What to do about errors in other people's Ancestry Trees?

This is one of the biggest complaints I find on various genealogy Facebook groups that I belong too.

Many suggestions to this question range from ignore the tree and move onto the next; all the way to… reach out to the person and tell them their tree is wrong.

Then I read that people would be happy if someone pointed out the errors in their tree. Would you? 

For me, it depends on how they inform me. If someone just tells me I am wrong, I might be a little offended at first.

So here are my suggestions on handling errors in other people’s Ancestry Trees.

Check out the member’s profile. When was the last time they were on Ancestry? If it has been a while, sending them a message might be like talking to a brick wall.

Therefore, leave a comment on their tree for the fact in question. However, be very careful how you word it. You know the saying; you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Your comment should bring to attention that their fact conflicts with what you found. 

Remember, you don’t know what relationship the tree creator has to the fact or person the conflicting information is about. For example: It’s easy for people to say my tree is wrong, because my mother’s father is someone who my grandmother never married, and my mother was legally adopted by her step-father and all her documents refer to her adopted father as her biological father, not the man I have attached her to in her tree. Therefore, perhaps the tree creator knows something you don’t.

List why you think their information is wrong, by giving what you found. For example: One of my husband’s cousins has his great-grandfather, single and living with his married sister, father  and siblings in Illinois per the 1900 US Census. However, I know that is not him because I found him in the 1900 US Census in Wisconsin, living with his widow mother and several siblings. I also found his mother on the ship manifest stating she is going to live with her son in Wisconsin. Plus all their graves are in the same cemetery, in the same area of the cemetery. I know enough about the family, that I know my information is correct. However, to be nice, I will state that their Census conflicts with the Census I found. Now I let everyone who visits my cousin’s tree to determine for themselves which is correct.

1900 US Census from Tigerton, Shawano County, Wisconsin

1900 US Census for Chicago, Cook County, Wisconsin

So if you decide you want to contact the Ancestry member, also state that their information conflicts with what you found and list what you found. Give links back to the documents or your tree if you can. Then ask if they would like to collaborate on figuring out which is correct. This softens the blow; the person might have just been a hint collector and didn’t understand they needed to evaluate every hint. They might come to the same conclusion and thank you. OR they may argue with you that they are correct and you are wrong. Don’t get into a battle, because it will not be worth it. Just politely thank them for looking into the conflict and wish them much success in their future genealogy endeavors and move on.

Remember to pick your battles. We can’t fix everyone else’s trees. Ultimately, we need to concentrate on creating our tree as accurate as possible.

Working with AncestryDNA matches.

I have covered this topic before; however, I have found that some people need this explained more than once to fully understand it. It can be a little confusing.

I have been helping my friend, E.B. with her DNA results. She had her mother, L.S. (her only living parent) tested. This is the first time I ever got to work with DNA results that show a parent’s matches with the extra built in label of “Mother’s side”. I had already started to color code E.B. shared matches before her mother’s results came in. We are trying to figure out who E.B.'s father’s biological father is. Therefore it was really nice to see “Mother’s Side” was being matched up with those I sorted as being from her mother’s side. However, I do know I saw a few matches that appeared to fall into both her mother’s side and her father’s side.

Before I go any further, let me cover a little background for those who are newer with DNA and sorting and matching. I have found with AncestryDNA matches, using the Dana Leed’s Method of sorting is quite useful. You can find it explained by her at her website 

How shared matches work. When you go into your DNA Matches (let’s call you A) and you select one of your DNA matches (let’s call them B). You can then review all your shared matches (let’s call them C-Z). These are DNA matches that match both A and B. Normal logic states, that if A and B have a known common ancestor or ancestors (married couple), then shared matches C-Z should match either the known common ancestor(s) or one of their ancestors. Look at the chart below, see you are A and your selected match B have a common set of ancestors. C-Z might share a common ancestor(s) at the same level as A and B or any ancestor further back on those lines. This is how the Leed’s Method works.

Keep in mind, all DNA 2^nd cousins or closer will match each other. Therefore, if you have two unknown DNA 2^nd cousins and they don’t match each other; they come from different lines of your tree. You have four sets of Great Grandparents and these two 2^nd cousins come for two different sets of Great Grandparents.

