Ok, ok, we realize it’s almost the end of January and this is just now being written and posted. But hey, at least it’s completed. Like most genealogists out there we also have made a few new years resolutions. Amy plans to get rid of her piles of paperwork that are currently living in her home office and will implement the 30 X 30 challenge created by Janine Adams over at Organize Your Family History, she will watch one webinar a month for education, and add another DAR patriot. Penny plans to organize all her online photographs – labeled and put into named folders, take a more advanced class online, and work on the French Genealogy on her maternal grandmother’s side.
In our latest podcast episode, #49, we encourage everyone to try something new in their genealogy research. Join a group, listen in or participate in a genealogy chat, or start over. There is a huge genealogy community out there and the amount of genealogy-related blogs is truly overwhelming but worth the time looking and finding new people to follow. Everyone has something to share and we can all learn a new tip to help us with our research. Here are a few we mentioned on the podcast and a few others that we like as well.
If there is a blog or youtube account that you love and want to share, please let us know in the comments below.
30 X 30 Challenge (mentioned above) at Organize Your Family History by Janine Adams
Genchat – a twitter-based genealogy chat led by Liam Hobbes (@leprchaunrabbit) and Christine McCloud (@geneapleau)
It’s December and that means Happy Holidays and that means gift-giving and why not ask for something you truly want…more genealogy knowledge!
In our latest podcast, Episode #48, we talk about continuing our pursuit of knowledge in the genealogical field with new books for our shelves and educational opportunities either in person or online. There is no better time to ask for these items or get them for yourselves. All the books we recommend are on our Amazon storefront which makes it easy to purchase and helps support our podcast which we greatly appreciate!
Course Three – Advanced Methodology & Evidence Analysis Course Coordinator: Judy G. Russell, JD, CG®, CGL
Course Four – Writing & Publishing for Genealogists Course Coordinator: Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG®, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS
Course Five – Genetics for Genealogists: Beginning DNA Course Coordinator: Patti Lee Hobbs, CG®
Course Six – Military Records III: Advanced Research and Methodology Course Coordinator: Michael L. Strauss, AG
Course Seven – Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond Course Coordinator: Paul Milner, MDiv, FUGA
Course Eight – For Land’s Sake! Advanced Analysis and Platting Course Coordinator: Gerald H. ‘Jerry’ Smith, CG®
Course Nine – Research in the South: Cessions & Territories Course Coordinator: J. Mark Lowe, CG®, FUGA
Course Ten – Advanced Library Research: Law Libraries & Government Documents Course Coordinators: Benjamin B. Spratling III, JD and Patricia Walls Stamm, CG®, CGL
Course Eleven – Researching African American Ancestors: Government Documents & Advanced Tools Course Coordinator: Deborah A. Abbott, PhD
Course Twelve – Intermediate DNA: Planning for and Conducting Research using DNA and Documentary Sources Course Coordinator: Karen Stanbary, MA, LCSW, CG®
Course Thirteen – Researching New York: Resources and Strategies Course Coordinator: Karen Mauer Jones, CG®, FGBS, FUGA
Two programs: Genealogical Principals 7 weeks and Certificate in Genealogical Research the next course beginning on January 21. They run throughout the year.
This is the link for the American Certificate in Genealogical Studies-40 Courses-Complete but you can take any of the courses offered individually and there are many to choose from.
In our latest podcast episode, #47, we talk about creating a shared Google Photo file where you can upload your historical family photos and share them with other family members who can also upload photos to the same file. There are a few wonderful things about this project one being that you can download and save in your own files the photos that your family shares in the group site. Another is using Goggles face recognition abilities to help identify who is in the photos.
The process is easy. First you need a google account which is free and easy to set up.
Enter photos.google.com in the address bar
click on CREATE in the top bar
click on SHARED ALBUM when the drop down box appears
Here you can add a title for your album and choose if you will upload photos or use face recognition to start. Can always upload your photos later if you choose “Select people and pets”
If you already have Google photos set up then give the face recognition a try and see what comes up. This option will populate your screen with faces in your photos. (my historical photos are not all in my Google photo file so not many came up when I did this process).
Click upload photos and all your photos that are in Google photos will appear, if you just signed up the album will be blank. In the upper right corner, click select from computer.
Choose the photos from your computer file that you would like to share and upload.
Click the SHARE button in the top right corner and pop up box will appear with your google contact.
click the ones you would like to share the album with OR type in their email where directed.
Once you have all your emails added you can add a message and then click the blue arrow to share. Everyone in your group can upload photos.
Click on a photo and add a detailed description so everyone in your group will have all the information about who is in the photo, where it was taken, who owns the photo etc.
Give Google photo sharing a try and see what photos your family has to share that you may have not ever seen before.
Ancestry will retire DNA Circles on July 1 replacing Circles with Thrulines™. Thrulines offers a more complete overview for kinship analysis between members and their DNA matches. Members can now see how many DNA matches they have from each ancestral grandparent, through each branch, or line, stemming from the grandparent. Matches are more visually clear in Thrulines which allows members to more quickly recognize kinship and analyze new matches.
CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT TO ANCESTRY HINTS
You may have noticed recent changes to Ancestry’s Hints feature.
