Gisli Palsson - Speaker Profile

Title of presentation - Icelandic roots and identities: Genealogies, DNA, and personal names.

Biographical details:

• Title - Professor of Anthropology
• Affiliation - University of Iceland
• Professional qualifications – B.A., M.A, Ph.D.

Membership

Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Day Job - Professor of Anthropology, University of Iceland

Night Job – Photography, sport & grandchildren

How did you get into genealogy?

Icelanders usually grow up with genealogies and family reunions. Family relations are strong and my parents kept records into the past. Long after I left my hometown, the Westman Islands, Iceland, I got passionately involved with genealogy when the Book of Icelanders – a pioneering online tool for tracking connections and family trees – was constructed. I was fortunate, as an anthropologist and a citizen, to follow the construction of the database and its use in genetics and by the public. This experience satisfied my personal curiosity and my anthropological interests in kinship relations and ideas of identity and belonging. One of the issues I have found fascinating is the design and visual metaphors of genealogical relations and their cultural differences across time and space. I have published extensively on these issues for the last 15 years, both academic books (Anthropology and the New Genetics, 2007) and magazine articles (“Spitting Image”, Anthropology Now, 2009).

Tell us about your involvement with genetic genealogy ...

I first got involved with genetic genealogy when I followed developments at deCODE genetics in Reykjavik, all of which are based on combining “deep” genealogies, more or less back to the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century, and genomic mapping. Apart from tracking the genetics of common diseases and their family connections, deCODE launched a project called deCODEme (now out of service), the first case of personal genetic testing services as we now know them (similar to 23andMe). Aside from this I was working on two rather different projects. One of them focused on Inuit communities in Greenland and Canada, addressing indigenous notions of family, relationships, and inheritance. In the Inuit view personal names are a key to identity and belonging, not hereditary material in the Western sense. I discussed the similarities and difference of what I called gene talk and name talk in my article “Genomic Anthropology: Coming in From the Cold?” (Current Anthropology, 2008). The other project relates to my biography of an enslaved man from the Danish West Indies who escaped to Iceland, via Copeinhagen, in 1802 (The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan, 2016). How, I asked, do the descendants of Hans Jonathan (now about 1000), presumably the first black person to settle in Iceland, relate to their African-Caribbean roots? Interestingly, Hans Jonathan’s genome has now been largely reconstructed by anthropologists at deCODE genetics, drawing upon the genetic signature of his living descendants and the Book of Icelanders.

Tell us about your presentation ... 

I will be talking about the genealogical database The Book of Icelanders and the DNA testing of the people of Iceland, how these have helped reconstruct the genome of a runaway Caribbean slave who became an Icelandic merchant in the early 1800s, and the quest of his descendants for roots and identity.

Topics

Icelanders, genealogies, deCODEme, The Book of Icelanders, personal names, Hans Jonathan

Relevance to Ireland & Irish genealogy
1. It may be useful and interesting to compare the cases of Iceland and Ireland. How is the use of, and interest, in genealogies different?

2. Genetic research shows that there are significant Irish signatures in the genetic makeup of modern Icelanders, thanks to Norse travels through Ireland. As a result the two contexts may have lots in common.

Questions addressed during presentation:
1. What has driven Icelanders’ interest in genealogies, how have they been assembled and used, and to what extent has their significance been altered with digitalization and the new genetics?

2. How have genealogical records and genetic databases helped the reconstruction of the genome of a runaway Caribbean slave, Hans Jonathan (1784-1827) who settled in Iceland, and the quest of his descendants for roots and identity.

This year, the four lectures on Friday afternoon (including Gisli's lecture) 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.

Links & Further Information

• Profile on Academia - https://hi.academia.edu/httpstarfsfolkhiissimaskra874
• Background of Hans Jonatan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jonatan
• Reconstruction of Hans Jonatan's genome - http://eurotast.eu/services/esr11-computational-reconstruction-of-hans-jonatans-genome/
• RESCUE Scientific Steering Committee - http://archives.esf.org/coordinating-research/forward-looks/life-earth-and-environmental-sciences-lee/current-forward-looks-in-life-earth-and-environmental-sciences/responses-to-environmental-and-societal-challenges-for-our-unstable-earth-rescue/scientific-steering-committee/gisli-palsson.html
• Anthropology and the New Genetics (2007) - https://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-New-Genetics-Departures/dp/0521671744/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
• The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan (2016) - https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Stole-Himself-Jonathan/dp/022631328X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504665242&sr=1-1

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

Donna Rutherford - Speaker Profile

Talk Title - Introducing Y-DNA for autosomal DNA testers

Background - I'm a New Zealander with English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. Many of my family were New Zealand pioneers.

