The table below, summarising this years DNA Lecture schedule, only gives you a tantalising taste of what is to come. But have a read of the descriptions of each of the talks below and you will truly appreciate what a great line-up of speakers and topics we have for you this year!
The Speaker Profiles for each of the presenters can be accessed via the
Speaker Profiles page and give biographical information as well as further links & resources associated with each of the speakers and their particular topics. Bookmark this page if you are coming to the conference so you can refer to it during the day.
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The DNA Lecture schedule in a nutshell
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Friday 20th October
11.15 - Introducing DNA for family research
Why should we add DNA to our personal genealogy
toolkit? Ann Marie explains the basics of DNA testing and how we can use genetic
genealogy research in understanding not only our own personal family history
but also our community history. This is an excellent talk for complete
beginners who have never tested before, and a great refresher for those who
already have.
12.00 - Making the most of autosomal DNA
Autosomal DNA testing is a useful tool for the
family historian. It can be used to confirm existing genealogical relationships
and to reunite us with our long lost cousins. This talk will cover some of the
basic concepts of autosomal DNA testing and look at strategies for working with
your results. We will also look at some of the third-party tools and resources
that are available to help you.
13.00 - What do your Y-DNA Results mean?
Y-DNA is extremely useful for
learning more about a particular surname and where it came from. It can
reconnect you with cousins on your direct male line, identify a place of
ancestral origin, and even tie you in to specific genealogies in the ancient
annals. In this talk, Maurice will take you through your Y-DNA results and help
you understand what you are seeing. The next step will be to join the
appropriate surname projects, haplogroup projects, and geographic projects.
Maurice will discuss how Project Administrators analyse your results and how
this can benefit your own genealogical research.
14.00 - Icelandic roots and identities: Genealogies,
DNA, & personal names
Gisli is Professor of
Anthropology at the University of Iceland. He will be talking about the
genealogical database The Book of Icelanders and the DNA testing of the people
of Iceland. Interestingly, these have helped reconstruct the genome of
a runaway Caribbean slave who became an Icelandic merchant in the
early 1800s. Gisli will discuss the quest of his descendants for roots and
identity, a common desire for many people interested in family history. Genetic
research shows that there are significant Irish signatures in the genetic
makeup of modern Icelanders, thanks to Norse travels through Ireland. Gisli
will compare and contrast the approach to (and interest in) genealogy in Iceland
and Ireland.
15.00 - The Genetics of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Hannes is Assistant Professor
of Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen and one of the lead
investigators on the EUROTAST project which explores the genetics of the
TransAtlantic Slave Trade. Hannes will
discuss the work of the project, why it was started in the first place, what we
have learnt, and implications for future research. The project focused
on three themes: Origins, Life Cycles, and Legacies, which
led to further detail on the slave trading system, but also helped demonstrate
how slavery fundamentally shaped the cultural and biological experiences of
people of African descent around the world.
16.00 - Ancient DNA and the Genetic History of
Europeans
Eppie is a Research Fellow at
the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin and will discuss how the ability to recover DNA from ancient human remains is
transforming our understanding of the past. In this presentation we will look
at how information from millenia-old bones is harnessed and what we can learn
from studies using ancient DNA. In particular, we will explore how events which
happened thousands of years ago have shaped the genes and traits of people
living in Europe today.
17.00 - Prehistoric genomics at the Atlantic
Edge
It is now known from ancient genomic
investigation that massive migrations were part of cultural transitions in
European prehistory. It is interesting to discover if Ireland and Portugal
underwent these massive migrations. This lecture explores the evidence for such
migrations and discusses the implications of the results for understanding the
origins of modern populations and the languages they speak.
This year, the four lectures on Friday afternoon were made
possible by the kind support of CITIGEN, a HERA Project. CITIGEN is an international collaborative research project
that looks at the uses of modern and ancient genomic data in shaping public
understandings of the past and our individual and collective identities.
