The lowest price ever is $36. You can order a DNA kit by clicking on the link above or going to MyHeritage DNA Sale.
Quoting from the emailed notice:
MyHeritage DNA is the ideal DNA test for genealogy thanks to our comprehensive set of genetic genealogy tools and the global spread of our user base. Testing additional family members is key to making progress with genetic genealogy, and this is the perfect opportunity to stock up!
I have been helping people recently that are beginning to solve some of their most difficult genealogical research issues using DNA testing results.
If you look closely at the date these records were added to FamilySearch.org, you will see that they are the same day that this post is being written. The process of adding all these records and thousands more each day is complex. It starts with a pile of paper documents in an archive or other repository of genealogically valuable records.
These documents need to be processed so that they can be digitized. This means unfolding and without damaging the document making it as flat as possible.
Once the documents are prepped, they can be made available to the volunteer/missionaries who are going to digitize each document.
The documents are then digitized (photographed) one at a time, one page at a time.
The images are stored on hard disk drives and then sent to Salt Lake City, Utah to FamilySearch. FamilySearch processes the "raw" images and eventually uploads them to the FamilySearch.org website in the Images section.
Eventually, the images stored in the Images section geographically and over time, are cataloged and indexed. Meanwhile, you can search through the images page by page. If you haven't looked at the images section of the FamilySearch.org website, you are missing a few billion records that appear only in the Images section and are not listed in the catalog or indexed.
If you need help finding these records, watch this video.
The Great Migration between 1915 and 1970 when over 6 million African Americans moved from the Southern States to the North, is one of the most dramatic movements of people within United States that has ever occurred, and it is almost completely ignored by historians and is unknown to most genealogists. My presentation focuses on the people and records from the 20th Century and the difficulty in connecting the individuals and families to the places they were living at the turn of the century. I also focus on discovering your ancestral heritage and how to acquire the skills and tools you need to research the existing historical records. I realize that for many researchers, extending research about African Americans into the 1800s is where the real difficulty begins. But success in doing research in the 1800s is predicated on complete and thorough research in the 1900s. Of course, I can only cover a limited amount of information in this presentation, but what I say here will be augmented by a six-video series and an extensive handout. My handout contains all the links to support the content of this presentation and the six supplemental videos and, in addition, an extensive bibliography. I will include some limited references to the historical resources before 1900.
The handout is available on the BYU Family History Website. Here is the link to the handout.
RootsTech 2024 is already beginning with monthly live presentations. July's theme is immigration.
I am scheduled for September, and I am sure there will be announcements made shortly. This will be my 14th year as a blogger/ambassador/influencer and now media person at RootsTech. It is not too soon to begin making plans to attend in person. There are new hotels in the area of the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City but for RootsTech 2023, the nearby available rooms were reserved early. RootsTech 2024 will be from February 29th to March 2nd, 2024 in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, if you are a participant speaker, exhibitor, or otherwise connected to the conference, activities will begin on February 28th. There may be some hotel specials for the conference as in past years.
Artificial Intelligence has been in the news lately because of some recent chatbot developments. Some of the news expresses concerns about the danger of AI to the future of mankind. These concerns date back to a book by Samuel Butler entitled Erewhone published in 1872. Watch this video about the impact of AI on genealogy with some comments about what can actually be expected.
Back in April 2023, I gave a presentation called "Crossing the Border: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors." Even though my videos are regularly posted to YouTube.com. I very seldom get comments. However, this video generated quite a few comments. Almost all the comments were reactions to a statement I made that America is a nation of immigrants or all of us in United States are descendants of immigrants. One response sums up the opposition to these statements, I quote:
This is absolutely wrong. Not all Americans are descended from immigrants. What foolishness. There needs to be a country to immigrate to for an arrival to the territory to be considered an immigrant.
Early Americans were explorers, settlers and, yes, pioneers. They built a great country out of wilderness.
Although the statement about the nature of the population of the United States has many possible sources, one statement stands out.
John F. Kennedy first used the phrase "a nation of immigrants" in an essay he wrote in 1958. The essay was published by the Anti-Defamation League and highlighted the contributions of immigrants to the United States. In 1963, Kennedy turned the essay into a book titled "A Nation of Immigrants" as he prepared to ask Congress to change the nation's immigration laws.
The comment made is somewhat indicative of many of today's attitudes and reflects the need to be in denial about the status of the country when the first European "explorers" arrived. Here is one statement about the pre-Columbian population.
Prior to the arrival of European explorers in the Americas in 1492, it is estimated that the population of the continent was around sixty million people. Over the next two centuries, most scholars agree that the indigenous population fell to just ten percent of its pre-colonization level, primarily due to the Old-World diseases (namely smallpox) brought to the New World by Europeans and African slaves, as well as through violence and famine.
Although there is a substantial amount of controversy and ongoing evaluation and discussion, the commonly held position of most Western European scientists' opinions about the native American population can be summarized as follows:
Scientists have found that Native American populations - from Canada to the southern tip of Chile - arose from at least three migrations, with the majority descended entirely from a single group of First American migrants that crossed over through Beringia, a land bridge between Asia and America that existed during the ice ages, more than 15,000 years ago.
I guess you could make and argument that migrant are not immigrants, but considering the fact that the scientists can't agree on the earliest date of arrival, with some estimates and claims going back 30,000 years or more, it is becoming easier all the time to claim that we are all immigrants. I guess should note that the concept of "wilderness" when speaking about both North and South America would have to go back before this newer estimate of 30,000 to 37,000 years. See “Humans Settled in North America about 37,000 Years Ago, Study Says.” n.d. Accessed July 11, 2023. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/03/when-did-humans-settle-north-america/10223278002/.
I guess my final observation is a question. Which group of immigrants to America in the last 37,000 can claim some priority for being here first?
What does this have to do with genealogy? I have spent the last three years helping hundreds of people look for and find their immigrant ancestors. Immigration research is the absolute key issue in research in both North and South America and I probably need to point out that the United States in not the only country in North America.
We’re giving free access to all 1.3 billion French historical records on MyHeritage, from July 12–16, 2023!
MyHeritage is one of the most comprehensive repositories for French records in the world, with 120 collections covering a vast array of vital records, newspapers and periodicals, and other essential records, as well as all the family trees from Filae. In the past year alone, we’ve added 51,252,583 records from France, including a massive collection of French censuses.
Here is a screenshot of the French record page from MyHeritage.com to give you an idea of what is available.
Because of my DNA test, I do have some French relatives, but I have yet to see how I am related to any of them, but I do benefit from the French records on MyHeritage when I help others do their own genealogical research.
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