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Category: How to

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Taking a Wrecking Ball to Your Genealogy Brick Wall

Wrecking ball smashing brick wall

Do You Have a Brick Wall Ancestor?

Assembling your family history is not always easy, despite some of the recent major advances in accessibility to a broad range of records online. Most family historians will inevitably run into an ancestral brick wall at some point. These are ancestors who seem to have somehow dodged every way of leaving a useful documentary footprint. We know they were born, we know they had at least one child, we know they died. That may be all we know. Somehow they resist our every effort to pinpoint where they came from.

Brick wall
Beyond this, there be ancestors…

Brick Wall Smashing Ideas

Start with what you KNOW.

I don’t mean what you think you know. Especially if you’ve been working on this ancestor for a while, you may have unwittingly gathered some assumptions that you are now working from. They may be leading you down the wrong path. Start from scratch. Relook at every piece of both evidence and hearsay with a critical fresh eye. If you have been well-organised and cited all your sources, it will be an easy task to gather everything in front of you and begin again. If not, rummage through it all till you have everything.

Reassess each piece of evidence one by one.

  • Are you sure each one pertains to your ancestor? Is there any chance that one or more of them refers to another person of a similar name? Eliminate any red herrings.
  • Do you have the primary source of that evidence? If what you have is a transcription or an extract from an index, or you have found it in someone else’s tree, or just heard it on the grapevine you need to find the actual document if possible. It may well contain more information and is less likely to contain errors.
  • Are there potential clues that you overlooked first time around? For example, witnesses and informants who may be related to or close friends of the brick wall ancestor, or causes of death which may lead you to a newspaper report of an accident.

Make a timeline

Now, construct a timeline of their life using your evidence to see what’s missing. You may find you have a reasonable picture of their later life but they seem to have popped up out of nowhere as an adult.

Focus

Looking at the information you have, decide what is the most critical question you need to answer about this person to move forward and focus on that with laser intensity. A scattergun approach will not serve you well. Don’t forget to document what you’ve checked as you go to prevent you from going over the same ground multiple times.

Where are the gaps?

For example, do you have a birth record or a baptism? Probably not, or they wouldn’t be a brick wall! What sources do you have that may give a clue to their approximate year and/or place of birth? Censuses, marriage records, death or burial records, obituaries, school records, military records, passport applications, electoral rolls, immigration records? Do they appear in any newspapers of the time? Find out what sources are available for the area that your ancestor was in at the time that might contain this information, and plunder them all mercilessly. If you’re pretty sure you know where your brick wall ancestor was probably baptised but they don’t appear in indexed searches, go to the parish register images and browse through every page in case they were missed or mistranscribed.

A rose by any other name…

Try every variant of the person’s name. There are often spelling variants for both given and surnames, especially before widespread literacy became the norm. Their given and middle names may be transposed in documents (they may have been known by their middle name in later life). Check for contractions or pet forms of their names, for example, Robert may be Bob or Rob or Bobby or Robbie. Sometimes they’re not so obvious – Mary Anns often became Polly!

Think big

What was happening in the local area at that point in history? If they didn’t originally come from there, what might have brought them to the area and where from? Look for local histories, newspapers etc that will give you a better idea of the broader social history that influenced their life. Check here for a good source of local histories.

Thinking big and wide

Think wide

‘FAN’ out! FAN stands for ‘Family, Associates and Neighbours’. By researching those around your brick wall ancestor, you may uncover clues to their origins. I will be dedicating an entire blog to the importance of FAN-ning, so stay tuned for that one!

Recheck periodically

If you do all these things and still don’t break the brick wall, put it aside for a few months and carry on researching a different part of your tree. It can be good to come back with fresh eyes, because you may see a pattern you didn’t notice the last time. Also, more and more records are becoming accessible every day. Therefore, what you can’t access now may well be easy to get to the next time you try.

Have you tried DNA?

If you haven’t already had your DNA done, consider it for this purpose. I’ve had a few brick walls smashed by utilizing information gained from matching with others and working out the common ancestor between us. Ethnicity estimates may also in some cases be a signpost to where to look, but are not specific or accurate enough yet to be taken as standalone evidence.

Consider professional help

If you are despairing of finding your brick wall ancestor’s origins, try a professional genealogist who has some experience of researching the country or area where your family’s history takes place (for British or Australian brick walls, in particular, you are welcome to contact me!). They often know of more obscure sources that may contain the information you need and will be able to contextualize the information you have to come up with some new ideas of how to find the information. Make sure you have logged everything you have already done and cited sources to minimise the time you will be paying for. Sometimes a professional can bring a breakthrough in just hours on a problem that has held you up for years!

