Register for Webinar Wednesday — Using Multiple WATO Analyses to break through a Brick Wall by Maurice Gleeson

Geoff Rasmussen

03 May 2023

Maurice Gleeson has been experimenting with Multiple WATO (What Are The Odds) Analyses as a technique to break through Brick Walls in family trees at the 1750-1800 timepoint. With Multiple WATO Analyses, all possible scenarios for an ancestral relationship are explored (hence the “multiple” in the title). So if there are 3 individuals born about the same time, the various scenarios to explore are: 1. are they all brothers? 2. are they all half-brothers? 3. are two brothers and the third a 1st cousin to the other two? 4. are two half-brothers and the third a 1st cousin? 5. are they all 1st cousins? etc. etc. etc. And each scenario above is assessed from the perspective of all descendants involved in the analysis … so if there are 10 Scenarios and 8 descendants there will be 28 pair-wise comparisons in each scenario so 280 comparisons in total. Maurice will present several examples of how this technique has been used in practice to break thru Irish Brick Walls.

About the presenter

Maurice Gleeson is a medical doctor by first profession (psychiatry, pharmaceutical medicine) and now works as a professional genetic genealogist. He authors several blogs (e.g. DNA and Family Tree Research) and has been a regular contributor to genealogical magazines. He is an international speaker and organised the DNA Lectures for “Genetic Genealogy Ireland” in Dublin/Belfast and “Who Do You Think You Are” in the UK. His educational YouTube videos on genetic genealogy are very popular and he was voted “Genetic Genealogist of the Year 2015” (SurnameDNA Journal) and “Superstar Genealogist, Ireland” in 2016 (Canada’s Anglo-Celtic Connections).

In recognition of his outreach work, he was made an Education Ambassador for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. In 2021, he was made an Honorary Research Fellow in the Genealogical Studies Programme at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

He is administrator of several Surname DNA Projects, including the O’Malley, Gleason, Spearin, Ryan, & Farrell Projects among others. He also works with adoptees and with people of unknown parentage and has appeared on Irish television as a consultant for the TV series Adoption Stories.

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Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at:

2pm Eastern (U.S.)
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