Articles by Angela Breidenbach

Angela Breidenbach, PLCGS, is the Executive Director at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. She's a multi-published author, speaker, and presenter. Find out more about her books at https://AngelaBreidenbach.com

Ethics Involved with Forensic DNA

Ethics Involved with Forensic DNA

Forensic DNA and Forensic Genealogical DNA are in the news with a hot break in a serial rapist case. The following news pieces feature me, the International Institute of Genealogical Studies executive director, Angela Breidenbach. They’re interesting and well done news pieces by the reporters. But what they haven’t had time to report on yet are the ethics issues that are also hotly debated in the genealogical community and legal arenas. Let’s explore those after you watch the two short videos below. The first link is in English. The second is in Spanish. But I think you’ll catch the essence of the story in this breaking news case where genetic genealogy exploded onto the scene in this cold case. After watching, keep reading. I’m not judging the case at all. I don’t have all the details and I’m not the judge and jury. These women deserve to have their case solved and their peace restored. They deserve justice. The goal of this article is to help you think deeply about the various aspects of the broader topic involving ethics and law in genetic genealogy and criminology. Will vicious crimes go down with so much light being put on DNA finding perpetrators? I hope so. The danger of getting caught has often minimized crime in years/centuries past. But, there are still a ton of questions about whether the DNA is compromised or whether the genetic DNA compared against is or isn’t legal, or whether the accused person’s DNA was present along with…

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Genealogy Jobs: Part 2

Genealogy Jobs: Part 2

Quite a few companies hire professional genealogists in a wide variety of positions. If you’d like to work for a company like Ancestry.com, LegacyTree, MyHeritage, legal offices, and hundreds of other small to large businesses, then it’s a matter of matching your skills and experience to the job you’d like to have and/or getting the education you need. …

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Original Records for Mayflower Research: Probates

Probate Records  Probate records can provide important familial identifications. They can identify children and spouses, prove family relationships and provide approximate death dates. Probate records come in many forms including wills, codicils, inventories, accounts, receipts, settlements among heirs and guardianships of minor children. A person who dies testate left a will; a person who died intestate did not. Occasionally expediency determined that a person had to make a will in a hurry, and did not have time to write it down, stating his wishes to another party who would later relay his sentiments to the probate court; this is referred to as a nuncupative will. If the deceased did not name an executor (male) or executrix (female) to oversee the administration of his estate, the courts would have to appoint an administrator or administratrix who would be required to post a bond. What can wills tell us genealogically? They often named the children in order of birth. Children might be named in actual order of birth, or listed first by sons in their order of birth followed by the daughters in their order of birth. When birth records cannot be found it is often possible to construct approximate years of birth and family positioning based on the order of children in their parent’s will. What happens when a child is not mentioned in his father’s will or settlement? The most likely reason is that the child is deceased with no living issue. If a deceased child has left children, these…

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Periodicals & Journals for the Mayflower Researcher

Genealogical Publications  Genealogical publications can be extremely helpful in your family history research. Genealogical and historical journals provide us with the latest research on a particular family as well as providing corrections of long-ago errors. Journal articles also teach us proper methodology in compiling a genealogy, documenting our research, and citing our sources. How do you find journal articles of interest? PERSI, short for the Periodical Source Index is the largest subject index to all of the genealogical and historical periodical articles written since 1800 and was created by the staff of the genealogy department at the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne, Indiana. This index contains 2.7 million entries from thousands of publications. The articles are indexed according to family surname, locality, and research methodology. You can search PERSI at Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana or by searching it online through the subscription website Findmypast. There are certain genealogical journals which are more apt to print articles concerning Plymouth Colony and Mayflower research and thus are likely to be of benefit to you in tracing your Mayflower lines. They include: The Mayflower Descendant, published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, was begun in 1899 with George Ernest Bowman as editor until 1937. The Mayflower Descendant is a rich source of material that has aided the research of Mayflower genealogies and Bowman himself did more to advance this cause than any other researcher of his time. He was the pioneer in Mayflower genealogies; it is…

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