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.

Anglicizing a Name and Discovering a Migration Path: John D. Isenhour (1778-1844)

Apr 9, 2023

Ancestor surnames can be a challenge in research – especially when they begin with a vowel! Take, for instance, my Eisenhaur/Isenhour ancestors. My earliest ancestors emigrated from the German region of Europe in the 1700s and retained the spelling Eisenhauer until my ancestor, John, anglicized the spelling to Isenhour. Some branches of the family still use the Eisenhower spelling – such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower, my 4th cousin, 5 times removed. Nicole wrote about...

Gone Too Soon: Mary Margaret (Peterson) Creer 1871-1926

Apr 1, 2023

Do you have an ancestor who died fairly young? Have you discovered their story? My great-grandmother, Mary Margaret (Peterson) Creer, died in her mid-50s. Her daughter, Florence Matilda (Creer) Kelsey, my grandmother, was expecting her fifth child when the family gathered and took their last photo together in 1925. Mary would miss meeting most of her grandchildren and seeing her youngest children grow up. Although I never met Mary Margaret, stories and photos shed...

John Royston’s Orphan: Lucky Winner of the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery

Mar 26, 2023

Do you have any ancestors who were lucky? Perhaps things always seemed to go their way or perhaps they really did win the lottery. Such was the case with John Royston’s orphan. Not only was this individual lucky in the land draw, but I was also lucky that this record was created because it became a key piece of evidence in linking generations. The Georgia 1827 Land Lottery Georgia is a state-land state meaning that...

Daniel Henrie (1825-1914): Member of the Mormon Battalion

Mar 19, 2023

We often think of our ancestors in isolation – focusing on just their immediate or extended family. But our ancestors were members of a broader community. They could have belonged to a church, a club, a fraternal organization, a service group, or a military unit. When we explore their membership in that group we gain more understanding of their lives. In this 52 ancestor’s post, I’ll highlight the life of Daniel Henrie, a member...

Identifying a Father for Robert Cisnie Royston (1848-1915)

Mar 11, 2023

When I began my genealogy journey, I carefully sorted the papers inherited from my dad’s research and started building my family tree. Those were the days before online trees so I used Personal Ancestral File (PAF). I worked hard to document each person and generation with sources – using the newly digitized censuses available on Ancestry and research done at the Family Search Library in Salt Lake City. Eventually, though, I came to a stopping...

Outcast: William “Shoot’em Up Dick” Shults (1864-1949)

Feb 26, 2023

When thinking of an ancestor who was an outcast, who comes to mind? Various situations could result in a person becoming an outcast from their family or from society. These ancestors may be the subject of a family story that entails some kind of crime, misdeed, argument, or another event. Uncovering the facts behind the story can lead you on a quest to discover more. In this blog post, I’ll discuss an “outcast” in my...

Back to the Basics with Marriage Records Part 2 : Substitute Marriage Records

Feb 14, 2023

Marriage records are one of the three vital records we rely on for identifying our ancestors and their relationships. They can contain the residence of the bride and groom, names of parents or witnesses, clues to religion, birth information, the bride’s maiden name, and more. Because of the legal implications of marriage, most U.S. counties began recording marriages early in the county’s formation. If the couple was married in a church, there could also be...

Social Media: Edward Raymond Kelsey’s Cabin

Feb 12, 2023

Have you considered using social media to discover more about your ancestors? Social media can be a powerful tool – both to learn more about our ancestors and to share stories about them. What was social media before Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc? The local newspaper often featured community happenings, gossip columns, and reporting of every nature. I recently saw a Facebook post from a relative giving the history of the cabin that my grandfather, Edward...

Oops: Correcting an Incorrect Set of Parents for Malissa (Welch) Harris, 1844-1887

Feb 5, 2023

Despite our best intentions, we all make mistakes as we fill out our family tree. Perhaps we were baby genealogists and simply didn’t know how to analyze records or maybe we were copying another cousin’s tree without verifying the information. For whatever reason, errors can be corrected and we can improve the veracity of our tree. An early mistake I made in my research was attaching the wrong parents to my ancestor, Malissa (Welch) Harris....

About Diana Elder

Anglicizing a Name and Discovering a Migration Path: John D. Isenhour (1778-1844)

Gone Too Soon: Mary Margaret (Peterson) Creer 1871-1926

John Royston’s Orphan: Lucky Winner of the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery

Identifying a Father for Robert Cisnie Royston (1848-1915)

Outcast: William “Shoot’em Up Dick” Shults (1864-1949)

Back to the Basics with Marriage Records Part 2 : Substitute Marriage Records

Social Media: Edward Raymond Kelsey’s Cabin

Oops: Correcting an Incorrect Set of Parents for Malissa (Welch) Harris, 1844-1887

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