Are you wondering how to blend DNA and traditional genealogy research? Have you been thinking you’d like to try a DNA project to solve a brick wall or prove a conclusion in your research? With my southern U.S. heritage, I have a lot of empty spaces on my pedigree chart. These brick wall ancestors are brick walls for a reason. Records connecting them to parents haven’t been discovered and may not exist. I’ve used indirect...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to use Evernote, a popular note-taking app, to gather and organize data in your genealogy research projects. Have you ever wished you could cross reference your genealogical findings? Find all the census records in a certain county for a family? Look at all of the mentions of a surname in a city? We’ll talk about tagging, using Evernote with Google Drive, and using the Evernote...
Do you have a lot of people with the same surname in a locality and don’t know how to sort them out? I run into this situation occasionally. What do I resort to using? My large whiteboard and a set of dry erase colored markers. If you have a similar family history challenge, I’m sharing the steps I take to sort out the generations and the families. When finished, my whiteboard may look sort of...
More and more people are taking DNA tests, either for fun – to see their predicted ancestral origins or ethnicity – or to learn more about their family history. DNA is a highly useful part and an important part of genealogical research. The Board for the Certification of Genealogists has added new standards regarding DNA to help genealogists in their research and analysis of family relationships. “Meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard requires using all...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to apply the genealogical proof standard (GPS) as you work in collaborative trees – specifically the FamilySearch Family Tree. We talk about each element of the GPS and how you implement it with small changes in the way you add reason statements, sources, and additional explanations about your research to the tree. Links How to Improve the FamilySearch Family Tree with the Genealogical Proof Standard...
Summer and family reunions are just around the corner! Sharing family history has long been on the agenda of many family reunions. The idea of family history at a reunion can sound boring to some, but there are ways to incorporate family history into any reunion that will be fun for family members of all ages. A few years ago I got really brave and planned a family reunion focused entirely on celebrating our family’s...
If you’ve been following this series of DNA blog posts, you are ready to create a research objective and move ahead in your genetic genealogy journey. With access to DNA results and information about matching relatives, you now have a tool that is like a sledgehammer that can break down brick walls in your family history research. DNA alone does not tell you anything about your family history. But when it is used in conjunction...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss one of our new favorite tools, Lucid Chart! After Robin Wirthlin, our genetic genealogist friend and guest blogger, wrote about using LucidChart, and helped Nicole get started using it, we quickly realized how useful it is when doing client projects involving DNA matches. We talked about how Diana found her sister’s biological parents with DNA diagramming complex relationships of matches with MindMup, a free open source...
With DNA testing turning up skeletons in the closet left and right, I was interested to read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. This fictional account of a family describes the horrific Tennessee Children’s Home Society operated by Georgia Tann in Memphis, Tennessee, from the 1920s to 1950. (The above is an affiliate link). Wingate created her story based on recollections of children who were kidnapped from their families and put into Tann’s “orphanage.” It...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three tools we love in AncestryDNA for sorting and using cousin matches. In addition to those three tools, we discuss some of the new features that AncestryDNA just announced at RootsTech as well! We talk about adding notes to your matches, using the shared match tool, and using unlinked family trees. We also discuss the new beta features called “New & Improved DNA Matches” that...
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