Member - ISOGG, GOONS, NZSoG

Day Job - I work in the Technology Industry as a Global Business Operations Manager, currently working mostly in the Cloud Technology space. I'm professionally an Accountant, but worked mostly in IT Management during my career.

Night Job - Running our DNA facebook group, writing blogs, and chasing down those DNA matches. I co-admin the Rutherford Project and have a Rutherford one-name study. I manage DNA kits for several friends and family.

How did you get into genealogy?

As a teenager I loved the stories from my great aunt about her early life in New Zealand and why our family had left England. Many family members passed down handwritten genealogies and family bibles that were invaluable in starting my own research. In the 90s I wrote my own family tree database and whilst it wasn't a particularly good bit of software, by today's standards, it did the job and got me more interested in the technology side of genealogy.

What about your involvement with genetic genealogy?

At the beginning of 2015 I decided to take an Ancestry DNA test. Once I got the results I spent all my spare time immersing myself in YouTube videos, blogs and facebook groups learning about DNA for Genealogy. It basically changed my life, as I then set about testing on other sites and testing all my family. Since then I've become co-owner and admin of a DNA facebook group where I've been helping people with questions about their own results. Last year I became co-admin in a Y DNA project (the Rutherford project). I now manage Big Y tests, MtDNA and many many autosomal kits. I specialise in trying to make the complex side of DNA testing easy to understand for people who are new to genetic genealogy.

So what will you be talking about?

Many DNA testers have started with autosomal DNA testing. For these people Y-DNA is still a mystery. This talk is aimed at those already using genetic genealogy but are curious about Y-DNA testing. I will explain the Y-DNA test and results in basic terms to help those starting out.

What DNA tests will be discussed?

The talk will cover all three basic DNA tests - Y-DNA, mtDNA, and atDNA.

Where can people get more information about you or your topic?

My Blog:   http://donnarutherford.com/
My Facebook DNA group:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestryUKDNA/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Previous talks by Donna at Genetic Genealogy Ireland

GGI2019 Belfast: Managing your DNA Matches ... Our DNA matches have been rapidly increasing. We are uploading to other sites, testing more of our family, and getting more matches as the databases grow. It's all good news, but we need to be able to manage all these matches to get the maximum benefit from our DNA test. This talk will look at the increasing database sizes, how we can upload to other sites for more matches, and then how to manage all our information. We will look at the tools on the test site that help us manage matches, and also how to use other tools like spreadsheets, DNA Painter, and even our own family tree to keep all our information in order.

GGI2018 Dublin: DNA testing for Genealogy – The Basics ... This introductory talk on DNA for genealogy outlines how the different type of DNA tests can help your research and which one is best for the particular research question you have in mind. I cover how to get started, how the tests work, and which test is best for you, using case studies of each type of test.

GGI2018 Belfast: Game of Genes: DNA of characters from Game of Thrones - The genetics of the Game of Thrones characters. This will be a unique presentation that delves into the DNA results of characters from the Game of Thrones TV show. Although the characters are fictitious, details about their DNA can be applied to our research and understanding of our own genetics. What could we find out if we distributed DNA kits across Westeros, the Iron Islands, Essos and even beyond the Wall.

GGI2017: 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 use of their investment in a DNA test. My 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.



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

Margaret Jordan - Speaker Profile

Title of Presentation: Y-Chromosome DNA and the Ireland yDNA Project

Membership

I am a member of the Accredited Genealogists of Ireland ... http://accreditedgenealogists.ie/margaret-jordan-bsc-h-dip-ed-m-a-g-i/

Day Job

My background is in science and mathematics and I taught in a second level school until I took early retirement in 2006. I live in Co. Cork, Ireland. I am now a Professional Genealogist.

How did you get into genealogy?

I started researching the Irish side of my family tree in 1997. My father was fostered and with very little paperwork to go on, it proved very difficult to make progress so I turned to DNA in 1999.

What about your involvement with genetic genealogy?

Over the years, I became more and more involved in using DNA in family history research. I was involved in setting up the O’Shea yDNA Project in 2003 and the Ireland yDNA Project in early 2006. 

So what will you be talking about?

This presentation will be about the evolution of the Ireland yDNA Project (see http://www.familytreedna.com/public/IrelandHeritage/) and the data which we are now able to extract from it. The talk will look at the major y-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 Family Tree DNA.

