10 April 2016

WDYTYA? Live 2016 Day 3

The third and final day of WDYTYA? Live was as enjoyable as the first two. By arriving early I was able to reserve a seat for Turi King's presentation on Richard III. It was most entertaining and although there were snippets of inside information there was nothing substantive new. In a one on one conversation I was lead to understand more work had been done of resolving the question of the Y-chromosome mismatch between the skeleton and the family previously believed to be male line descendants of Edward III, the common ancestor of Richard III and them.

A brief discussion with a representative of the GRO indicated we are still some way from having any other access to BMD information that's any different than we've had for years. Although enabling legislation has been passed access still depends on regulations being agreed which is unlikely to be a priority within the Home Office. Even online access to BMD indexes will depend on ministerial approval.

I caught parts of presentations by The Kirsty Gray, Mark Bayley and Celia Heritage, heard the background to the privacy issue FTDNA had with GEDmatch and soon to be updated ethnic origins estimates from Max Blankfeld, and  enjoyed a chat with Dick Eastman over lunch.

Unofficial word is that attendance may have been up a bit from last year. UPDATE: Now confirmed as 13,215 which is up from the previous year.

1 comment:

GeniAus said...

Thanks for your reports John. I'd like to attend one year.