Research Like a Pro with DNA, a new book by Diana Elder AG, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin

 

Research Like a Pro with DNA

 

By Diana Elder AG, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin

With a forward by Paul Woodbury

 

Published by Family Locket Genealogy

https://familylocket.com/

 

This book is an offshoot of the long running Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast by Diana Elder, AG and Nicole Dyer. It also follows a best-selling book Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide. See Elder, Diana, and Nicole Dyer. 2018. Research like a pro: a genealogist's guide.

 

If you have a difficult ancestral problem, especially in your first six generations or so back, you need to consider whether DNA testing would help solve the problem. Genealogical DNA testing is no longer something new. It is a well-developed method for resolving genealogical “brick walls” caused by a lack of historical records. This book has been written from the standpoint of solving real-world problems. The explanations about the basics of genealogical DNA research are extensively covered. Each of the authors has written her own section of the book and each section builds on the strengths of the others. This is not a book for fast, light reading. It is a dense discussion of the basics with more than ample examples of how the basics apply to actual genealogical situations.

 

It is evident that the authors have personally used DNA testing in a variety of ways to resolve more types of situations than most people will ever encounter. In addition, there are also explanations of how to use a substantial number of the current websites and apps that complement DNA research. You can tell from the how-to examples of solving actual problems that the authors have used a wide variety of research tools. This book goes well beyond a simple beginner’s book to incorporate procedures that really do help you research like a pro.

 

For example, there is an extensive discussion with abundant example about starting with a research objective, including source citations (with a helpful list of major reference books on citation format), analyzing your sources and explaining and documenting your findings in a professional-level Research Report which could then be turned into a journal article for publication. There are also sections showing how the Research Report can be adapted to a potential journal article with suggestions for where the article could be published. 

 

The authors also encourage research logs and admonish readers to carefully document their research.

 

As an introduction and a future reference book, it is as complete as possible. DNA and the supporting genealogical research into existing records are co-dependent and this book shows how both can work together to solve difficult research relationship issues.

The book is available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle editions.