My good friend, Jeff Bockman, has begun posting articles that he’s written on his website. So far, he has four articles up there, three of which I 
commissioned and published either in Heritage Quest Magazine or the Genealogical Helper. Jeff and I have talked about his getting the articles online for what seems like years now… So I’m thrilled that he’s now made them available free online.
The first article is simply “Give Your Family a Gift That Money Can’t Buy,” and is based upon his popular book of the same title.
The second is “Why Should a Genealogy Society Give Records Away?” This article was published in the FGS Forum in 1997 and it caused quite a stir. Jeff’s arguments are still valid today…
The Third and Fourth articles deal with the future of genealogy research. In 1998, Jeff wrote what my son, Dale, calls “the only science fiction we ever published in Heritage Quest Magazine.” The article was called “The List,” and was Jeff’s dream (or shall we call it his nightmare?), of what genealogy research would be like in the future. Then in late 2006, Jeff again wrote about the future in an article called “The Future Revisited.” Here he pointed out that many of his predictions were actually coming true… Scary…
Check out Genealogy According to Jeff. I invite my readers to leave comments about Jeff’s articles here at GenealogyBlog.com.
Jeff’s article, “The Future Revisited” contains a factual error –or, at least a statement that is highly misleading. Whether you characterize it as “serious” or “minor” may depend on your viewpoint (I tend towards the former). I recommend the author at least add an addendum to point out the correct information or, ideally, edit the article to improve clarity in this matter.
Jeff states in the paragraphs relating to DNA testing that the “‘Mitochondrial’ [DNA test] links daughters to their mother.” Most animals and plants contain mitochondrial DNA in their cells, located within the mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA is separate and distinct from “ordinary” DNA found in the cell’s nucleus. Mitochondrial DNA that is passed down comes from the egg cell of the female. While Jeff’s statement is *technically* correct, the truth is that mitochondrial DNA of the mother is passed to all offspring, NOT just female descendants. Consequently, anyone, male or female, can request a mitochondrial DNA test. The resulting DNA analysis does, of course, only provide information about matrilineal inheritance.
An easy way to remove the ambiguity (and implied error) would be to simply substitute “children” for “daughters” in the sentence above.
Cheers,
Jeff