Mitochondrial DNA: Tracing Your Direct Maternal Line
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the only type of DNA that traces a single, unbroken line of maternal ancestry — your mother’s mother’s mother’s line, extending back through time…
AI Tools in Genealogy: What’s Here and What Works
Artificial intelligence has arrived in genealogy — not as a distant future technology but as a practical, available tool that researchers are using right now…
What the Numbers Tell Us: A Statistical Portrait of the Dillman Surname
The Dillman Family Association’s 94 documented Family Groups reveal the first statistical portrait of the Dillman name — where it comes from, where it went, how it was spelled, and what the numbers reveal about the families who carried it…
Living DNA: Beyond Ethnicity Percentages
If your genealogical DNA research has focused primarily on AncestryDNA or FamilyTreeDNA, Living DNA may not yet be on your radar. It should be…
X-DNA: The Overlooked Chromosome That Can Focus Your Search
Of the three types of genealogically useful DNA — autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial — X-DNA is the least understood and the most frequently overlooked…
Genetic Genealogy Databases, Law Enforcement, and Privacy
Few developments in recent years have raised more questions among genealogists than the growing use of consumer DNA databases by law enforcement…
Cincinnati, Ohio: German Heritage and Dillman History in the Queen City
Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the great German-American cities of the United States — and for researchers tracing Dillman lines through Ohio and the surrounding states, it is a productive research stop…
GEDCOM: The Universal Language of Genealogy Data
If you’ve spent any time in genealogy software or online family tree platforms, you’ve almost certainly encountered the term GEDCOM. You may have clicked “Export (more…)
Y-DNA Testing: STRs, SNPs, Haplogroups, and the Big Y-700
Y-DNA testing is the most powerful tool available to genealogists for tracing the direct paternal line — the father’s father’s father’s line stretching back through history…
MyHeritage Upgrades Ethnicity Estimates: What’s New in v2.5
On February 2, 2025, MyHeritage released the most significant overhaul of its ethnicity analysis system since the platform launched DNA testing…