Ancestry.com member trees provide a useful platform to share genealogical data. However, not everything in an online tree is accurate and you shouldn’t accept information without validation. What do you do when you encounter individuals who post inaccurate information in online trees? Double-check the accuracy of all information before you add it to your tree You will soon find that people have connected themselves, on Ancestry and other websites, to Thor and Priam of Troy. Did you catch that? FICTIONAL CHARACTERS! If egregious errors can appear, you can bet smaller errors lurk on member trees. I’ve found my own errors. Folks have questioned some of my theories until they share new information with me. Every experienced genealogist has made mistakes. You might have one, or two. In the video, I share an example that keeps popping up on my line for the potential father of Charles Gordon who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Ohio. Watch this video on YouTube. So always double-check information before you add anything new to your family tree. Check Your Research. You Could Be Wrong. Every genealogist makes mistakes. Mistakes include transcription errors and deliberate falsification. Some researched created conclusions based on the best available information at the time. Before your blood pressure rises when you encounter “junk,” be sure you know your facts and have based your conclusions on a reasonably exhaustive search of quality records. Is it possible to fix the family trees of others on Ancestry? The problem with users, who have their trees on Ancestry and other platforms, is each person have ‘THEIR TREE.’ Few individuals like to admit they made a mistake. Many insist they are right and everyone else is wrong. They don’t want your input. They can do whatever they want. However, there are some folks, like myself, who will happily reevaluate my research when someone shared quality information. Hopefully, you’ll encounter someone open to working together. They may have new information for you to consider. Perhaps you’ll have further details for them. In either case, hopefully, you’ll come to a resolution of your conflict, and both adjust your trees. Which will you encounter? You’ll never know unless you contact them. Steps to Attempting to Correct Bad Information on Ancestry Reach Out Reach out to any person with an error in their tree. Share your reasons they may have an inaccuracy and request their feedback. Write Up If you encounter a stubborn individual, let them be (while gritting your teeth). In the meantime, be proactive and write up what you believe to be accurate. Reference your source material and refute the inaccurate information. Share Create a document, such as a PDF, and attach that to your Ancestry.com profile in the Media Gallery. Don’t just stop there. Create additional content away from the Ancestry platform such as a blog, a genealogy society newsletter, or a published family history. Push the more accurate information throughout the likely spaces for researchers to encounter. Make sure your research is available. Be Patient or Move On Sadly, Ancestry.com member trees are hard to correct if someone is inflexible. You have to ignore folks who stubbornly believe they descend from Thor and Odin, or in my case think a man was born in Pennsylvania to individuals from North Carolina who don’t appear to have ever left that state. ↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources? Grab your copy of this FREE Genealogy Research Guide: Be Prepared for Compounded Errors Due to AncestryDNA ThruLines Ancestry.com has rolled out ThruLines, which for better or worse, draws suggested relationships from public and private searchable trees. Your red flag radar may likely scream, “Wait! This will only compound the errors caused by inaccurate trees!” It’s possible the ThruLines will help Ancestry users find new paths to previously unknown genetic cousins. Conversely, ThruLines may escalate the problem of inaccurate facts on member trees. It’s too soon to tell. Therefore, be cautious about the ThruLines. At some point, you might have to ignore the suggestions. Those are my tips, but I want to hear from you. What do you do? Read More About #Ancestryresearchtips #beginninggenealogytips

When you use Newspapers.com, you can gather articles and entries you discover about your ancestors into a clippings file. Since Newspapers.com is a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, the coolest feature is that you can then save those newspaper clippings to your Ancestry tree. Finding newspaper clippings on Ancestry.com is pretty cool. Thus far, I have found 100 articles and I have still not exhausted all the family members on my trees! Newspaper Clipping Files Transferring your Newspaper Clippings to Ancestry 1. Open a newspaper clipping that you want to transfer to Ancestry.com 2. Click on the “Save to Ancestry button” 3. Select the Tree and Name of Person to Attach Clipping To 4. Complete the Form Add the date, place, and information about the clipping. You can opt to have the clipping appear on the LifeStory timeline. You can also use the “Link to another person” link to attach the same story to multiple persons (as in the case of an obituary