We’re thrilled to announce the next chapter in genealogical education at Family Locket: the Research Like a Pro Institute! Building on our successful foundation of study groups, workshops, and webinars, the RLP Institute represents our commitment to providing hands-on and rigorous genealogical education. Our first course is about merging and separating identities, taught by Jan Joyce, CG, CGL, AG. What Are Institute Courses? Institute courses are the gold standard of genealogical education – either week-long...
In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Diana and Nicole discuss the challenge of separating women with the same name in genealogical research, specifically focusing on two women named Cleo Zinn. Diana explains how she encountered a mystery DNA match that led her to research Mary Clem Carpenter and her daughter, Cleo. She discovers conflicting information about Cleo, including multiple husbands, death dates, and birthplaces. Diana details how she uses her Airtable research log...
Merged identities are always difficult in our research, but it is even more so with women. In the U.S., women have a maiden name and could have several different married names. Ensuring that the correct facts and sources are attached to a woman can be tricky without thorough research. However, using a research log and timeline helps put together a profile for a woman that can separate her from others of the same name. The...
Think about your most stubborn brick wall ancestor. The one whose identity feels just out of reach, or whose family connections you can’t quite prove. Now imagine finding a clue so distinctive that it creates a breakthrough in your research. That’s exactly what happened in the search for William Reeves’ family connections, where a middle name – “Mauldin” – became the key to unraveling a complex family mystery. Genealogists have long recognized the importance of...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is an interview with Torhild Shirley about Scandinavian research. She continues the case study of Gudmund Rasmussen and discusses research planning, carrying out the research, and the conclusion. The central question addressed in this episode revolves around whether Gudmund Rasmusson, presumed to be Rasmus Gudmundsson’s father, married twice – first to Elsa Thuesdotter and then to Karna Larsdotter. Transcript Nicole (1s): This is Research Like a Pro episode...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is an interview with Scandinavian research expert, Torhild Shirley, AG. Torhild is a native of Norway. We discuss the challenges of genealogical research in Scandinavia, focusing on a case study from Sweden. In the case, Torhild aims to uniquely identify a person named Rasmus Gudmundsson, born around 1719 in Malmöhus, Sweden, using Swedish tax and church records. We discuss challenges from the patronymic naming system and the use...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how to unmerge profiles on the FamilySearch Family Tree. When there are many people of the same name who lived in an area, it’s common for the profiles to get accidentally merged. When you notice an issue where multiple people have been merged into one person, there are several steps to follow to unmerge the people while preserving the original profiles. Transcript Nicole (1s): This is...
As I mentioned in my last post about the “Other Relationships” feature at FamilySearch, I’ve been updating the FamilySearch Family Tree with my conclusions about my husband’s 3rd-great-grandmother, Barsheba (Tharp) Dyer (1813-1899), and her ancestral line. I had written a proof argument and a couple research reports that I wanted to upload to the memories and sources sections of the relevant ancestors. I also wanted to attach important sources. When I got to Barsheba Tharp’s...
I’m delighted to introduce a new guest blogger to Family Locket – Rick T. Wilson. Rick joined us in our Research Like a Pro Study Group #7 and is a skilled researcher and writer. He is sharing a three-part series about his research to identify John Wilson’s origins using Y-DNA, autosomal DNA, documentary evidence, and historical context. Enjoy! -Nicole Identifying John Wilson’s Irish Origins, Part 1: Y-DNA Analysis by Rick T. Wilson Have you...
When researching complicated families with many men of the same name, how do you track them? Can you really sort out individuals and come up with a possible father for your difficult ancestor? You may think it impossible, but with good research practices and a way to visualize the information it can be done. I first wrote about the Norman family research project a year ago in Researching Low-Tech Style With a Whiteboard. I outlined...
