Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Connect Your WikiTree to FamilyTreeDNA

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 5d

Connect Your WikiTree to FamilyTreeDNA. WikiTree is a world family tree, so instead of each person having their own individual, disconnected family tree, there’s one tree that everyone builds and edits. buff.ly/vatJIK8 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #WikiTree

FamilyTreeDNA has partnered with WikiTree! Learn how to link your collaborative tree, view your matches’ trees, and explore powerful DNA tools.

The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act | Adoptees United

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 5d

Support the Adoptee Citizenship Bill. This bill supports a decades-long effort to secure U.S. citizenship for all individuals adopted from abroad and brought to the United States for adoption. buff.ly/7ar3TMi #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #Adoption

The fight for US citizenship for all intercountry adoptees continues, with introduction of the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act

How DNA testing can help adoptees and others in finding long lost family

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 8d

DNA Resources for Adoptees. Learn how to find birth parents and siblings through DNA testing. Explore more than 75 links to adoptee resources. buff.ly/HvFysCN #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #Adoption

Finding Long Lost Family

A DNA Match Revealed Her Secret Egyptian Heritage - MyHeritage Blog

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 10d

DNA Test Reveals Secret Egyptian Heritage. DNA forced a mother to confess that her daughter was fathered by an Egyptian man she had met in France 32 years ago. buff.ly/iuUjf0d #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

A DNA match on MyHeritage unveiled a lifelong secret. Read all about Kate's incredible journey to embrace her newfound heritage and family!

Citizenship: How ancestry DNA tests can lead to a new passport

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Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 12d

Can a DNA Test Lead to Citizenship? For some, a genetic genealogy DNA test can open doors to new lives abroad. Read about some people who gained citizenship in their ancestral homelands. buff.ly/F06GKK6 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

The presenter of the BBC's DNA Trail explains how she battled to become a New Zealand citizen.

A Major Update to Ancestry Composition Is Coming Soon

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 15d

23andMe to Update Ancestry Composition. An improved algorithm, expanded populations, and better results are promised by 23andMe in a significant update to its ethnicity report. buff.ly/V1TFzg5 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Over the last few months, we’ve been hard at work finalizing a major update to your favorite report: Ancestry Composition.

2025 Ancestral Origins Update Coming Soon

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 17d

Ancestral Origins Update Coming Soon. If you have done the AncestryDNA test, watch for a significant update to your ethnicity estimate with more granularity than ever before. buff.ly/AfliGKb #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Uncover the future of AncestryDNA with the 2025 Ancestral Origins Update. Get ready for new macro-regions, and a deeper understanding of your genetic heritage.

Mastering the MyHeritage DNA Test - Legacy Family Tree Webinars

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 18d

Mastering the MyHeritage DNA Test. For a very limited time, you can watch a recording of my recent webinar at this link: buff.ly/UQKkF5B #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #MyHeritage

Genealogists who overlook or underutilize the MyHeritage DNA test miss out on many great tools. Using examples from his personal account, Richard will demonstrate...

DNA Testing Favorites links to the best genetic genealogy resources

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 19d

Links to the Most Useful DNA Testing Resources. If you are a genetic genealogist, don't overlook DNA Favorites. I have more than 150 links to helpful websites, blogs, and articles on DNA testing. buff.ly/ZJamEdX #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Links to the best DNA testing resources, including testing companies, tools, bloggers, Facebook groups, and educational resources for genealogists and adoptees

The best DNA Facebook groups for genetic genealogy

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 22d

Useful Facebook Groups for DNA Testers. Facebook is the epicenter for discussions about DNA testing. Here are some of the most useful DNA Facebook groups organized by category. buff.ly/kbFvSh1 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

DNA Facebook Groups

Baby Stolen From Young Mom in 'Forced' Adoption Scam Found Alive 42 Years Later

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 24d

Woman Contacted by "Dead" Son 42 Years Later. Told her baby boy had died at birth, Diane was really a victim of forced adoption. Now she gets an email from her son. buff.ly/gxRTxgj #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

She was told her baby died, but four decades later she learned the truth.

The World’s Largest Y-DNA Haplotree

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 26d

The World’s Largest Y-DNA Haplotree. FamilyTreeDNA hosts the world’s largest Y-DNA haplotree — a living, growing record of human paternal ancestry that continues to evolve. buff.ly/GmzJrYH #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

FamilyTreeDNA’s Y-DNA haplotree includes over 95,000 branches and 788,000 variants — the most detailed paternal ancestry map in the world. Each month, we update this post with the latest growth…

A Genealogist's Guide to Understanding Your FamilyTreeDNA Autosomal Matches

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Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · 29d

Understanding Your FamilyTreeDNA Autosomal Matches. DNA testing opens new doors—but that first match list can be overwhelming. This guide walks you through your Family Finder™ DNA results, step-by-step. buff.ly/zgjWFQN #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #FamilyTreeDNA

Your Family Finder DNA match list is full of clues—if you know how to use it. This guide helps you make sense of your autosomal DNA results.

