Presented by Cynthia Patton on November 3, 2026 at 6:00 PM MDT

Have you ever had a client deadline but keep losing hours on outside distractions, chasing a rabbit hole, or failing to reign in your expectations for the “perfect” research report. In this session we will look at the top 10-time wasters genealogist face and some practical ways to reclaim the lost hours and focus on more profitability. Time management is a challenge for all of us, especially when you throw our family and social obligations in the mix. Finally, how can we find the time to enjoy our own research projects? The solutions we will discuss are easily attainable including: time blocking, using templates, and becoming more “time aware”.

Cynthia Keefer Patton is a professional genealogist from Kansas City, Missouri, a member of the Heartland Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), and Registrar for the White Alloe Chapter, DAR. She is a BU Certification Program graduate. Cynthia retired from the US Army and holds degrees in both Journalism and Political Science. She has resented for numerous historical, genealogical, and civic organizations.

Presented by Jill Nock, AG® on November 11, 2026 at 6:00 PM MDT

Three powerful tools can transform a DNA research project from promising to provable—yet most genealogists either don’t know they exist or aren’t sure how to apply them to a real case. This session demonstrates all three through detailed examination of a completed research project, showing how the results of each tool were interpreted and reported. Gephi network visualization software identified four distinct subclusters pointing to five child lines of a proposed common ancestor—revealing patterns invisible in a standard match list. DNAPainter’s Coverage Estimator quantified how much of the proposed ancestor’s genome was recovered across multiple descendant lines, providing a transparent measure of the project’s scope and an honest basis for evaluating the strength of the conclusion. The Shared cM Project validated each hypothesized relationship and provided a framework for honestly addressing matches that fall slightly outside expected ranges. Attendees will see how these tools work together within a structured research project and understand how to interpret and report their results—including what to say when the results are incomplete or imperfect.

Jill Nock, AG®, is a professional genealogist accredited through ICAPGen℠ in the U.S. Upper South. Inspired by the 1977 television miniseries Roots, she has been untangling family mysteries for nearly five decades. Through her business, Mountain State Genealogy, she specializes in DNA analysis, indirect evidence methodology, and transforming complex research into clearly written reports. A ProGen 59 graduate, Jill has completed advanced training at GRIP, SLIG, and IGHR. She is proficient in reading and transcribing historical handwriting from the 1600s forward — a skill that opens records inaccessible to many researchers. She serves as Treasurer for both ICAPGen and the APG Writers SIG, and is a UGA Commissioner. Her presentations range from beginner-friendly introductions to advanced methodology, with particular depth in Revolutionary War patriot research and Upper South records.

Presented by Linda Yip on November 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM MDT

Canada may look familiar to American researchers, but its records were shaped by fur trade routes, railways, religious institutions, corporate power, and a layered federal system that never produced a single unified archive. In this session, Linda Yip, AG®, explores how place, law, and history shaped Canadian record creation, and why understanding jurisdiction and privacy law is essential for success. Whether you’re researching Quebec parish families, Western settlement, Indigenous records, or citizenship claims, you’ll leave with a clearer strategy for navigating Canada’s unique genealogical landscape.

Linda Yip (葉秀映) was born in Vancouver, BC. She is a proud fourth-generation Canadian. Her family’s historic home – the Wing Sang Company – is today the site of Canada’s national Chinese Canadian Museum. Linda is an Accredited Genealogist® professional in the region of Canada Western Provinces, encompassing BC, AB, SK, and MB. As a professional, Linda has traced families in Canada, China, the U.K., and the U.S., with a speciality in the records created by Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act (1885-1947). She has worked on many documentaries, the most recent being “Exclusion: Beyond the Silence,” (2024), with Keira Loughran. Linda is a member of the Ancestry® Canada Advisory Board of Genealogists. Linda specializes in researching families whose histories are difficult to trace because of migration, language barriers, or gaps in traditional records. Her work recognizes that historical records were created within social systems that sometimes overlooked or misrepresented certain communities, and she uses a wide range of sources and methods to build accurate, well-documented family histories. By combining archival research, spatial and social context, and careful source analysis, she helps clients recover stories that might otherwise remain hidden. Linda is a speaker and author. Her book, Getting Started in Chinese Genealogy – a Family Historian’s Guide Even if You Don’t Speak or Read Chinese – has been purchased by archives and libraries in Canada and the United States. Linda has lived in BC, AB, NS, and spent a year in Massachusetts. She currently resides in Saskatoon with her husband.