It’s that time of year where we look both backward and forward.
Thank you for your continued readership! Another year under our belts!
I always find it interesting to review the articles you found most interesting this past year.
In total, I published 97 articles in 2022, of which 56 were directly instructional about genetic genealogy. I say “directly instructional,” because, as you know, the 52 Ancestors series of articles are instructional too, but told through the lives of my ancestors. That leaves 41 articles that were either 52 Ancestors articles, or general in nature.
It has been quite a year.
2022 Highlights
In a way, writing these articles serves as a journal for the genetic genealogy community. I never realized that until I began scanning titles a year at a time.
Highlights of 2022 include:
- Multiple ancient DNA burial sites with Y and mitochondrial DNA results
- Being a guest on Shamele Jordon’s Genealogy Quick Start television program and the Research Like a Pro Podcast with Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder. I participated in several other special events with organizations in 2022 as well. (No wonder I’m tired.)
- Several RootsTech articles – RootsTech offered so much in 2022 – and 2023 is going to be amazing too, both in person and virtually. You can still view the 2022 articles here.
- Genetic Affairs released their amazing AutoKinship
- The East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference (ECGGC) launched for the first time in 2022 and will also be having a 2023 fall conference, October 6-8. Yes, I’m planning to present there too, hopefully in person.
- The 1950 census release on April Fool’s Day – I still can’t find my mother.
- The Million Mito team update and also the publication of the amazing haplogroup L7 discovery paper, plus an accompanying video. At year-end, the team was honored that our paper was included in the Nature’s Editor’s Choice Collection.
- Mitochondrial DNA webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. That’s still available along with hundreds of other titles, here.
- Ancestry’s SideView and that Ancestry only shows shared matches of 20 cM and greater which is very confusing for genealogists. Also, how to share DNA results and tree access with others, which is crucial for research.
- FamilyTreeDNA’s amazing DISCOVER Haplogroup Reports tool for Y-DNA launched. Not long after that, their Y-DNA tree passed 60,000 branches.
- Tips and tricks for working with Theories of Family Relativity at MyHeritage. What a great tool!
- I launched the new In Search Of series to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this blog. I then created a resource page that includes all six of the In Search Of articles to date, and there will be more in 2023. 2022 topics include:
- Downloading Match and Segment files at the various vendors
- Endogamy – how to tell if you have it and what to do
- Vendor Features, Strengths and Testing Strategies – these details change often
- Why connecting your DNA test (correctly) is important at each vendor and how to do it
- Tools to determine if your female ancestor was Native American, or not.
- Full or half siblings and how to tell the difference
- Big Y-DNA case study with a jaw-dropping outcome
- MyHeritage’s new artificial intelligence (AI) time machine lets you see yourself and your ancestors in period and historical settings. I’m still super geeked by this and you’re likely to see more from me about this in 2023. This is just pure fun!!
- Basic education critical for everyone about your chromosomes and genealogy. You can’t understand genetic genealogy without understanding this basic information, and why people who match you on the same segment may not match each other. Don’t be lulled into incorrect conclusions.
Which articles were your favorites that were published in 2022, and why?
Your Favorites
Often, the topics I select for articles are directly related to your comments, questions and suggestions, especially if I haven’t covered the topic previously, or it needs to be featured again. Things change in this industry, often. That’s a good thing!
However, some articles become forever favorites. Current articles don’t have enough time to amass the number of views accumulated over years for articles published earlier, so recently published articles are often NOT found in the all-time favorites list.
Based on views, what are my readers’ favorites and what do they find most useful?
In the chart below, the 2022 ranking is not just the ranking of articles published in 2022, but the ranking of all articles based on 2022 views alone. Not surprisingly, six of the 15 favorite 2022 articles were published in 2022.
The All-Time Ranking is the ranking for those 2022 favorites IF they fell within the top 15 in the forever ranking, over the entire decade+ that this blog has existed.
Drum roll please!!!
2023 Suggestions
I have a few articles already in the works for 2023, including some surprises. I’ll unveil one very soon.
We will be starting out with:
- Information about RootsTech where I’ll be giving at least 7 presentations, in person, and probably doing a book signing too. Yes, I know, 7 sessions – what was I thinking? I’ve just missed everyone so very much.
- An article about how accurately Ancestry’s ThruLines predicts Potential Ancestors and a few ways to prove, or disprove, accuracy.
- The continuation of the “In Search Of” series.
As always, I’m open for 2023 suggestions.
In the comments, let me know what topics you’d like to see.
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DNA Purchases and Free Uploads
- FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
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- 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health
Genealogy Products and Services
- MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – Genealogy software for your computer
- MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
- Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
- Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
- Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
- NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors
My Book
- DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
- DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
Genealogy Books
- Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
Genealogy Research
- Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research