Brick wall with door
Eventually there is a way through the brick wall.
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DNA Testing For Genealogy- Useful Tool or Load of Codswallop?

dna molecules

Genealogy research has traditionally been all about compiling written and oral evidence to find your family lines and support your hypotheses. In recent years however, getting a genealogy DNA test done has become very popular. Millions of people have now spat in a tube or swabbed their inner cheek to find related family members in their DNA matches or to satisfy an urge to verify their ethnicity. Is DNA testing for genealogy actually useful, or is it a marketing gimmick?

The value of DNA testing for genealogy

The trouble with relying only on documents and oral evidence is that they are all filtered through the people involved. People are humans, with human failings. There are reasons, both deliberate and accidental, why the information may not be accurate.

There are innocent explanations. For example:

  • The person may not remember accurately.
  • The person may not have known their birthplace if they were raised somewhere else. They may have assumed they were born in the place of their childhood.
  • If they were illiterate and relying on someone else writing things down for them, that person may have misheard because of accents, deafness or inattention.
  • If the document has been transcribed from an original document, errors can creep in with every transcription.

There are also not so innocent explanations, usually related to ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ (often the most interesting parts of our family history!):

  • The person may be trying to hide illegitimacy. Society was less forgiving of human behaviour in previous generations.
  • The person may be trying to hide a criminal background even from several generations before. Even 50 years ago, Australians would be quick to deny any possibility of having a convict in their tree, despite Australia having been settled as a penal colony (of course, it’s a badge of honour these days!)
  • Sometimes people ran off to start a new life under a new identity, so any subsequent documents would be deliberately falsified.

DNA testing for genealogy can be a very useful tool to supplement traditional research methods. It helps eliminate the inaccuracies that can creep into them by removing the reliance on people’s word. “Science doesn’t lie, people do”.

My Personal Bombshell

Around 10 years ago, after 25 years of traditional genealogy research, I had my DNA tested along with several other family members. It turned out that the extensive research I had done on one branch of my family tree was completely wrong. It was correct for the people named, it was just that it turned out one of my grandparents was not related to me at all. Therefore that branch was not mine. I was devastated. All that work! And they were some of the most interesting ancestors (I thought) I had found! Back to the drawing board.

But you know what? I’m so glad I found out. The people in that branch that I know are still my family, I grew up with them as family and they always will be. But I can now have confidence that my tree is accurate. My other family lines have been verified by DNA, and with some diligent research, I have discovered the correct grandparent and a whole new family line to research!

Never be afraid to pursue accuracy, but be mindful of its potential impact on other family members. Think hard about whether they should know or would want to know if they were illegitimate before saying anything to them. They are from a different era when it could be a tremendous shock.

Where to get a DNA test done

There are several companies specialising in autosomal DNA testing for genealogy purposes. Currently, the five most common ones are:

  • AncestryDNA – this is the most well-known due to heavy marketing, and consequently has the biggest matching database. It used to predominantly have US customers, but the number of international DNA testers has grown in recent times as they’ve expanded their reach.
  • 23andMe – one of the oldest and most established DNA tests, also with a very large US-centric database.
  • FamilyTreeDNA – originally FTDNA offered Y-DNA (paternal line) and mtDNA (maternal line) tests only. In recent years they also have expanded into autosomal DNA tests, and this company now provides all three types of test should you want to also look at chasing specific lines or deep ancestry.
  • MyHeritage – a newer entrant into the marketplace, but with a rapidly growing database, and a very broad geographical range of testers.
  • LivingDNA – geared towards people of UK ancestry, this company is very new, and provides excellent ethnicity estimates, but is only just beginning to provide DNA cousin matching. One to watch, they have a whole new approach to matching, which should be extremely interesting when it gets up and running!

Recommendations:

I have either tested with, or uploaded to every one of these companies, and I use them all regularly. They have their own tools to help you analyse the data, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Often individuals are only to be found in one of the databases as they only test once. Therefore if you are looking to find matches for a specific line, or indeed a specific person such as a birth mother, I recommend you get yourself into as many of the databases as possible.

Ancestry and 23andMe do not allow you to upload data from other testing companies. So if you can afford only one test, choose one of these. Once your results are in, download your raw data and upload it to the other three. You will get results there too and will be available in the database for others there to find. You may need to pay a small amount to unlock all the tools and features on the other sites, but it’s cheaper than doing a fresh test for each.

The other thing I would highly recommend is uploading your DNA to Gedmatch.com. This is a third-party site where you can directly compare your results with people who have uploaded from any of the DNA testing companies.