Continued improvements to Hints allows members to better analyze their Hints
before adding them to a tree. The current change gives context to each Hint,
allowing members to view and compare data already in their tree with the data
provided in the new Hint.
Beginning in July, Hints will contain questions instead of
the current, “Yes/No/Maybe.” These questions will relate to the quality and
accuracy of the new information. This feedback will allow Ancestry to continue
to make improvements to the Hints feature and provide more relevant Hints.
Hopefully, more members will use these tools to analyze new
Hints before adding potential misinformation to their Ancestry tree!
Ancestry is rolling out a new Personal Profile and you have to try it!
The new profile page incorporates your linked trees, DNA summary, location, photo, age
range, and interests. Best of all – you can control how much data is public.
To switch to the new Personal Profile, click on your profile and
slide the Beta button on the top right.
Here’s a hint from Ancestry: Make sure you add a photograph to your profile page. It doesn’t have to be you face, just any random personal photo. You are 3 times as likely to receive a reply to a message you send if you have a photo on your profile.
In episode #39, we challenge you to find an old photograph not necessarily of your own family and do some research from that photo.
Amy found a couple of interesting photos in a shop she visited in Tallahassee, FL. One, in particular, leads her down a road with a very interesting story.
This is Addie Lewis Wadsworth, great name eh? This photo had some writing on the back that clued to finding out about her story. This photo is sent to her Aunt Jimmie indicating a hope that they would see each other soon. Possibly Aunt Jimmie meeting little Addie for the first time. But who was Addie and why is her photo in a shop in Tallahassee, FL? That is the challenge and Amy jumped right in and started digging.
Listen in to find out who Addie Lewis Wadsworth was and how she was related to her Aunt Jimmie in our latest podcast, Photo Challenge.
We mention in this episode a few other articles regarding photos that were found and how they were traced back to their owners. They are both great reads and we hope you enjoy the stories and are inspired to do a little digging too.
In our recent podcast, Episode #37, we had the pleasure of interviewing author Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Nathan writes our favorite genealogy mystery novels, the Forensic Genealogist series featuring Morton Ferrier.
We had such fun learning how Nathan comes up with ideas and does the research for his books. We go a little insight to his family and the characters in his book. We also learned what is coming up and new in print. If you are interested in learning more about Nathan Dylan Goodwin, here is a link to his website: https://www.nathandylangoodwin.com/. All his books are on our website under Books (of course.)
Kenyatta is a professional genealogist, lecturer, attorney, writer and TV personality. She has been doing research for over 20 years and specializes in African American genealogy and slave ancestral research. This past year she devoted much of her time to writing her new book which helps new genealogists get started on their research journey.
There is so much packed into this book and it is easy to read and follow. There are chapters on US records research, including census, court, and property records. Chapters on immigrations, naturalization, and military. These are very comprehensive and have multiple lists by states so you will know when and where you can research for your particular research location. Other chapters cover ethnic and European research as well as DNA and adoption.
Kenyatta’s book would be a wonderful addition to any family historians library and desk as a quick reference guide.
Here are a few takeaways from our podcast on German Reseach.
Do as much research at home before jetting off to Germany, I think that is a given but some of us are eager for a transatlantic vacay of sorts.
Know what town or region your ancestors were from. It is very difficult to research without that knowledge. Also, what religion were they? Lutheran? Catholic? Use Kevan M. Hansen’s Map Guide to German Parish Registers for research assistance.
Look in the census records some of which are available on Ancestry.
Online resources include Genealogy.net and use Google translate unless you can read German which we cannot. Also, German Roots which is not in German.
Here are a few more blogs and websites that can help you learn more about research in Germany.
Can brothers and sisters of your ancestor help you knock down those brick walls? Absolutely! We all have those brick walls where our direct ancestor has very little to tell in terms of leaving documents behind. They do not have a birth or death certificate, they left no will. We can only find them in the census or maybe only in one or two censuses. Maybe the timing of their birth is such that they only hit the 1900 census and they are married at this point. How do we go back further in our tree? Maybe siblings can help.
First, you have to find the siblings. Most of us go to the census first. Even if they are not listed in the family look around. They might be with their own family but living very near to your ancestor. It might even be a page or more before or after your ancestor. You might find siblings in court records and probates as well. They might have sued each other. Check the inventory of estates to see who is in charge or receiving items. Who are the witnesses in marriages? These could be siblings of your ancestors.
Once you have the sibling names you can begin to research them just as you have been researching your direct ancestor. Don’t get distracted by adding children and grandchildren at this point, it will only take you off track of the mission. Take a look at the sibling’s death certificates. They might mention the parents birth locations and maiden name of the mother. Check and see where they are buried as a possible burial site for your ancestor. See if they have a will, who is mentioned, look at every page even the inventory. You never know where a name will pop up. Not only might you find information on parents but also proof that these are indeed siblings.
Other places to look are birth certificates, delayed birth certificates, funeral records, newspapers, guardianship papers, deeds, and other court records. You can always search for their children and grandchildren and make connections to see if these new cousins have any documents that might help in your research. Reach out and connect to your new family and you might just find a fellow family historian who can use your help as well.
