If you're into genetic genealogy -- and particularly if you're one of the avid folks actually running a project -- you know that it can be a bit daunting to juggle all the record-keeping and results-tracking. But fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Adrian Williams, help is on the way!
Around the beginning of next year, we will welcome a new software package to the world -- DNA-PAT, short for DNA Project Administrator Toolkit. Adrian gave me a virtual tour and it's pretty darn amazing. To get a sneak peek, go to Adrian's freshly launched website. While you're there, do yourself a favor and sign up to be notified when the software becomes available (you'll find the link in the last line of the Toolkit Information Section).
Not too long ago, I launched a Nelligan DNA study and just haven't had time to do it justice, so I'll be one of the first in line for DNA-PAT, which provides the project manager the necessary tools to easily keep on top of even the largest projects (BTW, Adrian created this software out of necessity since he runs the Williams DNA Project that at last count included 339 members). Once I've got the Nelligans organized, I'm going to tackle my other projects retroactively. This amazing software is looooong overdue!
Want to get a taste? Well, here's a sample. What's really terrific about this software is that it not only gets all your data organized in a clean, user-friendly manner, but everything you enter is automatically updated on your web pages -- so you can be html-clueless (as I am) and still run a spiffy-looking project that others can make sense of!
Those of you heading to Houston for Family Tree DNA's annual conference will be treated to a demo of DNA-PAT -- and I predict that Adrian will be the most popular fellow at the conference!
Comments (1)
Sounds great! Maybe they should make it mandatory that project administrators use it.
I follow a few Y-DNA projects and there is a lot of variation in quality. Some administrators don't present the information so that it is useful to people who are distantly related to the surname or understand why they are interested.
Posted by Sharon | November 1, 2006 7:07 PM
Posted on November 1, 2006 19:07