,276 matches
  • My nephew has 11 x Theory of Family Relativity
  • My brother has 6,278 matches
  • My brother has 14 x Theory of Family Relativity

I didn’t recognise the names of the people who matched the TOFRs but most of them appeared to go back to some paternal and maternal lines back to 3xgreat grandparents.

I’m starting to count up the hours between now and DNA Down Under – do I have enough time to check them all?  I hope so!

Remember the basics and don’t forget to go back and check them!

Hope to see you at DNA Down Under!

DNA Downunder – early bird closing

27 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in Events, Family History

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Has 2019 been disappearing very quickly for you too?

I confess I can’t believe that one third of the year is just about gone already.

I’m absolutely thrilled that I’ll be at the Melbourne 1-day event on Friday 23rd August and the Sydney 3-day event Thursday 29 – Saturday 31 August.

Early Bird discount bookings close on Tuesday 30 April so if you want to benefit from them you need to book NOW.

Blaine Bettinger is considered one of the world gurus on DNA and this will be such a great opportunity to benefit from his incredible knowledge.

I’ve also be fortunate to have heard some of the other speakers on the Sydney program – Helen Smith, Kerry Farmer, and Louise Coakley.  Our local Geelong Family History Group has been spoilt with TWO webinars by Louise Coakley and Heather Cox so I know I’m going to have a dilemma deciding on which sessions to go to – I just know that I won’t be disappointed whichever ones I choose.

Do I sound excited?  You bet I am.  I’ve been chatting to Blaine via Messenger since his participation was announced and he is so looking forward to bringing his two boys to Australia with him.  I’m also excited because DNA Downunder falls in our Australasian National Family History Month so August is going to be full-on for me!

By attending the Melbourne AND Sydney DNA Downunder events that means I’m doing DNA TO THE MAX!

You have a choice of:

  • A Single Day Event – DNA in your local city
  • Diving Deeper – a Journey through DNA in Sydney
  • DNA To The MAX – the ultimate DNA experience – your local city AND the Sydney event

As I said, I was excited when DNA Downunder was first announced and I was delighted when I was invited to be a DNA Downunder Ambassador.

The first third of the year has whizzed by and I KNOW the second third will disappear even quicker – by then we’ll all be talking about how much we’ve learnt about DNA testing and using those results to the MAX!  I can’t wait for #DNADU .