After you write about your DNA research results, you may want to share your report. What should you do to prepare your report for sharing and/or publication? When your research includes living people and their DNA match information, how does that impact the steps you take? There are several considerations, including private vs. public sharing, permission, and safeguards against separation. Once your document is ready to share, how do you post it? Ancestry trees, the...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about researching African American records in U.S. Federal government documents. This is part one in the series. We discuss the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Freedmen’s Bank, and the U.S. Federal Census. Join us as Diana shares what she learned from the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) in Deborah A. Abbott’s course, “Researching African American Ancestors: Government Documents and Advanced Tools” and from exploring these record sets....
Are you actively working to incorporate DNA into your documentary genealogy research? Interested in how other people would solve the same DNA challenge? You might be interested in participating in a DNA practicum. I recently completed the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) All-DNA Practicum sponsored by the Utah Genealogical Association. Each week throughout October we met online and discussed the cases after doing our best to solve them. Four different instructors gave us a...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about identifying family photos and using family photos as a genealogical source. Learn how to use clues in the photo to figure out the date and the people in the picture. Maureen shares expert tips from her experience working with old photographs. She also shares a little about some of her photo projects, including the Last Muster project and Old Providence. Links The Photo Detective Podcast https://maureentaylor.com/...
It’s exciting to have new DNA analysis tools continually developed by amazingly smart and creative people! Hybrid AutoSegment is a brand-new 3rd-party DNA tool from Genetic Affairs. This tool gathers DNA segment data from 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, My Heritage, and GEDmatch together in one report. Having the segment information all in one place streamlines the process of examining, analyzing, and figuring out which of our DNA segments we inherited from specific ancestors. Now, we...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how to write a research report after your have completed your research plan. Typically a client report is about research in progress. You discuss what was found in the amount of time that was allotted. A report for yourself can be similar. Discuss the starting objective and what was known, then go through the searches that were performed and what was found. Join us as we...
The United States created numerous documents where your African American ancestor may be mentioned. Thousands of the formerly enslaved as well as free people of color are named in the records of the Southern Claims Commission. What are these records and how can you access them? In part 4 of this series examining government documents we will examine this valuable record set. Previous articles in this series: Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about recording your searches in a research log. We talk about the benefits of using spreadsheet over a document for a log and discuss the tools we like to use – Excel, Google Docs, Airtable. We go over an example from Diana’s Nancy (Briscoe) Frazier research log for how to fill out the columns. We also discuss what to do with your research log when you get...
Are you up for an adventurous foray into DNA segment data and ready to use some programs to understand it, analyze it, and use it in your Family History research? Let’s go! You may have already read some Family Locket blog posts about using DNA segment data. The Chromosome Browser: A Tool for Visualizing Segment Data by Nicole, explains how to use chromosome browsers to visualize the DNA that you share with your DNA matches...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about creating reference note citations for your genealogical sources. In this fifth part of our revisiting the Research Like a Pro steps series, we discuss crafting citations the first time you look at a source and saving that in your research log (which we will discuss next week). Following your research plan, creating citations, and research logging all happen simultaneously. Tune in to hear more about the...