Saturday 21st October
11.15 – Autosomal DNA testing for beginners
Understanding DNA results can be
confusing and complex. If people can learn how to read and understand their
results, they will get the maximum benefit from their investment in a DNA test.
Donna’s talk will breakdown what a DNA test is, how it works, and how to
interpret the results. This will be an easy to understand overview that
beginners can feel comfortable attending without any previous experience with
DNA. Experienced users most welcome, and hopefully they may pick up some tips
and tricks too.
12.00 - Using Y-SNP Tests in Surname & Family
Projects
It is 4 years since FTDNA introduced
their new Y chromosome sequencing test, the Big Y. This talk will review
how this popular test has transformed surname projects in this time, and how
the ‘SNP tsunami’ has upended and transformed the shape and size of the Y
chromosome haplotree. Strategies and useful utilities for making sense of
the results of Big Y testing will be presented and discussed through a variety
of cases where breakthroughs have been made, or new questions answered, about
families, names and their origins.
13.00 - The Power of Mitochondrial DNA – a Swedish
perspective
Mitochondrial DNA, the DNA of your
mother’s mother’s line, is often underrated by genealogists but has proved very
useful for genealogical research in Sweden and neighbouring countries. Peter is
one of the founders of the highly successful Swedish Society for Genetic
Genealogy and will present success stories from Scandinavian genealogy to show
you how to use mtDNA effectively in your own genealogy and how to find your
prehistoric relatives.
14.00 - Ask the Experts – topical issues in Genetic
Genealogy
Panel Discussion
Come and ask any question you
want to our expert panel. Find out what are the hot topics in Irish genetic
genealogy. Discover the face of the brave new world that is fast approaching
and where we will be in 5 years time. Panellists include Gerard Corcoran,
Katherine Borges, Debbie Kennett, John Cleary, Peter Sjölund, & Roberta
Estes, among many others.
15.00 - Using Triangulation to Break through your
Irish Brick Walls
Triangulation is a simple
process whereby you focus on a particular ancestor and try to break through the
Brick Wall at that particular level in your family tree. It simply means
testing yourself and one or more cousins who are descended from that particular
ancestor. Maurice will discuss the completely unexpected breakthrough that recently
resulted from using the technique in his own family tree research, and will
take you through a step-by-step approach to how you can use the technique in
your own genealogical research.
16.00 - Family Trees with SAPP - Automated from STRs,
SNPs & Genealogies
How can you continue building
your family tree when your ancestors run out? Dave Vance explains how he is
automating the process whereby STR markers, SNPs, & known genealogies can
be used to build a "Mutation History Tree" within the context of a
surname project. Soon every surname project administrator will be able to build
such trees for the larger groups within their surname project. And for the
individual genealogist, this means that for particular ancestral lines, the
lineage will extend beyond your Brick Wall using DNA markers instead of named
ancestors, potentially back to the origin of the surname itself.
17.00 - Nine Autosomal Tools at Family Tree DNA &
How to Use Them
Roberta is one of the most
eminent genetic genealogy educators in the world. In this talk, she will cover
tools to help you interpret your autosomal DNA results. Did you know that
Family Tree DNA provides customers with 9 different tools for autosomal DNA
matching and analysis? Did you know that you can use these in combination with
each other for even more specific matches. Not only that, but within these
tools there are lots of ways to utilize the various features. This talk will
explore several different scenarios and different approaches to solving brick
walls.
Sunday 22nd October
11.15 - DNA is Dynamite - How to Ignite your Ancestral
Research
This will be a talk for
beginners giving an overview of the basic information required to
understand the three main types of DNA testing available for ancestral
research. Michelle will explain how each test works and talk you through
the first steps you should take once your results arrive. She will provide
easy to follow hints and tips on how to get the most out of those results and
apply them to your ancestral mysteries. Practical real-life examples will
illustrate how DNA testing can be used to connect with previously unknown
cousins and confirm the accuracy of your family tree.
