Endogamy & DNA Course

This class was a really great investment whose rewards I will continue to reap well into the future. I took it because I have endogamy on my dad's (100% Ashkenazi Jewish) side, plus multiple relationships on my mom's Sicilian side (two brothers married two sisters at the level of my maternal grandparents, so I have double 2Cs and double 2C1Rs). I've already been able to identify numerous connections between people that had eluded me for years, including verifying that my great grandmother was who she was supposed to be (my maternal haplotype is HV while everyone else has R0; 23&Me said this can happen because HV is downstream of R0, but I still wanted to be sure!). I also just got back from the Jewish cemetery in NYC where my paternal grandparents are buried, and because of this course (and an excellent BMM on 23&Me), I was able to legitimately identify how I'm related to all of the other people with the same last name whose gravestones were in the same section. This made my trip all the more meaningful! I know these skills will keep helping as I make my way through my BMM list (and add more as matches continue to join the sites), and I can't wait to continue to solve the mysteries of my mysterious and endogamous family!! Thank you so much, Diahan and coaches. 🙂

Diahan's Endogamy & DNA class was fast paced, packed with content/materials and excellent explanations. Broken down into bite sized pieces that can be re-visited repeatedly. Was delivered through a variety of methods and with a great support network.
The class gave me the tools by which to narrow down my plethora of matches and to understand which matches are worth considering:- By recognising the different types of multi relationships in trees; filtering through longest segments; timber and adjusting DNA amounts; understanding the benefit of avoiding 100% Jewish matches; considering location; using tools unique to the different testing sites; strategies for communicating with and (hopefully) getting match responses!
When putting my research into practice I'm still struggling with some aspects especially 'generation of connection' and using the 'Shared cM project 'effectively. Also unsure that I'll ever find my maternal family (no names!) but now feel I've got the tools to give it a better shot and to use my knowledge in other genealogy ventures. Thank you team

Three weeks of fantastic learning and a lifetime yet to discover more because each student can go back and review. Many times, I was over my head but I did not care. I just kept pushing on.

I have done genealogy/ research for more than 40 years and DNA for 10 years and yet I learned so much. I was able to find family in Mexico, Canada, the USA, and England. I received extra help in regards to testing a family which may not know or want to acknowledge a child whose parent(s) were not as listed.

I am looking forward to using all the techniques that we practiced and going back to an endogamous community in Atenguillo, Jalisco. Not all the records are available there but I am sure I will make discoveries that I can share with many cousins.

The course had lots of “extras” that I copied and will be a part of my workbook materials. I will be reviewing the discussions boards which were excellent also.

Thank you Diahan and company. I highly recommend this course and encourage future participants to fully engage in the zoom meetings and help your fellow researchers to achieve their goals.

This course if for any serious genetic genealogist! I now finally understanding how the TIMBER algorithm at Ancestry works, and can apply it to FtDNA, MyHeritage, and 23&Me. I now fully understand the terms: endogamy, pedigree collapse, and multiple relationships. I can now figure out why some cousins share more centimorgans with me than they should! It is due to multiple relationships. We share several of the same ancestral couples! I highly recommend this course! Diahan is the best teacher on this topic!

My paternal family is entirely from the Azores. They lived in very small villages for at least 200 years and of course married people within their village...again and again and again. I took this class to help me better determine what my true relationships might be to people on my match list. The information learned in the class is helping me to identify which matches are my best bet for identifying where the match belongs on my tree, look for multiple relationships for each match, and not spend my time working on a match that probably cannot be accurately placed in my tree. I recommend this class to anyone with known endogamy in their family.