DFA Most Wanted: Family Group 27
A saloon keeper named Adam in America and Anton in Germany, with a brother and a documented name change. No DNA test yet. Could you be connected?
Visual Phasing: Mapping Your Chromosomes to Specific Grandparents
Visual phasing uses the DNA of three siblings to map each chromosome segment to a specific grandparent, without testing any grandparent directly. The result is a permanent chromosome-level attribution of your DNA to each of the four people who contributed one quarter of it — a tool unavailable from any other genealogical method.
Timelines: Catching Contradictions Before They Catch You
A timeline doesn’t just organize dates — it’s how genealogists catch a birth before a marriage, a person in two places at once, or two men mistaken for one.
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.