Genealogy and DNA Research Services

You know what they say - a picture is worth a thousand words. From 1903 to 1914, photographers John Woodruff and Horatio N. Topley traveled throughout Canada,... capturing scenes of Canada in the early 20th century for the Department of the Interior. The resulting photographs form the bulk of the Canada, Photographic Albums of Settlement, 1892-1917 collection, providing stills of farms, railroads, ports, cities, and everyday scenes in virtually every province. While these photographs may not provide specific genealogical details, they can help bring your family history to life, providing a glimpse into the country your ancestors experienced. Can you spot any of your ancestors' hometowns in the collection? https://bit.ly/3iYXAPQ

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of #VimyRidge on April 9-12, we collaborated with William Shatner to tell the story of this important First W...orld War battle. Our victory at Vimy was a defining event for Canada and the birth of a nation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJ_yjchLrc See more

On June 4, 1906, the first patients were admitted to Hamilton's just-opened sanatorium on the west Mountain. On June 4 and 5, eight patients moved into the faci...lity. It was the culmination of a major effort by mayor Sanford Biggar and a city-wide fundraising campaign to build the facility amid a growing "white plague" of consumption, as tuberculosis was known at the time. https://raisethehammer.org//working_hard_at_nothing_all_da The Mountain Sanatorium began on a donated farm far out of town on the escarpment overlooking west Hamilton with 2 tents and 8 patients. Gradually small frame cottages completely open to the weather were built. In time these were replaced with more comfortable and fire proof brick buildings. https://fhs.mcmaster.ca/healthcarehisto/places/chedoke.html

She built more than munitions. She built our future. This International Women's Day, bring new family stories to life with Ancestry.

Another success for investigative genetic genealogy with the arrest of Jonathan Hurst for the double homicide of a mother and son, Patricia Wilson (85 yrs) and ...Robert Wilson (64 yrs), in Sycamore, IL in 2016. This case was a little different in that I and another Parabon GG Team member worked closely with the outstanding Detective John Holiday of the Dekalb County Sheriff's Office on this case, coaching him as *he* built family trees and advising him as he put the genetic puzzle together. We are so proud of his work and to have contributed to it! See more

It's with great sadness to share that Johni Cerny, our chief genealogist for Finding Your Roots, has passed away. We've worked with Johni, one of the pioneering... and most highly respected genealogists in the field, since we created the PBS series, Finding Your Roots, in which she traced the ancestry of such well-known African Americans as Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones in 2005. Since then, she has researched the genealogy of almost 200 guests, including Meryl Streep, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Tina Turner, Congressman John Lewis, Senator John McCain, Senator Bernie Sanders, Larry David, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Diddy, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, among many others. Johni’s passion, dedication, originality and mastery of the tools of her craft have been at the heart of countless revelations for the guests in our series over the last fifteen years. Her passion for genealogy began at age 19 when she sought out the story of her own roots, eventually discovering the identity of her grandmother and father. Her lifelong love of the work inspired all of us who make Finding Your Roots, and she was always grateful to the viewers who make it possible for us to tell these stories. This calling, and all of the joy she brought to it, radiated throughout our show and was a key to the fulfillment of its promise to discover personal histories that liberate us from mistruths about our differences and foster a more human connection amongst us. Thank you, Johni, for believing in our dream from the very beginning, and for doing so very much to make that dream a reality. We will miss you and we love you. See more