Also keep in mind, that AncestryDNA use of 1^st cousin, 2^nd cousin, etc.… are just for sorting purposes and is based on your shared centimorgans. There are averages of centimorgans that relatives will share based on their relationship. However, DNA is so random that the further you go out, these could be higher or lower than average. Therefore, you might find a 2^nd Cousin listed under your 3^rd cousin heading in AncestryDNA. This is just a suggestion. Plus, not all your DNA matches will be exactly a 2^nd cousin, 3^rd cousin, etc… Some might be a 2^nd cousin once removed or a 3^rd cousin twice removed. Basically to be exactly a 2^nd cousin or 3^rd cousin as an example, your common ancestor must be the same relationship to both of you. 2^nd cousins share Great Grandparents, while 3^rd cousins share Great Great grandparents. Removed can be confusing, however, think of your first cousin’s kids. These are your 1^st cousin once removed because your grandparents are your first cousin’s kids great grandparents. Your common ancestors do not have the same relationship to you as your first cousin’s kids.

The chart below show a simple Pedigree chart with ahnetafel numbering system, this system starts with the main person, usually you as 1 and your father is twice your number and your mother is twice plus one. This continues in this fashion for as many generations you need to go back. So when I am helping people with their DNA results and when I figure out the most likely common ancestor, I like to use the ahnetafel numbering system so I can see their placement on the pedigree chart easier. The top of the chart shows the relationship of each generation to you and the bottom of the chart shows which generation would be 2^nd cousins versus 3^rd cousins.

Okay, now back to my research problem. My friend as a DNA match (J.S.) showing up in her 2^nd Cousin bucket and is related to her and her mother. However when I bring up J.S.’s shared matches, she has two shared matches that are from my friend, E.B.’s father’s side. These shared matches do not show up for E.B’s mother, L.S..

 

Also, J.S. really isn’t a 2^nd cousin to E.B., in fact, J.S. is the great granddaughter of L.S.’s sister. Therefore, J.S. is the 1^st cousin twice removed of E.B. and the great great niece to L.S. Their common ancestor is E.B’s maternal grandparents (6 & 7). Lucky for me, J.S. matches A.B. and A.B.’s mother C.B. two matches that I already figured who their common ancestor to E.B. Plus A.B. has a very nice developed tree, while J.S., not so much.

When I first looked at J.S.’s tree, I did some quick research on the only names she had on her tree and when I found obituaries for J.S.’s grandparents, this is where I was given J.S.’s parents name.   J.S. used her real name and I found the S surname already in the tree for E.B. since S married L.S.’s sister’s daughter. J.S’s father is the grandson of L.S.’s sister.  Therefore, I was able to place J.S. into E.B.’s tree.

Next I turned to figuring out how J.S. was related to A.B. and C.B. The locations for J.S. maternal grandparents did not match A.B’s tree. So I turned to J.S.'s paternal grandfather (S). I did some quick research and found that S’s father had married a Pauly and her parents were listed in A.B’s tree. Also, Ancestry has common surname between E.B. and A.B. listed in green. Ironically, a Pauly married a Friedel (the surname from E.B.’s tree). Therefore, I might come across more DNA shared matches that show they have maternal and paternal matches to E.B. and this will be the first place to start looking.

Do you build out your DNA Matches Trees?

I don’t always, but I try. As I was scanning through my AncestryDNA matches list of 4^th cousins or closer, I was looking for anyone who I hadn’t grouped. I came across two matches with the same last name, Rosie who matches me at 59cM across 6 segments and Sean who matches me at 41cM across 4 segments. Neither match has a tree. Both are newer members of Ancestry, only been members since February 2019. Sean hasn’t been on since March and Rosie was on last month.

Their last name didn’t appear too common and I haven’t come across their surname before. So I decided to search Newspapers.com to see if I could any mention of Rosie. I am always hopping I find a parent’s or in-law’s obituary that might have her listed.

I found an article about her husband Bob who is a Principle. He was being transferred to another school, seemed like a promotion and the article mentioned how long he was married to his wife Rosie and listed their three children, Erika and twin sons Aaron and Sean. BINGO! It’s a start. I still don’t have Rosie’s maiden name, however I have a husband and three children and one of the children’s names matches the DNA Match.

