The Legacy Tree Genealogists Blog

Hand-picked, tested and trained, our professional genealogist team knows how to find your story. We search the world for answers. Find the un-findable. And we’re experts at everything from tracking down rare international records to analyzing DNA test results. Based near the world’s largest family history library in downtown Salt Lake City, we also work with researchers and archives around the globe. Contact us today if you would like help discovering your ancestors!

Amerasian unknown parentage case resolved with genetic genealogy

“Children of the Dust”: How Genetic Genealogy Helped an Amerasian Woman Locate Her G.I. Father

August 16, 2019 by Jessica - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher Leave a Comment

With client permission, we share one woman's experience of growing up "Amerasian" and the important role genetic genealogy played in helping her locate her G.I. father.Growing Up AmerasianWhen Anni was little, she would often ask about her father, but her mother always gave her the same vague reply, “I met him Taichung, then I had you.” Anni was born in the 1960s - the daughter of a Taiwanese mother and an unknown U.S. serviceman fighting in Vietnam. Anni said she always felt different, realizing early on that she didn’t share the same facial features the other children in her village had, her skin was lighter, her face more “European” than the rest of her family. People in her village were quick to point those differences out as well, often taunting her into tears. Recounting as an adult, Anni said she could tell that her inquiries about her father were painful for her mother to discuss, and she would often shy away or blatantly refuse to talk about him.(top) Anni, around …

Genealogy Sleuthing Part II: Using Women’s Fashion to Date Old Photos

August 9, 2019 by Kate - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher 2 Comments

In Part II of our two-part series on how to date old family photos, we discuss using clues from women's fashion to date old photos in your genealogy research.Sometimes, there are no clues within the photograph or imprinted on it. In those situations, we need to rely on an understanding of the fashions of the 1850s through 1900s, both hair and clothing, to accurately determine when that particular photograph was taken. At least one of the three key aspects of women’s fashion—hair, the bodice of the dress, and the skirt of the dress—is depicted in every photograph. Knowing what to look for and what is suggested by hair and clothing styles can assist us in identifying the person or people in our unidentified family photographs.Using Women's Fashion to Date Old PhotosThe 1850sHair was parted in the middle, ears probably show, the hair is styled so that there is volume at the side of the face.The sleeves are set into the bodice to make a sloping shoulder look; the corset is …

Genealogy Sleuthing: How to Date Old Family Photos – Part I

August 2, 2019 by Kate - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher 4 Comments

Many family historians have a collection of unidentified old family photos they're not sure what to do with--but can't bear to throw out. In this article, we'll share tips for helping you accurately date old family photos.Photographs are one of the treasures of genealogy. There is something about being able to look an ancestor in the eye—we make a connection to the people we can identify by both name and face. We search for traces of ourselves in their faces. We wonder what they were thinking or doing, or why that photograph was taken on that particular day.But photographs can be perilous. Sometimes the people in the photograph are not who we think they are.A few years ago, a photograph circulated around the internet and on a variety of online family trees, purporting to be an image of a young William Cheek, a Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1845. It turned up on dozens of websites and family trees. But there were two problems with that photograph. First, a quick search …

Legacy Tree Onsite: Top 3 Record Collections for Researching Jewish Genealogy

July 29, 2019 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Legacy Tree works with researchers all over the world to access records for our clients. We asked one of our onsite researchers, located in Lviv, Ukraine, to share the top 3 record collections for Jewish genealogy research at the State Central Historical Archive of Ukraine.The State Central Historical Archive of Ukraine holds the largest Ukrainian collection of historical Jewish documents. This includes Jewish populations that were part of the Polish Kingdom (before 1772), the Austrian (1772-1867) and Austro-Hungarian (1867-1918) Empires, the Republic of Poland (1919-1939), the Soviet Union and under Nazi German occupation.Top 3 Record Collections for Jewish GenealogyThere are a number of documentary repositories, also known as Fonds, which contain documents of Jewish genealogy, but there are main three collections of interest: Fond 701 – Although this collection of 5672 documents is called the "Lwow Jewish Religious Community," it contains 420 registers of Jewish …