"Does my family have a coat of arms?" We share eight tips for heraldic research to help you find out!Coats of arms and other heraldic devices are beautiful and filled with symbolism: blue signifying truth and loyalty, lions indicating bravery, and the phoenix symbolizing resurrection. They conjure up images of knights jousting and rooms filled with nobleman and ladies and suggest a possible relationship to a famous king or queen. Unfortunately, many people misunderstand heraldry and … [Read more...]
Connecting the Dots: What Constitutes Genealogical Proof?
How do we know when we have compiled enough evidence to consitute genealogical proof of a familial connection? Read on to find out!How do we know when we have compiled enough evidence to constitute proof? Is a birth certificate or an autosomal DNA test result sufficient to declare this person is the child of that person? Must we collect every record regarding an individual – the deeds, the tax lists, the newspaper clippings, the census reports – before we can declare a familial … [Read more...]
A Genealogist’s Letter to Santa
A genealogist's letter to Santa--what we really want this year!Dear Santa,I have been a good genealogist all year. My research always conforms to the Genealogical Proof Standard: my research is reasonably exhaustive, my citations are complete and accurate, my analysis is thorough, I correlate records and data fully, I resolve conflicting evidence or offer some valid explanations for the conflicts, and my conclusions are soundly written.In addition, I use outside-the-box thinking to … [Read more...]
Genealogy Sleuthing Part II: Using Women’s Fashion to Date Old Photos
In Part II of our two-part series on how to date old family photos, we discuss how to use women's fashion to date old photos you encounter 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 … [Read more...]
Genealogy Sleuthing: How to Date Old Family Photos – Part I
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 … [Read more...]
How to Connect with Your Pilgrim Ancestors and Join the Mayflower Society
Would you like to join the Mayflower Society? We walk you through the steps of proving your Pilgrim ancestry!If you know or suspect that you are descended from one of the original Pilgrims who arrived in Massachusetts on 9 November 1620 there is still time to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (more commonly known as the Mayflower Society) before the November 2020 celebration of the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower.Proving your connection to a Mayflower … [Read more...]
Captain Timothy Parker: Revolutionary War Hero
*This story of Revolutionary War hero, Captain Timothy Parker, is shared with client permission.The recent Memorial Day holiday allows us a time to remember those who have served our country, particularly through military service during times of war. We were privileged to research and write a detailed biography of our client’s ancestor, Captain Timothy Parker, a Revolutionary War Captain of the Connecticut Navy and privateer. We utilized a wide variety of primary sources from the Connecticut … [Read more...]
Five Steps for Finding that Hard-to-Find Irish Ancestor
Researching Irish ancestry can be notoriously difficult. One of our genealogists shares her expert tips to trace your elusive Irish ancestors.*Case study shared with client permission.A client was looking to trace the ancestry of her Irish great-grandmother, Eliza Kennedy. Eliza was the wife of Thomas Morgan and they had several children, among them the client’s grandfather, Frank. Not much was known about Eliza; an aunt claimed that Eliza was from Cork and told stories about Eliza … [Read more...]
Using Poor Law Records to Find Your Irish Ancestors
Those of us with Irish ancestors know that many of them left Ireland because of the crushing poverty caused by the high rents imposed by absentee landlords, the Great Famine, and a high birth rate among a predominantly Roman Catholic population. While we can’t help but feel sorrow for their circumstances, the very reason those ancestors left Ireland can help us learn more about their lives before their immigration. Two sets of Dublin-based records - Deserted Children Dublin and Dublin Workhouses … [Read more...]
Third Cousins Twice Removed and Consanguinity: Figuring Out How You’re 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...]