I decided to do a search on her husband’s name and came across Rosie’s sister’s wedding announcement. It listed Mrs. Bob Smith (Smith is a name I made up to protect the living). In the article it listed Rosie’s parents as Mr. and Mrs. Peter Italian (again a made up name).

So I take Peter’s name over to Ancestry and do a search on what I know, Peter’s name, where he lived, his daughter’s name. What I find is a 1940 census record with his wife and oldest daughter, not Rosie. I don’t think Peter is my blood relation, only because it last name appears Italian to me and I check an earlier Census where Peter is living with his parents and found both parents were born in Italy. Then I focus on Peter’s wife, Joyce who is born in Iowa. Another BINGO, this matches were this branch of the family hails from. This is based on shared matches of Rosie and Sean.

Ancestry gives me some hints for Joyce and I look at an earlier Census for her living with her parents and her mother’s first name is a name I recognize along with Joyce’s surname. I quickly check my genealogy software program and find they are in my database; however I have no children for them.

So starting with Rosie’s grandparents Leon and Winifred, I decide to research each child, they had only four. I follow down each child to their child and possible grandchildren using records from Ancestry and Newspapers.com. I also did a google search on another unique name and found Rosie’s nieces wedding page from 2013. It listed her name, her new husband and their wedding date. On the page was an congratulation from none other than Rosie.

Do I always have this much success on researching my DNA Matches trees. NOPE. My rule of thumb, I spend about an hour to dig up clues for the family. If I can’t figure out anything within an hour, I will move onto something else. Perhaps an hour is not enough time, however I have so many unidentified matches, and I figured I will most likely find another match that will probably be easier.

Lesson learned: Don’t ignore matches with No Trees however don’t waste too much time on them either.

Good luck in your research.

Family Tree Maker Entering Tip

I don't know why I never noticed this before, I guess I am just too fast of a typist.

Anyway, I know as you enter a location, you'll notice that a list of possible matches appears. To use a suggested location, I just click it.

However, if you just type the first three characters of a location you have used previously, (JUST THREE). I find that my desired location is near the top of the suggested locations. If I type more than three, it goes back to the drawing board and I need to type in more characters just to get back to my desired location.

Three letters typed = The first choice is my desired location

Four letters typed = lost my desired location and must type more

Five letters typed = on this location, my desired location reappeared after the five letter

Lesson learned: I need to slow down and let the computer program do the hard work, I can type less.

NPE or NKCA

It appears that people get very frustrated when they can’t figure out their DNA matches. I belong to several groups that deal with DNA and their matches. I find that people jump to many conclusions when dealing with their matches and make broad statements that I find hard to believe.

When people can’t find a direct match to their DNA matches, many jump to the conclusion that there must be a NPE (Non Paternal Event), which I hate that term, I like the one someone used called “Not the Parent Expected”. How can anything be a non-paternal event? We all have parents, even if we don’t know who they are. Okay, off that soap box for now, I know I am going to lose that battle anyway.

An acronym that I made up is NKCA (Not Known Common Ancestor). I believe when I find a match and I can’t figure out how we are related, it might be because of a NKCA. I haven’t discovered all my Ancestors yet, and this was one of the reason’s I tested, to build out my tree.  

This is different than UCA (Unknown Common Ancestor). Unknown Common Ancestor is when we match, however I might already have the common ancestor, I am not sure which one. I have a few branches that my matches and I have more than one set of common ancestors. Perhaps we share DNA from all the common ancestors, or perhaps we don’t. Or perhaps I know you match on a well develop line of mine, however, I am not quite sure where on that line you fall. Maybe you don’t have a tree and your username gives me no clues, or I haven’t researched down all the lines and thus haven’t come across you as a descendant of one of my ancestors. I might even need to build out your small tree to connect you back to the common Ancestor.

Anyway, we can’t always jump to the conclusion that a NPE is the reason you don’t match with your DNA matches. What if you accidentally attached the wrong ancestor to your tree and researched a line that really isn’t your line. Common names or areas where you family names get repeated can get confusing and errors can happen. What if your match’s tree is not accurate? Keep this in mind as you are trying to figure out your DNA matches.

Below are some of the statements people make online that I just can’t help but question. My goal isn't to shame people, however when the question gets asked over and over again, I must remind myself that perhaps the person didn't know it as been asked before and as I was in the beginning, just plain confused about DNA.

