Friday 11 November 2011

DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century

Debbie Kennett's excellent new book about genetic genealogy and the networking revolution has now been published. Debbie is to be commended in articulating in a very skilful manner what can potentially be a challenging field for the family historian.

Debbie is an active member of the Guild of One-Name Studies and runs several vibrant DNA projects such as the Cruwys surname project and the geographical DNA project for Devon.

The topic of chapters in the first section include: the basic principles of DNA testing; surnames and the paternal line; before surnames - haplogroups and deep ancestry; the maternal line - mitochondrial DNA tests; cousins reunited - autosomal DNA tests and setting up and running a DNA Project.

Section two includes: traditional genealogical networking methods; genealogy social networking websites; general social networking websites; blogs; wikis; multimedia and collaboratives tools. There are also four appendices: DNA websites; Testing companies; DNA Projects and Surname resources.

All in all a thoroughly helpful resource for the newbie to the field as well as the seasoned genealogist.

The Scottish DNA Project gets a mention on page 37 within the Surnames and paternal line chapter.

It is well worth subscribing to Debbie's Cruwys blog and read more about her book here.