Have you ever been exploring your family tree when a rotten apple falls down and hits you on the head? Most of us have at least one ancestor with a checkered past. Some of our ancestors have even spent time in jail. Do you know how to uncover a criminal past? Do you know the…
In the September 2014 issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, editors Melinde Lutz Bryne and Thomas W. Jones conceded that while traditional genealogists have worked with sources and documents that have been available for decades, a new resource for research has been evolving in the past decade – DNA. Over the past few years,…
Are your brick walls really rock solid, or do you just need fresh eyes looking things over for you? Sometimes when the same person examines the same problem again and again, vital clues and information can be missed. The following suggestions will help you look at your research with “fresh eyes.” 1. Discuss the problem…
It does not take long to accumulate an abundance of papers, records, photos, and other materials while researching an ancestor. In the process, you may even lose track of what you were actually trying to discover. Creating a timeline can help you stay focused on your original objective. If you have never used a timeline…
Maps are very useful when piecing together your family history. They can help you gain a wider perspective of your ancestor’s life, community, and environment. Creating a map and adding important places as you research will help you interpret your findings and identify further avenues of research as you move back in time when boundaries…
Displaying What’s New in FamilySearch and Ancestry In technical documentation, we often use Revision Bars to indicate content that is new or updated. These bars appear in the outside margin of the page or screen next to all content that has changed. How I wish FamilySearch and Ancestry.com did the same thing. If they used…
Are you stumped because you cannot figure out your ancestor’s name? There can be several reasons for this, including: Someone had poor handwriting, and you cannot read the name. Only the first two initials were recorded, and you have no idea what they stand for. You only knew your ancestor’s nickname, you would not recognize…
A long time ago in a kingdom far away there lived a fair maiden by the name of Fnu MNU. She married a handsome young knight named Sir Arthur LNU and thus she became Fnu (MNU) LNU. Wait! Stop! Does this sound a bit like a page out of YOUR family tree? Are you spending…
I was talking to one of the lead researchers at Genealogists.com this week about brick walls. Barry’s first belief when it comes to brick walls is to forget what you know. At first I was skeptical. We are taught in genealogy to go from the known to the unknown. To back up his theory, he gave…
Note: “What We Learned Today” is a new column that Jan and Doris will be writing each day to capture learnings from the Rootsonomy Research Group in Skype. Today while I and a couple of the other researchers at Genealogists.com staff were looking for a death record of Josiah Oden, we re-realized how important it…