Statement One: I am trying to find a common ancestor with a 4^th cousin, but we have no match for six generations back. Am I missing something? My thoughts:  Yes you are missing something, are you sure you found all six generations back? This would be your 3^rd great grandparents and at this point you have 62 direct ancestors. I have been researching my family for over 35 years and I have only found 58 out of the 62 ancestors. Plus have you research back down each line of your ancestors to find all the living descendants? I find more DNA matches on the lines that are well researched and where I have traced the lines back down to the living. Since this was one of my genealogy goals when I started doing genealogy, well before DNA testing came onto the scene, I was ahead of the game when I jumped into DNA. Finally, DNA testing companies are estimating the relationship and thus you may need to check back one or two more generations. This could mean you need to figure out 254 ancestors and their descendants before you may connect to your DNA match.

From The World's Most Fascinating Genealogy Blog, #111: Up the Ladder Posted on March 17, 2013 by stoff <https://relatedhowagain.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/111-up-the-ladder/>

Statement Two: I don’t match any of my father’s ancestors; therefore he can’t be my father, correct? Question by Me:  You can’t jump right to that conclusion. Perhaps your father’s parent's aren't who he think they are. For example: The daughter of my first cousin tested and she matches me through our common ancestor on my father’s side and her grandmother, her father’s mother is my aunt. All those matches are great. However, I haven’t found anyone further back on her father’s side. Therefore, her father’s father might not be the one on record, or perhaps none of her closer relatives have tested yet. I know my aunt had 8 children, and she is the only one of my aunt’s descendants that has tested and thus I have nothing to compare against. I haven’t built out my aunt’s husband’s tree very far, however a niece of my aunt’s husband had contacted me about him in my tree. I asked if she tested, and she stated no. If she would test and if she doesn’t match my cousin, then I know there is a problem. It still doesn’t automatically mean that her grandfather is not her father’s father. Perhaps her grandfather is not the biological son of his known father. The breakdown could occur on any generation. Until I find people who have tested back to each know common ancestor, and can prove they match or don’t match. Keep in mind; you may need to test multiple people, because what if the tester has the NPE. You need to check their matches to see if the expected ancestors are coming up. Confusing and a lot of work, however no one said genealogy is easy.

Statement Three: I have tested and I don’t match my mom or Dad. My thoughts:  I need more to go on. Have your parent’s tested, because no testing company can say who your parent’s are if they don’t test. To be honest, no testing company can say who our grandparents or great grandparents, etc. are, if they don’t test. DNA will tell us who our DNA matches are. From those DNA matches, we can surmise who are common ancestors are and thus figure out our lineage. DNA is a tool, a research tool that is combined with traditional genealogical research to figure out our genealogy history.

Finally, if your parent's did test, make sure you all tested with the same company and give the company enough time to update all your results before jumping to the wrong conclusion. For whatever reason, you results may be available, however all your matches might no totally upload, give it about a week and then gently approach your parents. Humans are not perfect and neither are our parents, so if you find unexpected results, be gentle.

In closing, my disclaimer. Again, I wasn't trying to shame anyone for the questions they ask, however to give my thoughts and my opinions on the subject. I am relatively new to DNA research, having tested myself about 5 years ago, I find that DNA research is a different mind set and uses some unique skills. As with genealogy in general, we should not jump to conclusions but examine the results and perhaps come up with theories and then see if we can prove or disprove our theories with the evidence. If you are serious about using DNA research, my advice is to learn as much as you can through books, blogs, joining Facebook groups and watching webinars. 

AncestryDNA ThruLines - The Good, The Bad and The Warning!

The new ThruLines on AncestryDNA is all the talk around the genealogy water coolers.

I like the Thrulines because it visually gives me my suggested DNA matches to my Ancestors. Okay, reread that sentence.... Suggested.... Even if the Ancestor is in my tree, Ancestry is going out into their databases of User Submitted Trees and trying to tie your DNA Matches back to your Common Ancestors or to Potential Ancestors.

WARNING - Very important to wrap your head around this. Potential Ancestors are Suggestions too!

For Example, ThruLines suggested Ellen O'Brien for my 3rd great-grandmother. She was born abt 1870 and died 1953.