Get other family members tested if you can to build up a picture and allow you to work out which side of the tree your matches come from. If you have family from the previous generation(s) still alive, their DNA is twice as valuable with each generation you go back as their DNA is only half as diluted. Grandparents, parents, uncles/aunts and parents’ cousins are genetic goldmines! Don’t ignore your siblings, you and each of them only share half your DNA despite having the same parents – they will have genetic cousins that you don’t in their matchlist.

Most people are not genetics experts. It can be a steep learning curve. If I had to recommend just one book to get you started on understanding DNA testing for genealogy and how to get the most out of it, it’s this one.

Verdict – not codswallop.

DNA testing for genealogy is not meant to replace your traditional research. It is an extra tool for your belt. I have found it invaluable for knocking down brick walls, finding ancestors hidden from documentary sources, and giving me confidence that I am on the right track. If you haven’t already been tested, you are missing out on one of the major new genealogical breakthrough techniques of recent times. DNA testing for genealogy is here to stay!

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Cite sources! Always! No exceptions!

When you get on a roll and you are finding lots of new information about your ancestors, it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment. STOP!! Have you remembered to make note of where your information is coming from? Citing sources is not the most exciting part of genealogy research, far from it. But if you don’t cite sources, you WILL forget where you found out the information.

“So what?” I hear you cry! “Stopping to do that boring stuff will make me lose my flow! There’s so much exciting information right here I need to gather!” That is true. But that information isn’t going to disappear while you take a few moments to make some notes.

Why is it important to cite sources?

Let’s say you find out something critical about an ancestor that allows you to tie them into a family line that you then continue to research several generations further back. Two years (and hundreds of hours of research) later, you find another piece of evidence that totally contradicts what you thought you knew. This new piece of evidence ties them to a totally different family, unrelated to the first. What do you do? How do you decide which piece of evidence is correct since they can’t both be? Answer: you go back to the sources and critically examine them both to see which is most credible, or use them to decide where you might look for further supporting evidence for each.

Problem: you didn’t cite the source of the first piece of evidence. And now you just don’t remember where you saw it. Was it from an official document, reported in the newspaper, in a book, on a website, did you hear it from a family member or did you find it on someone else’s family tree and assume it was right? How reliable was it? Where can you go to check it’s accuracy further? You just don’t know. Therefore, you also don’t really know if the tree you constructed based on that information is correct. Perhaps you’ve just wasted two years barking up the wrong family tree!

Citing your sources is all part of good genealogical organization.

What does ‘cite sources’ actually mean?

For a professional genealogist, there’s a very specific way of doing it, with specific formats for different sources of evidence. At the end of the day though, for your own personal family tree (unless you’re planning on publishing it), the main goal of citation is to be able to easily find your way back to the source of the information. It can be as simple as attaching a copy of the source to the relevent family group sheet, or attaching a scan of it to the relevent person(s) in a family tree computer program or online. If it’s a page of a book, make sure you’ve noted which book – author, title, publisher, edition – as that may not be apparent from the photocopied page! Some subscription genealogy services will have the sources amongst their offerings and you can directly connect them to the person(s) in question.

A well-sourced family tree saves you time and headaches

If you have unfailingly added source citations to all your ancestors as you have discovered them you can save hours of pulling your hair out trying to remember what made you assume something was true about them. You can simply go back to the sources and compare them for likely accuracy.

  • How close was the source to the actual event?
  • Who recorded it? Why?
  • Would they have had any reason to record the information inaccurately, either deliberately or by error?
  • Did you misinterpret it?
  • Is it a correct source but for a completely different person with a similar name?
  • Did the source itself rely on secondhand information (or third hand, or fourth hand)?

Get as close to the original source of the information as possible. If your source cited another source, seek that out and verify it.

And remember the more individual sources of evidence you have for each fact about your family members, the more confidence you can have that it is correct. Aim for at least three!

Have you ever wished you’d kept a better record of where you found some evidence? I know I wish I’d started my research the way I do it now! Comment below…

Finally, I know I said I was going to bring you a blog on finding your female ancestors as a follow up to a previous blog, but a fellow genealogist published a fantastic article about that topic on her blog soon after my saying that. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I would urge you to take a look here!

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Organizing genealogy research

organizing genealogy research organize
organizing genealogy research pile of documents

Genealogy is one of those activities that creates a whole lot of ‘piles of stuff’ that increase exponentially with every generation researched. You need to work out how you’re going to be organizing genealogy research right at the beginning of your family history journey. Otherwise, you run the risk of not being able to find the information you’ve gathered when you need it. You may even miss vital clues that you may have overlooked first time around with documents. You could possibly end up purchasing multiple copies of the same document as you forgot you already had it. Somewhere.

