This document discusses the past, present, and future of genealogy research. It notes that while research used to involve writing letters, technology is now essential for accessing the wealth of online records and other users' research. Automation and record matching help discover more relatives. The future may see original records centralized and digitized. DNA is becoming a major tool for reconstructing ancestors and identifying inherited health conditions. Overall, finding and sharing genealogy data online will continue becoming easier, though imperfections will remain.

1. The Future of
Genealogy Research
By Dick Eastman

2. Today’s PowerPoint slides are available
at:
http://www.eogn.co
m/handouts/future

3. The Past

4. Remember how you wrote letters before
the Internet? Of course you had to wait
for answers, but that was also part of
the allure and fun of research.

6. The Present

7. • How do we research our family trees
today?
• Technology is now almost mandatory
and that need will only increase as the
years go by.

12. • Why use the Internet?
– Time
– Convenience
– Wealth of information available

13. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

14. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

15. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

16. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

17. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

18. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?

19. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way, such as in the cloud?

21. • Do we need to store information in our
own computers or is there a better
way?
• Or will we someday use something
that hasn’t yet been invented?

22. • Perhaps we should let our computers
do the searching for us!

23. Matching: How to
discover relatives
without searching

24. Smart Matches™
• Tree to Tree matches
• A match means a person in another tree was found,
thought to be the same person in your tree
• Matches are based on names, dates, places, facts and
relationships
• Benefit:
• Contact other relatives you didn’t know existed
• Learn what other tree owners know
• They may have rare photos of your ancestors
• Extract information directly to your tree
• A single Smart Match™ can change a person’s life
or the life of an entire family
• Use caution: family trees contain errors

26. Example of dictionaries
alexander, alaexander, alaexandre, alajandro, alasander, alaxander,
alaxandre, alaxzander, alcander, alecander, alecaxander, aleco, alecsader, alecsander,
alecxander, aleczi, aleendro, aleexander, aleix, alejadro, alejandro, alejendro,
alejondro, alejrandro, alek, aleki, aleks, aleksader, aleksadr, aleksajender, aleksander,
aleksandr, aleksandur, aleksi, aleksin, alekso, alekxander, alekz, alenjandro,
alenxander, aleocander, alerxander, alerxandre, alesadro, alesander, alesandre,
alesandro, alex, alexader, alexadre, alexanader, alexandeer, alexandere, alexanderi,
alexandert, alexanderz, alexandier, alexandner, alexandor, alexandre, alexandrel,
alexandrer, alexandret, alexandro, alexandros, alexanhder, alexeender, alexender,
alexendre, alexies, alexios, alexius, alexiusi, alexnder, alexndre, alexonder, alexsander,
alexxander, alexxzander, alexzander, alexznder, alezios, alezius, alijandro, alisander,
alisandre, alisandro, alisaunder, alisaundre, alix, alixander, alixius, alixsander,
alixxander, alixxsander, alixzander, aljandro, alsander, alxander, alxandre, anlek,
elcander, elexander, elexandre, elexius, elezius, halek, halex, halix, oleksander,
oleksandr, oleksi, olexander, sacha, sasha, sasho, xander, xanders, escandar,
alexandr, alexandru, alexsandro, алекс, александ, александер, александор,
александр, алесандр, алик, алік, олександер, олександр, саша,
I have a relative named Alexander …
well …
every one knows him as “Alex”

27. Gray Area for full image
Automation
• Automation is key to power
technologies for matching.
• Critical to save time: users cannot
possibly research every name on every
data source in every spelling variation.
• Automation does it for you. On
MyHeritage this is done on our huge
server farm.

28. Gray Area for full image
 Found in our library of +9 billion+9 billion global records: BMD,
census, immigration, historical newspapers, military
and more.
 Run automatically to help you discover your family
history.
 The more people you have, better chances to get
Record Matches.
Record Matches

29. • Should we be looking at more than just
vital records?
• Shouldn’t we be studying our
ancestors lives?

30. For instance:
TheGenealogist.co.uk already has the
The Lloyd George Domesday Survey

31. • Find maps showing the locations of
your ancestors’ houses, even though
the streets have since disappeared!

32. • Many lanes and roads have been
extinguished to build estates and office
blocks. Streets may have been
renumbered, redirected, while others
have been shortened with part of the
road having being built over.

33. • All this means that searching for where
an ancestor lived by using modern
maps can be frustrating when they fail
to pinpoint where the old properties
had once been.
• However, TheGenealogist’s technolgy
will perform the work for you!

37. You can even find a record in the census
and jump directly to a map of your
ancestor’s residence!

40. Today, More
Interest in
Genealogy than
Ever Before
• Television programmes
• Online web sites
(TheGenealogist.co.uk, Findmypast,
MyHeritage, FamilySearch,
Ancestry.com and many others)

41. The Digital World Makes Comparing and
Sharing of Online Data and Online
Trees Easier than Ever Before

42. In the future, it might not be possible to
visit an archive in person anymore.
The originals are stored in a central
repository; separate archives have
been eliminated to save costs. If you
want to consult records that are not
available online, they will be digitized
for free. That is cheaper than operating
dozens of reading rooms.

43. DNA

44. • DNA Reconstructing an ‘Unknown’
Ancestor

45. • DNA could potentially be used to
recreate portions of the genome of the
individual that they are all related to.
This recreated genome will provide
other information about the DNA-only
ancestor, such as predicted eye color,
hair color, medical conditions, and
traits. It could also be used to find
other relatives.

46. • All we need is enough DNA samples
from enough descendants to re-create
a person’s DNA.

47. • Hans Jonathan was an escaped slave
who settled in Iceland, married a local
woman, and raised a family before
dying in 1827.
• There are no pictures of Hans
Jonathan.
• Yet his DNA has been reconstructed!

48. Ludvik Ludviksson, a grandson of Hans Jonathan

49. Your ancestor’s DNA may be
reconstructed but we may not have a
name!
Would you be willing to refer to an
ancestor in Boston as
“Boston-GCUGCCGCAGCG”?

50. • Reconstructed DNA will help you and
your family detect inherited medical
conditions long before the appearance
of symptoms!

51. • Prediction #1
• Putting your genealogy research
results on the Internet will continue to
become simpler and easier.

52. • Prediction #2
• Finding both original records and the
results of others' research on the
Internet will continue to become
simpler and easier.

53. • Prediction #3
• The accuracy of the information
published on the Internet will continue
to be variable but Internet genealogists
will recognize and deal effectively with
accuracy issues, then will collaborate
to groom the data already published.

54. • Prediction #4
• More collaborative efforts will emerge
as a result of Internet-connected
genealogists sharing their work
towards common goals.

55. • Prediction #5
• DNA is going to become a major tool
of genealogy

56. • Prediction #6
• Interest in genealogy will continue to
increase for many more years as
information becomes easier and easier
to obtain.

57. • Will all this be perfect?
• Absolutely not. Rough edges will
always appear and research errors will
continue to plague us, only in smaller
and smaller amounts every year.

59. Today’s PowerPoint slides are available
at:
http://www.eogn.co
m/handouts/future