Adina Newman – DNA Painter: Strategies to Enhance Your Genealogical Research
and Spotlight Talk: Alana Lipkin – DNA Surprises
November 9, 2025 @ 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm EST
– Zoom Meeting
JGSGB members: Program is free. Members do not need to register.
You can find the Zoom link by logging in to your JGSGB Membership account. Once logged in, use the “What would you like to do” dropdown to locate the Members-only Page for the Zoom link. You will also receive an email with the Zoom link the morning of the program.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5.00 fee to receive the Zoom link.
If you do not receive an email with the link to the program within 15 minutes, please check your Spam folder.
This program will be recorded and available for 3 months on the member’s page.
DNA Painter provides several tools to help genealogical researchers visualize and enhance their traditional and genetic research. This presentation will provide an overview of the various tools available at the DNA Painter site, including the shared centimorgan (cM) tool, What Are the Odds (WATO), ancestral trees, and chromosome mapping. Real-life examples will enhance the presentation.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Adina Newman is a professional genealogist, educator, and creator of My Family Genie. Her specialties include Jewish genealogy, genetic genealogy, social media, and New England research. She presents at major genealogy conferences, and her findings have received international media attention. She co-founded the Holocaust Reunion Project, which provides free DNA testing and consultants to survivors and their children with the possibility of locating living relatives. At the DNA Doe Project, she applies investigative genetic genealogy to name unidentified deceased persons.
Spotlight Talk:
After a short break, stay with us following Adina’s presentation for a Spotlight talk by our member Alana Lipkin, who will recount her own family’s fascinating revelation of “DNA Surprises”.
Program Description:
Sometimes the most compelling answers are to questions that you hadn’t thought to
ask. Alana Lipkin has always loved stories and storytelling. Learn how DNA testing
changed everything—and nothing at all.
Bio:
Alana Lipkin has always loved stories. She graduated from Oberlin College
with an AB in Creative Writing and did graduate work in fiction at
Washington University in St. Louis. She began her genealogical journey by
interviewing her grandparents and recording their stories. Through the
years she researched archives for birth, marriage, death, immigration, and
naturalization records to build out her family tree. In 2010 she turned to
DNA to answer questions that the paper documents could not.