When I click on the ThruLine suggested, I am brought up to the next screen where it shows the lineage from Ellen O'Brien down to me and my matches along with listing whose tree the information came from.

I am glad that Ancestry is giving me the tree name here, so I can clearly see that it is not my tree, but someone else's tree. However, why did Ancestry selected this tree out of the hundreds of thousands of other trees I have no idea why. DianaL60 is not even a DNA match to me. Scary, Right!

Here I notice a problem, my 2nd great-grandfather is born abt 1836, 34 years before his suggested mother. Ancestry's On-line support suggest that if a ThruLine is inaccurate, that we should contact the owner of the tree it is using and ask them to make a correct. Well, I hate to inform Ancestry, the tree is not the problem, you are. 

Looking at the Profile Page of Ellen O'Brien from the tree that Ancestry is using to create this ThruLine, I see no Father, no Mother, no Spouse and no Children. What is this person suppose to correct? I am sure there is an Ellen O'Brien born about 1870 and who died June 1953 in Mallow, Ireland. The problem is not their Tree, but in the logic that Ancestry is using to create ThruLines. I had similar problems with the "WeRelate" phone app that shows famous people you are related to. They managed to fix problems there with parents being younger than children in their suggested lines, you would hope they would use the same logic as that phone app to make suggested trees.

While I am in exploring ThruLines, I get a popup asking if I will take a survey. Of course I will take a survey, how else will Ancestry know they have a logic flaw. We need to give feedback at every possible opportunity. They can not fix what they don't know is broken!

However, when I read this question, it almost floored me. I hope everyone realizes that flaw in this logic.

If you don't see the flaw, keep this in mind, Ancestry is building out either or both your lineage back to a Potential Ancestor and your DNA matches to the same Potential Ancestor or perhaps an Ancestor you already have in your tree. Look at the suggested lineage, how many trees is it bouncing through to come up with that suggested lineage. Even if they used the DNA match's tree all the way back to your tree, you need to verify these branches. What if your DNA matches have been creating their tree off of your tree. I could put a bogus direct ancestor line into my tree that matches my DNA matches' tree, using a line that I know I am not part of. Ancestry won't know, and they will see we have the same line in each of our trees and poof - I am part of that ThruLine back to those Bogus Common Ancestors. Especially if I remove the correct line that we are related through. 

Plus, on more common surnames, like O'Brien, my match may have O'Brien's in their tree, and we still might be related through a completely different branch. Secondly, we have been warn to use other people's trees as clues not gospel. Each person's tree, mine included are only as accurate as the researcher doing it. Sure I am more accurate today, however, how about 20 or 30 years ago or when I started. I might have flaws in my tree. Please don't take my word for everything and add it into your tree. You may be greatly disappointed. 

Finally, seeing DNA Matches as good evidence that we descend from a common ancestor is quite the leap.As in my example, there are 6 DNA matches. Unfortunately, in my sister's ThruLines example they all come from my Mother and the six matches are my half-sister, my two half-brothers, my two half-nephews, and myself. The only one they are missing from my immediate family is my half-niece who recently tested and who hasn't built a tree yet. 

There is your Warning, ThruLines can be a wonderful Tool if used properly. However, Verify, Verify and Verify all lineages. I have found more correct than incorrect, however the incorrect is still out there. Also, as more people test, create trees, correct trees, etc... ThruLines will adjust accordingly. Therefore, they are very fluid, constantly changing with the tides. What you see today, might not be there tomorrow. Or as in my genealogy friends case, she took a break from the genealogy library to buy herself a coffee and when she got back, it all changed. Her half-brother's ThruLines was using his mother's adopted family and not the tree he had attached to his DNA results. However, when she came back, ThruLines was using his DNA tree with only his biological family in it. 

AncestryDNA and Private Trees

Don’t let private trees stop you from figuring out how your DNA match and you are possibly related.

So on my husband’s matches, I have a person who is managing three tests and has a huge tree, however it is locked down and private. AncestryDNA is teasing me with a display of a Green Leaf and Common Ancestor as follows:

When I view the match, Ancestry gives means a hint of who the Common Ancestors might be:

When I view the possible relationship to the match, all I see are a bunch of Private boxes. ARGH!

