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Name - Patrick Guinness Affiliations Patrick Guinness is an Irish historian and author, and one of the heirs of the Guinness dynasty. He is a council member of the County Kildare Archaeological Society and of the  Order of Clans of Ireland . He is a trustee of the  Iveagh Trust  and President of the  Irish Georgian Society .  In September 2010, he became a Knight of Justice of the  Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem  (KLJ) at a ceremony in  St. Patrick's Cathedral  in Dublin and in 2013 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia by Prince David Bagrationi of Georgia. Day Job - He continues his father's business in real estate development and is a financial analyst. He formerly represented Sotheby's in Ireland. How did he get into genetic genealogy? Born in Dublin, he is the son of Desmond Guinness and Marie-Gabrielle von Urach. Through his mother's descent from the se...

Name - Rob Warthen Affiliations - Masters Degree from Johns Hopkins University Founder of DNAAdoption and AdoptionDNA_Tools Member of ISOGG, SoaringAngels, AdoptionDNA, and UnknownFathersDNA Project Administrator for Warthen/Wathen YDNA Project Day Job - Write computer programs for Health Care Companies. Previously Technical Architect at Nasdaq Stock Market Night Job - Teach Introduction to Computer Programming Write Computer software for DNAGedcom.com Web site Support Search Angels in their searches and training Employed by my wife Sue as an apprentice gardener (aka dig holes) How did you get into genetic genealogy? I always enjoyed genealogy, ever since I was little. My aunt was a Librarian and it was fun to research. When my soon to be new mother-in-law said “You know Sue is adopted right? Since you know all that new-fangled computer stuff, could you help Sue find her biological mother”. What do you say to a sweet 80 year old lady who looks up to you with love in her eyes. I sa...

Name - Dr Catherine Swift Qualifications - M.Phil (Dunelm). D.Phil (Oxon), M.Phil (Dublin) Day Job - Dr Swift is Director of Irish Studies in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. She undertook an MPhil. in Archaeology on the parallels between early Irish and Scottish church sites at the University of Durham; she received a second MPhil. in Old-Irish Language and Culture from Trinity College Dublin. Her DPhil. at Oxford examined the history of the cult of St Patrick. She has taught in many universities, including University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Liverpool, NUI Maynooth, NUI Galway, and The University of Melbourne. She served ten years as organising Secretary of the Irish Conference of Mediaevalists, and gives an annual Summer School in Old Irish in Limerick. What are your research interests? Archaeology, History and Languages (Old Irish/Latin) of pre-Norman Ireland – ogam stones, cults of St Patrick, St Brigit, St Columcille and...

Name - Dr Daniel Crouch, University of Oxford Qualifications  - PhD (statistical genetics), MSc (genetic epidemiology), BSc (genetics) Day Job  - Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford How did you get into genealogy? I am interested in genealogy via its overlap with the genetics of human populations. Although I began studying molecular genetics, I became interested in population genetics and its application to studying human variation. Population genetics is the study of how frequencies of genetic variants evolve, and we are often interested in how these changes occur over relatively small time scales, for example over the course of human history. Growing public interest in both genealogy and commercial genetic testing has the potential to expand geneticists' resources for investigating this very recent chapter of human evolution. My PhD research was in developing statistical models for predicting the geographic origin of individuals from their genetic informatio...

Title:  DNA, Irish Clans & the British Monarchy Affiliations & Memberships:  Editor of Surname DNA Journal Founder of GeneticHomeland.com DNA Project Administrator Member of ISOGG  Member of Southern California Genealogical Society What do you do as a Day Job? Create web-based, data-driven business applications - primarily for the health care industry.  Consulting on information technology services relating to electronic medical records. What do you do as a Night Job? Scientific writing and research on genetic genealogy combining geographical data with DNA and traditional genealogy sources. How did you get into genealogy? As a boy in the 1970s I was inspired by watching Alex Haley's television series, " Roots ".  I went on to read a book on his research and was fascinated that one could comb through old records and learn things about ancestors that our parents and grandparents did not know.  It seemed like a kind of magic to me.  I thought, "If...

The schedule of DNA Lectures at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2014 has been announced. This years schedule is even more packed than last year. With presenters from Ireland, the UK, the US, and Canada, this event is truly international reflecting the diaspora of the 80 million people of Irish descent worldwide. All levels of knowledge are catered for, from beginner to advanced, with representatives from academia as well as citizen science. Click to enlarge - and see full schedule for each day at the end of this blog The first lecture each day is devoted to the complete beginner and will help you understand the three main types of DNA test, what they can do for you, and how they can help you break through some of the Brick Walls and Dead Ends in your own family tree research.  The most popular test at last year's Back to Our Past was autosomal DNA (atDNA, the Family Finder test). This helps you connect with genetic cousins to whom you are related within about 7 generations (i.e. you sh...