Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro, Diana and Nicole discuss the challenges of genealogical research in areas with severe record loss, using northeastern Arkansas counties as a case study. They offer five tips to help researchers make progress despite such setbacks. They advise starting by understanding the extent of the record loss, suggesting sources like the FamilySearch Wiki to determine what records might still exist despite events like fires or floods. They emphasize the...
Wanting to know more about how Artificial intelligence (AI) works and tips for using it effectively for genealogy, I took Steve Little’s AI Course at the GRIP Genealogy Institute, “AI Genealogy Seminars: From Basics to Breakthroughs.” Steve recommended Ethan Mollick’s 2024 book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. I found the book to be perfect for my level of understanding and full of examples. Humorous at times, Mollick gives us much food for thought. Writing...
Diana and Nicole discuss BanyanDNA, a tool for analyzing complex family relationships in genetic genealogy. Leah Larkin introduced BanyanDNA in December 2023, highlighting its unique ability to identify unknown ancestors and alert users to discrepancies in family trees. Diana shares her experience with her own family tree, where her great-grandparents’ siblings married each other, creating double cousins. She builds a tree using BanyanDNA, adding DNA matches from various test-takers, and finds the horizontal tree orientation...
This blog post completes our five-part series on records in England besides the usual baptisms, marriages, and burials. In part one, we looked at the parish chest; in part two, tax records; in part three, wills and probate; and in part four court records. Part five deals with Manor rolls – what they are and how to find them. Part 5. Manor Rolls You’ll find that as you research further back in time, fewer and...
In this episode, Diana and Nicole discuss finding immigration records for ancestors arriving in the United States after 1906. They provide a timeline of important immigration laws and their impacts, such as the 1906 establishment of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, the 1917 Immigration Act, the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, the 1924 National Origins Act, the 1945 War Brides Act, the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act, and the 1965...
If you’ve taken a DNA test and want to contribute to the genetic genealogy research on your ancestors, adding your DNA information to the collaborative WikiTree is an excellent place to start. Rest assured, you won’t be uploading any raw DNA. You’ll simply add your haplogroup if you took the Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA tests. For autosomal DNA, you’ll note where you have tested – Ancestry, FamilyTree DNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage, or Living DNA. This will...
Research in England typically uses baptisms, marriages, and burial records, but other records can shed light on our ancestors. In part one, we looked at the parish chest; in part two, tax records; and in part three, wills and probate. In part four of this series, we will explore court records and how to locate them. Part 4. Court Records A well-known, though often underused, resource for British genealogy is court records. The courts weren’t...
Would you like to automate the transcription of handwritten documents? Or quickly search for a particular name in a large probate or pension application file? Transkribus is an innovative platform that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to make deciphering old handwriting faster. Whether you’re tracing your family tree or researching historical figures, Transkribus can save you countless hours by automatically transcribing handwritten documents into searchable text. In this blog post, we’ll explore how...
In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Diana and Nicole explore the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and WikiTree in genealogical research. They explain that mtDNA is inherited from our mothers, with only females passing it on, and how it differs from autosomal DNA by coming from a distant maternal ancestor. They discuss how mtDNA testing reveals haplogroups, genetic population groups with a common ancestor, and share their personal testing experiences with 23andMe, FamilyTree...
Our five-part blog series continues by examining another record type to consider when baptisms, marriages, and burial records can’t be discovered for our ancestors. In part one we looked at the parish chest, in part two, tax records, and this blog post will focus on wills and probate. Wills & Probate Another resource beyond the parish is probate records. Wills are incredibly useful in that they often name the surviving family members (i.e., heirs) of...
