Presenter: Lisa Tompson, Martin County Genealogical Society

When DNA results come in, people are often overwhelmed by the sheer number of matches and wonder how to use them in their family history. Lisa will explain two ways to sort your matches into four main groups, each representing one of your grandparents.

Topics: The focus will be on ancestry.com and its colored dots, and The Leeds Method, developed by Dana Leeds.

If you are comfortable sharing your family tree as an example, please bring a filled-out pedigree chart.

In addition, Lisa will have some time to consult with a few session attendees after the presention, as time and Internet connection permit. If interested, be sure to bring your Ancestry username and password.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Time: 9:30 a.m.

Presenter: Michael Godown, president, Indian River Genealogical Society

This is a high-level overview of leveraging genetic genealogy to advance your genealogical research with a focus on the “why” rather than the “how.”

Topics: Evaluating your personal Autosomal DNA research goals, ensuring the appropriate testing plan and service, reviewing key benefits of selected tools, and developing a personal action plan to achieve your research goals.

The presenter will include personal examples of optimizing a test plan, assisting adoptees, developing hypotheses for brick walls, and suggestions for continued education. 

Recommended: Watch the Beginner’s Introduction to DNA from IRGS.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 11 a.m.

Presenter: Joe Boriotti, Martin County Genealogical Society

This is an overview some of the analysis tools available for DNA research.

Topics: Tools available from the GEDmatch and DNA Painter sites and the concepts of segment and chromosome matching.

Skill Level: Advanced

Time: 1:15 p.m.

Presenter: Janene Zaccone, Martin County Genealogical Society

An overview of the storytelling process to help make it manageable and less overwhelming.

Topics: Making a plan, organizing your information, fleshing out bare bone facts from your genealogical research and tips to make the storytelling part of the process easier.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 9:30 a.m.

Presenter: Miles Meyer, director, Vero Beach Family History Center

Newspapers provide a daily glimpse into our ancestors’ lives and can afford genealogists exciting and compelling stories by digging a little deeper into the newspaper stories.

Topics: Types of newspaper content and the information we can learn about our ancestors, i.e., business ads for ancestor’s company, news coverage of an infamous ancestor’s exploits, society news, marriage and death notices.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 11 a.m.

Presenter: Deborah Halacy, Martin County Genealogical Society

Non-traditional sources of information can provide photographs, ephemera and other information about our families.

Topics: Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Substack and others. Picture and video sites, including YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram. Other sites that aren’t generally associated with genealogical research, such as Amazon, eBay, and various Google sites.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 11 a.m.

Presenter: Miles Meyer, director, Vero Beach Family History Center

This presentation will provide some of the sources for historic maps as well as the tools to use to build your own maps for your communities, adding a context to your research that increases interest and provides inspiration.

Topics: Importing map images (pdf, jpg, etc) into Google Earth so you can overlay historic information on current satellite imagery. Use of spreadsheets to import information from records, such as the census, into Google Maps. Use of timelines to map the movements of your ancestors within a town or across the globe. Adding your photos to Google StreetView to produce mosaics of the historic community. 

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 1:15 p.m.

Presenter: Gary Swain, Martin County Genealogical Society

A discussion of the genealogical value of a cemetery visit and the unique information that cemeteries have about our ancestors.

Topics: Methods to determine where an ancestor is buried, how to find the cemetery and how to locate your ancestors within the cemetery. Methods and tricks-of-the-trade for recording gravestone information through photography.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 1:15 p.m.

Presenter: Annette Burke Lyttle, president Heritage Detective LLC

Many records of genealogical value are hiding in places we might not think to look for them. How do we discover those hiding places? Like a prospector searching for the mother lode, we can employ a search strategy to help us uncover a gold mine of information in unexpected places.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 2:25 p.m.

Presenter: Annette Burke Lyttle, president Heritage Detective LLC

Filling out a search form on Ancestry only returns a small percentage of the millions of records available on the site. Learn how to search on Ancestry so you can find all records your ancestor may be mentioned in.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 11 a.m.

Presenter: Annette Burke Lyttle, president Heritage Detective LLC

FamilySearch has millions of records. Putting a name in the search form only gets you a small percentage of their indexed records. Beyond that, they have unindexed collections and other digital materials that will never show up in a general search. Learn how to dive deeply into FamilySearch’s record collections and come up with amazing finds.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 1:15 p.m.

Presenter: Miles Meyer, director, Vero Beach Family History Center

An overview of some of the little-known parts of FamilySearch that have been introduced recently and learn more about what is coming in the future.

Topics: New handwriting technology being used to index more records as well as some exciting secrets and previews of what is to come.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 2:25 p.m.

Presenter: Jack Cipriano, Martin County Genealogical Society

Topics: Starting your research with what you know and then working backwards.  What is available, documentation time frame and discussions on the 

documents you’ll find whether at your home or at the Family History Center. 

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 9:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.

Presenter: Jack Cipriano, Martin County Genealogical Society

Topics: This session builds on the information presented in Part 1 and will include computer presentations of live sites.

Skill Level: Novice +

Time: 11 a.m. and 2:25 p.m.

Presenter: David Attride, president, Martin County Genealogical Society

Many Americans have German ancestors but face a challenge in taking their research to the other side of the Atlantic.

Topics: How to find the hometown of your German ancestors and how to proceed with your research.

Skill Level: Novice

Time: 2:25 p.m.

Presenter: Phil Harvey, Stuart resident

A discussion of the people and history of the African American community in east Stuart, Florida.

Skill Level: All

Time: 9:30 a.m.