Ancient DNA solves mystery of Hungarian, Finnish language origins — Harvard Gazette

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Sep 10

Ancient DNA Solves a Mystery around Language Origins. Where did Europe’s distinct Uralic family of languages — which includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian — come from? New research puts their origins a lot farther east than many thought. buff.ly/kQAi9uV #DNA #DNATesting #Language

Parent emerged over 4,000 years ago in Siberia, farther east than many thought, then rapidly spread west, study finds.

Mitochondrial DNA A–Z: A Step-by-Step Guide to Matches, Mitotree, and mtDNA Discover

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Sep 8

A New Guide to Mitochondrial DNA. Roberta Estes has written a great step-by-step guide to matches, Mitotree, and mtDNA Discover. buff.ly/tiLt4TL #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #MitochondrialDNA

People have been asking for a step-by-step guide for mitochondrial DNA, and here it is! This article steps testers through all their results, page by page, including a dozen Discover reports, expla…

dna-explained.com

‘My Life Changed from End to End’: I Found My Birth Father, Still Living at 91, and 2 Siblings

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Sep 4

Woman Finds Birth Father, Alive at 91. DNA testing at MyHeritage leads a woman in Australia to her birth father in Switzerland, plus two siblings. buff.ly/ofMM8z3 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

A DNA test confirmed Denise's lifelong suspicion that the man who raised her wasn't her birth father — and connected her to a whole new family. Read more

‘My Life Changed from End to End’: I Found My Birth Father, Still Living at 91, and 2 Siblings

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Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Sep 4

Woman Finds Birth Father, Alive at 91. DNA testing at MyHeritage leads a woman in Australia to her birth father in Switzerland, plus two siblings. buff.ly/ofMM8z3 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

A DNA test confirmed Denise's lifelong suspicion that the man who raised her wasn't her birth father — and connected her to a whole new family. Read more

Whittier Area Genealogical Society

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Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Sep 2

Free Webinar on Y-DNA Testing. My upcoming presentation is open to the public. Learn how Y-DNA testing can trace and confirm paternal lines in your family tree. buff.ly/ATMWQK9 #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Presented by Richard Hill

wagswhittier.org

Webtember 2025: All Genealogy. All September Long. Sign up today (free). - Legacy Family Tree Genealogy Software

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 28

Free Genealogy Webinars in September. It's time to register for Webtember, an annual online conference dedicated to all things family history. I will be presenting "Mastering the MyHeritage DNA Test." buff.ly/vdlTudi #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Get ready, genealogists! It’s time for Webtember 2025, our annual online conference dedicated to all things family history. We’re excited to announce a fantastic lineup of expert-led webinars for…

Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in …

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 22

Asking My Readers for a Favor. If you read my "Finding Family" book, please take a few minutes to review the book on Goodreads. This helps more adoptees discover how DNA can help them bypass sealed records and find biological relatives. buff.ly/5U2yXrA #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy #Adoption

Getting DNA from Deceased Relatives

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 20

Getting DNA from Deceased Relatives. Did you wait too long to collect a vital DNA sample? Learn about the practical, legal, and ethical considerations for getting DNA from deceased relatives. buff.ly/77becbF #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

With the right kind of test kit you can collect DNA from deceased relatives for genetic genealogy

Hundreds of children disappeared in Argentina. Their grandmothers united to find them

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 18

Join Me for "Comparing Ethnicity Tests" on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference. Learn why DNA ethnicity tests yield unexpected results. Compare one person’s ethnicity reports on all the major DNA tests. Register at this link: ecggc.org #DNA #DNATesting #ECGGC

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 15

Indigenous People Trace Roots thru Genealogy and DNA. Piapot First Nation members learn more about their family histories through a genealogy workshop and DNA testing. buff.ly/bqY9MhL #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Richard Hill @richardhilldna.bsky.social · Aug 13

Hundreds of Children Disappeared in Argentina. This new book tells how grandmothers united to find them using disguises, DNA, and other daring techniques. buff.ly/vfVHI5H #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Haley Cohen Gilliland's A Flower Traveled in My Blood tells the story of a group of grandmothers who spent decades searching for their stolen grandchildren during and after Argentina's "Dirty War."