Is there a standard method for organizing genealogy research?

It really doesn’t matter which exact process you use to get your research organized. So long as it works for you, and allows you to be able to access the information you have easily and reliably, there are many ways to do it. However, follow the golden rules below whichever method you choose.

Essential golden rules

  1. Keep copies of your work. Keep them in separate places. Heaven forbid, if your house burns down and all your work is lost, you will regret it if there is not a copy somewhere. Scan or at least photocopy all documents, photos, correspondence etc. What works for me is uploading scans to the family tree I keep online and attaching them to the relevant people. Scans of correspondence are backed up into my Google Drive.
  2. Preserve your documents with appropriate storage methods:
    1. use only ‘acid-free’ paper/cardboard and plastic sleeves
    2. do not use metal paper clips or staples which will leave rust marks
    3. never use sticky tape to repair tears (have you seen what ancient sticky tape does to paper?)

My suggested method for taming those paper piles!

A good place to start is with your existing pedigree chart, and assigning the ahnentafel numbers for each person. You’ve already talked with your relatives and obtained as much information as possible from them so you probably have three or four generations of basic information covered by now. You can create your pedigree chart worksheet by hand using printed forms, use a family tree program on your computer, or use a genealogy website and enter the information there. Even better, do all three and you have then ensured you’re backed up in several places. I have my main working file on Ancestry.com. I sync it with Family Tree Maker on my computer and regularly print out charts for family lines as they evolve. In fact, I have uploaded my tree to every site that I subscribe to. Therefore, if disaster strikes, the tree will survive. Somewhere.

So what is ahnentafel numbering? This is a method of ensuring that each ancestor has their own unique number and cannot be confused with anyone else. If like me, you have two 5x great grandmothers named Mary Smith on totally different branches of the tree, this is a godsend. And it provides a great starting point for your filing system.

You are number one. Your father is number two. Your mother is number three. Your father’s parents are four and five. Your mother’s parents are six and seven. And so on. Just number vertically down each generation of the pedigree chart. If you have a family tree program it will likely be able to generate them for you.

Next steps, get the filing bug…

Now, create a file for each set of parents. For example, your paternal grandparents (ahnentafel numbers 4 and 5) would have their own file. Into this, you insert all the documents and certificates you have for them, photos, newspaper clippings etc. In front of this, I place a ‘family group sheet’. This is a summary page of their vital information along with their children’s. You can find templates for family group sheets online, purchase them or generate them from your family tree program.

I also have a summary spreadsheet of all the documents I have for them that I can tick off as I get them. Great for knowing if I’ve captured people in relevant census records, have all the necessary certificates, have immigration data, wills, etc. It also, therefore, shows at a glance what I still need to potentially find.

The third item I include is a genealogy research log. Here, I make a note of what records I have searched and what was found. This can save you hours of reinventing the wheel. It’s a common curse for the genealogist to come back to a family line, forget what they’ve checked and check it again. Possibly multiple times over the years. The research log prevents that. Don’t forget to record negative results as well as positive. These are just as valuable and often provide clues themselves. Keeping a research log is also a fantastic way to keep your thoughts focused on your goals for this family line.

Now you have everything neatly organized, so when you plan to visit a repository, library or archive you can simply select the family folders you will need to take with you. Or just take your laptop or tablet if it’s all been entered online. Instead of having stacks of random paper at home, you have a filing drawer with all your files arranged. It may be by ahnentafel numbers, or by surname in a hanging file that includes each generation in individual folders ordered by ahnentafel. Whatever works for you! The main point is…it’s organized!

It’s never too late for organizing genealogy research!

If you’ve been doing your genealogy research for a while and never implemented an organization system, do not despair! It is always possible to ‘KonMari‘ your work. Set aside a few hours and dig through those piles. You may be surprised what gems you find now that you have more context to see where they fit!

My way is not the only way…

For more ideas, I recommend you take a look at the category for this subject at Cyndi’s List. She lists several sites with information on the topic, and you may find the perfect method for you.

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Finding the Stories in Your Family – Interviewing Your Relatives

Your family history is so much more than names, dates and places. It’s the stories that make it so fascinating. Tales of overcoming hardship, exploring new lands through immigration, the impact of changing technologies in a fast-evolving world, and even yes, the odd scandal! It all puts flesh on the bones of our ancestors and brings those bare facts found in documents to life. As you begin exploring your family’s stories you may even recognise some of your own personality and character traits in your ancestors and see where they have come from.

