Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys spend some time gushing over a new, free toy that everyone can play with… DNAPainter.com. This new site makes the task of chromosome mapping a copy-and-paste snap. Hear what the guys have to say about it. Then it’s news of the parting of an American World War II icon. Find out who passed and her impact on America. David then provides a fascinating bit of math which explains “pedigree collapse,” as noted recently by noted blogger Dick Eastman. You will find the whole thing instructive! Then, the first trial is underway in Europe over the “right to be forgotten.” When someone has something ugly in their past, that perhaps was resolved or was not their fault, is it fair that the news of the event stays in search engines forever? That’s the debate that may affect the preservation of history. The guys will tell you more about it. David’s Blogger Spotlight this week shines on J.R. Lowe, a history student at the University of Washington. See what she’s writing about at GenealogistJournal.com.

Next, Fisher catches up with his friend CeCe Moore, the Genetic Genealogist, and a regular on “Finding Your Roots” with Dr. Henry Louis Gates on PBS. CeCe shares her take on anticipated new developments in DNA for 2018 and how they may affect your research efforts. CeCe also gives us a peak into the new season of “Finding Your Roots.”

Then, Tom Perry, the Preservation Authority, gets us ready for RootsTech. Listen as he and Fisher reveal an incredibly fun, historic demonstration you will want to see at this year’s conference in Salt Lake City, February 28- March 3.

That’s all this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show!

Transcript of Episode 224

Host: Scott Fisher with guest David Allen Lambert

Segment 1 Episode 224

Fisher: And welcome genies, it’s Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show and ExtremeGenes.com. It is Fisher here your Radio Roots Sleuth on the program where we shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall out. This segment is brought to you by 23andMe.com/DNA and surely it is the year of DNA in 2018. And we’re hearing that from all our guests so far this year. And later on in the show today two great segments with one of America’s foremost DNA experts CeCe Moore. And CeCe is going to have a lot of insight to share with you talking about using your matches to break down brick walls and some of the things that you can do. And I’ll share with you and her some of the things that I’ve been dealing with in doing exactly that and get some of her feedback that might be of good use to you. Hey, just a reminder by the way if you haven’t done it yet, sign up for our Weekly Genie Newsletter. It is absolutely free. We post my blogs there each week plus a couple of great radio shows, one of the current ones, one of the old ones and of course some links to some great stories. We’ve got thousands of people already there, and we would love to have you along. And you could sign up also for our Patron Club at ExtremeGenes.com or just go to Patreon.com/ExtremeGenes. And for less than the price of breakfast at McDonalds, you can wind up with all kinds of great benefits like early access to shows, our “Ask Us Anything” sessions on YouTube every month and bonus podcasts as well. So, we’d love to have you join us right there. And joining us right now is my good friend from Boston. He is the Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org, David Allen Lambert. Hello David.

David: Hey Fish, things are great in Beantown and I just want to know how much of your free time was eaten up by DNAPainter.

Fisher: Ugh. Last week we recorded the show and afterwards David said, “Oh, there’s this new thing I’ve been playing with. It’s called DNAPainter.com. It’s in Beta and it allows you to do chromosome mapping. Now this is kind of a 404 level thing. I’ve talked to Kitty Cooper about this in the past. She’s a big time DNA expert and it looked really complicated and I thought, well that’s one of those things that’s going to have to wait till I’m retired... which I may never do. And as a result of this, David, I was DNA chromosome mapping within ten minutes and it was absolutely fantastic, so thanks for the recommendation.

David: You know what I found that’s so dynamic about it is that you’re allowed to overlap. So, if I share a segment of DNA with one relative and I have a smaller match with another, the different color coding allows me to pinpoint the ancestor, the first I got a sample from. It’s great!

Fisher: It really is and it’s an amazingly easy thing to do. You copy, you paste. That’s about it. Other than that you pick the color code for the ancestor it comes from and you type in the name of the person who matches and you use GEDmatch.com. If you’re not familiar with that and you’re getting into DNA, you need to know about GEDmatch. Also, you could use MyHeritage and 23andMe, but of course because they have the beginning and ends of the segments that you match on, things like that. So, as you get in on this, those are the places if you share your DNA to, that will give you the information you need to create this map.

David: It’s so easy, a kid could do it.

Fisher: [Laugh] Yeah, it’s true.

