Mary Kathryn Kozy has been working on her own family history for over 35 years and speaking for over 10 years. She has researched families from many locations, and is asked to speak regularly on topics related to DNA, FamilySearch, and technology as it applies to genealogy research.

Mary has served in a number of positions in several local societies and on the state level. She is the recent Past-President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State, supports the USGenweb project, and FamilySearch Indexing. She is currently enrolled in the ProGen Study program and plans to seek certification.

Visit her website at http://www.marykozy.net/

“Can You Help Me Find My Cousins? Understanding Autosomal DNA” (Sun-135), 1:30-2:45 P.M.

DNA testing has become an increasingly important tool in the family historian’s toolkit. Autosomal DNA testing has become very popular and with the addition of new individuals to the major companies’ databases every day, a major resource for solving tough genealogical research problems.

In this presentation, attendees will learn:

• the basics of DNA
• what autosomal DNA results can (and cannot) tell you
• important considerations about who to test (i.e., creating a test plan)
• what tools exist to use in interpreting your results, and
• about the reliability of ethnicity results.

Examples will be given showing results from all three major testing companies (Family Tree DNA, AncestryDNA and 23andMe), as well as screenshots from third-party tools. This is a great class for those who know little about autosomal testing, as well as those who have been tested and aren’t really sure what to do with their results.

Topics: DNA research and genetics

“Using Social Media for Genealogy: Why Bother?” (Mon-128), 9-10:15 A.M.

Social media can be intimidating, even for the most advanced researcher! This seminar will start with helping attendees realize that they have been using it for years online in different forms. Mailing lists and message boards, as well as popular social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr, WikiTree, and many other blogs and podcasts, will be explored for their usefulness in family history research. Examples of genealogical resources on each of these platforms will be given and explained.

By the end of the seminar, course attendees will have gained a better understanding of how social media can help them: – meet new cousins – keep up with local and national genealogical societies – share their research – find photos and/or documents they never knew existed – solve tough research problems through collaboration, and – educate themselves about genealogical methodology and new databases and record sets.

Topics: Technology in support of genealogical research

“Google and Its Genealogy Tools” (Mon-129), 4:30-5:45 P.M.

Over the past two decades, the Internet has changed how folks do family history research. With these changes have come new tools that every genealogist should know about and learn how to use. Google, in particular, has created some amazing tools that, while important to the general public, have also become extremely helpful for the genealogical researcher.

This presentation will go above and beyond basic Google Search (though some tips for this will be shared as well!), and discuss: – getting the most from Google Photos and Hangout – using the amazing collaborative and storage capabilities of Google Drive, and – using Google Earth and Google Maps to visit our ancestor’s homeland without ever leaving home. As time allows, other important tools, such as Google Books, Translate, and YouTube will be discussed.

Topics: Technology in support of genealogical research