Jamboree 2015 - Meet the Speaker: Diahan Southard

A microbiology graduate, Diahan Southard worked before and after graduation for the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. Growing up with the budding genetic genealogy industry led her to her current position as Your DNA Guide, where she provides personalized interactive experiences to assist individuals and families in interpreting their genetic results in the context of their genealogical information. Diahan's lectures are always fun, upbeat, and full of energy. She has a passion for genetic genealogy, a genuine love for people, and a gift for making the technical understandable.

TH006 Thursday June 4, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Organizing Your Genetic Genealogy
In this one-of-a-kind lecture we will discuss various methods for keeping track of your DNA matches -- especially your autosomal DNA matches. We will first discuss what kind of information you need to keep track of, and why. We will cover the basics of Excel, Word, email folders and correspondence. We will talk about some alternative tools like Evernote and Kustumnote that can help you streamline and standardize your organization. We will even cover some visual tools that will help you including Google Earth.  This session will leave you armed and dangerous, ready to identify your best autosomal DNA matches and begin to move forward with the real genealogy business of making connections.

TH022 Thursday June 4, 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
What Now? Next Steps for Genetic Genealogists and Autosomal DNA
At some point in the recent past you were convinced that DNA testing could help with your genealogy, so you went through with the testing. But now you are faced with confusing results and a long list of matches. This lecture will refresh your biology knowledge, create the foundation of genetic genealogy knowledge, and most importantly, teach you how to get started using your autosomal DNA testing in your genealogy.

TH018 Thursday June 4, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.
DNA Testing and Your Ethnic Origins
While there is no doubt that DNA testing can help genealogists uncover their family history, just how much can the ethnic portion of the results tell you? We will start by covering what your Y-DNA and mtDNA testing can tell you about the origins of your direct maternal and direct paternal lines, and answer questions including "What is a haplogroup?", "How is the haplogroup related to the list of numbers provided?", "How geographically specific can the haplogroups be?", "When and how should you pursue additional testing?", and "What additional resources are there to help me understand my haplogroup?".