Many Americans have been told by relatives that they have Native American ancestry and want to find out if the story is accurate. DNA testing has the capability to help people determine if they inherited any DNA from Native American ancestors. At RootsTech 2020, I attended a class taught by DNA expert Roberta Estes entitled “Native American DNA: Confirming Those Stories.” I am sharing some of the helpful information from Roberta’s class and including links...
Have you wished for a way to organize your notebooks in Evernote? You may have hundreds of notes in a notebook and even searching by tags brings up too many notes. Did you know you can create a custom note that can serve as a table of contents? You can organize this custom note any way you like and in the process clean up your notebooks as well. If you’d like to learn more about...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is an interview with Libby Copeland, author of the new book The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are. We discuss some of the main themes in the book, from ethnicity estimates, the history of genetic genealogy, the use of DNA to solve cold cases, and surprises that come from testing. Libby also shares her own experience with genealogy and DNA testing. Links Link to...
Before 2000, DNA was not a source genealogists had access to. Now there are over 29 million people in DNA testing databases. This is an enormous change. Like other sources available to genealogists before the advent of advanced technology, we still need to analyze these sources carefully, understand the context, and create research plans. Genealogy standards guide us in our efforts. Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS gave the lecture, “The Advance...
Have you taken a DNA test for the fun of discovering your ethnicity estimate only to be blindsided with an unexpected relationship? If so you are not alone. With more people taking consumer DNA tests, family secrets from long ago and not so long ago are being revealed. How does one deal with a new half sibling or biological parent? These questions and more are addressed in Libby Copeland’s new book, The Lost Family: How DNA...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how to find your female ancestors. We interview Lisa Lisson, the author of the Are You My Cousin? blog. Lisa shares four helpful strategies to get around the common problems encountered when researching the women in our family tree. Join us as we talk about these proven strategies and unique record types (even cookbooks!). Links Researching Female Ancestors? You Can Overcome Those Research Roadblocks! – by...
Do you have ancestors who immigrated to the United States since 1790? Have you discovered their village, town, or even country of origin? Family stories or census records might give clues but often give conflicting information. Is there another record type that could give additional hints to your ancestor’s homeland? Naturalization records might provide important details but what are these records, and how do you find them? This three-part series will address those questions and...
Do you regularly contact other genealogists when researching? Is there a feeling in today’s world that we don’t need to reach out to others because we can find everything we need on our own? Have the messaging systems at genealogy companies made it more difficult to get in touch with each other, even though advances in telecommunication in the last 40 years should make it easier? Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Richard Miller’s new chrome extension, Goldie May. The extension logs each website you visit and offers helpful research guidance for research in the United States. Start with a person in your FamilySearch Family Tree, then set an objective. Goldie May advises you where to look for locality information, suggests reviewing the ancestor’s timeline, and reviewing the sources already attached. From there you can set additional tasks...
Have you ever wished an automated research log could track all the websites you visit during a research session? Me too. I’m excited to introduce Richard Miller, the developer of Goldie May. This new app helps you keep a research log and offers research assistance. We asked Richard to tell us how his app can help us Research Like a Pro. Here’s his guest blog post. Enjoy! -Nicole p.s. I’m updating this to...
