Virginia – Family Locket

RLP 280: Colonial Emigrant Ancestor: Thomas Royston

Nov 20, 2023

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about our distant ancestor, Thomas Royston, who settled in Gloucester County, Virginia. Thomas was granted thousands of acres in the late 1600s, and Diana got to visit Gloucester County and see where he probably lived. Join us as we discuss the historical context and records that make up the story of Thomas Royston’s life. We discuss challenges like record loss and review Virginia’s colonial history, focusing on...

RLP 279: Unmerging on FamilySearch Family Tree

Nov 13, 2023

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...

Visiting the Land of Colonial Emigrant Ancestor: Thomas Royston (1610-1699)

Jul 1, 2023

Have you had the chance to stand on the ground that your colonial emigrant ancestor may have also traversed? Tracing a family line to the original emigrant during Colonial America can be one of the most difficult research tasks. Record loss, poor record keeping, and people of the same name are all challenges that, with some ancestors, make it impossible to make a positive identification. For my Royston line, the unique surname, original Virginia land...

How to Unmerge People of the Same Name on the FamilySearch Family Tree

Jun 24, 2023

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...

Back to the Basics with Marriage Records Part 3: Church Marriage Records

Jun 10, 2023

Church marriage records are a common record set used in genealogy research for many European countries. Church marriage records can also be found in U.S. research. Depending on the time period and state, you may find Church of England parish marriage records, like in colonial Virginia, Catholic church marriages, Lutheran church marriages, and so forth. Determining the religion of your ancestors can help you determine which church they may have been married in. Civil marriage...

Back to the Basics with Marriage Records Part 1: Marriage Bonds

Dec 11, 2022

Have you ever encountered a marriage bond in your genealogy research? I have used them quite a bit in my research in the mid-south. Today I’m sharing information about marriage bonds and several examples. One of our podcast listeners submitted a question about bondsmen, asking what it meant for a man to be a bondsman on a marriage bond. I will also attempt to answer that question through this post. What are Marriage Bonds? In...