or wedding announcement). Watch this video on YouTube. Start Transferring Your Newspaper Clippings Now! It’s really easy and helps you corral all of your findings in one place! You can then download these media items and the source citations into your genealogy software programs with a few clicks with your mouse. How cool is that? ↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources? Grab your copy of this FREE Genealogy Research Guide: Discover More Newspaper in Genealogy Research Tips Newspapers Expose Smith Family Mystery How to work around OCR errors in newspaper research Use Keywords in Newspaper Research to Find Genealogy Gold Write About A Day in the Life of Your Ancestors Using Newspapers Explore the Social Life of Your Ancestors Using Old Newspapers From Birth to Death: Researching Your Ancestor's Vital Events Using Newspapers Newspapers.com Tutorial: Discovering Your Ancestor's Travels Easily Find Marriage Notices in Newspapers.com Using Ancestry

In May 1998, country music star Clay Walker released his 16th single entitled “Ordinary People, ” but it was the worst-performing song he ever had. Despite failing to resonate with a wide audience, the song and its core values have sustained and inspired me through my life, and as I work on capturing and preserving my family history. Read the second verse and this chorus and see if you can understand why: Then I heard some famous people had an anniversary Five long years together, it was Hollywood history Now my grandma and grandpa never made no printed page. But they took the love of fifty-seven years right to the grave. ‘Cause ordinary people have extraordinary love A million little miracles far beneath the stars above The greatest gift that I could ever wish for you and me Is a life as ordinary as can be. – “Ordinary People” Written by Ed Hill and Craig Wiseman and recorded by Clay Walker on the 1998 Clay Walker Greatest Hits album. I especially like the line, “the greatest gift that I could ever wish for you and me is a life as ordinary as can be.” Why? Because my ancestors were ordinary people. Because my husband and I are ordinary people. The Blessing of Being Ordinary And truth be told, it is a great gift to be away from the pressures that come from being in the limelight. Yet, we really DO deserve to make a printed page or a captured digital footprint. For the most part, my parents and grandparents were ordinary people. My father was an accountant who worked for the IRS, a private firm servicing the Houston oil industry, and then for a couple of used car lots. My mother was an administrative assistant for an oil company and then the Texas Medical Center. My father’s parents loyally worked for the North American Rockwell plant located in Columbus, Ohio. My grandfather’s job is unknown to me at this time, but my grandmother was a computer programmer of some sort. And by the way, that’s them in the photo with my teenage father in the 1960s. A Little About My Geiszler Grandparents My Grandma Helen was a petite beauty but considered the brains of the duo. My grandpa Bob was large in stature and loved to hunt and smoke pipe tobacco. They were savers, yet had a large estate in Blacklick, Ohio, with an apple orchard and a few ponds outside their back porch. They were actively involved in the Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star organizations near their home. A Little About My Brown Grandparents My mother’s parents were opposite in stature but not in extraordinary ordinariness. My grandpa was a slim home delivery truck driver for Borden’s for 22 years. My grandma was more robust in size after having children but diligently worked as a homemaker until my grandpa died. She became a caregiver after her third daughter was born to help with the family’s budget. When Grandpa died, she worked for the Xerox company and would send me books, including the Weekly Readers series. Grandpa was active in the Swan Club, and Grannie was active in supporting her daughter’s activities. They both loved bowling and playing cards. After Grandpa passed away, Grannie adored Tom Selleck and loyally watched Magnum P.I. ↪️ Do you want to write a family history book? Grab your copy of this FREE Writing Guide: A Family Tree Full of Ordinary People The further back you go in my heritage, the more ordinary people become. I had railroaders, farmers, blacksmiths, and a barber. The extraordinary jobs for men belonged to a professor at Ohio State University and a pharmacist. The wives were nearly all homemakers raising their children. Only one was a teacher before she became a wife and mother. Another raised her siblings before she married and then raised her own children. She was essentially a mother twice! Rarely did my family make the newspaper or effect great social change. Books and movies were not written about them, though I’m working to change that. Their lives were occasionally marked in public when they married, died, or were in a small traffic accident. They weren’t the founders of cities, movie stars. Or politicians. They were American citizens who raised their families and hoped for a better life for themselves. My Ordinary Personal History And just as I reflect on my own life, I doubt I’ll make any real headlines. I