Purchasing the 2025 RLP webinar series gives you lifetime access to the twelve lectures presented in 2025. The researcher’s report will be provided with each lecture.
How it Works
After you purchase the case study series, you will have access to the Research Like a Pro Webinar Series 2025 private page on FamilyLocket.com. Using the username and password you created during checkout, you can log in, view the schedule, and get information about how to watch the presentations live via Zoom. The webinars will be recorded and placed on the webinar series private webpage along with the research report that goes along with it. We will send you an email each month to remind you about the upcoming webinar.
Schedule
Lectures will be presented via Zoom on the following schedule for 2025. The days alternate between Tuesdays and Saturdays. All times are 11am Mountain Time (Utah):
January 18 – Using Irish Naming Convention to Discover the Family of Thomas Delaney in the Mid- to Late 1800s in Ireland
Thomas Delaney was the father of Catherine “Kate” Delaney who married Henry Burge on 5 November 1878 in Dublin, Ireland. Catherine was born about 1860 – 62 in Queen’s County (present day County Laois) in Ireland and died 24 March 1909 in Dublin. To learn more about Thomas, evidence was gathered from researching the life and family of his daughter Kate and her husband Henry. The evidence identified a specific geographical location to focus the search for records for Thomas. This case study shows how Irish naming convention can be used as a powerful tool to analyze and predict family names and aid in the search for family units in Irish records in the mid- to late 1800s.
Topics: Ireland, Queen’s County, mid- to late 1800s, Irish naming convention, Catholic parish registers, Civil registration, 1901 Census of Ireland.
February 18 – Texas Migration Patterns and DNA Prove the Father of Lucinda Wright Rinker
Lucinda Wright married A.F. Rinker in 1874 in Johnson County, Texas. After Lucinda entered the Texas State Lunatic Asylum in 1880, her paper trail ends. What exists does not name her father. Records from four Texas counties connect the A.F. Rinker and Silas Wright families through parallel migrations. DNA seals the deal.
Topics: Texas, Non-Population Schedules, Tax Records, Court Records, Texas State Law, Land Deeds, Civil War Pension Applications, Ancestry DNA
March 15 – Irish 4th-Great-Grandparents – Dealing with Sparse Records and Mild Endogamy
This case study examines methodologies for identifying the parents of Irish immigrants Patrick Dinan and Bridget Riordan, who settled in Ohio. Through analysis of surviving Irish Catholic parish records and DNA matches with documented ancestral links to specific Limerick townlands, multiple potential siblings emerged. These genetic and documentary connections strengthen hypothesized parental identifications despite the characteristic challenges of pre-Famine Irish genealogical research.
Topics: atDNA, multiple test takers, clustering, Leeds Method, recombination, segment analysis, IBD and IBS segments, population segments, building family trees of DNA matches, finding MRCAs, diagramming, MyHeritageDNA, Ireland, County Limerick, tracing Irish Americans back to Ireland, Catholic church records, location analysis, irishgenealogy.ie
April 15 – A Mighty Duo: Autosomal DNA and Indirect Evidence Reveal Harrison Johnson’s Biological Father
Harrison Johnson was born circa 1813 in either Maury County or Hickman County, Tennessee. No direct evidence has been found to tie him to a father. Autosomal DNA and indirect evidence team up to break a long-standing brick wall.
Topics: Testing a Hypothesis, Autosomal DNA, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage DNA, Migration, Diagramming, Shared cM Project, Gephi Network Graph, Tennessee
May 17 – Avoiding Assumptions: Tracing a Family in 19th-Century London
This case study examines the challenges of English genealogical research by focusing on George White, who was born in 1863 and died in 1928 in London. Our case explores three main topics: the varying availability of historical records, the diverse occupations typical of the period, and the challenges presented by misleading records.
Topics: London, England, record availability, occupations, misleading records.
June 10 – Discovering the Shrader Family through a Family Reunion Photograph
Lawrence & Leona Salsow (my husband’s grandparents) had an old picture among their belongings from a family reunion. They also had a numbered list of the names and an overlay of the picture, with the number of each person in the photo. The original objective was to determine how everyone was related and when the picture was made. I ended up meeting a new “cousin” who helped with my research and is named as a co-researcher. He also did additional work which is not in my report, but which took the line back a couple more generations.
Topics: Nebraska, Census Records, Old Photos
July 19 – Untangling Family Networks: Using Documentary Research and DNA Analysis to Search for Glen Hopper’s Father
This investigation uses Y-DNA and autosomal DNA evidence combined with documentary research to explore Glen Hugh Hopper’s paternal origins in early 20th-century Tennessee. Y-DNA established the Daniel surname for Glen’s father, but which of Marcus Daniel’s (1846-1926) sons could be Glen’s father? What documentary evidence, from census records to Civil War pension files, could provide the geographic and chronological context needed to evaluate each Daniel brother as a potential father candidate? How could BanyanDNA analysis help navigate the complex genetic relationships between the Daniel brothers when their families were so heavily intermarried?