David: And you know, I tell you, we really had a brothers’ conversation about it now, but if you listen to the Patreon Club conversation, we were talking about it most of the evening, interacting with our members.

Fisher: That’s true. That’s true, and of course you can see that through Patreon.com/ExtremeGenes. All right, our Family Histoire News today, what do we have David?

David: A bit of sweet and sad news. Naomi Parker Fraley who we talked about before has died at 96. The name may not mean much to most people, but if you know who Rosie the Riveter is she’s the person it was modelled after.

Fisher: That’s right. Just passed away a few days ago, and the other thing that’s interesting is they only were really able to identify her last year sometime.

David: That’s true. In fact, they suspected that it was another person, so who knows if another Rosie the Riveter will show up any time soon. Well, you know we deal with numbers in genealogy and if you use the Ahnentafel number which is German for ancestor table you can know that you’re number one, your father is two and your mother is three, and so forth and so on. So, you can get some really high six digit numbers sometimes, whether they’re your numbers or your ancestors, but have you ever stopped to think of how many ancestors you have? Dick Eastman has done a wonderful piece in his Online Genealogy Newsletter and it was how many ancestors you had a thousand years ago. It’s about forty generations and twenty five years a generation and that will give you... are you ready for this Fish?

Fisher: Yeah.

David: Two trillion, one hundred and ninety nine billion, twenty three million, two hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and fifty.                                                                                   

Fisher: No, no I don’t think so!

David: [Laughs] Well, there’s a great thing called pedigree collapse. Well, chances are as I tell my kids, you’re never alone in a room because you’ll always be with family yourself. Your own cousin.

Fisher: That’s right.

David: So, there probably were not two trillion people a thousand years ago that you can choose from and I don’t think they make a chart that big. [Laughs]

Fisher: Right, and that’s only for one thousand years. I mean, come on.

David: How about ten thousand, a hundred thousand years?

Fisher: [Laughs]

David: Well, it just goes to show you we’re never done with genealogy. Let’s call in the archaeologist next.  

Fisher: Exactly.

David: Well, you know as we do more and more things online, people are always saying let’s Google ourselves. Well, how about if you don’t want to? And this is the case with the “Right To Be Forgotten” trial going on in the UK right now for people who have had criminal records that are now either closed or have been determined that it was not their fault don’t want that search ability.

Fisher: And who can blame them, right? You go look for jobs or maybe you’re creating a relationship with somebody and they look you up and go, “Oh, don’t think so.”

David: Exactly and I think Judy Russell has talked to you about this before. And that really is a privacy issue but then is it becoming a provisional history? What do we add and not add to the online searchability of history? I mean, my grandfather was a bootlegger. Do I want to go back and expunge his arrest in 1930 for dealing in alcohol? It’s very, very confusing. This week’s blogger spotlight goes out to J.R. Lowe. She is a student at the University of Washington. She’s a history student and her blog, great name for it, genealogistjournal.com. And she talks about the adventures of researching her own ancestors as a college student, investigating both history and genealogy. It’s a great entertaining blog and it also shows you how you can create one yourself. Remember, if you’re not a NEHGS member, we’d love to have you as a member and you can use the code “Extreme” from Extreme Genes on your check out code to save $20. Well, that’s about what I have for news here in Beantown for you today, Fish. Catch you soon.

Fisher: All right, thanks so much David. And coming up next, one of the pre-eminent DNA specialists in America, CeCe Moore talks about what’s happening in DNA in 2018 coming up next on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show.

Segment 2 Episode 224

Host: Scott Fisher with guest CeCe Moore

Fisher: Boy we’re hearing it everywhere, 2018 is the year of DNA. And so we’re starting out the year with all kinds of conversations from all kinds of different experts in the field. And there is no greater expert than my next guest my good friend, CeCe Moore. She is the Genetic Genealogist. Welcome back to the show CeCe! 

CeCe: Hi Scott, it’s so great to be here again. I always love being on your show.

Fisher: Well, we love having you, and this segment by the way is brought to you by MyHeritage.com. CeCe, 2018 is upon us, what do you see happening this year in DNA?

CeCe: Just an incredible burst in DNA matches thanks to all of the sales that the DNA companies had over the holidays. It seemed to be the gift of the year.