What DNA tests will be discussed?

Y-DNA primarily

Where can people get more information about you or your topic?

For more information just click on the links below:

• www.familytreedna.com/public/IrelandHeritage/
• http://accreditedgenealogists.ie/margaret-jordan-bsc-h-dip-ed-m-a-g-i/

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

Speakers announced for GGI2017 (Dublin, Oct 20-22)

The line-up of speakers for Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2017 were announced today. This is the fifth year of the annual genetic genealogy conference and the topics included in this year's series of DNA Lectures illustrates how this new science is continuing to evolve and develop at quite an amazing rate. There are many new speakers at this year's conference, and this in itself will keep it fresh and engaging.

Each day will start off with an overview of the basics of DNA testing and how it can help your genealogical research. This year we welcome two new speakers to this slot - Ann Marie Coghlan from the Cork Genealogical Society and Donna Rutherford, who runs the Facebook group "DNA help for Genealogy". They will join Michelle Leonard who wowed audiences last year with her wonderfully straightforward and easy to understand presentation on how DNA can help your family tree research.

Now that DNA testing is becoming more commonplace, many more people need help interpreting their results. And to help them with their Y-DNA results, John Cleary and myself each have a presentation in this regard. In addition, James Irvine will be using the example of his own individual Surname DNA Project to illustrate what a powerful tool Y-DNA can be in researching your surname. We also are privileged to have Dave Vance from the USA speaking about his SAPP Programme which is a fantastic piece of software that will help surname project administrators generate Mutation History Trees from the data in their projects. In effect, this will help us build family trees for entire surnames, from their origins to the present day.

For the interpretation of autosomal DNA testing, we have a selection of atDNA aficionados including Paddy Waldron (Clare Roots Society), Debbie Kennett (author & blogger), and (all the way from the USA) Roberta Estes, who writes the world-renowned blog "DNA Explained".

We also welcome back Peter Sjölund (ISOGG, Sweden) who last year gave a very popular talk on Viking DNA and its links with Ireland. This year Peter will be discussing "The Power of mitochondrial DNA" and no doubt will be using some of the excellent examples from his own Swedish genealogical research. You can see Peter's excellent talk from GGI2016 on our dedicated YouTube Channel here.

We also welcome back Margaret Jordan, also of the Cork Genealogical Society. Margaret spoke at GGI2013 and it will be great to have her back to discuss the current status of the Ireland Y-DNA Project (currently over 7600 members strong, making it the largest Irish genetic project in the world).

Margaret's talk will nicely complement the much anticipated presentation of the (almost?) final results of the Irish DNA Atlas project. This is a joint collaboration between the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the Genealogical Society of Ireland. Over 200 subjects have been recruited from all over Ireland and their autosomal DNA sampled. Each participant must have 8 great grandparents born within a relatively strictly defined geographic area. As a result, the study gives us a snapshot of autosomal DNA in Ireland from about 1850, just after the Great Famine. Ed Gilbert has tantalised us with snippets of information and updates on the projects progress over the past 2 years and we look forward to welcoming him back for this exciting climax.

In addition to Ed's talk, Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri (who heads the Irish DNA Atlas team at the RCSI) will present on the results of an associated part of the study, namely the DNA of the Irish Travellers. The results of this allied study were published by the team earlier this year in the journal  Scientific Reports (a Nature Publishing Journal).

We also have an array of international academic speakers included in this year's event, and a big thank you has to go to Professor Dan Bradley (Trinity College Dublin) for facilitating this. Dan will be giving us another exciting update on the ongoing work of his ancient DNA lab, including the results from additional analyses on neolithic genomes. Another member of his team (Eppie Jones) will be speaking about ancient hunter-gatherers in Ireland. 

And we are delighted to welcome two new speakers to GGI2017 - Professor Gisli Palsson from the University of Iceland, and Professor Hannes Schroeder from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Gisli will be talking about the genealogical database The Book of Icelanders and the DNA testing of the people of Iceland, how these have helped reconstruct the genome of a runaway Caribbean slave who became an Icelandic merchant in the early 1800s, and the quest of his descendants for roots and identity. And in an allied talk, Hannes will be discussing the work of the EUROTAST team which is exploring the genetics of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

There is lots to see at this year conference and I am very much looking forward to the privilege of chairing the event.

See you in Dublin in October!

Maurice Gleeson

June 2017

GGI2017 returns to Back to Our Past

The dates for Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2017 are 20th to 22nd October 2017 (Friday to Sunday) ... so be sure to put those dates in your diary. As always we will have a fantastic lineup of speakers and a few surprises!

