Ancestry | Wheaton Wood

Changes in Genealogical DNA Testing

Posted on November 5, 2025 Leave a Comment

Back in 2005, Francis Collins in his book The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine predicted that DNA testing for health was on the horizon within 10 years and that your doctor would routinely order DNA tests for you. That hasn’t happened as quickly as he thought, but companies like 23andme […]

Writing Challenge: Choose Your Own Adventure Genealogy Style

Posted on September 19, 2025 Leave a Comment

First crossroads. Heaven, hell or purgatory. Your choice. Second crossroad. Which ancestor will you choose? Third quest. You will have 20 minutes to come up with a list of questions to ask your chosen ancestor. This may be a brick wall ancestor and your first question is where were you born? Or who were your […]

Celtic Origins

Posted on September 1, 2025 Leave a Comment

Apologies to my faithful readers. I took a break after the death of my best genealogy friend, Jean to process what her life and loss means to me. I have found that I cannot be creative on demand, and must wait for inspiration and the imperative juices to flow. Sometimes all that it takes is […]

What you are Missing if you Aren’t Using Family Search for your Genealogy

Posted on June 18, 2025 2 Comments

This is written for my Genealogy class and most of it is a repetition of resources found on FamilySearch.org however it is a curated list and aimed at beginners that do not know where to start at Family Search or those more advanced who have not mined all the great resources that are available there. […]

Fleshing out the Story: Context Matters

Posted on January 26, 2025 1 Comment

How do we go from avid genealogist to storyteller? How do we bring a single ancestor back to life? How do we take a set of facts, essential the bones of our ancestors life, and tell their story as a three dimensional ancestor that you want others to know more about? Research of course! There’s […]

Patterns & Intersections in Genealogy

Posted on December 24, 2023 5 Comments

We all have patterns and intersections in our ancestry—but we don’t always know about them. Sometimes we just stumble upon them. One of the greatest joys of genealogy is finding those connections. Below you will read a collection of such things in my research. I encourage you to be on the look-out for your own. […]

Comfort Laps: Writing Challenge

Posted on August 8, 2022 3 Comments

Our reminiscences are important parts of who we are. As we stitch them into narratives they connect us to our ancestors, sometimes in unexpected ways. I urge my readers to not shy away from writing about uncomfortable and challenging topics. My mother, for reasons that remain somewhat of a mystery, did not like to be […]