By the Time You Read This . . .

...I will be headed to the airport to fly to Utah. There, I'll make my way to downtown Salt Lake City. While it doesn't sound as fun as heading to Downtown Disney—nor as romantic as splurging in Paris—for genealogists, this city is a much-anticipated destination.

Don't count on me to be spending hours at that city's go-to destination, though; I probably won't be frequenting the Family History Library. My main purpose in taking this wintertime trip to Salt Lake City is specifically to augment my research skills with the use of DNA test data.

As fellow researchers with more of a knack in this arena than I have devise additional tools to manipulate that DNA raw data, there come more ways to put them to practical use in discerning which of that undistiguishable mass of results belongs in which family pile. Offshoots of paternal grandmothers versus maternal grandfathers may soon be more easily pinpointed, guiding us through this confounding maze of matches in more efficient ways.

I'm all for that. If there's a way to escape the conundrums of false connections on family trees, misattributed parentage, and the ever-frustrating "Last Name Unknown," I'll be keen on trying it.

If nothing else, this series of classes presented by genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and her team of instructors will be just what I need. I'm a hands-on learner, and the lab sessions will help cement concepts into my mind the way I learn best: by doing it myself.

While part of this upcoming week's blog entries will continue the series on Penrose Hawkes and his family—I try to post in advance when I know I'm going on a trip—if I get a chance between homework assignments, I'll be sure to give an update for those who are interested in how things are going, live, at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Who knows? Maybe you'll find it worth your while to consider joining me there in 2018.

Above: "Klotild Palace in Winter," 1938 painting by Hungarian artist Antal Berkes; courtesy Wikipedia; in the public domain.