Barton What are your objectives? You may have heard the old saw "if you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there." So, as a facilitator, I often spend a little time up front writing a 1-2 sentence mission or objective sentence. You can then test your process or plan or aletrnatives to see if they will get you there. Your objective may focus on your parents' genomes vs yours, and this would lead you to balance cousins between them. Or you may have some particular area you want to focus on - surname, or a particular brick wall - that would lead you to select appropriate new cousins to test. Or like some of us, you want to ply in this new sandbox and see what happens. That's how I started. Now my objective is to map my chromosomes as finely as I can, so that at some point I can tell any/everyone who matches me who the Common Ancestor is based on our shared segment - a genealogist's dream. Fast forward 10 years, and think about the genealogy hobby... (Almost like before and after cell phones) Jim - Sent from my iPhone - FaceTime! On Oct 6, 2013, at 10:56 AM, BARTON LEWIS <bartonlewis@optonline.net> wrote: > hi Jim, thanks for all your suggestions. I only yesterday purchased > Family Finder for myself, having finally become convinced as to the > usefulness of my testing. I've already tested both parents, my mom's 2 > surviving siblings, 2 of my father's first cousins (he's an only child), > and an assortment of both parents' 2nd-5th cousins. I've decided to > either test more of my parents' first or second cousins next, and am > leaning to second cousins, but still on the fence somewhat, since > testing first cousins could isolate a big chunk of their other, more > distant matches. I especially appreciate your instructions in your last > email about GEDMATCH utilities for mapping once you have the > parent-child trio. > > Barton >

Jim, I'd never before heard "if you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there" but that's a good one. On the negative side, it means you could end up nowhere of interest. On the positive side, it leaves the researcher open to the unexpected and amazing. Karla On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 12:14 PM, Jim Bartlett <jim4bartletts@verizon.net>wrote: > Barton > > What are your objectives? You may have heard the old saw "if you don't > know where you're going, any path will get you there." > > So, as a facilitator, I often spend a little time up front writing a 1-2 > sentence mission or objective sentence. You can then test your process or > plan or aletrnatives to see if they will get you there. > > Your objective may focus on your parents' genomes vs yours, and this would > lead you to balance cousins between them. Or you may have some particular > area you want to focus on - surname, or a particular brick wall - that > would lead you to select appropriate new cousins to test. > > Or like some of us, you want to ply in this new sandbox and see what > happens. > > That's how I started. Now my objective is to map my chromosomes as finely > as I can, so that at some point I can tell any/everyone who matches me who > the Common Ancestor is based on our shared segment - a genealogist's dream. > > Fast forward 10 years, and think about the genealogy hobby... (Almost like > before and after cell phones) > > Jim - Sent from my iPhone - FaceTime! > > On Oct 6, 2013, at 10:56 AM, BARTON LEWIS <bartonlewis@optonline.net> > wrote: > > > hi Jim, thanks for all your suggestions. I only yesterday purchased > > Family Finder for myself, having finally become convinced as to the > > usefulness of my testing. I've already tested both parents, my mom's 2 > > surviving siblings, 2 of my father's first cousins (he's an only child), > > and an assortment of both parents' 2nd-5th cousins. I've decided to > > either test more of my parents' first or second cousins next, and am > > leaning to second cousins, but still on the fence somewhat, since > > testing first cousins could isolate a big chunk of their other, more > > distant matches. I especially appreciate your instructions in your last > > email about GEDMATCH utilities for mapping once you have the > > parent-child trio. > > > > Barton > > > > > > ______________________________ > For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about mailing lists, please see: > http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >