RootsTech -- final day

My brain has reached genealogy overload, as per usual after the final session of a Conference!   Today was another fantastic day of discoveries:

• Had an expert look at my Father's Y-DNA results to see why he has so few matches.  Turns out he has 3 "rare" blips on one of his panels.  He said that it's not unusual to have any of these blips, but to have 3 all on the same panel, is pretty unusual.  He suggested a distant cousin should test at Y-67, to see whether the mutation is back in history or more recent.  I've got a 4th cousin who will fit that bill!   Nice to know we carry "unique" DNA!

• Took an Excel for genealogy class --- excellent information!  And lots of tricks and tools I will definitely put to use!  Too bad it was only an hour!

• Got help fixing some issues with my Family Search Tree -- which I haven't done much with since 2012.  I only have 200 people in it, mainly direct lines on British side.

• Went to an Ancestry.com lunch, great info on where they are headed in the future, some changes to the online trees, future of FTM software, etc.  They will also be launching an index of the Irish Catholic Parish registers,but didn't have a date set.

• By coincidence, at the Ancestry.com lunch I sat next to another Susan from San Francisco, who had Cornish ancestors!!  And she used to live in Dublin, CA, as did someone else at the table!  

• Met Audrey Collins from the UK National Archives -- she had some great info on the 1939 Register (using it for local studies, and town histories). She also said that since the NHS used the 1939 Register, there is some thought that the number of closed records is due to the fact that General Practitioners weren't always diligent about reporting deaths, as they were paid a capitation fee for each patient.  Thus, there should be more "open" records, and they will slowly recognize those and open them up.  She also said to check out the Medway Towns Archives that have alot of birth certs scanned for Royal Navy/Marines near Chatham, Kent. Some of my Plymouth folks could have ended up over there during their Naval/Marine careers.

• And during a quick break, pulled up the Ancestry.com home page and saw that they had added a new record set, State of Pennsylvania Death Certificates up to 1963!  Holy cow, these are fantastic as they list Mother's and Father's names -- which is a great help in tracing all my immigrant Irish ancestors who settled in Pittsburgh.  I've already pulled down my Grand Aunt and some other cousins certificates!  Great info!

• Tried some quick DNA triangulation last night on GEDmatch, after attending Kitty Cooper's class. Interesting stuff, and makes me think of who else I need to test and triangulate!  DNA is slowly becoming clearer and clearer to me.

• Oh, and the day started with a fantastic speech by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidential Historian and Author -- she was so inspiring!