Fisher: Yes! [Laughs]

CeCe: So many people got DNA gifts, [laughs] it’s great for us and we’re starting to see those roll in. In 2016 over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, we couldn’t believe how many kits sold. I think it was five hundred and sixty thousand for Ancestry DNA. And this year there was three times more than that just with that one company.

Fisher: Yes.

CeCe: And all of the companies recorded record sales. So that means millions of people tested just in the last quarter of 2017. So we’re seeing those results roll in. If you haven’t checked your DNA matches lately, go look because you are bound to have a lot of new ones.

Fisher: Yeah that’s right. And I’m thinking that a lot of these results are going to be coming in over the next few weeks since a lot of folks could have been actually sending in the tests over the holidays. And you think back, CeCe, was it like three years ago, maybe four, I know it was early in the history of Extreme Genes that we were touting the fact that, oh, this company or that company is finally at a million samples! I think FamilyTreeDNA was there and Ancestry caught up with them, and then it was 23andMe, and now of course, we’re seeing actually some matches starting to show up with My Heritage and especially a lot of European matches for people who weren’t expecting those.

CeCe: Yes. I think MyHeritageDNA, I think they sold five hundred thousand kits, I just read, over the holidays as well. Five hundred or six hundred thousand don’t quote me exactly, but it was a significant number and I believe they also surpassed a million testers, which for a newer company it’s pretty incredible.

Fisher: Very fast.

CeCe: So it shows where we’re at.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: It used to be when a company started up they would really struggle for a while, and now DNA testing is so popular a new company enters the arena and did a good job with their marketing and their offering they can just jump in with the rest of them. I wrote a blog a few months ago saying that MyHeritageDNA was the “fourth pond” because I know we said we needed to fish in all three ponds with the big DNA testing companies.

Fisher: Yep.

CeCe: My Heritage DNA very quickly joined into that, which I thought was interesting and really does say a lot about the state of our industry.

Fisher: You know, over the holidays I was part of this thing. I had my brother and my half sister in town and I hauled them each out of the festivities over the course of the week that they were visiting with everybody. We had like nineteen people in the Hotel Fisher. And I said, “Hey, hey come here, you’ve got to come in here.” “Well what’s this?” “Well, you’ve got to spit in the cup” and so I got my brother to do it, I got my half sister to do it, and so this all ties into my father’s side because my half sister has another mom. But those half siblings, they’re fantastic aren’t they, because you can really separate out the matches that you share from the mothers side.

CeCe: Yeah. You’re lucky to have one! If any of the listeners have half siblings I’d definitely get them tested because it allows you to zero in on just that side of the family. It’s terrific. Have you gotten the results back yet?

Fisher: Yeah, I just got the results back from each a few days ago. One came in on Thursday and the next came in on Friday and I wound up spending most of the weekend going through and picking out matches that they had that I did not have. Some of them we shared across all three of us, and there were others that two of us had and one of us did not, and then just onesy, twosies. It was like, “This is amazing!” And what’s really exciting about that is the confirmation you get on certain branches. For instance, I went back to a third great grandfather and I pulled down all these descendants over the course of time because you figure hey, if you run into some of these names in your matches you’ll know where it’s coming from. And I had this one granddaughter of a third great, and she had married, it looked like it was the same person but I couldn’t be entirely sure. So I had it in my notes about this person. And then, here comes a DNA match to one of my siblings to that daughter with the name that I wasn’t sure of. So, they didn’t have the ancestor, I didn’t have the descendants but the DNA put us together and now I know that that daughter was indeed married to this man and the family descended this way. And now, having been in touch with the tester, I was able to share with her where her line goes. And I’ve confirmed that ancestor through DNA, which is very exciting.

CeCe: Isn’t that incredible? When I’m doing my research every day, I can see the potential of so many long-standing brick walls falling.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: I don’t have time of course to do all of it, but I know that for many, many long times genealogists they’re going to be thrilled when they find the answers to these questions that they’ve been researching for decades.

Fisher: Decades, yeah.

CeCe: They are in the DNA. The answers are there waiting exactly like the one you just described. I see things like that all the time where you look at the public family trees and you can see there’s a discrepancy. They think the mother was one person versus another, or the maiden name was one thing versus another, and maybe half the tree will have one and half have the other. And I can very clearly see the answer in the DNA. It’s right there. We can resolve so many of these questions, these long standing mysteries. It’s just such an incredible thing. I often find myself exclaiming, “I love DNA!” [Laughs]

Fisher: [Laughs]

CeCe: It’s so much fun.