am a stay-at-home mother who also happens to educate my kids in the home. When I was younger, I was a local beauty queen and a captain of my flag line. When called upon, I love to teach family history, personal finance, or in Sunday School. In short, I’m pretty ordinary. But in my children's eyes, and someday my grandchildren, I will be just as extraordinary to them as my ancestors are to me. Write the Family Stories of Ordinary People I yearn for the ordinary stories. The ones that made them laugh. The ones that made them cry. The reasons they did what they did, and the regrets for some choices they made. As my parents and grandparents are no longer living, I have to do what I can to share their stories. At the same time, I need to write the ordinary stories of my life. No one living today should have their children search for the story of their life. How to Write Family Histories Writing a History, One Record at a Time (Blog) How to Critically Read a Family History (Blog) How to Preserve the Treasures in Your Home (Blog) Record the Love Stories That Are Worth Remembering (Blog)

After creating numerous heritage scrapbooks, writing the first draft of 120+ ancestor’s lives, and turning two into published books, I’ve learned a few things about storytelling. First, scrapbooks have condensed stories from an ancestor’s life. Narratives written in a novella format can have more depth. Register style family histories lack the depth of a narrative and the graphic appeal of scrapbooks. That discovery aside, sometimes we have an ancestor for which we have mountains of content that could be compiled into a 7-volume biography. But should we write that much about one individual? In short, should I include every detail in family history stories? What is the Goal of Writing a Family History When writing a narrative history about an ancestor, the goal is to introduce your reader to the individual’s life, including the familial, community, and world events of the time and place they lived. And, surprisingly, having too much information to draw from is often more challenging than too little. ↪️ Do you want to write a family history book? Grab your copy of this FREE Writing Guide: You might face situations like these: When writing about an individual’s early years, do you include when the babe first sat up, first rolled over, and first walked? During the person’s youth, they have playmates. Do you include every friend they ever played with? Do you just list them briefly and summarize what games they played? Do you include a few brief examples of the ancestor in question playing a specific game with a specific friend? Humans go through a natural changing process during the teenage years. Should you include when the person experienced those changes and their reactions to them? What if you have an ancestor that dated extensively? Should you include every relationship or crush? Or can you highlight one or two and sum up that the person “had many crushes and partners”? What if your ancestor was involved in sports? Do you write about every training and competitive event they participated in? The short answer to “Should I Include That?” is really, It Depends! What are kind of family history you trying to write? Before you write a family history, you need to review your goals. Let’s examine the baby milestones. If you’re writing about an ancestor who overcomes delayed physical and mental development or an early achiever in life, then the baby details would be interesting. If you have a family anecdote, then the milestones could be useful. For instance, my grandmother said my mother was born talking, even though mom didn’t ‘officially’ start talking until she was 2. I could use this fact and link it to further stories of my mother getting into trouble at school, work, church, etc., for talking too much. If you’re attempting to write a 60-year biography, perhaps such early stats are best suited for a photo reference to the person who kept a log of such milestones (if you include the details at all). You can repeat the evaluation process for the other situations I listed and the ones you encounter. Why are you writing about an ancestor, and what are you hoping to accomplish? Every human goes through puberty, so mentioning that might not help your ancestor’s overall story. If you’re transcribing their diary, then leave their feelings and impressions in. However, if trials in puberty have effects on future life choices, then it’s worth mentioning. Some ancestors had many love interests, and others have less. If the numerous relationships are a part of an ongoing social group, then perhaps they can be mentioned. However, most family members want the cliff notes versions until the ‘how I met your mother’ story. Learning about my ancestors has been truly a great experience. Time and space don’t allow for the inclusion of everything that has been documented about some of our ancestors. The stories would be too long if you can believe it. Decide What Details Tell a Great Story About Your Ancestor Decisions have to be made by you as the family historian. In making these decisions, don’t alter an individual's history but keep your stories compelling and interesting for your readers. Continue Learning About Writing Family History How to Write About a Missing Father (Blog) How to Write About a Large Family When Someone Dies (Blog) How to Write About a Criminal Ancestor? (Blog) How to Write About a Boring Ancestor? (Blog) Should I Include That? - Family History Writing Tips (Blog) 5 Tips for Writing About Your Immigrant Ancestor (Video) How to write about the sensitive stories in your genealogy research (Video)

