Strategies for analyzing dna data about genealogy, without ever forgetting that family lore and documentation are important too. ( )

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books? Using a similar concept Southard has devised a Plan to find your parents (if you are adopted or donor conceived), grandparents, great-grandparents, even 4th great grandparents. She includes a map but I found it rather confusing. If you are looking for your great/2nd great/3rd great grandparents, follow the black arrow to step KM.11, then go to MM.28 or KM.43. A few more steps along either path leads to MM.3 which has a black arrow plus a red arrow leading to the next step. When you reach DG.64 you have a choice of four green arrows. Eventually you might reach GN.47 which has red and black arrows going to MM.19, then red and black arrows take you to MM.3 etc. (we were there earlier), followed by red and black arrows to GN.47 (so, full circle). I’m getting dizzy so I think I will skip the map.

The first section has one to three page chapters labeled KM.1, KM.11, then KM.43, and right after KM.54 comes MM.3. Chapter MM.76 is followed by GN.8, then come some DG chapters and then some NS chapters. The numbers skip randomly for no particular reason rather than following a typical 1, 2, 3 order. The second section contains short learning guides covering subjects like endogamy, mtDNA, removed cousins and pedigree collapse plus some strategies which Southard calls "bottoms up", "ask the wife" and "leftovers".

Reading straight through didn’t make much sense so it was time to simply follow the Plan using my own genealogy and try to locate a great grandparent. My search started on page 35: Read page 103, then go to KM.11 on page 45 to find your Best Known Match. See pages 199 and 103 (again), then go to KM.43 on page 47, then on to MM.19 on page 58 where you select your Best Mystery Match. Use the Shared Matches tool (page 209) and Label your matches (page 176). Now go to MM.3 on page 51 to estimate your Mystery Match’s age. Refer to page 195 if you need help. Find your most likely relationship with your Mystery Match by going to MM.4 on page 53: Read page 227 then go to page 180. Continue to MM.5 on page 54 where you determine your generation of connection from the chart on page 147 before going to DG.23 on page 76. Now extend your Mystery Match’s family tree to include all 32 of their 4th great grandparent couples. (I still haven't been able to do that with my own family.) See page 163 if you need help. Next GN.8 on page 63 sends you to the Shared Matches tool on page 209 (again). After that go to DG.14 on page 73. If you haven’t identified a connection between your Matches, go to GN.51 on page 68 which sends you to getting unstuck, page 171. Here you find thirteen suggestions, lettered A through M, the first of which is start again and the last is consult an expert. These suggestions send you back to other pages or to her website where you can purchase a Research Package. Or you can go to GN.22 on page 65 and choose a new Best Match for another attempt. After going through more than twenty steps and finding nothing I feel like a cat chasing a laser pointer.

There’s a lot of page flipping (as many as six possibilities on some pages) as well as cutesy asides when directing you to a new page: “I am going to grab one of my husband’s homemade croissants (yes, he bakes!) while I wait.” Or “I know it’s going to take you a while, so I am going to go help out at my son’s middle school volleyball practice. I’ll be back soon. Are you back? Me too. Phew! There is such a difference between 6th grade boys and 8th grade boys, don’t you agree?”

I recommend making a list of all the different acronyms so you can keep track of what they mean. It’s a good idea to jot down each page number as you go so you can follow the breadcrumbs back again if you hit a dead end. There are a few charts and some monochromatic info-graphic style illustrations, e.g. chewing gum sticking to the bottom of a shoe for the section called getting unstuck. Several typos made it past the proofreader: lease for least, isn’t’ and an unfinished sentence. There is a three and a half page Glossary but no Index. The book is small, 6 x 9 inches, with 238 heavy, coated pages which give the book some heft. At almost fifty dollars the list price is hefty too so you might prefer just borrowing it from a library. ( )