Fisher: It makes it fun to wake up in the morning doesn’t it? Or stay up really, really late at night.

CeCe: It sure does.

Fisher: I was up till one in the morning the other night doing this stuff and I’m thinking, “Oh I’m going to pay for this tomorrow” but it’s also hard to let go of because you know where you’re at and it’s hard to pick it up again, you know, on another day or something. So, let me ask you this CeCe... this is kind of what I figured out with these matches now. I’ve got my brother and myself and my half sister, of course we’ve got these different matches, so what I decided to do was make a little chart, where I have the names of the ancestors over to the left. So I list there the name of the ancestor and then each of us at the top, and then underneath I go through and I put the name of the match and whether they match me or my brother or my sister, or all of us, or two of us, and keep track then of how many matches I get out of each ancestral couple that way. Does that sound like a sensible thing to do?

CeCe: Wow! Yes, that is wonderful. I mean it’s a lot of work but once you have that all organized and together, you’ll be able to easily see patterns where you’re getting lots of matches to one branch, and maybe you won’t get matches to one of the branches. You’ll realize that there’s some sort of misconstrued parentage or some error in the paper trail. So I think what you’re doing is a perfect way to organize it. You know, I find there’s a lot of struggle in organizing our genetic genealogy because there’s such a huge amount of data, and everyone sort of finds their own way. There isn’t any one set way that everybody uses.

Fisher: Right.

CeCe: Hidden tools work better for some people. Some people love spreadsheets, like maybe you do?

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: If you’re used to working with spreadsheets that’s a terrific way to do it. Visual aid I find helps so much. And it’s still an open field, as in there’s still a lot of room for innovation and growth.

Fisher: Well, and the thing about this is I’m thinking okay, if I have the names of the people and do they match me, my brother, or my sister, and they come from this ancestral couple, then when I find matches to them, for instance, who don’t have a tree, and it says oh we share this match, then I have an idea of which branch to the family that particular match comes from, even though we don’t have their family tree on there.

CeCe: That’s exactly right. And I use the shared match features every day consistently for that reason. If you get a new match in, if it doesn’t have a tree, if you don’t recognize the name, a lot of people just ignore it. You don’t have to do that. If you run the shared matches and you’ve already identified the common ancestor for some of your other matches, it’s really easy to see which branch of the tree that fits into.

Fisher: So let me ask you this, because I was thinking about this the other night and I thought you know, it’s getting way too late, I’m thinking kind of weird here. I’d find the shared matches and it would have a list and most of them have no tree on there at all, and then I’d say okay, well, why don’t I look for this shared matches from among the shared matches. Does that work for you consistently?

CeCe: Yes. In fact, I just gave a presentation at our Institute for Genetic Genealogy Conference in December called “Creating and Utilizing Genetic Networks.” That’s exactly what you’re describing. So if you are working on say the results of an adoptee and you haven’t been able to identify any of the common ancestors yet because you don’t know their family tree.

Fisher: Right.

CeCe: Then I’ll do exactly what you’re saying. I’ll starting picking out the top matches, running shared matches on those matches, and then running shared matches on the shared matches. And by doing that you can create a sort of genetic network where you know that this group of matches all match each other, or mostly match each other, they must all share common ancestral lines. And then you can have genetic network number two where you have another grouping of matches that match each other, you know that’s another branch of the tree.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: And that’s actually how I resolve most of these adoption cases now.

Fisher: Really?

CeCe: Yeah.

Fisher: So you’re telling me, I’m very, very smart! [Laughs]

CeCe: You are! [Laughs] You figured it out. That’s really the best way to learn. People always ask me, “How do I learn? What are great educational resources?” The best thing you can do is test yourself and your family members and then you dive into that data.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: Start working with the resources that are offered, the tools that are offered by the companies. I don’t even use third party tools very much because I find that the companies offer some really great tools on the sites.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: And I can accomplish so much with just those that I often don’t have to go anywhere else. So, yes, you’re very smart! You figured out what has taken me years to develop! [Laughs]

Fisher: [Laughs] I love that! I’m going to just save that little piece of audio right there. We’ll make a promo out of it, “Fisher is very smart.” Hey, I’m talking to CeCe Moore. She’s the Genetic Genealogist. Can you stick around for another segment, CeCe?

