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...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to put information from records into a table to help you organize the data and make connections. Nicole tells about a land study that she did and organizing lots of deeds by clustering the rows in the table by the names of the witnesses. Diana talks about showing data about a person’s age from each census year with a table. Join us for a discussion...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I interview Rebecca Walbecq, one of our Research Like a Pro eCourse students. She shares her experience with trying the research process on a research problem she had been studying for years. She began the eCourse with the following objective: “The objective of this research project is to prove or disprove that Daniel Hawley born in October of 1808 in Allegany County, New York and Sarah Sally Huff...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to use DNA evidence as you Research Like a Pro. We talk about each step of the research like a pro process and what it looks like when you are doing a DNA research project. Links Research Like a Pro with DNA – Diana’s blog post at Family Locket, including the screenshot of her Royston report where she includes DNA evidence Sample DNA Citations –...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three reasons why you should download personal genealogy software to manage your family tree. Are you only using an online family tree? You may be missing out on powerful features. Links 14 Day Mini Research Like a Pro Challenge Family Tree Software Programs compatible With FamilySearch – PowerPoint presentation free download – feel free to share the presentation with your class or group. 3 Reasons to...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to analyze a census record, and the example of George W. Dillard in the 1850 Census. We go through the steps of making an abstract of all the census information, asking questions about the information on the census, making a hypothesis, then making a list of records to search that could answer the questions. We also discuss the non-population schedules and then what to do...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss U.S. Federal Census Records from 1790-1940. We talk about what you might find in a census record, where you can access them, the instructions given to the enumerators, which questions were asked on each census, and more. We also talk about books and resources to help you learn more. Don’t forget to download our free Census Cheat Sheet packed with all the information we talked about...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three case studies about probate records. In our last episode, we talked all about how to find probate records and what are in them. This episode is about how to probate files to answer a research question. It’s amazing how many clues are hiding in these records! We discuss three projects – Diana’s research about Thomas B. Royston, Nicole’s client project about John Johnson, and Diana’s...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss one of our favorite record types for proving identity and parentage: probate records. These records are key in identifying relationships between children and their fathers in 18-19th century United States research. Probate records include wills, inventories, sales slips, receipts, debt payments, summons, petitions, and all kinds of records that reveal information about a family. Don’t miss the important information about how to find probate records for...