Another couple of dates for your diary are Friday-Saturday 16th-17th Feb 2018, because that is when Back to Our Past will be launching at The Titanic Centre in Belfast for what should hopefully become an annual event. Genetic Genealogy Ireland hopes to have a presence there also, bringing you an array of speakers with a focus on the genetic genealogy of the north of Ireland.

Things just continue to get bigger and better!

Maurice Gleeson

March 2017

The Latest News on Back to Our Past View this email in your browser

Back to Our Past returns to the RDS, Dublin and is coming to the Titanic, Belfast!

Back to Our Past in the RDS in October has grown over the years into the world's pre-emient event for showcasing Ireland's past, heritage and traditions, while also providing visitors with a unique opportunity to trace their Irish roots.. all at the same time..all under one roof! Back to Our Past Belfast And due to numerous requests from both exhibitors and the general public alike we are delighted to be able to announce will be coming to the world's most popular tourist attractions, The Titanic, Belfast, next February.

Also Featuring...Antique Valuations with Eric Knowles, a series of free presentations and much much more! To Make A Stand Enquiry Click Here We have redesigned our Back to Our Past website and want to update it on a regular basis with latest news stories plus topical and relevant articles from the field of genealogy/family history Send Us Your Genealogy Article/News Item Here

The Tribes of Galway make a comeback!

Back in 2013, during the first annual conference of Genetic Genealogy Ireland, we had a wonderful presentation from Adrian Martyn on the fourteen Tribes of Galway, based on his extensive research. There was a huge amount of interest in the topic then, and there has been ever since, with over 2000 people viewing the YouTube video of his presentation online. 

For many years now, Adrian has been working on publishing a book of all his research and I am delighted to announce that this eagerly awaited publication has now been realised. You can order your own copy via Adrian's website on the link below. This would make an excellent Christmas present (for yourself or others) and comes highly recommended.

Here is what Adrian says about the book on his website:

"Fourteen families from the medieval Irish lower-classes rose to become Galway’s prime merchant families, nicknamed the tribus Galvia in the 1600s.

The families of Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, Font, French, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martyn, Morris, Skerrett, have been THE TRIBES OF GALWAY ever since.

Over the course of four centuries, they and their fellow Galwegians survived and often thrived against warlords and sieges, during economic booms and busts, times of plenty, famine, and plague. All within Europe’s most westerly urban settlement. This is their story."

Some of Adrian's academic papers can be downloaded and read free of charge from Academia.edu. And here is Adrian's presentation from GGI2013 ... it starts at 1 minute 22 seconds, so skip ahead to the good bits! You can view a larger version on YouTube here.

Maurice Gleeson

Dec 2016

Some great publicity ...

We had a huge interest in the DNA Lectures at Back to Our Past this year from a variety of radio and TV stations. This was a major change from previous years and a very welcome one too. Radio and TV reaches a very different audience to that engaged in social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Below is a selection of the TV and radio interviews that took place prior to GGI2016 and feature myself, Ann Marie Coghlan and Paddy Waldron. We also had some news coverage in the popular press, including this article in TheJournal.ie which has already been viewed over 24,000 times.

16th Oct 2016, thejournal.ie

First of the radio interviews is a very comprehensive piece put together by the Morning Ireland programme on RTE (Ireland's national radio station). Will Goodbody, Science and Technology Correspondent, discusses the advent of genetic genealogy and specifically the DNA Lectures at Back to Our Past. Mike Mulligan from Ancestry also features in this clip (click the image to listen).

Pat Kenny is an institution in Ireland, being one of Ireland's premier radio & TV personalities. Pat interviewed me on his Newstalk programme and we covered a huge range of topics in the 15 minute spot including how DNA can help adoptees, the anonymity of sperm donors, identifying the remains of WWI soldiers, and the Irish genetic footprint in the Caribbean. Click the PLAY button below to listen.




Myles Dungan has run The History Show on RTE Radio 1 for many years and has a wide audience. Myles interviewed myself, Ann Marie Coghlan (DNA Corcaigh), and Paddy Waldron (Clare Roots Society) about genetic genealogy and the success stories we have had. Click the image to listen.

Lastly, I appeared briefly on the 6pm National News on RTE television discussing the 3 main types of DNA testing. It's good to see that Irish Genetic Genealogy is beginning to make national headlines in Ireland.

Maurice Gleeson

Nov 2016