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!

Estate Research – It Isn’t New

April 22, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 4 Comments

Estate research - also known as probate research or forensic genealogy - isn't new. Here's what you can expect when you hire our team of forensic genealogists.Colonel "Jim" Smith, a millionaire farmer from Georgia, died without a will in 1916. People were eager to prove they were his next of kin and hired lawyers to try to do it! Estate research has been around for a long, long time.Legacy Tree Genealogists: The Trusted Probate Research FirmIf you're interested in hiring Legacy Tree Genealogists for estate research, also called probate research, forensic genealogy, heirship research, or heir searching, here's some helpful information:Legacy Tree has experience working with Public Administrators, court-appointed administrators, individual executors, and even geneticists in their quest to account for heirs of common ancestors.Unlike many probate research companies, we do not work on a commission that takes a percentages of the estate. Each hour is billed and …

Researching Irish Ancestry

March 14, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Researching Irish ancestry can be a challenge. If you find yourself with a genealogical "brick wall", checking these available records may help!Finding an Irish immigrant’s area of origin can be challenging, but there are several Irish, U.S., and Canadian records that may give you this information. This article will discuss civil registration, immigration, church, vital, and cemetery records and how these records can assist you in finding your ancestor’s place of origin.Researching Irish Ancestry in Civil Registration RecordsIf your ancestor was born or married in Ireland after the mid-1800s, you may be able to locate him or her in Irish Civil Registration indexes. Civil Registration (governmental registration of births, marriages, and deaths) began in Ireland in 1845 for non-Catholic marriages and in 1864 for all births, marriages, and deaths. Finding an ancestor in a civil registration index will give you his or her area of origin. Original records can then be requested from …

Untangling a Varied Pedigree

February 28, 2014 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 2 Comments

On a recent client project, we untangled a varied pedigree consisting of Chinese, Japanese, and Southern American heritage. Here's how we dissected a complicated family history!As a Project Manager with Legacy Tree Genealogists, one of the best parts of my job is seeing the amazing things we are able to do for our clients. Clients come to us with questions, genealogy tangles, and often with a pile of old documents they don’t even know what to do with. We take these muddled ingredients and turn them into something beautiful and meaningful for the client and their family.Focusing on ImmigrationOne of the most memorable projects that recently came across my desk involved a client who came to us with Chinese and Japanese immigrant ancestry as well as Southern American heritage, all in one pedigree. She had already gathered quite a collection of family documents in Chinese and Japanese, although she couldn’t read them, and just wanted to learn as much as she could about her …

Analyzing Your Family Tree: Decoding Conflicting Evidence

December 5, 2013 by Legacy Tree Genealogists 8 Comments

When analyzing your family tree you may encounter conflicting evidence. We share our top tips for resolving conflicts in your family tree.As you search for your heritage, you may notice that sites such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and others might contain numerous family trees with information about your ancestors. In addition to this, your grandma, great-aunt, and other various family members may also have their own versions of your family tree. You could also find a book published by a distant cousin, county or town histories, or a variety of other sources which give information about your family tree.In looking at all these sources, you will probably notice that some of them contain much of the same information, but others contain differing information. Some of the discrepancies may just be in the spelling of a name or in a birth date, while others will be more noticeable and concerning, such as a different spouse for your great-grandfather, or a different set of …