Diana Elder

About Diana Elder

Diana Elder AGⓇ AGL is a professional genealogist, author, and speaker. She is accredited in the Gulf South region of the United States through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Diana graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and has turned her passion for teaching to educating teens and adults in proven genealogy techniques. Diana is the author of Research Like a Pro: A Genealogists Guide and creator of the “Research Like a Pro” study group. She writes regular articles for FamilyLocket.com, the genealogy website created by her daughter, Nicole Dyer. She presents regularly at genealogy conferences, sharing the methods she uses every day to solve challenging genealogical problems.

Using the Fan Methodology to Find a Female’s Father: Part 2 – Locality Research and Research Planning

Oct 20, 2022

When researching our female ancestors who have few records naming them, to make progress, we need to do cluster research. We determine the people in her FAN club (Friends, Family, Associates, and Neighbors) and research them! My first post in this series discussed my ancestor, Mary Clemsy Cline, who was born about 1817 in Alabama and died after 1880 in Wise Couty, Texas. My initial analysis showed three individuals I want to explore as part...

Using the Fan Methodology to Find a Female’s Father

Oct 16, 2022

Do you have females in your family tree who have few records and have left even fewer clues to their origins? You may have a maiden name and an estimated birth year, but there may not be any marriage record. Perhaps birthplaces conflict with one census naming one state and another census naming a different state. How do you tackle this type of brick-wall research? When faced with a tough challenge, one proven methodology is...

Adding Historical Context to Writing: The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah

Sep 22, 2022

Reading historical fiction can provides ideas on how to add historical context to our work. Researching the world of our ancestors allows us to write with more authenticity when telling their stories. Kristen Hannah’s recent novel, The Four Winds, takes us on a journey to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in Texas and the hardships “Okies” encountered when fleeing the unforgiving land for California. My ancestors followed this same migration in the 1930s, so...

Tracking Research Projects in Airtable

Sep 17, 2022

Do you have several research logs, reports, and other research tools for your ancestors that represent months or years of research? Do you ever forget that you’ve created a tool such as a timeline only to recreate it? I set up an Airtable base to track my research projects, and today am sharing my thought process. You can do something similar for your research. I’ve published my base under the title Track Your Ancestral Research...

Endogamy, Pedigree Collapse, and Multiple Relationships: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter?

Sep 2, 2022

You may have heard the terms endogamy, pedigree collapse, or multiple relationships as you’ve been learning how to use DNA with genealogy. What does your match list look like if you have any of these scenarios? What do your cluster results look like? How do you work with those DNA matches? What does this mean for your research and analysis? This article will help you understand each term and give you examples to digest. I’ll...

Finding Your Family in FamilySearch Images

Aug 26, 2022

FamilySearch is adding new digital images every second from around the world. These images are being dropped immediately into FamilySearch but are not indexed and not added to the FamilySearch Catalog. If you’re not aware of this next place to search, you may be missing out on a valuable resource. In this article, I’ll walk you through FamilySearch Images and give you some tips on navigating the site. Accessing Images You can find the Images...

Southern Colonial Research: Maps and the Law

Aug 13, 2022

Do any of your ancestral lines go back to the southern colonies of Georgia, Virginia, or the Carolinas? You may have wondered if it is even possible to research families in these difficult localities and times. Often all we need is a new perspective on the research – something that I gained in abundance in my recent course at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), which was coordinated by J. Mark Lowe. I’ll...

Six Tips for Excellent Writing

Jul 22, 2022

Excellent writing doesn’t just happen – we write, edit, and rewrite until the finished product meets our standard. As genealogists, we write research reports, ancestor stories, proof arguments, and much more. Several tips can help us write clearly and concisely and make it more likely that we’ll engage our readers. Tip 1: Write We all get writer’s block; when that happens, the best solution is to start writing. Don’t worry about wordsmithing the perfect introduction....

Five Takeaways from an Advanced DNA Institute Course

Jul 16, 2022

What is the value of taking an immersive DNA course from an expert in the field? New perspectives, information, and practical applications to genetic genealogy. I completed the Advanced DNA Evidence course coordinated by Blaine Bettinger as part of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. The course exceeded my expectations, and I took copious notes on the latest and greatest advances in DNA as it relates to proving and confirming our ancestors. I highly recommend...

The Girls in the Stilt House – Summer Book Club Selection

Jul 2, 2022

When writing family stories, how often do you research the location and history surrounding events that influenced our ancestors? As family historians, we can learn much about the importance of this type of research by reading historical fiction. The Girls in the Stilt House provides an excellent example of using place and time to bring to life the Natchez Trace as the setting for the story. In this blog post, Author Kelly Mustian shares some...