However, when I click on the first Private Box, the sibling of my husband’s 2^nd great grandfather, it gives me the following clue.

I am able to do this three more times and I get valuable names to research and see if this looks accurate. By doing this I end up to my matches’ grandmother. Now I have someone to start looking for and to see if possibly I can find out more about the grandmother, thus more about the match.

Therefore, AncestryDNA has now allowed me to figure out how my husband’s match and she might be possibly related. Also, using the Shared Matches of this match with my husband allows me to sort those matches.

Need a New AncestryDNA Extension or Features

I need a new feature or two with my AncestryDNA matches. However, it might be possible with an extension and I would take it any way I could get it.

Here’s my idea…. I have multiple DNA kits that I manage. I would love an easy way to copy the notes from one kit I manage to another kit that I manage.  

Currently, I am copying the notes manually, by having my DNA test results up on one monitor and having my sibling’s results up on the other. 

I use the AncestryDNA helper extension so I can type in the matches’ user name on my test results page as I sequentially work through all the DNA test results of my sister’s matches.  When I click on the result from my page, it opens a new tab with the match. From my sister’s page I have to click the “View Match” button to open matches page and manually copy the match from my screen over to my sister’s screen.

 I wish that I could modify the notes from the main page, without going into the “View match” button of my sister’s page. Currently, I use the MedBetterDNA extension to display the notes associated with the tests matches. So if MedBetterDNA could let us edit the notes from this page, I call it BONUS!

Otherwise, if there was a way to just copy all the notes for common matches between two test.

Currently, AncestryDNAHelper allows you to compare two tests for common matches, now once it comes up with that list, if there was another option that would copy Test A notes to Test B notes for common matches, I would be in heaven!

Now here is the real bonus, if I could only mass copy those notes. I manage my two half-siblings DNA results. Plus my half-nephew has shared his DNA results with me.  If there was a way to copy my nephew’s notes to my half-brother’s common matches first, then copy my notes to my half-brother’s common matches second. Keep in mind, that my notes may override a few notes of my nephews on those common matches that all three of us share.  My half-brother has over 1000+ 4^th cousin matches or closer. I would love to quickly add all those notes. Then I could manually go through his matches and find all the ones that are unique to him and add notes. When I was done, I could copy my half-brother’s notes over to my half-sister’s notes and then manually go through her matches and find those remaining unique matches.

What a time saver this all would be!

However, since I don’t have these features, its back to manually copy notes from one DNA test to another. WHEW!

Example of Double First Cousins who Married Sisters

In one of the Facebook Groups I belong to, a member was reporting how her and her sister married Double 1st cousins. She shared this as a bit of a conversation starter and I just had to draw it out, so I could share with my DNA buddy in my Genealogical Society.

Kathryn wrote: "This is a match to my daughter and my son. I manage all 3 kits. If I was looking at this without knowing the relationship I would probably be asking my husband some questions - as my first guess would probably be half sibling to my children. However, this is my nephew. My sister and I married cousins, their parents are siblings that married siblings. So a brother and sister married a brother and sister and their respective sons' married sisters. Still with me? So this man is a first cousin to my children and also a first cousin once removed twice over - which then equates to roughly the same DNA as a half-sibling.

While this is an incredibly rare occurrence I would think, it does demonstrate that sometimes the obvious isn't always the correct answer :) Especially when looking at relationships in endogenous societies - usually much further back than this bunch of millennial's."

Now a correction to what Kathryn wrote, her nephew and her children are actually Double 2nd cousins, not first cousin's once removed twice over. They are at the same level from all their common ancestors and thus there would be no removed between them. Confusing, I know.

Anyway, enjoy the picture I created to give me and other's a visual of this complicated relationships.

Discover Your Family

It’s unique and you don’t need any special training to learn it.

Everyone has an important history that makes them who they are. Your history and the history of your family are unique. You will treasure it and share it with others. But first you must begin to find it and you can. Anyone can research family history. If you can write a letter, talk on the telephone, send a text message then you can do it. No special skill or degree is needed.

There is a difference between genealogy and family history. When you are doing genealogy, you are developing a record of the names of people from whom you are descended. Family history, on the other hand, is finding out the stories of the lives of those people. It is discovering the lore that has been passed down from generation to generation, the photos and quilts, the diaries, the letters that tell your family’s story.

