Syllabus

• Week 1

  Beginning the journey

  • Welcome to the course

    We're thrilled you've joined us! Here you'll hear about the course overall, how you'll learn and also meet your educators.

  • Welcome to Week 1

    Here we'll learn a bit more about Mary and John, and start to think about family trees.

  • Traditional Family Research

    An introduction to traditional genealogy, often the starting point in family research before DNA is considered

  • Considerations for DNA testing

    In this activity we'll learn a bit about DNA testing, and follow Mary as she considers if it's right for her family history research.

  • What is DNA?

    Here, we'll learn more about DNA and how it's inherited.

  • End of week tasks

    As we approach the end of the first week, we'll take a moment to reflect and look back at what we've learned so far.

• Week 2

  Developing a testing strategy

  • Welcome to week 2

    In this activity, you'll hear about what we'll be focusing on this week.

  • A strategy for Mary

    Here we'll think about what Mary hopes to achieve through her research and what she should think about before she begins.

  • DNA

    In this activity we'll learn more about different types of DNA tests and their uses.

  • Testing strategies

    Here we'll think a bit more about the various testing strategies available and how suitable they might be for Mary and John.

  • Taking a test

    In this activity we'll learn about the process of taking a test and start to think about what happens next.

  • Inheritance

    In this activity we'll learn about inheritance and its implications.

  • End of week tasks

    As we come to the end of week 2, we'll take a moment to reflect on and discuss what we've learned so far.

• Week 3

  Which matches are important?

  • Welcome to week 3

    In week 3, we study matches in more detail and also how to investigate and interpret results.

  • Receiving results

    Here, Mary and John receive some results! Let's find out what they can tell us.

  • Investigating matches

    In this activity we think about what Mary should do next, thinking about how we go about investigating results.

  • Known relatives

    In this activity, we think about known relatives and how they can help with our research.

  • Reviewing results

    Here, we think about how to review and analyse our results - including 'clustering'.

  • Mitochondrial DNA

    Here we'll learn more about mitochondrial DNA and the opportunities it offers for testing.

  • End of week tasks

    As we approach the end of the week, we'll take a moment to look back on what we've learned and discuss our progress.

• Week 4

  Painting chromosomes

  • Welcome to week 4

    In this week continues our focus on autosomal DNA while think about the value of maximising potential matches.

  • Corresponding with matches

    Here, we'll learn more about corresponding with matches and see Mary make direct contact with a close match.

  • Managing matches

    This section focuses on the challenges of managing matches and how to navigate these effectively.

  • Analysis and tools

    Here we'll learn about chromosome matching and DNA Painter, hearing from the creator of DNA Painter Jonny Perl.

  • End of week tasks

    As we approach the end of week 4, we'll take a moment to reflect on what we've learned and discuss progress so far.

• Week 5

  Researching dead ends

  • Welcome to week 5

    In week 5, we'll cover Y-DNA, ethnicity and mitochondrial DNA.

  • Exploring Y-DNA

    Here we'll focus on Y-DNA, and there's a surprise in store for John when he receives his results.

  • Admixture (ethnicity) and endogamy

    Here we'll consider how genetic lineages can be formed and also how some can die out.

  • Haplogroups

    In this activity we'll think in more detail about haplogroups and haplotrees.

  • End of week tasks

    Here, we'll look back over week 5 and what we've learned about researching dead ends.

• Week 6

  Maximising testing

  • Welcome to week 6

    In this, our final week, we'll think about how to maximise your testing, and we'll also see how Mary and John have done just that.

  • Advanced Y-DNA testing

    Here we'll discuss advanced Y-DNA testing, thinking about how it can help to maximise results.

  • More research options

    In this activity we'll cover some other research options you may be interested in exploring.

  • Summary of the course

    In this activity we'll start by thinking about what Mary has learned over her journey, before moving on to reflect on what you've learned on yours.

  • Conclusions

    As we come to the end of the course we want to say thank you all for learning with us! here we'll see what Mary has done with her new knowledge, and pause for a final moment of reflection.

  • Further learning

    Here you'll find some resources and options to continue learning about genetic genealogy.

Who will you learn with?