Video Link    When genetic genealogy websites hand you lemons, write your own programs. What tools should we consider to be the minimum standard for genetic genealogy?  

  Validate    So, you think you’ve got a rock-solid family tree. Think again. You will never know how good or bad your family tree is until you validate with DNA matches.

Video link    Y our ancestors lied. Your parents probably lied to you when they said, “Don’t have sex before you are married, we didn’t “.  I call BS.  Look at your family tree and you can find all the shotgun weddings.  Take the date of first-born child minus their marriage date and oops, do the math.  Then your family starts lying about those dates not knowing that the genealogists in the family will eventually have access to the records.  A family tree based on lies is a work of fiction.  It is our job as genealogists to get to the facts, whatever they may be.

Video Link      One of the best things I can do for my family tree is to validate every branch using DNA.   If you are like me, my first family tree was based on anecdotes and genealogical records only.   Good bad or otherwise.      For every surname in your tree, you should be able to find DNA matches to confirm the connection.  You should be able to validate at least 5 or 6 generations back.  If you can’t validate, you may need to test your siblings or cousins to give you a more diverse set of matches.  If that still doesn’t work, you might have a hidden adoption or illegitimacy issue.  You probably have a genetic gap in your tree.      Time to start looking at your mystery group matches for means, motive and opportunity.

  Video Link     Is your family tree healthy? Too many people build their trees by copying from someone else’s tree.   Zero references.   I see people making connections from a child to parents based on the name only.   “Oh look, that name is close enough. Those must be my great grandparents.”   Nope.      Just a little more research would have shown that the child in the birth record used died a few years later and couldn’t have been your ancestor.      Try, please try to get as many record references as possible.  Otherwise, your tree looks like Frankenstein’s monster with parts that don’t fit.  Double and triple check your connections before you move on.  OK, and no more stumps, fill something in!      You’re making more work for me to fix it.  I’m done, I’ll get off my soapbox.