Bit late for #AncestryHour but: I found digitized Hampshire wills at Ancestry and excitedly researched them yesterday. Felt a bit familiar but I wasn't sure. I then reviewed my notes and found I had ordered paper copies and done the same research except perhaps more thoroughly back in 2016. Oh dear!

The prize for targeted email goes to...

I launched a new colour palette in Ancestral Trees. Those who have used public transport in London, UK might find it familar! To apply, click 'Palettes' in on your tree page and click on the palette of your choice. To read more about Ancestral Trees you can visit dnapainter.com/blog/eight-w...

Still a little bit of space in tomorrow's workshop. Please RT! #Speirgorm #Fingal #FamilyHistory #Genealogy #DNATesting #AncestryHour #GenHour

My latest blog post is already slightly out of date because I seem to be addicted to adding new features to the matrix tool. But here it is! dnapainter.com/blog/matrix-...

Last night's webinar is now available to view free at Family Tree Webinars. familytreewebinars.com/webinar/shar...

I have released a new feature at DNA Painter. You can read more below, including a link to a free webinar about it tomorrow (Friday May 30th). Hope you enjoy!

Hi all. Tomorrow is DNA Day, commemorating the first paper on the structure of DNA, published on April 25th, 1953. To celebrate, I'm offering $10 off a new DNA Painter subscription until April 28th when you sign up via the link below. Thanks! dnapainter.com/subscribe/d/...

#AncestryHour I really thought I was about to crack a brick wall this week but it didn't work out. I did write up my DNA match interpretation process though. If you're interested you can read more at dnapainter.com/blog/dna-dia...

I'm not really in a programming mood so I did some DNA match research. I had high hopes!

Is the US newspaper collection now gone from @findmypast.bsky.social ?

Thanks Phil; nice to see it in action!

I just tried Places. I'm really impressed! I wrote a short piece for my Substack with a copy of my ancestral map. Great job! billmooreny.substack.com/p/jonny-perl...

Hi all. The next DNA Painter newsletter will be out very soon. It will include updates from across the world of genealogy and DNA, including the latest company innovations from Rootstech 2025. Please sign up via dnapainter.com/mailinglist if you're not already on the list. Thanks!

Hi all. Today is the last day of the DNA Painter RootsTech promotion. If you have been considering subscribing, today would be a great day. Thank you! dnapainter.com/subscribe/d/...

JFC. What's next? Reburing them in a potter's field somewhere far away? You can erase mention of them, but you cannot erase their existence or contributions. Another reason to research and tell your family stories. Because scared, petty people want to revise history. #genealogy #familyhistory

Here's my brief RootsTech 2025 recap. Also, the $10 off DNA Painter show special is extended until Monday March 17th. dnapainter.com/blog/show-sp...

At DNA Painter, an ancestral tree showcases just one individual’s direct line: this person and all their known direct ancestors. You can now also incorporate images and an interactive map. The process is very quick and you can import a GEDCOM file. Here's a quick beginner guide

Places is a new tab within ancestral trees at DNA Painter. It creates a beautiful, customizable map based on the birth locations in your ancestral tree. You can filter by generation, DNA inheritance path, or great-grandparent line. dnapainter.com/blog/introdu... I hope you like it!

DNA Painter is in Salt Lake City for this year's RootsTech. To celebrate I'm once again running a show special. This is valid until Friday March 14th. Get $10 off a new subscription now, or add the coupon to your account to get $10 off your next payment. For more info please go to

It's now five years since I first integrated Y- and mitochondrial haplogroups into ancestral trees at DNA Painter. If you're curious about how this works, check out my blog post:

In case you missed it: back in December I released several new features within Ancestral Trees at DNA Painter. This is the part of the site where you can upload and optionally share your direct line. Listen out for further developments next week!

Hope to see you next week at RootsTech 2025! Here's a short post with all the details of DNA Painter's involvement this year.

