Ancestry classes?

Off Topic Maker Matters
#1

I have interest in my topsy-turvy ancestry but it’s all just stuff I find online and shove into my ancestry account.

I’m positive I come from a long line of pig farmers but according to the interwebs I’m apparently bankrolled part of the globe theatre, Nazis, vintners, a famous alligator killer, snake dancers, and someone that people got sooooo pissed at that they dug him up and cut his head off for all to display - damumn. That’s where I get it from.

Is anyone skilled in actually teaching this? I’m really quite curious and completely unorganized and I’m the only one in my family that seems to get excited about this type of stuff.

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#2

I’m interested in this also. Played some using the LDS site- free and fantastic.

My mom said lots of our ancestors were high strung, mainly from oak trees.

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#3

@LisaSelk was looking into her ancestry last year. Potentially it would be fun to get some of those 23 and me kits and we can have a class where we get together and share and interpret the results?
I’m not super big on ancestry, but having an abundance of data on the genetic makeup of makerspace members peaks my interest xP

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#4

That would be interesting to see, maybe frightening even, where our ancestors came from.

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#5

I just sent in my 23 and me kit. I’m eager to see the results!

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#6

The one good thing about coming from a line of Mormons is knowing exactly where you come from. Their literal religious obsession with genealogy does shed interesting light on one’s ancestry.

My dad’s dad’s mom’s uncle’s wife’s half-brother was Butch Cassidy.

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#7

I have a friend that has done a lot on hers, I wonder if she would be willing to teach some
classes is getting started> She lives in Allen but she does pottery at the Craft build which is now
on the other side of Carrollton

#8

My sister did the DNA thing from Ancestry. She found cousins on my Dad’s side we didn’t even knew existed. ( Who’d thunk it 52% Scandinavian) Before that my Mother in law looked up a lot. My other sister & cousin did a lot back to the 1850’s on my moms side.

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#9

Hey all. This is not an area I know a lot about; but being Mormon, as stated above, leads to me at least knowing many people who are skilled at genealogy.

There’s a couple in my local church who teaches how to use the various search sites and find your history…

If the space is interested, I could setup to have them come teach a class or series of classes. They may even be willing to just hang out and help people, they do that now anyway just not at the Makerspace.

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#10

That would great. I’m sure they’d look at it as part of their outreach - it very important to their faith.

#11

I did 23andMe … along with some younger members of the family. I was disappointed to learn that you can’t learn your paternal haplotype from your DNA if you are female (you can get your ancestry but not the evolutionary part). So since I only have one male relative, now I have to convince my brother to do this, too.

I’d be interested in classes though.

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#12

Tell him you’ll get it one way or other. He’d better never leave anything that’s touched his mouth within your reach.

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#13

Yes!! Please!!! Bring on the Mormons! (I said that because I don’t believe I’ve ever said that before)

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#14

I have a friend that did one of those tests and has reconnected with her birth mother and a whole branch of family she never knew this past summer.

She was given up for adoption as an infant and the records access for that far back was not possible, but apparently they were all looking for each other, this DNA stuff had a very strong match, they contacted, and it was a happy ending. One of my friend’s adult sons looks like a much younger twin of one of the new uncles. Uncanny

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#15

I am working on a class where you can do some lab work and have a small part of your mtDNA sequenced at UTSW, I think you may enjoy it!

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#16

I don’t know about teaching a class, but I’m here to answer questions you have.

I’ve been researching my family for about 30 years now and here’s a few things I’ve learned;

The Census record that says your great-grandpa was 3 is a lot more accurate to determine his age that his gravestone…

Other people’s Family trees really are not a good source of “Proof”.

The Dallas County Library is your friend, they have a whole floor dedicated to genealogy.

Visit the county court house where your family lived and even better where they owned land. Land records can be a treasure trove of information. You can have them mailed to you but the copy fees can get quite high…

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#17

I spoke to the couple today and they said they would totally love to teach a series of courses on genealogy / ancestry.

They suggested doing a series of 3 to 4 one-hour classes through which they would cover the various research tools online, locally, and help people start to do their own research. (They also suggested meeting in a space where there was internet and computers so that attendees could actively follow along… Had a small chuckle and was reminded how unique the makerspace was!)

Does a 4-week series in March sound good?
Preference on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays?
7:00-8:30pm or so?

@Photomancer
@John_Marlow
@uglyknees
@ anyone else who is interested!

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#18

I’m flexible on any of those days so will help meet others schedule.

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#19

Wednesday nights are my best days personally.

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#20

I can be flexible, but it’s easiest to get rooms on Mondays, followed by Wednesdays.

I like the idea of splitting it into multiple sessions so people don’t go glassy-eyed. However, I’m concerned that having three or four one-hour classes is probably too many sessions. I think that
(a) with that many sessions there is a high probability that life will intervene and some participants will have to miss one session (or more)
(b) some people come a long way and the round trip commute will be longer than the session.

I’d like to suggest that you consider two 1.5 to 2 hour sessions instead.

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