CeCe: Yes, for sure. I’d love to.

Fisher: Let’s get into it, coming up next in five minutes on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show.

Segment 3 Episode 224

Host: Scott Fisher with guest CeCe Moore

Fisher: We are back! It is Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show and ExtremeGenes.com. Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth and this segment is brought to you by FamilySearch.org. My guest today is CeCe Moore. She is the Genetic Genealogist and we’ve just been talking about the boom that just took place over the holidays where they probably sold more DNA kits than they did in all the companies combined over the first what, three of this whole era, CeCe?

CeCe: I think so. And for a long time we were just reaching for that millionth person tested goal as you mentioned. Now it’s flown by.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: As soon as we got to it is right around the time when things just picked up and flew past it. It’s an amazing time to be part of genetic genealogy that’s for sure.

Fisher: I’m thinking if you totalled up what all the companies have done combined, obviously the big one for DNA is Ancestry right now but if you put them all together and the immediate and amazing growth of MyHeritage we probably at ten million tested people around the world.

CeCe: I think we’re well past ten million.

Fisher: Really? How far?

CeCe: I’m not sure but I bet we’re more like twelve million, I would guess.

Fisher: Okay.

CeCe: You know Ancestry DNA always lags a little in their announcements. When they announced seven million, I think they usually almost at eight million.

Fisher: Okay.

CeCe: They’re pretty conservative when they say how many they’ve tested. So, I think in that database alone we’re closing in on ten million very soon.

Fisher: Well, we were talking in the last segment about matches and matching your matches, and finding the matching matches of the matching matches and that type of thing.

CeCe: [Laughs]

Fisher: Which is you know, I will not lie to anybody who has not started this. It’s tedious work! I mean, you have to really have a goal in mind in what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re trying to prove as far as the paper trail goes. How do you manage because it’s very sedentary CeCe, to just be sitting there working on that stuff all the time, it’s like, “My gosh, I’ve got to get up and move at some point!” Do you have one of those stations where you can raise your computer up and stand during that time?

CeCe: You know, that is really funny that you asked because I have been looking at ordering one. But in the meantime, recently I have been standing at my counter with my laptop.

Fisher: Ah!

CeCe: And then I also have one of those exercise balls so I’ll go back and forth standing, sitting on that, and then sitting in my favorite spot on my couch with my laptop. I have to admit in the last couple of years I have spent way too much time sitting comfortably on my couch with my feet up, with my laptop working.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: And I just read a couple of studies that said if you sit more than eleven hours a day you are more than forty percent more likely to die in the next three years.

Fisher: Um hmm.

CeCe: So that is why I just recently started standing, had some sore feet the last few days from doing it. But I think it is important to remember, and I really have a struggle staying in shape now because I get so into my research.

Fisher: Yeah, that’s true.

CeCe: I love it, and I won’t move for hours on end.

Fisher: [Laughs]

CeCe: But I’m that close to solving it right, you’re right on the edge of solving it and as you mentioned earlier I have a lot of late nights.

Fisher: Yeah.

CeCe: A lot of early mornings where I’ll have work to do the whole night and it’s 6 am and I’m still up because when you get on that.

Fisher: You can’t leave it because if you leave it you’re going to forget where you were the next day and it’s going to take a long time to pick it up and the other aspect of this is, you know, I’ve made this commitment especially to Julie, I’m going to get out and we’re going to exercise together.

CeCe: Yeah.

Fisher: You know five days a week and all this and then its like, “I’m so tired. I can’t go tonight.” Because you know I’ve been researching, or blogging, or doing whatever it may be. So it was just interesting to get your take on how you manage that. Sounds like you have the same struggle as the rest of us.

CeCe: I do. You know, over the years I’ve been doing this I’ve gained so much weight [laughs] from exactly that, from just being stationary and sedentary. And then as you know I shattered my shoulder this summer.

Fisher: Yeah, ugh.

