Nicole Elder Dyer

About Nicole Elder Dyer

Nicole Dyer is a professional genealogist specializing in Southern United States research and genetic genealogy. She is the creator of FamilyLocket.com and the Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast. She co-authored Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide and Research Like a Pro with DNA and is an instructor for the study groups of the same name. She lectures at conferences and institutes and previously served as the secretary and publicity chair of the Pima County Genealogy Society. Nicole holds a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in History Teaching. At Family Locket Genealogists, Nicole is a project manager, editor, and researcher.

When to Use Waypoints in a Source Citation

Feb 20, 2019

I have been studying citations for my Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) virtual class, Intermediate Foundations. Sara Scribner, CG, is our wonderful instructor. She gave us a suggested reading list about citations. I studied a few different articles by Tom Jones and Melinde Lutz Byrne, along with some parts of Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills, to understand how to cite online images. One (relatively) new way is to use waypoints, or steps to take to...

Family Locket RootsTech 2019 Classes and Booth

Feb 18, 2019

We would love to see you at RootsTech. Here is a list of our classes! To view the full schedule, go here: RootsTech Salt Lake City 2019 Schedule. For a full listing of all our activities, sales, and class materials from RootsTech, please go to our webpage here: https://familylocket.com/rootstech/. Diana The FamilySearch Catalog: A Researcher’s Best Friend, Diana, Wednesday 11am (Room 255) and repeated on Thursday 1:30pm (Room 254A) Perspectives on Accreditation, Power Hour, Diana...

RLP 32: Indirect vs. Direct Evidence

Feb 18, 2019

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss the difference between indirect evidence vs. direct evidence. Is a birth year calculated from a census record considered direct or indirect evidence? What about the birth year ranges in pre-1850 U.S. Censuses? And what does your research question have to do with the type of evidence? Links Genealogy Evidence Analysis – Free Template and Lucinda Keaton Sample Research Like a Pro, Part 2: Analyze Your Sources...

Resources for Temple and Family History Consultants

Feb 13, 2019

We just updated our Resources for Temple and Family History Consultants page today. With so many exciting new resources online to help with family history in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know you will find this helpful in your calling. Here are some highlights of the new additions to our resource list: Articles from the Souls to Bless blog A Possible Model for Youth Consultants – Suggestions for ways youth consultants can learn how...

RLP 31: 3 Tips for Ancestry DNA

Feb 11, 2019

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three things you should do after taking a DNA test at Ancestry. We recommend downloading the raw DNA data and uploading it to the other testing sites that accept transfers so you can find more matches beyond the Ancestry database. We also recommend that you link a tree to your Ancestry DNA test results! This will help you and your cousin matches SO much. Lastly, we...

RLP 30: Put it in a Table

Feb 4, 2019

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to put information from records into a table to help you organize the data and make connections. Nicole tells about a land study that she did and organizing lots of deeds by clustering the rows in the table by the names of the witnesses. Diana talks about showing data about a person’s age from each census year with a table. Join us for a discussion...

Tucson Family History Fair 2019

Feb 4, 2019

Diana and Nicole at the Tucson Family History Center Diana and I gave the keynote at the Tucson Family History Fair Saturday. It was entitled Getting Organized One Paper at a Time. Afterward, we taught seven additional classes between the two of us. It was a delightful conference! What we loved most was the enthusiasm and interest of the attendees. They were very engaged with ideas, questions, and comments. There were over 300 people in...

Find Names Facebook Group

Jan 31, 2019

If you feel overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to find names for the temple, you are not alone. Maybe you have a very full tree with many early members of the Church. You may have tried the new ordinances ready feature, but there were no available names for you. I’ve worked with many people with full trees and helped them find names with my process. Those with full trees must do descendancy research on...

RLP 29: Interview with eCourse Student Rebecca Walbecq

Jan 28, 2019

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I interview Rebecca Walbecq, one of our Research Like a Pro eCourse students. She shares her experience with trying the research process on a research problem she had been studying for years. She began the eCourse with the following objective: “The objective of this research project is to prove or disprove that Daniel Hawley born in October of 1808 in Allegany County, New York and Sarah Sally Huff...

The Grandchild Report at Gene Heritage

Jan 26, 2019

In May of last year, I wrote about a new third party DNA analysis tool called Gene Heritage in this post: Review of Gene Heritage – a Third Party DNA and Inherited Traits Analysis Tool. Today, I have an update! The grandchild report has been released, and I love it! Gene Heritage has done a wonderful job creating an accessible, fascinating, and research-based experience for learning more about your DNA results. As you know, we inherit 50%...