Kinship Genealogy Co.

26/03/2026

It was a privilege to assist Paul, an adoptee, in solving a piece of his complex biological puzzle — specifically, identifying his biological mother, (also an adoptee)'s father.
Please get in touch if you have a DNA mystery you'd like to solve 🧬.

15/03/2026

I often have clients contact me asking which DNA test to do. For Kiwis, it's generally Ancestry, followed my MyHeritage. The DNA Geek's stats back that. Read on for a brief update here.

More than 54 million DNA kits are available for genealogical matching!

11/03/2026

DNA Painter offers essential tools for those looking to solve family history mysteries. They've extended their $10 coupon offer until March 14th. This can be applied to your next subscription renewal or to new accounts. Take advantage of it now - I have!

DNA Painter: Exclusive subscription offer: RootsTech 2026

09/03/2026

What It’s Like to Attend Rootstech – Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

I have just returned from Salt Lake City where I attended Rootstech, the world's largest annual genealogy conference.* Rootstech was held March 5–7, in the Salt Palace Convention Center at Salt Lake City, Utah, and online, for free, at Rootstech.org. Sixteen hours flying time from New Zealand (via Los Angeles) the time difference was only 4 hours (albeit a day behind us)....

http://kinshipgeneco.com/2026/03/09/what-its-like-to-attend-rootstech-salt-lake-city-utah-usa/

I have just returned from Salt Lake City where I attended Rootstech, the world’s largest annual genealogy conference.* Rootstech was held March 5–7, in the Salt Palace Convention Center at Sa…

08/03/2026

🧬🔎 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟑

The third and final day of Rootstech disappeared in a flash. I managed to fit in two sessions and complete an Association of Professional Genealogists desk shift. It was great to catch up with Michelle Cohen, meet Crista Cowan, Jen Schaffer (The Formidable Genealogist), Diahan Southard (Your DNA Guide), Tricia Seguine (APG President), Leah Larkin (The DNA Geek) and share the shift with Catherine Bloomquist from American Research Bureau.

D Joshua Taylor, NYG&B President, delivered a great session on resolving conflicts where sources disagree, or when sources don't exist at all. Using his own case studies, he demonstrated how the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) was applied to solving identity problems, sorting same-name individuals, or building reliable conclusions with indirect evidence.

Since getting my father to do a Big Y-DNA test in order to explore our surname (no matches above Y-37 sadly, the most recent common ancestor of his line is 1100BCE) I've been interested in the capabilities of Y-DNA to extend pedigrees beyond what can be achieved with autosomal DNA. FamilyTreeDNA's Janine Cloud gave a great talk using real-world case studies on how Big Y can identify ancestral clusters, distinguish between unrelated surname lines and pinpoint lineages.

Rootstech has been such great fun. Thanks to Erin Schurtz for having me on the Media Team!

Tomorrow is a day off to explore Park City with Kirsty (Family Wise Limited) - can't wait! - then for the long journey home ✈️.

07/03/2026

Great to catch up with Diahan Southard of Your DNA Guide at Rootstech! You can get to know Diahan better by watching her Snapshot interview 12 March 2026 @ 7.30 PM Eastern US with my colleague Cathie Sherwood at Family History Academy.

07/03/2026

Great Rootstech 2026 special at GEDmatch for the month of March - 15% off a Tier 1 subscription.
With the loss of upload ability to MyHeritage, GEDmatch is becoming increasingly important to researchers needing to do advanced analysis or DNA comparisons across platforms.

https://www.gedmatch.com/rootstech2026/

06/03/2026

RootsTech is always the time for new announcements and innovations from the top companies, and Ancestry is a leader in the genealogy field.

In this video, you'll get a sneak preview of what is coming. Enjoy!

06/03/2026

What a great couple of days at RootsTech!

For those who want to know what is coming at FamilySearch...

𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 is for those who love the Full-Text search, but find choosing keywords and/or names confusing. More like a Google search, searchers can enter their search query in sentence form, eg. "I am looking for my great-grandfather Henry Smith who lived in Bristol in 1865, with a wife named Mary Jane." It's a bit like querying one of the AI search tools without the feedback - in future, they may incorporate AI suggestions, if enough testers suggest it, so remember to give your opinion on what you like and don't like about it.

Another feature in beta testing is the 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘨. The best thing about FamilySearch is it's free, collaborative and offers access to numerous records worldwide; but its collaborative nature sometimes leads to errors in trees. The change log allows users to track changes to profiles and undo changes made by mistake or in error.

All features being tested can be found at FamilySearch Labs - https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs
Have a try! - and remember to give feedback. They really do listen.

04/03/2026

Made it to Salt Lake City and finally got to meet Kirsty Gray (who I do NZ research for at Family Wise Limited) who kindly picked me up from the airport.
Spent most of today at the FamilySearch Library researching. RootsTech media dinner tonight. Can't wait!

03/03/2026

First leg over - a fairly bumpy flight across the Pacific. Now for Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. RootsTech, here I come!

03/03/2026

I'm at the airport ready to fly to Salt Lake City for RootsTech, the largest genealogy conference in the world! First leg, Auckland to Los Angeles.