There are several steps a piece of information takes to go from your ancestor’s mouth to the record or index entry at which you are looking. Intentional errors, misinterpretations, and honest mistakes can work independently or together to make what looks like a “wrong” name. Keep this process is mind: It is what turns a Butler into a Putter. Check out Michael’s genealogy webinars–download immediate.
Don’t assume an individual has all their family from the same area. Once in a while someone will marry outside the ethnic group for one reason or another. The individual in the illustration was born into an ethnic German immigrant community in Illinois in 1907. Seven of his great-grandparents were German natives. One was not and was an Ohio native with no German ancestry whose family had been in the United States for several generations. Once in a while something will surprise you.
This hour-long presentation will present a brief overview of what autosomal DNA results are and are not. These are the tests that are done at AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, and 23andMe. Effective use of your results is easiest to do if pre-planning is done beforehand. This presentation will also help those who have not really delved into their results or feel they need to regroup their analytical process. Discussion will include determining what problems your results can potentially answer, goal-setting, preparing for sifting through your results, generalized sifting strategies, locating as many ancestral descendants as possible, reasons why you have to work on the people who aren’t your problem people, and more as time allows. Order now for immediate download.
Any reference to a relationship between two people may not be as specific as you would like. A letter may indicate two women are sisters, but are they biological sisters sharing two parents or are they: half-sisters–sharing one biological parent? step-sisters–sharing no biological parent? sisters-in-law? sisters in the church? Always keep yourself open to the possibility that a stated relationship may not be quite as precise as you would like. Usually a “sister” is a full sister, sharing both parents-but there are times it is not. This is why it is always recommended to obtain as many records as possible that may state the relationship between two people as just one record may not quite shed full light on the connection.
My daughter’s dog is named Riley. My great-great-grandfather is as well. Just because the name is the same does not mean they are identical. While there are many things that can be used to distinguish one person from another, key elements are: age place of birth occupation social class spouse children residence etc. Try and glean all the clues from each record to see what elements about this record suggest other identifying pieces of information about the people it mentions.
Church records are usually private records. When they are private records, the general public does not have a right to view them. It does not matter how long your relative attended the church, how devout they were, etc. Private records are not subject to public access laws. Many churches do allow individuals to view their records or will graciously allow them to be looked at, transcribed, etc. But they do not have to.
There is still time to join us for our webinar on “Preparing for Your DNA Test Results” on 4 February. Details are on our site.
Individuals can be mentioned in a newspaper long after they are dead, but usually not before they were alive. Newspaper references to Ida Sargent run from 1891 through 1994. The sixteen year old is mentioned when visiting the town of Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1891 and is mentioned in her daughter’s obituary in 1994, fifty-five years after her own death. Don’t stop looking in newspapers for someone when they die.
It does not matter how long you’ve been researching a family–new variant spellings can always pop up. Most immigrants from my Trautvetter family were 19th century immigrants to the central United States (Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri) and used mainly a handful of similar spellings (Trautvetter, Trautfetter, Troutvetter, and Troutfetter). Their name would occasionally get spelled incorrectly in a record here or there, but the members of the family used a name that sounded like “Trautfetter.” There was always a “Tr,” some vowels, a “t,” a “v” or an “f” and then “etter.” Except for a new guy I discovered. An earlier immigrant from this family settled in Massachusetts in the 1760s and used the name Trofatter after his 1767 marriage. It gets spelled several different ways–all of which […]
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