*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...]
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...]
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...]
Tracing 20th Century Immigrant Ancestors
Do you have 20th century immigrant ancestors who came to the United States? If so, you’re in luck, as there are a variety of resources available to help you learn about their journey to the United States and where they came from. The biggest challenge in tracing the ancestry of immigrants is that you must first identify their exact hometown (not just country or region) before you can locate records in their home country. Luckily, there were a variety of records created when an immigrant came to … [Read more...]
Setting SMART Genealogy Research Goals for the New Year
With the start of each new year, many of us think about and set new goals to accomplish, to live by, to achieve. It is never too late in life to set these goals and look to better our lives and those of our families. Each new day presents new opportunities to reach these goals, and if we fall short one day, we can always strive to do better the next. With the new year upon us, you have likely considered goals you would like to achieve, but have you considered including genealogy research-related … [Read more...]
Third Cousins Twice Removed and Consanguinity: How You are Related to Your Relatives
The Ancestry.com app We’re Related has proven to be a fun novelty sort of parlor game. The app utilizes the information found in your Ancestry online family tree to look for similarly-named individuals in the family trees of various famous people: politicians, actors, musicians, and your Facebook friends.Of course, most of the relations are very distant: 3rd cousins 8 times removed; 9th cousins 2 times removed, etc. Explaining how those relationships are determined is relatively simple. A … [Read more...]
The Need for Speed: Genealogical Records and Natural Disasters
When we think about onsite research in a foreign country, most of us might imagine sitting in beautiful reading rooms of libraries and archives. Cool marble, hushed librarians, and possibly some classical paintings or sculptures dot the room. All is serene as the researcher pours over onsite records--leafing through the ancient books or scrolling through dated microfilm in search of the next ancestor.But sometimes the situation is more stressful and potentially perilous for the researcher. … [Read more...]
