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As always, ISOGG Ireland representative   Gerard Corcoran is putting together a marvellous programme for the GGI2015 Fabulous Day Out - a special event for the GGI2015 speakers as well as the volunteers manning the FTDNA stand at  Back to Our Past . This is our way of saying thank you to everyone who makes Genetic Genealogy Ireland such a great success. Gerard is a wonderful ambassador for genetic genealogy in Ireland and frequently works "behind the scenes" to establish contacts and relationships with various governmental and commercial bodies within Ireland. This year he has secured an audience with  Mervyn Green  (CEO of the  CHQ )  as well as the Lord Mayor of Dublin . Here is the final agenda for the GGI2015 Fabulous Day Out which will take place on Monday 12th October, the day after the conference. There may be some future changes to the agenda (due to unforeseen circumstances) but such changes are not currently anticipated. Places are limite...

The two previous posts have explored Day 1 and Day 2 of GGI2015 at  Back to Our Past . Let's take a look at what is in store for the final day of this year's conference. click to enlarge The morning starts off early with a brief update from Gerard Corcoran , ISOGG Ireland representative, on some exciting developments in Irish genealogy, including the new National Diaspora Centre , Epic Ireland , Big Data developments, and much more. There will be a tour of the new National Diaspora Centre (due to open in May 2016) especially organised by Gerard for the FTDNA Stand volunteers and speakers on  the day after the conference (Monday 12th October) but more about that in the next blog post. The vaults of the CHQ Building will be the new National Diaspora Centre and the setting for Epic Ireland It is great to welcome first-time speaker Linda Kerr. This is Linda's first visit to GGI2015 and she gives a wonderful introduction to DNA for complete newbies. I have had the pleasure ...

In the previous post we looked at the schedule for Day 1 of the DNA Lectures at GGI2015 at  Back to Our Past . Now let’s take a look at Day 2 (Sat 10th Oct). click to enlarge The genetic genealogy community has been eagerly awaiting the results of the  Irish DNA Atlas Project , which began recruiting to their study at Back to Our Past 2011. Four years later and the first results are now ready to be revealed. Dr Ed Gilbert (RCSI) will be presenting the initial results from the project (based on 173 participants) and will discuss how they compare to those of the  People of the British Isles project  and other European studies. It is great to see the project starting to bear fruit, but these are just initial results and recruitment to the project is ongoing. You must have 8 great grandparents from the same general area (e.g. 30km radius), so if you think you meet the criteria be sure to contact Seamus O'Reilly at  Irish.dna@familyhistory.ie . It is hoped...

Here it is folks. We promised you a wonderful lineup for this year's Genetic Genealogy Ireland at  Back to Our Past , and here it is - well, at least a close to final draft. The final line-up will be available in about 2 weeks time.   The DNA Lecture Schedule This provisional schedule will change only in so much as the lecture timings may be slightly rearranged, the lecture titles (which are abbreviated for now) will be given their full title, and the Mystery Guest will be revealed. click to enlarge So what can we expect on Day 1? The theme this year is: Who are the Irish? And we have several learned colleagues addressing this specific subject. We are very lucky to have Professor James Mallory  (Queens University Belfast) join us for the first time. His 2013 book " The Origins of the Irish " was an instant bestseller and is a must-read for everyone with an interest in the archaeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence that underlies current theories regarding the f...

It's that time of the year again! Preparations are well in hand for the return of Genetic Genealogy Ireland for a third year, once again kindly sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA and organised by volunteers from ISOGG . This 3-day series of DNA Lectures is held at the annual   Back to Our Past  event in Dublin. This is Ireland's annual national genealogy exhibition and attracts an audience of over 18,000 people. Full details of GGI2015 at BTOP are included below. Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2015 – the DNA Lectures  The lectures will appeal to genealogists of all ages and experience. As well as covering the basics of DNA testing, we will have specific presentations on how to get the most out of your Y-DNA and autosomal DNA results ( John Cleary , Linda Kerr, Emily Aulicino , Debbie Kennett, Maurice Gleeson ). We will also be addressing topical issues such as recent advances in SNP testing ( John Cleary ) and "Understanding DNA in the News" ( Brad Larkin ). However, this ...

This past weekend saw an excellent array of speakers delivering some fabulous DNA Lectures in Birmingham (UK) at Who Do You Think You Are - Live 2015. The schedule of the lectures is in the table below. The lectures were sponsored by FTDNA and organised by Maurice Gleeson and Debbie Kennett on behalf of ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy). The topics ranged from DNA for Beginners to the latest update on the DNA analysis of Richard III. You can watch a brief introduction to the videos of the DNA Lectures in the short video below. Maurice Gleeson  19th Apr 2015

We had a fine line-up of speaker’s at GGI2014 this year, and the viewing figures for the presentations on our YouTube channel reflect this. But which presentations proved the most popular with the viewing public? Read on ... all will be revealed. But first, a look back on the organisation for this year's DNA Lectures, and the endeavours we undertook to raise the profile of genetic genealogy in Ireland and encourage more people to have their DNA tested.  The Back to Our Past website and this GGI website both advertised the DNA Lecture schedule well in advance of the event so that people were able to choose what they wanted to see before arriving at the show. In addition, the Show Guide gave the DNA Lectures equal billing to the general genealogy lectures (organised by APGI , Association of Professional Genealogists of Ireland), which certainly raised the profile of DNA testing in the minds of the general public at this year’s event. It was a very pleasant surprise to see that the...