I highly recommend that you sit down with some of your older relatives while they are still available to speak with. If they are not local, can you Skype, FaceTime or even call them? Letters are great, but stories tend to come out most effectively when the conversation is two-way in real time. Whatever method you go with, do it now…the stories die with those who hold them. Don’t be fooled into thinking that if they had anything interesting to tell you they would have done so by now. They may have assumed you already knew or wouldn’t be interested in hearing it!

Last year, I had the great privilege of spending some time with an elderly uncle on the other side of the world from me. I asked him if we could talk about his life as a child. He was surprised but very willing. He started by saying that he wouldn’t have much to say as he couldn’t remember much. Almost three hours later he drew breath after sharing some amazing and fascinating tales that put his life and that of the broader family into great context and answered many questions that would never have been solved through documents alone. It was invaluable.


Some tips when interviewing your relatives:

  1. If at all possible, record the conversation (with their permission). There is no way you will remember everything they say, and it means you won’t distract them or make them feel self-conscious by writing notes or having to ask them to pause mid-flow while you get everything down. You can just give them your full attention. Place the recording item (which may just be your phone) close by but unobtrusive so that they aren’t feeling uncomfortable.
  2. Prepare some ‘prompt’ questions before you go, in case they have trouble getting started or go blank. If there’s any particular era of their life that you are interested in, try asking a question around that time to get them started. For example, “I understand the family was bombed out in World War 2, can you tell me about that? I imagine it would have been a very scary time for you as a child”. You may find once they get started, the stories will segue into others as further memories are prompted.
  3. Be sensitive to their comfort, signs of fatigue or distress, and do not be tempted to keep going because you want the information. If they are straying into areas where they are clearly uncomfortable going, steer the topic to something else so they don’t feel compelled to continue down a path they accidentally got onto. Take breaks if necessary. Make them a cup of tea. Even if they’re enjoying it they may need to pause for a while and talk about other things.
  4. If possible, visit them in their own environment. They will be more relaxed there and they may remember during a story that they have photos, mementos or other items that they can show you, a wonderful bonus!
  5. Take them a little gift as appreciation for their time and effort, and perhaps a nice cake to go with the cuppa!

Has anyone else had the experience of interviewing their elderly relatives, and if so, did you come across anything that completely changed your perspective on the life of the family? Share your experiences in the comments!

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Starting Your Family History

When you first set out on your genealogy journey, it can be difficult to know where to begin. When I began, I was a teenager and it was the 1980’s. Yes, I’m that old. Really. So, every resource was accessed the old-fashioned way. Snail mail or visiting the site where they were kept.

It wasn’t like today where it seems like everything is digitised and just the click of a mouse away (that is an illusion and the subject of another blog post to come!). If I wanted a certificate from overseas, I had to write to a professional over there, get them to find the item, purchase it and post it to me. As a poor student at the time, this was both frustrating and expensive.

My strong advice, even in these days of easier access to information online, is ALWAYS begin with what you already know or can find out from people and items in your family. You might be surprised how far you can get before having to decide which subscription genealogy services you might need to invest in or to consider the services of a professional.

I talked with my parents, and wrote to surviving grandparents in England, and got as much information as I could from them. Names, dates, places, stories, photos, things that had been passed down through the family…anything they could tell me that might give me a clue as to where to look next.

Then I asked them who else might have information, photos or documents that might assist. I’m a hopeless letter writer, but I remember sending swathes of aerogrammes over to the UK, as I wrote to elderly barely-known relatives asking them for their memories. Those memories are precious now. Those letters were often my last contact with them before they passed away, and their writing was so much more interesting than the facts listed in an official document. Hints at family secrets, feuds, and random puzzling snippets (such as ‘We think Mrs McKnight is dead now’ from a slightly dotty great aunt which made no sense for 25 years!) add flesh to the bones of the burgeoning family tree.

Now that genealogy has become such a popular hobby, you may also be lucky enough to find out that someone in the extended family has already done some work on their side of your tree and be willing to share what they have found out with you (along with copies of their documentary sources if you’re super lucky!). And in return, as you find new things out about your common ancestors, you’ll share back with them, won’t you?

By the time you’ve finished with talking with everyone, you should find your tree has extended back to at least the early 20th Century for very little outlay. You are now back into the era of ancestors who can be confidently presumed dead, and thus publicly available records exist. We’ll be talking about records and where to find them in future blogs.

By this time too, there is no going back. The genealogy bug will have well and truly bitten you, so the quote above is really a mockery. There is no end to a family tree. You won’t stop, trust me!

Has anyone found out anything interesting from family members which sent them down the genealogy rabbit hole never to return? Comment below!