Edison Williams is one of a kind -- and he's a Wonderful WikiTreer

Question

I think most of us know Edison Williams primarily for his involvement in this G2G forum, where he's a one-of-a-kind contributor. He is one of kind for sharing his expert knowledge of genealogical DNA in this public forum, where he provides well-informed and authoritative answers to questions about diverse DNA-related topics for the benefit of members who may have had no idea of the wonderful complexity of the topics they inquired about. I see this as a one-of-a-kind contribution, because I don't believe anyone else with his depth of knowledge would have the patience to bother to try to explain these things to the rest of us. I think we are all richer for his willingness to try. I have learned a lot from Edison's DNA posts here.

Edison also is a solid genealogist who is committed to high quality in genealogy, particularly in the use of evidence, and he reminds us of that periodically here in G2G, as in his recent comment in this recent thread about "secondary sources." I was a lucky beneficiary of his commitment to quality source citations when I was the winner of an Elizabeth Shown Mills book that he had donated as a prize for an early "Thon" event.

When I see Edison's signature on a G2G contribution, I make a point of reading what he had to say, because his contributions are always worthwhile (albeit long ). 

Edison, please continue being the one-of-a-kind person you are, and a wonderful WikiTreer.

Comments

Congrats on your WW!

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Totally agree.  Love reading his posts.

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How did you learn that? Did you stay at a Holiday Inn last night?

No, but I did read several Edison Williams' posts!

And he's a nice guy too! Congratulations!!!!!!

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Well, shucks, Ellen. The people who know me best would probably not use the phrase "one-of-a-kind." But the way they would describe me is full of nouns and adjectives we can't use on a G-rated public forum.

Which is why I'm baffled that Ken thinks I'm a nice guy. Oh well. I'll take it. (Ken, that gift card for seven nights free at any Holiday Inn is in the mail.)

And LaMyra joins the other 11 people who enjoy reading my posts!

Thank you, Ellen. Means a bunch even though these things are awkward for me. And I'd forgotten about the ESM book. That was a precursor to the full, 892-page Evidence Explained, and I still keep my copy at hand because it's a quick overview reference for many types of citations. I always wondered if you were disappointed you didn't get the full monty instead of the slimmer version.

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Dang! Was that from you? I thought it was another credit card add junk mail :-)

Answer 1

An amazing contribution of knowledge, the science is explained, and at times with a plain English summary, not easy in any branch of science and Edison is dealing with a subject area that is still developing, often at pace.

Comments

Thank you, Gary. And I believe you summed it up nicely with: "...and at times with a plain English summary..."

I think I should have been born in 18th-century England when the writing was florid and protracted, and they loved to pepper everything with semicolons and turn single sentences into page-long paragraphs. Ah, those were the days...

Answer 2

Yes! So many times I have started reading something on G2G and when I saw it was long, I’d scroll to the bottom to make sure Edison had authored it. Then I always get excited because I know I’ll learn something.

Comments

What my friend Barry didn't completely explain is that he scrolls to the bottom of those posts so that he can identify when to skip them. And, wow, do I regret not just using "Ed" on WikiTree. I blame my father for giving me two forenames, neither of which were good choices for practical use.

Answer 3

I learned a lot from Edison and while we're not always on the same page on every little idea it's always a pleasure to read his famously long comments or answers. He has earned a couple of "best answer" from me personally (and others as well) and he's one of the genetic genealogy people in the world that I'd have no problem having a meaningful and interesting discussion all day long.

Comments

Andreas, it's neither fun nor intellectually stimulating to surround yourself only with people who completely agree with you. 

(Interesting trivia about Mr. West: I don't believe he ever actually sleeps.)

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Haha, I just say "DNA segment triangulation" ;-)

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Triangul... Er, what's that? 

Answer 4

Agree.... wholeheartedly!

Comments

Lang may yer lum reek, my Scottish co-ogha!

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  You remembered!!!

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I may be aff ma heid, but of course I remember.

Answer 5

The more profiles I look at, the more relatives I find.

 Edison is a 15th cousin twice removed.  What my granpa used to call "shirt-tail relatives" lol.

Comments

I think 15C2R would be more like the relatives following in the very back of the wagon train. But I'll take it!

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Oh, you mean the ones that were outside the circle of wagons, lol.

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Yeah. That's probably a much better metaphor. We 15th cousins don't even catch up to the wagon circle until two hours after the cook has extinguished supper's cookfires.

Answer 6

Ditto to all the responses. I always learn and enjoy Edison's post. Julia

Comments

Thank you, Julia. You make reader number 12! My posts are finally going viral! 

Answer 7

Ignorance cowers at the mere mention of his posts (and keyboards quiver).

A true one of a kind contributor to Wikitree, and an excellent educator as well. The ability to share knowledge is a rare and great talent, and one at which Edison is truly exceptional.

Many thanks, Edison, your contributions are very much appreciated.

Comments

Paul, thank you. But how did you know that I have a problem with quivering keyboards? I finally had to start using heavy mechanical jobs that cost almost as much as my smartphone...

Answer 8

I make it a point to read every post by Edison Williams. Not only does he have a huge amount of information in his head, but he can cite his sources!

Comments

Okay. Now this one I'm printing and framing before Dr. Turner can change it. 

