Debbie Parker Wayne CG®, ( - 2022)

ProGen Member Overview

Written by Ed Williams   Published: 20 Jan 2022

 The Board for Certification of Genealogists joins the entire genealogical community in mourning the passing of Debbie Parker Wayne, CG^®, who served as a Trustee and member of the BCG Executive Committee from 2018–2020, and as a trustee of the BCG Education Fund.
—20 January 2022 statement by the BCG

The genetic genealogy community is bereft of one of our revered pioneers. Debbie Parker Wayne lost her battle with a neurological disease early on 7 January 2022, and we will all be the poorer for her absence. Recent communication from a family member explained that the cause of her death was not Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease as previously reported here, but a condition deemed similar to CJD. Thankfully, and blessedly, Debbie was spared the pain that typically accompanies CJD.

Her interest in genetics stemmed from her passionate involvement in genealogy. She held accreditation from the Board for Certification of Genealogists^® (BCG) as both a Certified Genealogist, the BCG’s core credential, and as a Certified Genealogical Lecturer^SM, the organization’s teaching certification for instructors and lecturers. Debbie was a past Trustee for the BCG Education Fund, a past board member and Advocacy Committee Chair of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), and past president of the Lone Star Chapter of APG.

To many people using DNA for genealogy, she may be best known for two books. The first, co-authored with Blaine Bettinger, is Genetic Genealogy in Practice (2016, ISBN 978-1935815228) and remains a top-seller in the field and used as a text in several instructional courses.

The second is the award-winning Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies (2019, ISBN 978-1733694902) which, in 14 chapters each by a different, well-known contributor in the field, is one of the first such works to offer material specifically for readers who are at an intermediate to advanced level of familiarity with genetic genealogy analysis techniques.

A fellow Texan, Debbie’s area of specialization in traditional genealogy was a research focus on Texas, the Southwest, and the Southern U.S. It was in that latter role I first met Debbie. She was the DNA Project Chair for the Texas State Genealogical Society Early Texans DNA Project for many years, and she had a column on using DNA analysis for genealogical research in Stirpes the journal of the Texas State Genealogical Society, and in the NGS Magazine, the quarterly of the National Genealogical Society. She presented at the Angelina College (Lufkin, Texas) Genealogy Conference, and in the Books by a Professional category in the Texas State Genealogical Society’s Writing Competition she took second place in 2016 and first place in 2019.

Her other publications included articles in the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, the Digital Genealogist (no longer in production), Pegasus, the journal of the Dallas Genealogical Society, the New Mexico Genealogist, the quarterly of the New Mexico State Genealogical Society journal, and others.

Debbie was course coordinator for “Genetics for Genealogists: Beginning DNA and Tools and Techniques for Genetic Genealogy” at the Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research, “Practical Genetic Genealogy” at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, and “Getting Started with Genetic Genealogy” at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.

In addition, she acted as a DNA instructor for the Forensic Genealogy Institute sponsored by the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy. And she was a presenter at the National Genealogical Society and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (which subsequently merged with NGS) conferences, the International Genetic Genealogy Conference, the Family Tree DNA Project Administrator’s Conference, and the Southern California Jamboree DNA Day.

As if she didn’t stay busy enough, Debbie was involved with several different genealogical television series. In 2008 she worked on an episode of the Canadian series Ancestors in the Attic, presented by Reader’s Digest Canada and shown on History Television in Canada from 2006 to 2010. Debbie’s episode featured the descendants of a slave family in Smith County, Texas, who had migrated to Canada. In 2011, Debbie worked on an episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. featuring a descendant of another East Texas slave family. This episode with Ruth Simmons, then president of Brown University, was broadcast on 29 April 2012. Debbie also did additional research for Who Do You Think You Are? and other Finding Your Roots episodes.

As soon as news of her death was made known, some of the most notable names in genetic genealogy were immediate in offering their condolences.