In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to create a genealogy reference center in Evernote. Do you have stacks of handouts from genealogy conferences and classes? What are you doing with that blog post or online article you know you’ll need in the future? Can you quickly find reference information that you saved from a lecture? Knowing how to access these items can help you become more efficient in your genealogy research....
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...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to best contact your DNA matches so that they respond, creating a family tree in your software that includes living cousins, and sharing research and memories with the cousins you find. We also talk about Diana’s experience meeting in person with a 2nd cousin she found through DNA and what interesting family document she had which gave Diana helpful information to sort through a difficult...
In our podcast episode today, we are sharing Nicole’s RootsTech lecture, Organize Your Research with Google Drive. Do you work from multiple devices? Laptop, desktop, work computer, home computer, smartphone, iPad? Learn how to utilize the free tools at Google Drive and Google Docs to help keep your genealogy research organized. You can create research logs with Google Sheets, transcribe records into Google Docs, add document links to records you have saved within your Google...
If your ancestor deeded land to a church, that could be a huge clue to their religion! We will discuss that and more in our podcast episode today about how to discover your ancestor’s religion and how to find church records. There are many clues to be gleaned from genealogical records, like inscriptions on headstones and family bibles. There are many places to find collections containing church records as well. Links Back to the Basics...
Did you know that Quaker marriage records could include over 10 witnesses? Talk about a great resource for building a FAN club. In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss church records, and their genealogical value. We talk about the history of church records in the United States, what kinds of records you might be able to find, and several examples of evidence gained from membership records in various churches. Links Back to the...
For today’s podcast we are sharing our keynote address from the Tucson Family History Fair on February 2, 2019. We talked about Diana’s story of receiving a suitcase full of unorganized genealogy papers from her father and her system of dealing with each paper one at a time. We talked about choosing personal genealogy software, and even compared our favorite programs to cars recommended by my son! Which program do you think we compared...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss what negative evidence really is, and how it differs from negative results. We will talk about a couple examples of negative evidence and negative results, and how you can create citations for your negative results. Links Speaking Negatively: The Difference Between Negative Results and Negative Evidence Research Like a Pro, Part 2: Analyze Your Sources RLP 3: Analyze Your Sources Research Like a Pro eCourse Study...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss the difference between indirect evidence vs. direct evidence. Is a birth year calculated from a census record considered direct or indirect evidence? What about the birth year ranges in pre-1850 U.S. Censuses? And what does your research question have to do with the type of evidence? Links Genealogy Evidence Analysis – Free Template and Lucinda Keaton Sample Research Like a Pro, Part 2: Analyze Your Sources...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three things you should do after taking a DNA test at Ancestry. We recommend downloading the raw DNA data and uploading it to the other testing sites that accept transfers so you can find more matches beyond the Ancestry database. We also recommend that you link a tree to your Ancestry DNA test results! This will help you and your cousin matches SO much. Lastly, we...