Some of you may not know that Ann is essentially genetic genealogy royalty. One of the books--and arguably the most important one--that introduced the world to genetic genealogy was Trace Your Roots with DNA, by Ann Turner and Megan Smolenyak (Rodale Books, a Penguin Random House imprint, ISBN 9781594860065, October 2004...and it's still in print and available at Amazon and elsewhere). In fact, Amazon tells me that I purchased my copy in December 2004. I didn't realize that I hadn't bought it right away. Hm.

She's been a pioneer and influencer in genetic genealogy for almost 25 years. I think many of you have heard of CeCe Moore; she's become quite well known from her work in investigative (or forensic) genealogy. To give you an idea of Ann's stature in the field, CeCe hired Ann in 2010 to consult on mtDNA data.

When Ann talks, I listen.

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You are too kind, Ed! I certainly don't think of myself as royalty, but I do sort of feel like everyone's grandmother. 

After consulting some sources, which amount to old emails and timestamps on files on my hard drive, I offer the following corrections. I had a consulting arrangement with 23andMe back in 2008. CeCe Moore, however, was instrumental in approaching Anne Wojcicki to form a group of Ancestry Ambassadors in 2012 and suggested me for that group. The Ambassadors represented the interests of the genetic genealogy community. 

https://blog.23andme.com/articles/thomas-jefferson-black-descendants

My contribution to the blog series was about how I used 23andMe to track down the hearing impairment that runs in my family. That remains a personal highlight for me. 

https://blog.23andme.com/articles/tracking-down-a-trait

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Nope. You're royalty. Get over it. 

And, "CeCe hired Ann in 2010 to consult on mtDNA data," may not have been strictly, precisely the correct way to phrase it.

I was thinking of the time CeCe got her FTDNA mtDNA full sequence test data back in 2010 and asked you to evaluate the results. You identified 34 no-calls in her data, including one that FTDNA had flagged as a heteroplasmy. Then I believe you compared that to CeCe's mother's 23andMe data and found that she had a no-call at the same locus as CeCe's heteroplasmy.

And thanks for the background about the 23andMe Ancestry Ambassadors project. That formation info was new to me.

Answer 9

Ellen, you are so right.  Edison is a gift to us.  I don't care if he has long posts there is always extremely good information in them.   I have learned more from his posts than several books on the topic of genetic genealogy.   He is smart and kind and willing to share what he knows...He doesn't try to over simplify an answer because that can be misleading rather he strives to educate and that is to be applauded.  If you want simple and easy skip DNA  Science is rarely simple or easy.

Comments

Oh, wow. Now here's someone else I'll have to send a bribe--, er, a gift card to for being so complimentary. This is starting to get expensive.

(I think Laura is being nice just because I weathered some of the COVID pandemic looking at French yDNA results with her.)

But, thanks! 

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Edison I am not one to sugar coat my words  I feel truly blessed to have met you here on WT

You deserve the accolades

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I'm humbled, Laura. So in addition to the gift card in the mail, I'm going print and frame your comments and hang them next to Dr. Turner's.

Answer 10

I am late to this congratulations party, but I did get to read an amazing number of answers with Edison's comments and it just whetted my appetite for more.

Indeed, he is a wonderful teacher and heartily deserves another Wonderful WikiTreer award!

Thank You!

Comments

Thank you, Kathy!

To keep the comments interesting, did you hear the one about the genealogist, the geneticist, and the bioinformatician who walked into a bar...

(Just kidding. There's no punchline. Though now that I've written that, it seems like there should be. Hm.)

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See, had to look up .bioinformatician.  There should be a punchline...

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The genealogist complains, "Genealogy is a never-ending project. Every time I identify one new ancestor using DNA, I have to research two more lines." The geneticist says, "That's nothing. Every time a patient does a whole genome sequence, I have to evaluate about 70 novel mutations." The bioinformaticist says, "That's nothing. Every time either one of you orders a DNA test, I have to compare more and more data for more and more people."

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Dr. Ann -- excellent!

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That's way better than anything that I came up with. All I could think of was something more parable-like dealing with genealogical trees, genetic trees, and genetic similarity. Not funny at all.

Maybe they could meet in the bar, with the genealogist last to arrive and only one drink down. The geneticist has been there longer and already had a few. The bioinformatics guy, though, is solidly a sheet-and-a-half to the wind with a stack of empty shot glasses in front of him because every 30X whole genome test means around 186 billion individual datapoints in the BAM file. And now they're getting ready to spring a pangenome reference model on him to complicate things.

Kinda requires a pretty specific audience though, huh? But what the hey. Every ice-breaker joke I've ever tried to use in a presentation has failed miserably, so I definitely have a very low bar. Gotta work on my too-tipsy impersonation...

Answer 11

I'm also late to the party, but just want to add that I agree wholeheartedly with all these other accolades.  I sometimes read those Edison posts two or three times minimum!  At my rate of comprehension, that can amount to a fair chunk of the day, but I always learn things from them.  Thanks Ed (if that's your preference)!

Comments

Goodness, Dennis! Thank you! But I didn't think I'd see you on G2G this week. Then again, if nothing else, my stream-of-consciousness posts do make for a good soporific.

But please don't read any of them three times in a row. I believe there's some rare psychotropic-like condition that can result. Causal research is still pending.

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Not a big fan of these WW awards, but I had to get out of sick bay long enough to answer this one!  Well deserved.

Answer 12

I come here only once a month or less but allow for an hour plus to read Edisons posts.  I understand only half even reading twice but I feel I learn some thing every time.