The DNA Painter newsletter will be heading out very soon, with updates from across the world of DNA and genealogy. Please sign up via https://buff.ly/4gNVkaZ if you’re not already on the list. #dnapainter #DNAnewsletter #geneticgenealogy #ancestry #familytree #family #ancestors #freenewsletter

DNA Painter will be exhibiting at RootsTech 2025 from March 6-8th in Salt Lake City and online. We look forward to meeting you and showing you what we've been doing!

If you have a burning mystery in your family tree, or a mystery match you’ve been wondering about, you might find WATO helpful. What are the Odds? (WATO) and the newer WATO plus were designed to help you tackle these types of challenges. You can read more in my latest blog post.

Indeed, there are some seminal posts in Blaine's blog, such as thegeneticgenealogist.com/2009/11/10/q... (Check the date it was posted too!)

I had a good chat on the Armchair Genealogy podcast the other day. Have a listen if you feel like it! share.transistor.fm/s/42ad9cdd

Just logged into 23andMe for the first time in a while. I gather the HybridIBD update (blog.23andme.com/articles/upd...) is rolling out although I can't see any obvious differences. Overall it's just slightly dispiriting to see new matches but not be able to do the things you used to be able to do!

Wishing everyone all the best for 2025. Here's a quick summary of new features at DNA Painter this past year.

What an amazing resource familytreewebinars is...

Hi all. I released some new features for ancestral trees at DNA Painter that I hope all genealogists will enjoy using. Please read more below.

Amazing and highly recommended webinar from @pkwilliams823.bsky.social at familytreewebinars.com/webinar/dna-... (free until Dec 11th)

Shropshire Archives trip booked! Honestly it feels like I chased down as much evidence as I could have done for my most recent brick walls there, but there's always more to see...

Anyone at #genhour with experience of oldnews.com? Happy to dive in and test drive it, but just wondered what others' experience was.

Can anyone give me a review of MyHeritage's oldnews.com? I've spent most of the last month buried in newspapers but I haven't tried this site yet and wondered how it is. I guess my focus is Northern Ireland but regardless, how are other features (such as exact phrase searching, clipping etc)?

I've been listening to a lot of music by the Left Banke recently, but I realized I knew very little about them. It turns out their history has as many twists and turns as a family tree. I'm sad they re-formed and played in NYC after I'd already moved back to the UK! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lef...

Hi #GenHour (am I just in time?) I revisited a post I wrote in 2016 about a family photo from 1871, and discovered unexpectedly that the rector was Laurence Olivier's grandfather. dnapainter.com/blog/may-4th...

Nice to see @findmypast.bsky.social here. The new (?ish) clipping feature in their newspapers is fabulous. If we could just have exact-phrase searching for names in newspapers it would be perfect!

Here are the birth countries for people my direct line. You can also have more of a dig/geek out to haplogroups etc at: dnapainter.com/tree/view/ad...

I found out a few months ago that my old personal genealogy blog had gone offline. I decided to edit and republish the articles. It's amazing what new discoveries this process can stimulate! Here's a post about a big discovery I made about 10 years ago. dnapainter.com/blog/finding...

I will be doing a JewishGen talk on December 4th and I just got word that it sold out, but they have expanded the number of tickets. Be sure to grab a spot while it is still available! tixoom.app/jewishgen/75...

I've always been jealous of those who have photos of the shopfronts of their ancestors. But finally, after much searching, I've found a photo of my great-grandfather's motor and cycle shop in Havant, Hampshire! (thanks to Ralph Cousins archive for the picture)

Hi #Genhour. I recently got a picture of the Ballymena Orchestral Society, which included my great-grandfather James Mathews . Since everyone is holding their instruments and newspaper articles list the members, I'll be able to identify many of them, as well as listening to music they played. Fun!

Hey I actually found a grave! This is the resting place of my 2nd-great-grandparents Robert Dunlop and his wife Margaret Dawson in Drumbo, County Down (just a few milies south of Belfast) www.findagrave.com/memorial/263.... Many thanks to the person who photographed it.

Nice to see a lot of people I know here! Kind of the opposite of this excellent 1967 track I was listening to with my brother last night: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Ql...