When I started scrapbooking, I just stuck pictures on a page without caring about the design. As I learned more about page layouts, I discovered a quick trick that changed everything about my pages, and it will improve your pages too. It’s called ANCHORING!!! Many pages all over the internet in scrapbook galleries and Facebook Scrapbook communities have the same flaw. Don’t worry. I did this myself. The flaw is floating images and graphics. They’re just out there in visual space with nothing connecting the visual elements to the page they appear on. What’s the biggest mistake with this layout? Check out this layout for the template phase of power scrapbooking. I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t like it. As such, I couldn’t finish the layout by adding color paper and such. The quick fix is to anchor your items to the page and each other. Watch this video on YouTube. The template I chose was okay, and I could make it work with the principle I’ll share, but first, I want you to see it before I describe it. Why does this layout look better? It’s not just the rearrangement of the images. The images are connected to the page rather than placed on the page and connected to each other. What are the principles of anchoring in scrapbooking? Each element needs to touch an element (or chain of elements) that touches the page's edge. The elements on the page need to touch an anchoring element that touches two sides of the page. A corner Opposite sides Notice how this layout, now with color, follows the principles. This layout uses the opposite corner anchored approach. The anchor is the burgundy colored paper. The photos all either touch those two blocks or each other. There is also a light-colored velum that connects to two clusters of images together. ↪️ Do you want to write a family history book? Grab your copy of this FREE Writing Guide: What Can You Use to Anchor Your Scrapbook Layouts? Here are a few tricks that can help the elements touch each other and then the layout's edges. Tilt Photos -- A simple photo tilt can allow photos to touch one another and give movement to a page. Photo Mats -- use photo mats to touch each other or the edge of the page. Decorations- Ribbons, sticker strips, fibers, and wire can be used above or below your images and text blocks to connect elements to each other or the page edge. Paper Blocks -- Patterned paper strips can add color and texture to your layout while providing the anchor to the page edges. Vellum Blocks- This is generally to enable you to separate your journaling from the background paper for readability. However, vellum can work as a photo mat to touch other elements on your page. I used embellishments (repeating dots) to further connect the elements while still allowing the burgundy paper block to function as corner anchors. The flowers going on the page also adds a bit of anchoring.

Peer reviewing is the most important part of analyzing the research that you encounter or receive from others. However, you must evaluate your own work before you head off on a research quest. In the video Developing a Research Question, I explained the need to add specifics to your research question, so you know that you have arrived at an answer once you make a discovery. I also mentioned that your research questions come from previous research or knowledge. In my newest video, I want you to review what you think you know before researching to find an answer to your question. Watch this video on YouTube. Genealogy Research Question Brainstorm When and where was Christian Hoppe born? We expanded our question to be more specific so that we know which Christian Hoppe is. The question looked like this: What is the birth date and place of Christian Christopher Hoppe, who married Anna Margaretha Kalsberger on 12 April 1859 in Franklin County, Ohio, and father of Christian, Marguerite, and Anna Hoppe? How do we know that Christian Christopher Hoppe was married to Anna and had those three children? Ah-ha! That’s the critical question: How do you know what you know when you formulated your question? For this example, the easiest answer is: “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013,” database with images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org : 15 July 2014), Franklin > Marriage index and records 1857-1862 vol 7; county courthouses, Ohio. The marriage record informs me that Christian Hoppe and Margaretta Karlsberger married. A family photo album has pictures of Christian Christoph Hoppe, Marguerite Hoppe, and Anna Hoppe. Photos are great, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t helping piece together the family as there is no family group photo in the collection. However, I know that this photo album belonged to Marguerite Hoppe, whose married surname was Geiszler. I found Marguerite Hoppe’s