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 messy to you, but to me it is a thing of beauty! This research project involved sorting out the Norman’s of Culpeper County, Virginia. I...
D. Joshua Taylor gave an excellent lecture at RootsTech about how to resolve conflicts in genealogy research. He said that if you are not finding any conflicts in your genealogy research, you may not be doing reasonably exhaustive research. During his lecture, he reviewed 8 methods for resolving conflicts, and gave several helpful examples. It was a great lecture. I’m sharing the first few steps that he suggested. Bio: D. Joshua Taylor is the President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, host of Genealogy Roadshow (PBS), and a frequent speaker on family history at venues across the globe....
Have you ever been researching and run into two men of the same name? How do you know which was your ancestor? If you choose the wrong individual, you could end up tracing an entirely wrong line of ancestors. I encounter this scenario often in my research and have some tricks up my sleeve to share. My recent research subject was named Edward Sullivan, born March of 1852 in West Virginia. The son of Irish immigrants, John and Julia Sullivan, Edward is first listed in their 1860 household as an 11 year-old. (1) Locality 1860, Virginia, Greenbrier, Lewisburg Post Office...
Have you heard the term “negative evidence” and wondered what that meant in your genealogy research? Is this the same as negative results when searching a database? This question comes up often with those working through the Research Like a Pro process, so let’s take a look at those two negatives and figure out what the difference is and how to effectively use them in our genealogy. Negative Searches It’s inevitable. We’re going to do a search in an online database, microfilm, or book and not find our person of interest. What do we do next? Do we jump to...
In our Research Like a Pro study group, one of the first assignments is to analyze existing evidence. This is actually my favorite assignment. It is so fun to comb through what I’ve already gathered about a research question and look for clues to help me see where to go next in my research. I’ve been studying Genealogy Standards, a book published by The Board for Certification of Genealogists to better understand the different parts of analysis: Source (Original record, derivative record, or authored narrative) Information (Primary, secondary, or undetermined) Evidence (direct, indirect, or negative) In my most recent project, I compiled...
Do you have a stack of research for a problem ancestor? The one who is hard to pin down. The one with unknown parents. How do you even get started on the brick walls in your family tree? Join in this summer’s Research Like a Pro series and see if you can make progress in your research skills and journey in finding your family. To read more about the process, check out my book, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide. In Researching Like a Pro, Part 1, your task was to analyze your pedigree then formulate a research objective. Your...
