Mags Gaulden - Speaker Profile

Mags Gaulden

Talk Title: The Canadian Casualty Identification Program, Using Databases to Connect Families to Their Lost Soldiers.

Biography

Mags is a Professional Genealogist specializing in Genetic Genealogy as a founder of Grandma’s Genes in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Growing up in a family full of family historians, Mags was primed to become a Genealogist. After earning her Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia College, she began to work her own Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy as a “hobby”.

This 30 year “hobby” eventually led her to a Leader role with WikiTree where she currently leads The DNA Project, The US Southern Colonies Project, The United Empire Loyalist Project and the British Home Children Project. She also leads the Templeton and McElmoyle One Name Studies and The FamilyTree DNA WikiTree and McElmoyle DNA Projects. Mags is the former Genetic Genealogist for the Canadian Casualty Recovery Team where she worked to connect the remains of fallen soldiers from the first and second world wars and Korea with their living family.

She is a member in good standing of the Association of Professional Genealogists, The International Society of Genetic Genealogy, The Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, The Ontario Genealogical Association, The Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Association and BIFHSGO – The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa.

She is a Genetic Genealogy Lecturer, Blogger and a Social Media Maven serving as an admin for the several Facebook groups including the International Society of Genetic Genealogy Facebook Group.

What do you do as a Day Job? 

Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy are my day job. I work with Clients and help them answer questions about their family and family history. I also work with the Royal Ottawa Hospital and The University of Ottawa as part of the NETS (Narrative Exposure Therapy) Study. This study is designed to give vulnerable members of our homeless population a sense of self and identity through genealogy and genetic genealogy research. Beyond consultation and research I volunteer, speak and blog about genealogy and genetic genealogy across the globe.

What do you do as a Night Job? 

I guess my “hobby” part of genealogy would be working my family tree. The saying “the cobblers children have no shoes” seems very fitting here.

How did you get into genealogy?

I always laugh and tell people that my grandmother caught me as I was being born and started yelling my family names at me. This is pretty close to true. My Grandmother grew up in a “children’s home” in Columbia, SC and didn’t discover her true family, even her real last name, until she was 17. I grew up hearing about my families from my grandparents. In high school a distant cousin gave me some family research papers. I dove into them and I haven’t come up for air since.

Tell us about your involvement with genetic genealogy 

I can’t imagine being more involved in genetic genealogy. Working with WikiTree (a collaborative, free global family tree) to make genetic tools available to WikiTree users is one way. Being involved through my client work is an important way as well. But I also see that being involved with the genealogy and the genetic genealogy community through mitoYDNA.org or other volunteer opportunities like ISOGG (International Society for Genetic Genealogy) is also important. I guess what I am saying here is that it’s important to pay the bills, but it’s also very important to give back.

What will you be talking about?

These are exciting times for anyone who has a lost relative, no matter the reason for the loss. With advances in DNA retrieval and analysis, work is being done to identify the remains of individuals who have been found around the world. This process is very similar across all aspects of research, including law enforcement, the various Doe projects and even in the identification of lost military personal from historical and current conflicts. We will take a look at the work being done by the Canadian Casualty Identification Program as well as the use of DNA databases to help in the process. Are public databases being used? Is there a government database for these soldiers’ families to leave reference samples? Are there privacy concerns to worry about in this kind of work? If I give a sample will Law enforcement have access to my sample? Join me as we attempt to bring clarity to an exciting time in genetic genealogy.

Where can people get more information about you and the work you do?

Website: http://grandmasgenes.com/
Blog: http://grandmasgenes.com/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrandmasGenes
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/grandmasgenes/
WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gaulden-7
mitoYDNA: https://www.mitoydna.org/
mitoYDNA Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitoYdna/
mitoYDNA Facebook Users Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mitoYDNA/



These lectures are sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by volunteers from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).