Guide

[webwiz]

I am being pestered about what I want for Christmas. Has anyone bought this
https://www.yourdnaguide.com/your-dna-guide-the-book?int-link=blog-sidebar-button ?
Does it offer anything more than Peter's excellent (and free) Master Class?

 

[Helen7]

I have attended several of the author Diahan Southard's free webinars, which are certainly well presented and contain some potentially useful guidance. If you look her up on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/YourDNAGuide you can view some of these. Obviously, she's running a business and her paid-for courses are pretty pricey, but you might pick up some hints from the free presentations.
I haven't bought the book, so can't tell you how useful it is.

 

[peter]

She's a great presenter - far better than me. But sometimes less is more, and my approach is to keep things simple and straightforward - because that's what most people want.

 

[webwiz]

Well I may as well ask for it. It can't be less useful than another pair of socks.

 

[peter]

Well I may as well ask for it. It can't be less useful than another pair of socks.

I've read all of the customer reviews. Several talk about using the techniques in the book to identify who their matches are, but not one of the customers mentions using them to knock down 'brick walls'. (One talks about an ancestor who was adopted after their parents died in a fire, but doesn't make it clear whether the parents' identities are known.)

Experienced family historians take DNA tests in order to knock down 'brick walls', because DNA is the only source of evidence left once the records have been mined. If this book doesn't help with that then it could indeed be less useful than a pair of socks (though I may be biased - I went shopping for socks yesterday and couldn't find any that were sufficiently colourful).

Some of the customer reviews talk about Y-DNA and X-DNA, neither of which are relevant for those of us who use Ancestry.

If it was me I'd rather have an extra DNA kit for Christmas - you can never have too many cousins testing, and if you pay for the test they can hardly refuse to give you access to their matches.

 

[webwiz]

There are a couple of putative relatives for whom I would be willing to pay for a DNA test in order to confirm or otherwise the relationship on paper but neither will agree. Objections are a general suspicion of DNA testing and a fear that the result might prove that the paper relationship is wrong - indeed upset that there is any doubt about it in my mind. Are there any techniques for overcoming this reaction?

 

[peter]

There are a couple of putative relatives for whom I would be willing to pay for a DNA test in order to confirm or otherwise the relationship on paper but neither will agree. Objections are a general suspicion of DNA testing and a fear that the result might prove that the paper relationship is wrong - indeed upset that there is any doubt about it in my mind. Are there any techniques for overcoming this reaction?

If they're not curious about their ancestry, and not keen to help, I'd suggest you look for other cousins - it's hard to engender empathy where there is none. But you're likely to have over 100 3rd cousins, so there are plenty to chose from.