I came across this image the other day and it got me to thinking: should one go back and re-label pictures when someone has changed their name? I’m inclined to think not. The modified image (which is the one used to illustrate this post) was posted to Genealogy Tip of the Day on Facebook where it […]

I used the Free Autosomal Data Transfer at Family Tree DNA to upload my raw DNA test results from AncestryDNA several months ago. There were not any “immediately exciting beyond belief matches” and I put looking at the results on the back burner. They were still on the back burner when I received an email last week from someone who […]

According to the “Historical Record Index View” at the Colorado State Archives website, a man named Christopher Troutfetter was involved in a legal dispute with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway in the 1890s. The index does not indicate which party is the defendant and which party is the plaintiff. The index does not indicate what […]

Indexes are not the same thing as records. Indexes are finding aids. One may be tempted to think that just because the index says that Augusta Newman and Sophia Thomas  were married in Nicholas County, Kentucky, in 1829 that they actually were. Researchers whose prime interest is in speed and collecting names may simply copy […]

The fifty-two year old man born in Iowa in about 1808 was a clue something might be off. That’s an early year of birth for someone born in Iowa. It’s possible, but not too probable. Other information in the last two households from this 1860 census page look askew as well. In both cases, the […]

When viewing digital images of microfilm, make certain you are seeing everything–not just what you’ve zoomed in on. When some local records were filmed, more than one document may have been filmed for one “image,” particularly if the original pieces of paper were small. If you have zoomed in to view something at a higher […]

I will be honest: I use the online trees for clues and leads when I’m stuck or when I’m working on a new-to-me family–leads and clues, not facts. Sometimes it’s just to get me jump-started. Personally I get the most benefit out of them when the problem is relatively recent and the bulk of the […]

GedMatch.com Webinar 2 This presentation focuses on an overview of the Tier 1 search options of GedMatch. Tier 1 is the “fee-based” part of GedMatch–it costs $10 a month and helps support the free portions of the site. GedMatch allows you to “see more” of your DNA and analyze it in ways that simply are […]

I never did a blog post about it, but for the last few months I was down to being in six DNA circles at  AncestryDNA. Now I’m back up to ten: Christianna (DeMoss) Rampley (born in the early 1770s probably in Harford County, Maryland–12 members of this circle. Augusta Newman (died 1861 White County, Indiana)–8 members of the […]

X-DNA (in the 23rd pair) is inherited from mother to child and from father to daughter. It is not passed from father to son. The percentages here are approximate because X-DNA is recombined (generally speaking, shuffled up with the other member of the 23rd pair and the appropriate amount gets passed on) when it passes […]