12.00 - Genomic insights into the history of the Irish
Travellers
Gianpiero is Associate
Professor of Human Genetics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The
Irish Travellers are a population with a history of nomadism; consanguineous
unions are common and they are socially isolated from the surrounding,
‘settled’ Irish people. Previous work suggests a common Irish origin between
the settled and the Traveller populations. What is not known, however, is the
extent of population structure within the Irish Travellers and the time of
divergence from the general Irish population. This talk will discuss how
genetic data can shed light on these questions, with a presentation of results
from recent analysis of large genetic datasets generated from Irish Travellers,
European Roma, settled Irish, British and European or world-wide individuals.
No photos during this presentation please.
13.00 - Y-DNA & the Ireland yDNA Project
Margaret is one of the
Administrators of the Ireland yDNA Project which has over 6000 members with
reported Irish ancestry. This presentation will discuss the evolution of the
Ireland yDNA Project and the data which we are now able to extract from it. The
talk will look at the major Y-DNA haplogroups found in the project and some of
the smaller ones as well. This presentation will show how this Y-Geographical
Project links up with relevant Y-Haplogroup Projects, other Y-Geographical
Projects and Irish Surname Projects, which are all run through FamilyTreeDNA.
14.00 - The Irish DNA Atlas Project
Ed will be presenting the
final results of the Irish DNA Atlas project, which has used genome-wide
autosomal genetic data to reveal a fine scale population structure within
Ireland, and found genetic evidence of historical migrations into Ireland. The
Atlas is being run as a collaboration between the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland and the Genealogical Society of Ireland. This work has provided
valuable information on the history of the Irish population and compares the
genetic makeup of the Irish to that in neighbouring Britain, as well as
mainland Europe. It also provides fresh insights into our understanding of the
role of DNA in various diseases within Ireland. No photos during this
presentation please.
15.00 - Autosomal DNA Through the Generations
This talk will explore DNA
through the ages - literally! What might you be able to do with DNA
matching if you had 4 generations to work with? What could you learn? Looking
at how DNA is inherited through multiple generations of the same family is the
perfect way to learn about the principles of inheritance. It might also pique the interest of your children or grandchildren – what a fun project to undertake with them.
16.00 - Surname DNA Projects - a holistic approach
James is the Project
Administrator of a large surname project, the Clan Irwin Surname DNA Study.
There are now 450 participants, including one subgroup of nearly 300 members
who all share a common ancestor within the surname era, possibly the largest
such branch in any surname project. Thanks to nearly 100 of these members
taking Big Y or SNP Panel tests, the project has been able to use SNP data to define
a branching structure for a “family tree” which extends down to and within some
conventional Scottish and Irish family trees. James will illustrate the various
lines of research that a Surname Project can promote by integrating data from
Y-STR tests, Y-SNP tests (single SNP and SNP Pack), Big Y tests, autosomal DNA
tests, surname diaspora and conventional family trees.
17.00 - Match Making in Clare using Y-DNA & atDNA
Lisdoonvarna in County Clare
is still famous for its annual matchmaking festival. In previous
centuries marriage in Clare and elsewhere was always an economic rather than a
romantic transaction. Paddy will talk about some of the surprising trends
in arranged marriages revealed by genetic genealogy. As co-administrator
of the Clare Roots project, Paddy meets and greets members of the project when
they visit Clare and introduces them, not to prospective spouses, but to
long-lost cousins in Clare. Most of these meetings have provided new lessons
about DNA matching which will feature in his talk. Another type of match making that genetic
genealogists engage in involves matching up (a) the oral traditions passed down
through the generations, (b) the archival sources used by traditional
genealogists and (c) the DNA evidence that often reconciles them, but sometimes
refutes the oral tradition. Paddy will include many examples illustrating
these points, using both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA.
These lectures are sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by volunteers from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).
