Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales

 American Ancestors - The New England Historic and Genealogical Society is discounting their membership for new members by $30 through December 6. Membership includes access to AmericanAncestors.org. 

New York Genealogical & Biographical Society is discounting their membership for new members by 50%. Use code ONEYEAR50 when checking out to apply the discount. They also have books on sale 40% off Kinship Books. Discounts are applied at checkout. Both are valid through 11/30/2025.

Germanology Unlocked is discounting educational materials and courses. They are also offering a free webinar "Germany's Shifting Map: What it Means for Your Research."

German Genealogy Collective - everything in their store is 40% off. Use code FRIDAY40 at checkout.  

Legacy Family Tree Webinars is offering a one year membership for 50% off. That's 24.98 for a year of genealogy webinars. 

RootsMagic11 is on sale - new license $29.95 and upgrade $19.95. 

Ancestry has discounted gift memberships.

Amazon has discounts on scanners, printers, computers, monitors, and much more. Here is a post from Thomas MacEntee with some ideas. 

Forever is offering 60% off digitization. 

Family Tree Magazine is offering 25% off when you order 2 or more printed cheat sheets. 

DNA Specials & News

 Ancestry DNA is on sale for $29, regularly $99, and Ancestry DNA with Traits is on sale for $39 regularly $119.

Family Tree DNA family finder test is on sale for $39 regulary $79. They also have sales on mtDNA and YDNA tests. 

MyHeritage DNA test is on sale for $25 regularly $89.

YourDNAGuide is offering a $10 class on Ancestry's new Cluster Tool. 

FamilyTree has added over 12,700 new mtDNA haplogroups to the mtDNA tree. 

23andMe is adding new genetic group results, they are expanding their African coverage from 25 groups to more than 250.  

MyHeritage updated Theory of Family Relativity - 103 million new theories added. 

Gen Friends Events - Research At The Library

 

Join Genealogy Friends at W.O. Haggard Library on Saturday, November 8, 2026 from 10:15 to 1:00 pm CT. 

Program: 10:30-11:15 "Delving Into Divorce: Finding Family Details in the Civil Court Docket" by Susan Ball. 

Research Help 11:15 -1:00 Experienced Researchers will be on hand to help. Here's just a few ideas:

• Getting Started on Family History Research - bring what you know about your family. Create a free account on the National Genealogical Society website and download the free Pedigree Chart and Family Group Sheet. Fill in what you know and bring them to the library. https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/free-resources/charts/
• Brick Wall - bring your research question and research log/report. 
• Start a New Research Project - bring what you know about the research subject. We'll help you develop a research question, provide tips on researching the location, and starting your research. 
• Research in Restricted Records on FamilySearch.org. The Plano Libraries are Affiliate Libraries so you can access records you can't see from home.   

WPA Guide to Churches in Manhattan

 The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society added digital images of the WPA Guide to Vital Records in the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan: Churches on their website. https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/online-records/wpa-historical-records-survey-new-york-state-research-volumes/572-030/1

This is one of five volumes covering the vital statistics records of religious organizations in New York City published by the Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration. There is a volume for each borough. The publication is designed to help locate proof of birth or marital status facts. 

Here is a sample entry:

1926 Census of Ireland

 For the first time following the independence of the Irish Free State a census was taken in 1926. This census will be released to the public on 18 April 2026. Learn about the census https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQn7dxNAgzk

Ancestry Released Custom Cluster

 Ancestry is rolling out Custom Match Clusters as a new addition to ProTools. I don't have it yet so I haven't been able to try it, but I can't wait. 

Custom Match Clusters

With match clustering, we compare not only whether you match each person, but also whether 

those people match each other. In addition to standard clusters, which don’t focus on any 

particular match, you can create custom clusters, which do. 

Pick a DNA match to find people who are related to them, based on a centimorgan (cM) 

range of your choice.

Why create custom clusters? 

Clustering around a certain match can help you fill in missing parts of your tree. 

Discover matches who share DNA with a match of your choice—likely because they 

all come from the same ancestor. 

You can even add up to four additional related matches—which we call “sidekicks”—to 

narrow your results even further.

Custom clustering goes beyond enhanced shared matches, showing you not just matches

 you share with a match, but also who’s related to those matches.

When you create a custom cluster, you can also choose the centimorgan (cM) ranges

you want, from 20 cM on the low end to 1,300 cM on the high end.

Read more https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Custom-Match-Clusters?language=it

Dallas Genealogical Society Fall Seminar - Kelli Bergheimer - Strategies for DNA Breakthroughs

The Dallas Genealogical Society Fall Seminar "Strategies for DNA Breakthroughs" features Kelli Bergheimer. 

Saturday, October 25, 2025 9:30-3:30 CT

Topics:

Successful Sleuthing, Not Stalking, for DNA Matches

Ancestry Pro Tools: Increase Your DNA Analysis

The Power of Ancestry Clusters and Inferred Matching

The Tale of Two Grandfathers and an Adoption - Privacy and Ethical Concerns with DNA

For more information or to register https://dallasgenealogy.org/meetings-events/2025-fall-seminar/