We all have brick-wall ancestors, and often they are the women in our family tree. In this 52 ancestors post, I share more about Clemsy Cline, one of my third great-grandmothers without a well-documented trail leading to her parents. When I first started researching Clemsy, other researchers attributed John Cline and Mrs. John Cline as her parents, so I added them to my tree. I’ve looked at Clemsy through the years but not known exactly...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about evaluating family trees and the sources in them to help us determine if a family tree is accurate. We review independent sources, primary information, and direct evidence. In the absence of direct evidence, we can often put together a body of indirect evidence to help us prove a parent-child link, but that requires a written conclusion. Often family trees are missing this element. Transcript Nicole Elder...
When researching the identity of an ancestor who may have changed his name, examining the people he associated with can lead to important connections. In part 1 of this series, we looked at using the FAN methodology (comparing Friends, Associates, and Neighbors). The timeline clearly showed that Patrick Alford changed his name to James William Johnson between 1879 and 1885 to hide from Texas law. In part 2, we added confirmation of the relationship between...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about AncestryDNA’s Thrulines hypotheses. We respond to a listener question about how accurate Thrulines is. We discuss new AncestryDNA technology SideView and how they use that to split up matches by parent. We review strategies for analyzing Thrulines to see if it’s accurate or not. We talk about matches sharing small amounts of DNA and how they are often found in inaccurate Thurlines hypotheses. Transcript Nicole Elder...
When researching the identity of an ancestor who may have changed his name, examining the people he associated with can lead to important connections. In part 1 of this series, we looked at using the FAN methodology (comparing Friends, Associates, and Neighbors). The timeline clearly showed that Patrick Alford changed his name to James William Johnson between 1879 and 1885 to hide from Texas law. With a clear understanding of James’s relationship to his...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about one of Diana’s favorite photos of an ancestor – Florence Matilda Creer. Florence was Diana’s grandmother. They had a lot in common, from reading, to music. The photo appears to depict three friends in the early 1910s, possibly traveling somewhere together. The man has his arms around the two women, but each woman appears to be trying to remove his hand. Diana shares her research...
Do you have an individual you’ve researched and have many pieces of indirect evidence pointing to him as your ancestor? Perhaps you’re unsure of the connection though, and wondering what to do next. With DNA now giving us a way to prove biological relationships, we can use this new tool to add evidence to our conclusions. Years ago, I hypothesized Benjamin Cox as the father of my third great-grandmother, Rachel Cox. Records in Texas in...
Have you ever suspected your brick wall ancestor may have changed their name? Understandably, name changes hinder typical research practices that connect us to our ancestors. Research can come to a halt when our subject seems to disappear from the records. For example, women often change their surname after marriage. Immigrants may change their name to blend into American culture. Orphan children may have taken on the surname of a family after adoption. Individuals may...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Chapter 12 of Research Like a Pro with DNA, “What’s Next? Publishing, Productivity, and Further Education.” We discuss updating family tree software at the completion of a project, sharing reports, anonymizing living individuals, asking DNA matches for permission to be included in a publicly shared report or proof argument, and ideas for how to share your written conclusion. We also discuss DNA proof arguments and meeting...
By Laura Clark Murray Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, this artificial intelligence “bot” has been wowing users by engaging in detailed conversations, answering questions, and even writing stories and essays. But at its core, ChatGPT lacks the ability to distinguish between fact and fiction. Since facts are critical to what we do as genealogists, it’s important to understand how to keep the tool in the realm of reality. If you do that,...