Families are unique. Families come in many shapes and sizes. Families could be your blood relatives or the people who raised you. In this world of adoption, foster care or extramarital affairs, you are part of the family that raised you, they influenced your behaviors and made the person who you became. Thus, if you are adopted, you are still connected to your non-blood relatives; you share stories, life experiences, heartbreak and triumphs. Therefore, as an adopted individual, or someone who just found out that their dad is not their bio-dad, (or some other similar situation); you have so much more family than most of us. Don’t be afraid to embrace all the branches of your tree, both blood and non-blood.

Once you begin your search, talking to relatives, looking up birth records, searching attics and family bibles, it is essential to keep track of the information you discover in a well-organized way. Keeping good records from the start will save you time and frustration later. Please don’t let the word organize scare you off. The most common tools for organizing information are the pedigree or ancestor chart and the family group record or sheets. Successful family historians and genealogist use these as guides for what they know and what they want to learn. From the start, establish a system for using these records, whether it’s in a loose-leaf notebook, a filing cabinet, on a computer or on the internet.

Please don’t try to create hand-made forms for recording your family, you might understand them, however, no one else might. Plus, why re-invent the wheel? There are so many variations found on-line for you to download and print out for free. My advice, stick to the same form for all your pedigree or ancestor charts and one form for all your family group sheets. It will be easier for you to quickly find information, since you will always look in the same place.

Only want to use do it on the computer, that is fine too. First decide if you want to use a computer based software package or a web-based application. They each have their own pros and cons. Some computer based software packages offer free trial versions and remember that all web-based applications are not created equal. Some are “group” or a “collaborate” tree which means you enter the living people, whom only you can see, or change and then once you enter your deceased relatives, you will connect with people who already have done some research. This is where you all can change or delete these people. Computer based software packages reside on your desktop or laptop (there are even a few available for tablets) and only you can see, change or delete people. 

The thing to remember is whatever option you choose, make sure you can save a copy of your tree in Gedcom format. Gedcom is a way that one genealogy package can talk to another genealogy package. Thus you could enter all our information on a computer based software package and then upload a Gedcom of your tree to a web-based application. Or download your web-based application and upload to a different web-based application. The rule here is, pick only one place where you key in all your information and then upload to the other sites. Anyway, software alone could be an entire subject in its own right. This is all I am going to say about it.

A Pedigree or ancestor chart will list all your direct ancestors, starting with yourself, then your parents, your grandparents and great grandparents, etc. This is the road map to your family. While a Family group record or sheet is where you record each family unit. For example, your parents and all their children, note if either or both of your parents have had children with a different spouse, partner, etc.… you would use a different family group sheet to record that information.

A third tool in your research that you could employ is a research log where you keep track of the sources you have used to document your family history and genealogy. It is important to note, when, where or from whom information was found. This will help you avoid visiting a source twice and allows you to go back and review what you may have already found. Sometimes it is good to list places you searched and found nothing. This way, you won’t keep going back to the same place and waste valuable time. For example, if you checked a certain book for one surname, that surname won’t magically appear again in that book if you were to check that book again a year later. However, if you check a website database for information, that may have new information in a year, if they add to their databases.

Don’t only rely only on other people’s trees or research. Use their research as clues that you verify and make sure you come to the same conclusions. It is not uncommon to find people who accidently start using records for someone with the same name, and before you know it, they are researching the other’s person’s family. I find that miss information seems to spread like wildfire while correct information is well hidden and needs to be dug up.

Not everything is found online. I still visit many courthouses, cemeteries and local libraries to view newspapers via microfilm or their book collections that might not be digitized yet.

Don’t expect someone to just give you all their research. People are willing to share, however you need to share what you know. You might think you don’t know anything, however, how about you, your siblings and their families, your parents and their siblings and families. Many of the closer generations to you might be unknown to the person who has research backed to your 5^th great grandparents.

If there is anything you want to learn more about genealogy, you most likely will find help on various subjects via the internet. You might find a blog, a webinar, a YouTube video and more. Start with yourself, and work back one generation at a time. Being careful to record everything you find or could know about that generation before going back to the next generation. Plus, don’t forget to have fun and my final warning… Genealogy is addictive and there is no known cure.