Wade in the Water

 

Shawn Pridgen. "Wade in the Water" 2020.

A photo from the Reflecting Pool, facing the Lincoln Memorial by photographer Shawn Pridgen.

Triple Digits

We've hit 102 in Northern Virginia. Dangerously hot outside, and definitely too hot for dog paws to be walking around. I have Spain vs Austria on one screen while working.

Some reading ahead of the weekend - a fascinating New York Times interactive article How a Nation of Immigrants Traces its Roots (1 July 2026, subscription may be required to read). See also the very cool census data map accompanying the article.

Historic Hinkle to Host 2026 NBA Cup

 

Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis. NBA.com.

The NBA announced Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis will host the championship game of the 2026 NBA Cup on 11 December. The venue is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a real "basketball cathedral". I've posted about Hinkle Fieldhouse previously. The building was an inspiration to the current home of the Indiana Pacers, now called Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

It's very cool to see Indy and Hinkle Fieldhouse will host the NBA Cup, and we'll certainly be watching (streaming on Amazon Prime).

Research Progress July 2026

This is my monthly post to recap progress on DNA research questions. The month of June heavily featured work travel and primary obligations, and less time for family history research. I'll take this as an opportunity to look back to previous questions from May for this update.

RootsTech 2027 presentations

The call for RootsTech 2027 presentations has now closed, and I'm awaiting news. I submitted two proposals before departing to Spain. I also booked my flights and the same Airbnb I used for RootsTech 2025, so either way I'm planning to attend in person.

My Paternal Side

It's been a while since the May update, and there's been some progress on the questions related to Irish immigrants Bridget and John O'Brien. Mainly this is an update on progress with chromosome mapping. Using the tools on DNAPainter, I'm now up to 119 segments mapped (24%) for my Dad, and 183 segments mapped (30%) for me. 16 of those segments on my Dad's side are "Unknown O'Brien", as these are segments from known matches who are either from the Pennsylvania O'Briens group or a growing mystery group of likely O'Briens who left Ireland for Australia. 

I'm hoping to spend some more time in July on this mystery new Australia group.

My Maternal Side

Very little progress since the previous month's update on my maternal side research questions. I hope to pick these up again this month.

New Tools

I am continuing to use Gedminer to identify errors in my tree on Ancestry, duplicates, and stray people who were added long ago without proper references or sources. There's much more to do here.

National Archives plans to close records locations

Sharing this article from KQED, The Bay Area's National Archives office is closing, researchers are worried (26 June 2026). 

An article from 25 June 2026 in Federal News Network states that NARA plans to close three records centers - Chicago, San Francisco/San Bruno, and Seattle.