Desiree DeCoste
Beaver Staff
Lennox & Addington County Museum & Archives will host their instalment of ‘Archive It’ with Mags Gaulden, a professional genealogist who will speak about ‘DNA 201 – matching, autosomal, Y, mitochondrial and X’ this Saturday at 1 p.m.
Gaulden will share her tips and tools to help people connect with their ancestry matches and their EKCA’s (Earliest Known Common Ancestor).
“The workshop is all about DNA. Not so much the basics but all about what to do with your results,” Gaulden told The Beaver. “Many think the direct to consumer tests, like Ancestry, are only about their origins, but there is much more to it. Matching, comparisons and cousin finding. Many tools have been created to help anyone from a beginner to an expert with their DNA. We cover those tools, hands on.”
Gaulden who is based in Ottawa, specializes in Genetic Genealogy, is founder of Grandma’s Genes in Ottawa and is CEO of a non profit company who has built a new Y and mitochondrial database called www.mitoydna.org.
Having grown up in a family full of family historians, Gaulden was primed to become a genealogist.
After earning her Bachelors Degree from Columbia College, she began to work her own genealogy as a ‘hobby’. Thirty years later and her ‘hobby’ eventually led her to a leader role with WikiTree where she currently leads The DNA Innovators Project, The United Empire Loyalist Project and the British Home Child Project. She also leads the Templeton and McElmoyle Name Studies and the McElmoyle DNA Project.
Gaulden is an international genetic genealogy lecturer, blogger and social media maven. She serves as admin for Facebook groups including the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) Facebook Group and is a former member of the Canadian Casualty Identification Team.
The cost for Saturday’s workshop is $15 per person with pre-registration required by calling 613-354-3027.
For more information on this event and upcoming events visit www.lennox-addington.on.ca/museum-archives/events.
To visit the ISOGG Facebook page see www.facebook.com/groups/isogg.