As genealogists we want to understand our match lists. We want to identify the matches that will give us the solid clues we need to make progress on our target ancestor’s family tree. Endogamy and its close cousins, pedigree collapse and multiple relationships, complicates that. Diana laid out the definitions in the first blogpost in this series: “Endogamy, Pedigree Collapse, and Multiple Relationships: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter?” Nicole wrote about strategies...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the history of Pennsylvania Germans. They came in the colonial American period and have millions of Americans as their descendants. Join us as we talk with Heidi Mathis about important factors for finding records about Pennsylvania Germans and factors for Germans leaving Europe and coming to Pennsylvania colony. Transcript Nicole (2s): This is Research Like a Pro episode, 207 Pennsylvania Germans part one with Heidi...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is an interview with Rick Wilson. Rick joined us in Research Like a Pro Study Group 7 and is a skilled researcher and writer. In episode 198, he shared how Y-DNA and autosomal DNA pointed to John Wilson’s origins being in County Fermanagh, Ireland. In this episode he shares how historical context and additional documentary evidence aided his research. Transcript Nicole (1s): This is Research Like a Pro...
In our previous blog posts in this series, we have been learning all about how to research our Pennsylvania German ancestors by discovering the paper trail they have left behind. What about DNA? How useful will it be in helping us with these colonial ancestors? Even though (for most test-takers) colonial ancestors will be beyond the typical 5-6 generations that autosomal DNA is useful, using DNA with your colonial German ancestors may be a key...
Are you one of the millions of Americans who have a German in your family tree? In an earlier series, Tracing Your 19th Century German Ancestors, I distinguished the largest wave of German immigrants to the U.S. who came in the 19th century from the smaller group who came in the colonial period. Colonial Germans, or as they are better known, the Pennsylvania “Dutch” (a misnomer of Deutsch, or German), make up one of...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is a discussion of the book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. Heidi Mathis, one of our researchers, joins us to discuss the general idea of American Nations. The book gives us a hypothesis to understand U.S. history as we research our ancestors. Also, the book excitingly has DNA evidence to back up the hypothesis it proposes...
In the last blog post, we learned how the book American Nations provides a framework for understanding U.S. History that can give greater context to the community our individual ancestors were a part of. Our ancestor’s small FAN club connected into a larger network of FAN clubs that can be seen in history and in large genetic networks such as Ancestry Communities or the 2017 study published the scientific journal Nature Communications, “Clustering of 770,000...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Family Tree DNA’s family matching and bucketing system, which is part of the Family Finder autosomal test. After linking a DNA match to your family tree at their website, the family matching algorithm uses phased matching to assign maternal and paternal icons/buckets to your matches. Adding close matches and up to third cousins helps you take advantage of this helpful tool. Listen in as we discuss...
The Missouri History Museum operated by the Missouri Historical Society. See “The Jefferson Memorial Building and the intersection of Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue after the completion of construction for the River des Peres Sewerage and Drainage Project in the area, 25 September 1930,” Wikimedia, (https://commons.wikipedia.org : accessed 17 April 2021). Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about exploring the major state repositories for Missouri research. We discuss some of the major record...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about Chinese Ancestry. We talk with Linda Yip, author of the website Past Presence and the new book, Getting Started in Chinese Genealogy. Linda tells about how to research Chinese ancestors in Canada or the United States. She also teaches us about Jiapu, Chinese clan genealogies and how they can stretch back 24-36 generations. We review the laws and history for Chinese immigrants and how that affected...
