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Digging for genealogical gold

The helps and hazards of speculative Ancestry tree climbing

7 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Go-anywhere, paper-free solutions, Golden Egg Genealogist, Leaving it better than we found it, Organizing for optimal efficiency / By / 7 minutes of reading

Remember when we  Golden Egg Genealogists (GEGs) were innocent kittens? We could extend a family line back to the Mayflower over a weekend, thanks to those oh-so-helpful “Ancestry Member Trees” on Ancestry.com. Many of us built our early trees on those shaky branches. Here and there we might have speculated on possible family connections, adding them to the tree in an effort to chip away at a brick wall. Helpful! Then we grew into GEGs and started doing genealogy right, swearing we’d go back eventually and clean up that old mess. One day, though, we realized that a new batch of kittens were copying our oh-so-helpful and oh-so-public “Ancestry Member Trees.”  Uh-oh. …

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Enter at the side door: the Ancestry Card Catalog

8 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Go-anywhere, paper-free solutions, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 3 minutes of reading

Like many, my early days using Ancestry.com were all about chasing fluttering green leaves. I found sources because my ancestor’s name matched the index of a record collection. I wish I’d known much earlier the wealth of information available in the Ancestry Card Catalog, entered through the side door. It holds sources that are indexed — but not indexed. Bear with me, and I’ll explain. (Newest entry in the Wish I’d Known Series.)

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Photo context: treasures in the details

Leave a Comment / Digging for genealogical gold, Every little thing in context, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 6 minutes of reading

In a photo of my great-grandparents, I happened to notice on the dresser behind them what looked like a tobacco container. Was I seeing a throwback to childhood pranks? Prince Albert in a can? I scanned the photo at high resolution and zoomed in. It was Prince Albert. I began to wonder what else I might see in the photo context. In one detail after another, my ancestors’ world came into focus. 

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Narrowing birth dates — a free tool does the math for you

13 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Every little thing in context, Go-anywhere, paper-free solutions, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 5 minutes of reading

A census record offers you a moment in time when your ancestor was, say, five years old. That gives you a potential birth date range of 365 days, plus a possible Leap Day. If you use multiple records, however, you can use the overlaps to whittle down that range, getting closer to the real date. Doing this math in your head, unfortunately, can launch a headache. But I have a solution: the Date Narrowing Calculator. My gift to you.

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Genetic genealogy: why more DNA is better

5 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Every little thing in context, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 4 minutes of reading

Genetically speaking, my sisters and I are all half Mom and half Dad, right? DNA 101. So, only one of us needs to do a DNA test, and then we’ll all know our ethnic origins, correct? . . . OK, I confess I never took DNA 101. But thanks to AncestryDNA, I have learned the answer is no (at least when it comes to autosomal DNA). The more family members you test, the fuller the picture of your genetic genealogy will become.

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Citing sources: the Desktop Dilemma series

5 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Go-anywhere, paper-free solutions, Golden Egg Genealogist, Organizing for optimal efficiency / By / 7 minutes of reading

This newest installment of the Desktop Dilemma series takes up the question of how the Big Three genealogy desktop software packages handle citing sources. How easy do they make it to leave an effective bread-crumb trail back to where you found your facts?

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Junior, senior, and the perils of assuming they’re kin

2 Comments / Digging for genealogical gold, Every little thing in context, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 3 minutes of reading

It’s clearly a junior-senior kinship, right? Only two Tom Whatsits in the whole county–Tom Whatsit Sr. and Tom Whatsit Jr. You have moved up another branch in the family tree, right? Not so fast. . . .

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Techniques, archives & graduation: IGHR Friday (6 of 6)

Leave a Comment / Digging for genealogical gold, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 4 minutes of reading

The classroom buzzed this morning as we turned in our class projects and absorbed a few more hours of vital education. Earning our certificates of completion, we departed eager to practice what we’ve learned. Proudly, we are at last qualified  for the coveted Advanced Methodology course. Hopefully many of us will meet again there next July. (This diary began at Sunday’s Orientation.)
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Newspapers, land, and courts: IGHR Thursday (5 of 6)

Leave a Comment / Digging for genealogical gold, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 6 minutes of reading

Thursday at IGHR, we learned to get smart about finding clues in newspapers. We examined the acquisition of lands and the federal, state, and local records that emerged. We explored wills, the intestate, and the path through probate — a path to some of genealogy’s most valuable gems. (This diary began at Sunday’s Orientation.)

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Death, taxes & the “reasonably exhaustive” standard: IGHR Wednesday (4 of 6)

Leave a Comment / Digging for genealogical gold, Golden Egg Genealogist / By / 6 minutes of reading

Wednesday at IGHR brought a breadth of instruction. The intricacies of tax records, creative substitutes for the “vital records,” the layers of military records, and that question that plagues all GEGs: what is “reasonably exhaustive” research? (This diary began at Sunday’s Orientation.)
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