death record, and it has the following information: “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org : 9 March 2018), Magdelana Geiszler, 03 Feb 1921; citing Columbus, Franklin, Ohio, reference fn 8627; FHL microfilm 1,991,487. Looky there! Christopher Hoppe’s birthplace is listed as Germany. I’m done, right? Well, I still hadn’t determined when he was born in Germany or the village's name, but I have proven one point in genealogy research. Foundation of an answer in genealogy research previously conducted Sometimes the answers you need are in your home sources. Photos albums may identify the facts you seek. Sometimes you’ll have letters in which individuals who could qualify as a quality informant about your ancestor record all the details you want to find. You need to review what you know before you look for more answers. Is this death certificate for Marguerite Hoppe Geiszler enough to establish the birthplace of her father, Christian Hoppe? NOPE! That leads to the next point I want to emphasize. One record is rarely enough evidence to answer your questions . “Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001,” database with images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org : 5 September 2014), Christopher Hoppe, 11 Jan 1901; citing Franklin > Death records, 1899-1903, vol 3; county courthouses, Ohio. “Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001,” database with images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org : 5 September 2014), Anna M Ross, 11 July 1896 ; citing Franklin > Death records, 1899-1903; county courthouses, Ohio. In reviewing Marguerite’s siblings' death register entry, which spanned four pages, we see that Christopher Hoppe was from Germany. This discovery that I had already made was consistent, Christian Christopher Hoppe was from Germany. Sometimes the information you have that tells you what you know when you discover something you don’t know is more sparse than this case, but I hope I’ve helped you see how important it is to reexamine the source material have already gathered, both offline and on. ↪️ Are you new to genealogy? Grab your copy of this FREE Beginner Guide: How are you going to keep track of all of this information? Use online trees. You can attach the four sources mentioned in this post to the FamilySearch family tree. Use a genealogy program. I use RootsMagic to backup my online trees and their sources. Why else should you review what you know? The final benefit of reviewing what you know is that you’ll recognize your discoveries. I didn’t need to search for Christian’s children's death records because I already had from previous research. Wouldn’t you hate to spend any additional time doing repetitive research work when the answers you need are in your possession? To sum up, your research will lead you to questions. Write specific questions that will help you find your answers. Once the questions are formulated, reevaluated any related evidence you have gathered might have the answer or clues pointing you in the right direction. Learn More Family History Research Techniques Are You Reviewing the Genealogy Research of Others? Does a genealogy record exist for your ancestor? What Has Been Done on Your Family Tree? Which Easy Records Am I Missing in My Research? How do I track down a birth date for an ancestor? 5 Steps to Research Someone You Know Little About

For the past decade or so, genealogists have not lived up to their standard of proof regarding one particular myth. It’s time for the myth about how popular genealogy is, compared to other online activities, to die. Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in America. Second, only to porn or gardening, depending upon the survey you consult. I’ve heard this myth for the past 20 years, at least. Be warned. I’m going to rant a little rant because I want to put this myth to bed. I want it to die. Genealogists pride themselves on citing their sources Honestly, this is one of the things that distinguishes genealogy from a lot of other academic pursuits. That isn’t to say sources aren’t relevant to other academic pursuits, but it seems like sources are paramount in genealogy, to the near exclusion of everything else. That's something Devon discussed in the video Are Source Citations Overdone in Genealogy? You need to have sources. So for this academic group, where sources are paramount, the fact this myth is still around is mindboggling. If you like humorous rant videos, then you'll want to watch this topic on YouTube. The sources for the myth about genealogy’s popularity Time wrote about this. According to Time, genealogy is almost as popular as porn. ABCNews suggested the hobby was second to gardening. “…hobby experts believe that genealogy ranks second only to gardening as American’s favorite pastime.” -- -- ABCNews According to ABCNews, genealogy is second to gardening in terms of popularity. USAToday discusses the roots of genealogy’s popularity. USAToday beats Time and ABCNews and includes a reference to gardening and pornography and genealogy’s second-place rank in popularity. The Problem With These Sources Here’s where the problem begins on Time and ABCNews. These articles include no sources for their statistics. What