Topics: Early 20th-century Tennessee Research, Unknown Parentage, Genetic Genealogy, BanyanDNA, Multiple Relationships, Pedigree Collapse, Y-DNA Analysis, Indirect Evidence, Census Records, Land Records, Tax Records, Civil War Pension File, and Social Security Application
August 19 – Tracing Karolius: Norwegian Research on a WWII Evacuee’s Journey
Born in Northern Norway, Karolius Martin Jacobsen Wessel spent most of his adult life in the coal mines on the island of Svalbard. During WWII, Germany’s need for coal made Svalbard a targeted area and a dangerous place to live. Operation Gauntlet botched the German plans, and Karolius was evacuated. He never saw his family again. Research in Norway and Scotland revealed more about his life and evacuation.
Topics: Norway, Norwegian Research, WWII, Operation Gauntlet, Church Records, Census Records, Military Records, Scotland, Archival Research, Svalbard, Store Norske Spitsbergen
September 20 – Migration and Motherhood: DNA Confirms Sally (Keaton) Reeves’ Family and Western Path
Nicole Dyer
Sally (Keaton) Reeves appears in her father’s 1830 Pendleton District, South Carolina, estate file as an absent heir who had left the state. With her husband William Reeves, she had moved away from South Carolina by 1830, but where? Her father’s estate mentioned Tennessee, but many William Reeves lived there in 1830. The discovery of William Reeves as the son of Burgess and Frances (Mauldin) Reeves, who lived near William Keaton in 1800 Pendleton District, was a breakthrough. This led to finding John Mauldin Reeves in Mississippi in 1850 and later records. John’s distinctive middle name preserved his grandmother’s maiden name, providing a connection through generations. Following this family group through census records revealed Sally’s migration from South Carolina through Tennessee and Mississippi to Arkansas. DNA matches between descendants of Sally and her sister Lucindrilla Keaton (Nicole’s 4th-great-grandmother), provided additional evidence for the identification of Sally’s children and helped verify family relationships suggested by traditional records.
Topics: Migration Patterns, Southern Research, Estate Records, Census Analysis, Naming Patterns, Family Groups, Autosomal DNA, Geographic Analysis, Family Reconstruction, Cemetery Records, Newspapers, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas
October 21 – Parents for Ellen Cecilia Scott: a 19th-Century Irish Immigrant DNA Case Study
Ellen Cecilia Scott was an orphaned, first-generation Irish-American born in 1860. Ellen’s kin and their Irish origins were mostly lost to history. Census records and newspaper retrospectives based on interviews with Ellen toward the end of her life gave conflicting details about her birthplace and early life. Was she born in Illinois or Iowa? Where did her mother die when Ellen was about 18 months old? When did her father place her with adoptive parents? What happened to her father? Though Ellen’s death certificate named her Irish-born parents as Patrick Scott and Margaret Cox, no official US records for them had been discovered, nor was there enough information to locate them in Irish collections. Detailed autosomal DNA analysis revealed genetic networks for Ellen, while logic and pedigree triangulation determined which ones were maternal and paternal. Pedigree triangulation and correlation of geographic evidence led to specific US and Irish localities, as well as candidates for both her father and mother. This case study features analysis of DNA network graphs created in Gephi using AncestryDNA match data.
Topics: 19th-century Irish Research, 19th-century US Research, Orphans, Catholic Records in the US and Ireland, Genetic Genealogy, Autosomal DNA, DNA Network Graphs, Subcluster Analysis, Gephi, Mitochondrial DNA, Multiple Relationships, Indirect Evidence, FAN Research
November 15 – Autosomal DNA Analysis Helps Pinpoint Probable Parents for Cornelia Ingersoll
Cornelia Ingersoll was born about 1788 in Carmel, Dutchess (Later Westchester) County, New York. Cornelia’s life after her marriage to Henry Stogdill was well documented. However, extensive documentary research in the Carmel area failed to reveal her parents’ names. Autosomal DNA analysis left little doubt that Cornelia was the granddaughter of Josiah Ingersoll, Sr. However, Josiah fathered multiple children with two different wives. Autosomal DNA analysis combined with additional documentary research helped pinpoint Cornelia’s most likely parents.
Topics: Autosomal DNA Analysis using multiple test takers, half relationships, and network graphs. New York research, Pre-1850 research, probate records, church records.
December 16 – Challenging Accepted Ancestry: A New Look at Henderson Weatherford’s Family Origins
This presentation examines how careful analysis of historical records can overturn commonly accepted family connections based on surname and geographic proximity. Henderson Weatherford’s case study demonstrates an effective methodology for questioning family relationships found in online trees. Through systematic evaluation of tax records, census documents, land records, and probate files, learn how indirect and negative evidence can build a compelling case for new family connections. We’ll examine the role of DNA in confirming hypotheses based on the documentary research.
Topics: Arkansas, Texas, Tax Rolls, Negative and Indirect Evidence, Land, Probate, Census, DNA, Burned Counties
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