Are you struggling to come up with meaningful holiday gifts for your loved ones? Consider the gift of heritage!For many of us, the holidays mean family time. We gather together to celebrate lasting traditions and create new ones, drawing closer to the ones we love and strengthening ties with them.Coming up with meaningful gift ideas for our loved ones, however, is a common struggle. What does she like? What would make him happy?Family history projects make unique, personal, and … [Read more...]
Genealogy Tips & Best Practices
As the world's highest rated genealogy research firm, the experts at Legacy Tree Genealogists have compiled a collection of genealogy tips and best practices to help you find YOUR ancestors! From methodology and education, to writing a family biography, we explain the who, what, where and why of family history research!
Digging Through Name Changes: The Challenge of Dealing with Aliases in Genealogy Research
*shared with client permissionWhat's in a name? Plenty, when you're dealing with name changes in genealogy research! We share how to overcome the obstacle of aliases in your family history research!A fascinating recent project for Legacy Tree Genealogists involved a search for the parents of William Thomas Rowe, born about 1855, probably in Baltimore, Maryland, who married Susan Cecelia O’Hagen and died in 1894 in Washington, DC. The client provided the information that William was a … [Read more...]
13 Secrets to Getting Replies from DNA Cousin Matches
Tips from one of our professional genealogists for getting responses from your DNA cousin matches.It happens to all of us.You see you have new DNA cousin matches, and you get excited. Maybe they have a brick-wall surname you recognize, or maybe they’re a really close match, or maybe they’re in an area where you think your ancestors may have lived. You do a genealogy happy dance, and you send them a message.And then you wait. And wait. And wait. And nothing happens.It’s frustrating, … [Read more...]
Legacy Tree Genealogists Recognized as One of Utah’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies…Again
Once again, Legacy Tree Genealogists has been named to the Utah100, MountainWest Capital Network (MWCN)’s annual list of 100 fastest-growing companies, this time moving up to rank as 46th on the list. The company was recognized at the 24th annual Utah 100 Awards program, held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Recipients of the Utah 100 were chosen by the percentage of revenue increase of each company between 2013 and 2017.“We are excited to receive this recognition once again,” … [Read more...]
Time + Place= Records and Family!
If there’s any problem that’s bigger than not finding anything about your ancestors, it’s finding too many records with people of the same name to make sense of it all. That’s when genealogists use the concepts of time and place in genealogy like a set of cross-hairs to hone in on records that relate to their family.Time and Place in Genealogy ResearchWhat does "time and place" mean to the family historian? It means putting yourself in the time and place of the ancestor for whom you are … [Read more...]
Finding Amelia Winter: Using Newspaper Social Columns to Find Female Ancestors
Searching for a female ancestor? Check the newspaper social columns!Tracing our female ancestors and learning about their lives can be a difficult proposition in American family history research, so it is important to leave no stone unturned and utilize all the tools available to the genealogist in that endeavor. One such crucial tool in the 19th and 20th centuries is the local newspaper, and the social columns in particular.Newspaper Social Columns: 19th Century Social MediaIn the years … [Read more...]
Meet Derek, Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists
Derek has a depth of experience in project management from a nearly 30-year military career managing linguists and intelligence professionals. The skills Colonel (Ret) Tolman developed serving the intelligence community transfer over nicely to the family history and genealogy community. As he says, “It’s nice to transition from looking for the bad guys as an intelligence professional to helping others trace the good guys on their family tree.”Derek hails from a family deeply committed to … [Read more...]
Meet Lori, Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists
As the oldest child of six and the mother of nine, family has played a huge role in Lori Lynn McCulloch’s life. She was introduced to genealogy when she was eight years old, visiting her maternal grandparents in Imbler, Oregon. Her grandmother taught her to fill out a pedigree chart and family group sheets and the blank spaces just about did her in. She was on a quest to find the people to fill in the empty spaces. And this has gone on for more than forty years.She took her first “Intro … [Read more...]
How Long Does It Take to Build a Family Tree?
With the popularity of TV shows such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Finding Your Roots," a common question we receive as professional genealogists is "How long does it take to build a family tree?" You might have watched one of the many shows popular shows on TV where celebrities and individuals alike have learned their family history goes back many generations and hundreds of years in the short time frame of an hour. Surely this must be simple, right? They make it look so easy!Let's … [Read more...]
Covering Your Bases: Introduction to Autosomal DNA Coverage
“Why does my sister have different ethnicity percentages than I do?” “Why does my brother have different genetic cousins than I do?” “If we have the same parents, then shouldn’t we have the same ethnicity or the same relatives?” If you have had these questions regarding your DNA test results, you are not alone! These are some of the most common questions about genetic genealogy tests that we receive from our clients and our readers. If you have these questions, it also indicates that you are … [Read more...]