CeCe: And I’ve had a long recovery. So I’ve been going for physiotherapy two to three times a week. And my physiotherapist was asking me, “Did you do the exercises you were supposed to do at home?” It’s like, oh, no, I was on this case and I couldn’t get myself way from my computer and he just kept telling me you’ve got to get up. You have to get up every hour. You’ve got to be moving around. You’re just going to get stiffer and stiffer and not be able to use that right shoulder.

Fisher: Ugh.

CeCe: Well, if I couldn’t use my right arm I wouldn’t be able to do any of the research. So it’s kind of forced me to get up and try to move around more.

Fisher: And behave yourself a little bit, yeah.

CeCe: Yeah, and as awful as my accident was, I have to say the positive side of it is that it has made me more aware of that, that I have to get up and more around more. We all have to.

Fisher: Hopefully we don’t all have to go through something like you’ve gone through to have that experience and realize, wait a minute. [Laughs]

CeCe: No. I’ll be the example for all of you, let me tell you! [Laughs]

Fisher: [Laughs] All right. Hey, we’ve got a few minutes left here and I want to talk about Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, who is going to be a speaker by the way, coming up at RootsTech and you’re going to be part of that this year. And of course you’re part of the show (Finding Your Roots] as well. Let’s talk about this season and your role in that.

CeCe: So, we just wrapped up Season Four as most of you probably know, and what I most enjoyed about it was being able to integrate the DNA research more thoroughly into the paper trail and making it a more integrated part of the script. So, the formula for the show from the beginning was that they do the paper trail and then they get to the end and they do the DNA reveal. And I very much have wanted to kind of combine those more and change the formula a little bit. And thanks to the power of DNA I’ve been able to do that because it’s become more and more important in telling guests their stories and in solving their family mysteries. And the research team and the producers have all really come to understand how much can be accomplished with it. And over the years I’ve worked there, I’ve done a lot of educating and also just demonstrating by the work I have been able to do. So, now when we have a guest, one of the first things that asked is, “Are there any mysteries that could be addressed with DNA?” And we’re already researching for Season Five right now and I can tell you we’re finding some amazing things in DNA. The growth of the database is just making it better and better, and better. I’m literally jumping up and down some nights, in the middle of the night like we mentioned. [Laughs]

Fisher: [Laughs]

CeCe: With things that I’m finding that we’re going to be able to tell our guests about, that we never could have uncovered without DNA, particularly, our African American guests. I’ve seen such promise for putting some of these broken family branches back together.  I think it’s just incredibly exciting, incredibly promising. It used to be that I could very often find a slave owner who is in a genetic family tree. So I was able to accomplish a lot with the European side of their family but not so much with the African side. Now, I’m actually finding enough African American test trees in there, in some cases even test trees from Africa that I’m starting to make some significant gains on the African family branches.

Fisher: Isn’t that exciting?

CeCe: It’s so exciting. I mean, if you’re a researcher involved in African American research, you absolutely need to be digging into that DNA. If you’re an African American who has the typical brick walls of slavery, I can’t tell you how much hope and potential there is in genetic genealogy for learning more about your family trees.

Fisher: She’s CeCe Moore. You see her on PBS in Finding Your Roots. She is the Genetic Genealogist. Best way for people to follow you, CeCe?

CeCe: Well, I have my DNA Detectives Facebook group which is almost eighty thousand people now. And it’s primarily people with recent unknown parentage, adoptees, donor conceived, but it’s also lots of people looking for an unknown grandparent or great grandparent, or if you’re just interested in seeing the power of genetic genealogy, come join the group. See the work that we’re doing. It’s pretty cutting edge. And I have my website, TheDNADetectives.com.

Fisher: All right. So great to talk to you again CeCe, thanks so much for coming on! Have a great 2018. And talk to you again... I hope in a few months.

CeCe: Oh for sure! Thanks for having me. I always love being on your show.

Fisher: And by the way, if you haven’t started doing your DNA yet, don’t let this talk intimidate you in any way. You’ll poke around. You’ll figure it out and you’re going to make some amazing discoveries. And coming up next we’re going to talk to our Preservation Authority Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com, on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show.

Segment 4 Episode 224

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry

Fisher: It is time to talk preservation on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show and ExtremeGenes.com. My name is Fisher, your Radio Roots Sleuth. And this segment is brought to you by LegacyTree.com Genealogists, and Tom, good to see you again. I'm kind of excited because we're coming up on RootsTech and you've got a lot going on there.

