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Saturday, March 2, 2019

Preparing for GRIP 2019: Part 1

I’m very excited to be registered for the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburg (GRIP) course “Advanced DNA Evidence” coordinated by Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D. The course runs from June 24 through June 28, 2019. I’m looking forward to being part of the class and learning from the instructors and other class members.

In January of 2018, I attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) "Establishing Genealogical Proof with DNA” course coordinated by Karen Stanbary. I’ve been reviewing my notes on preparation for that class and have created my own list for the GRIP course. I want to be sure that I have reviewed everything I’ve covered in previous courses so that I am properly prepared.

This and the next few blog posts will cover some of the resources that I am planning to use over the next few months to prepare for the class.

In the course description, there are several prerequisites listed. Most were also prerequisites for the 2018 SLIG course so these will be reviews. I’ve added to them my own list of resources that I am planning on using to these prerequisites in order to prepare for the course.


Reading material to review:

  • The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy  (Blaine T. Bettinger)
  • Genetic Genealogy in Practice (Blaine T. Bettinger and Debbie Parker Wayne); also must successfully complete the activities

Webinars were not listed as prerequisites but I find them very helpful in “cementing” the concepts needed for understanding the uses of DNA in genealogy.

Webinars to watch or review:
There are already 70 webinars with the subject “DNA” at Legacy Family Tree Webinars.  Over 20 of them are free without a subscription. You need a subscription to view the remaining webinars, but the subscription is very reasonably priced. And there are 20 additional DNA webinars scheduled for the remainder of 2019. I plan to view as many as possible but I will start with these for review:


Blaine Bettinger has also created a new DNA resource area, DNA Central, using a subscription model. There are a wide variety of resources available, including courses and webinars. Courses include an introductory course for DNA testing at each of the “Big Five” DNA testing companies: Ancestry, MyHeritage, LivingDNA, 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. There are also webinars on a variety of DNA topics available from a variety of presenters. DNA Central has a resource page which has links to some additional webinars, podcasts, blogs, third-party tools and more. 

Reading the books, completing the exercises and reviewing the webinars should keep me busy for the next few months!



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