What the Numbers Tell Us, Part Three: 199 Groups
Part Two’s headline findings reverse outright: a new largest immigration window, and a supposedly empty three-year gap that wasn’t empty at all.
DFA Most Wanted: Family Group 25
A Royal Navy musician who vanished into a London workhouse while his wife and son sailed to Australia without him. No DNA test yet. Could you be connected?
Ancestry’s AI Features in 2026: What’s Actually Useful
Ancestry’s 2025–2026 AI rollout includes features ranging from genuinely useful (Document Transcription, Full Text Search) to engaging but limited (AI Stories) to requiring careful handling (Face Match). Understanding which tools actually advance genealogical research — and which don’t — is increasingly important for serious researchers.
Fold3: Where Military Records Live
Fold3 is the most comprehensive military records database available to genealogists, with over 350 million records covering American service from the Revolutionary War through modern conflicts. For Dillman researchers with ancestors in American military history, it is not optional equipment.
DFA Most Wanted: Family Group 28
Yellow fever, a New Orleans bakery, and two United Fruit Company crewmen — a documented origin, but no DNA test yet. Could you be connected?
Your DNA, Your Data: Privacy in the Age of Genetic Genealogy
The 23andMe bankruptcy of 2025 made visible what was always true: genetic data is a company asset, not just a personal record. Understanding what testing companies actually do with your DNA — and what legal protections exist or don’t — is now essential knowledge for every genealogical DNA tester.
Original vs. Compiled: Why Genealogies Aren’t Final
A published genealogy — including the DFA’s own Family Group Sheets — is a compiled source pointing toward original records, not a substitute for them.
Where They Went: Geographic Settlement Patterns of the Dillman Families
Of the 160 Dillman family groups documented in the DFA database, 106 trace their origins to Germany — concentrated in Hesse, Baden, and the Rhineland. Tracing where they went reveals a clear pattern: New York as the gateway, Pennsylvania as a transit state, and the Midwest as the primary destination, with St. Louis the most frequently mentioned inland city of all.
DFA Most Wanted: Family Group 26
A barber, naturalized in 1888, with a German origin that’s never been narrowed down past ‘Germany.’ No DNA testing yet. Could you be connected?
Before Your Family Tree: What Ancient DNA Is Revealing About Who We Really Are
Ancient DNA research has rewritten what we know about European population history — and the findings are directly relevant to anyone researching central European ancestry. The “German” in your DNA arrived from Anatolia 7,000 years ago, from the Russian steppe 5,000 years ago, and from Paleolithic Europe before that. Understanding this changes how you read your ethnicity results.