Tom: Oh, it is so exciting. I'm so looking forward to RootsTech this year. We'll be doing some new things we've never done before.

Fisher: Now RootsTech for those who are not familiar is the world's largest family history conference. It’s in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s coming up February 28th and March 1st, 2nd and 3rd, it’s like four days. And last year, they had somewhere around 28,000 people attend this thing. It is the biggest conference in the world! And then you can even watch streaming classes. I'm going to be teaching a couple of classes there. David Allen Lambert is going to be as well. I'm going to be moderating the DNA panel that's going to take place there. But at your booth, there's going to be some really fun stuff happening at TMCPlace.

Tom: Oh, absolutely. One of the coolest things is, we talked about wax recordings and wire recordings, in our booth, we'll setup a time, and let you know when it will be on a later show. We're actually going to put one of our blank wax cylinders in our Edison and we're actually going to make a recording live there.

Fisher: That's right. And this is going to be really fun. I've seen it done before. You really have to yell into this thing, because it’s not particularly sensitive to put a little vibration on a wax cylinder.

Tom: Oh it’s pretty much mechanical, like there's hardly any electronics involved in it at all. You've got to scream.

Fisher: You've got to yell into it, which is why everybody sounded so old and different. They sounded like a deaf, old man. [Laughs]

Tom: Exactly, exactly!

Fisher: Why, that's practically me!

Tom: [Laughs]

Fisher: In the audio world all these years. So yeah, I'm looking forward to this and we'll do the demonstration. And I think you're at the south end of the Expo Hall, I'm not sure.

Tom: When you first walk in the main doors, we'll be off to the left, back about two or three rows. And we're doing another cool thing this year. We're going to have an island. We'll have like four booths instead of our single booth like we've done before. And I ran into a guy at IO technologies when we did some fairs across the country and he's got some massage devices that you can get that are like, if you've had acupuncture. And we're going to have chairs there where you can come, take a load off your feet, put your feet in one of these things or if you have a hurting back try it out. There's no charge. We're just doing it as a convenience for our friends, our listeners to come and kind of relax and get kind of their energy back.

Fisher: Boy I think that is absolutely well thought out, Tom. [Laughs]

Tom: It’s going to be awesome.

Fisher: That Expo Hall is so big and there's usually over 300 booths there. It’s huge! So you just want to come and be a part of it, but then come by Tom's place and you can relax your feet.

Tom: Exactly. There's not a lot of places to sit down unless you want to go clear to the cafeteria area. So just stop by our booth, take a load off, relax, have some time to just get yourself back and get ready for your next class.

Fisher: And if you're thinking, "Hey, I've got to get out and go to this conference," you can do so by signing up and finding out all you need to know at RootsTech.org. And of course you can also do a search for RootsTech 2018. It’s one word by the way, RootsTech.

Tom: Oh absolutely. And the neat thing too is, they're going to have an app this year, just like they did last year. So download the app on your Smartphone, and before you ever get on the airplane to fly out to Salt Lake, just go though and pick out what your most important booths are, the way you want to do it, and then you'll know what you're going to hit, then go to those first and don’t get distracted by all the other whistles and bells and carnival rides and things like that that are going on.

Fisher: [Laughs]

Tom: You want to get focused on what you want to do. And the once you get those things done, then you can go and browse and take your time and look around and see new technology. But that way you're not going to get home and say, "Oh, I didn't know this was there and I missed it." So this is a great opportunity to totally plan out your visit and make the best use of your time.

Fisher: Yeah, it’s going to be a great way to go. And you've got to think about this ahead of time, almost like you would any other trip somewhere. You want to maximize your time. Your time is your currency. And so you can get the knowledge that you need, maybe on the issues that you're dealing with in your family history research.

Tom: Absolutely.

Fisher: Now you have something really fun going on with that mad professor, Marlo.

Tom: Marlo is the guy behind Heritage Collectors that makes the best software in the world to take what we've done for you and turn it into something that you can actually use. And maybe after the break, we can talk some more about it.

Fisher: We'll tell you about it in three minutes on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show.

Segment 5 Episode 224

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry

Fisher: All right, we're back! We're talking preservation with Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com, he is our Preservation Authority. It is Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth. And we're talking about RootsTech, because this is going to be so much fun, coming up February 28th and March 1st through 3rd in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Salt Palace Convention Center. And it is the largest family history conference in the world! People come from everywhere. They had 28,000 people come through last year. Classes and booths at the Expo Hall and all kinds of great speakers. Scott Hamilton, the ice skating Olympian is going to be among them this year. Dr. Henry Louis Gates is going to be speaking this year. And you're going to want to be a part of it. But Tom, at your booth this year, you and the mad scientist, Marlo, the guy behind Heritage Collectors are going to be introducing a brand new bit of software.

Tom: In fact, this is so cool. You older people like me, we have this new software that Marlo's going to be releasing at our booth that is absolutely incredible. It’s going to be “family preservation for dummies.”

Fisher: I love the sound of that. [Laughs]

Tom: Oh, it is so great! I mean, Marlo is, you know, he is a mad scientist.

Fisher: Yes, he really is!

Tom: And he has come up with things that are going to be absolutely incredible that you'll be able to take all your home movies, your videotapes, all these different kinds of things, integrate them together. And the neat thing is, it’s going to be able to work on iPhones, it’s going to work on iPads, there's going to be software involved that you can use on a PC, all these different things are going to be integrated. So you can get your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids all involved in it, because it’s going to be a fun thing. It’s not like, "Oh, we're going to sit down and look through microfilm." This is something that is so cool. They're just going to have a ball doing it.

Fisher: So talk about this thing with the one button for this, the one button for that.

Tom: Right. Any of you that had the computer for dummies, it’s called a Telikin. It’s basically a touch screen. And if somebody wants to talk to their grandkids, they touch the button that says grandkids. They want to email somebody, they touch the email button. You don't have to know how to do anything except push the power button on. Everything's going to be right there in front of you. There's going to be amazing instructions. There’s going to be even videos to show you how easy it is. You're not going to have to go online to learn something. You're not going to have this learning curve. There's not going to be a big manual. It’s basically see, touch and go! It’s just absolutely incredible software.

Fisher: Wow! And you know, that's going to be so much better to get seniors comfortable with using some of this stuff, because that's going to help us get more from them.

Tom: Oh exactly.

Fisher: That we can preserve, you know.

Tom: In fact, one of the greatest things I've ever heard you say is, "Every time somebody dies, a library is burned." And so these old people that come into our store, I always talk to them about, "Hey, let's transfer your film, and make sure you get out a ledger pad, write some notes and narrate your film, so your great grandkids one day will be able to hear your voice explaining who these people are." And they're just, "Oh, that's too hard for me to do." So this will be a way that you can get this software and learn this stuff. And even at RootsTech, they have booths setup. And make sure you make this as one of your must do's, where you can go in, you don't have to do anything. You go in, they close you in a room and you tell your family history.

Fisher: Yes.

Tom: And you can have your whole family there, you can be by yourself. So make sure you do that. They'll hand you a thumb drive when you're done. Take that, hold onto it like its gold. So make sure when you get home, you put it on your hard drive, you put it in the cloud, you back it up, because these are the ones that say, "Hey, I don't want to touch a computer, I don't want to record this, I don't know how to do it." Well, now you have no excuse. Come to RootsTech, get in one of the booths. It’s totally free, the thumb drive’s free and then you'll have all you stuff that will be really cool. In fact, if you get it, you can stop by our booth and we'll have a computer setup. And if you have your cloud account and everything, you can even use our computer to put it on the cloud right while you're there at RootsTech.

Fisher: Ooh, it’s going to be fun. All right Tom, good to see you. It’s exciting times as we get closer and closer to the big day, February 28th, the first day of RootsTech 2018. We'll see you next week.

Tom: My pleasure.

Fisher: Wow, we covered a lot of ground today! Thanks so much to the Genetic Genealogist, CeCe Moore for coming on and sharing her time for two segments today. If you missed any of that, you're going to want to listen back to what she has to say about what's coming in DNA and things you should be alert to as you go about starting your DNA genealogy. Hey, don't forget also to sign up for our free Weekly Genie newsletter. Yeah, you can do that through our website, ExtremeGenes.com. It goes out every Monday morning. And we share with you a column from me plus some great audio of current shows, past shows and links to stories you'll find of interest as you go about your genealogy. Hey, talk to you again next week. Thanks for joining us. And remember, as far as everyone knows, we're a nice, normal family!