report tells us those hobby experts believe genealogy is second to genealogy in popularity? What measurements rank genealogy close to porn? Journalism isn’t known, of late, for citing their sources, but they are lazy in these articles. They have a link to the Ancestry website. If journalists can get a source for Ancestry, they should have a source for the ‘hobby experts believe.” However, USA Today does provide links for both of these statements and where they’re getting that information. If you follow the links, the “second most popular to gardening” statement goes to a book entitled “Genealogy and Indexing.” That book cites the Marist Poll Service released a report about the genealogy-gardening popularity. There are no results on the Marist Poll Service website when we search the website for genealogy. When we search for hobbies, the results have nothing to do with genealogy. I searched the entire site and found nothing. That does not it didn’t share a report in the past. It means it’s not on the website now. “Genealogy and Indexing” was published in 2003. The Marist Poll archive only goes back to 2002. If the book published in 2003 mentioned a “recent poll,” the publication date could have been 2001 or earlier. In any case, it appears Marist Poll hasn’t taken another poll about hobbies and genealogy since the ‘recent poll’ was released and referenced in the 2003 book. From a citation standpoint, you would hope that their citations are quality in a book about genealogy and indexing. However, we still haven’t seen anything that says genealogy is second to gardening for popularity. When examining genealogy's popularity as a website category, we click that link on the USAToday article. The link takes us to an article in Family Tree Magazine from 2003, just 15 years ago. Family Tree Magazine puts out a lot of great stuff, but we have a problem with this article. The very first paragraph says, “homegrown sites have helped make genealogy the second most popular topic on the web behind only pornography.” Guess what. No sources state where this information came from!! There is no poll. There is no survey. There is only a statement from somebody saying, “Hey, this is the second most popular thing next to porn.” Now nobody’s disputing that porn is highly sought-after content. But to compare genealogy to porn is like saying, “we’re almost at the pinnacle of popularity. We also know gardening is popular. Ranking second to working in a yard means would mean that genealogy is super popular. : But so far, these news articles have failed to provide proof of the popularity. They keep repeating the myth. And it’s not just news services perpetuating the myths. ↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources? Grab your copy of this FREE Genealogy Research Guide: News services aren’t the only ones who get it wrong I went to Google, and I just typed in, “is genealogy the second most popular hobby?” I reviewed the first few pages of results, and I picked out the genealogists. A blog post on FamilyTree.com cited USAToday, which we’ve shown doesn’t prove the popularity of genealogy. In 2017, Ancestry, not some subsidiary but the big A, cited the Time and USAToday articles, which aren’t quality sources because the news articles cite no sources that back up the claims. They are just repeating statements someone else shares without vetting them. Ancestral Findings, Dick Eastman, and others repeat the myth verbatim. It’s not just a few blogs. It’s not bad genealogists that keep repeating the myth. It is pretty much all genealogists. I’m harping on this because genealogists like to harp on sources. I’m terrible at sources. I am the guy that attaches records on FamilySearch, and then I’m done! If you want to know how to write a citation, I’m the last person to ask, but I can see that there’s nothing here! The Validity of Genealogy’s Popularity Has Been Questioned Before Not all genealogists have bought the myth. There is one notable exception -- James Tanner. He wrote about it twice: Hobby Claims about Genealogy are Unfounded Is genealogy a hobby or pastime? Snapshot of James’s blog post Hobby Claims about Genealogy are Unfounded. James Tanner essentially said he was not finding anything to support the popularity claim. In 2016, he had already figured this out. He did a Google search for the most popular hobbies. Guess what’s not on those lists -- ANYWHERE!!! That’s right -- genealogy. Thank you, James Tanner! You’ve got it right. Stats kill the “Genealogy is as Popular as Porn” myth When you look at the numbers, genealogy is not second to porn or gardening. For a great report that logically examines the data, visit this website. You can also listen to the rest of my rant and see the stats I use to debunk the myth about how popular genealogy is (or rather isn’t). Once and for all, genealogy IS NOT as popular as porn or gardening. It’s not even close. It’s not even in the top 100!

How can you go to a specific place if you have not determined the destination you’re headed toward? In genealogy, your research should be headed somewhere if wish to conduct quality research. The destinations you head toward always begin with a research question. The fundamental step in quality genealogical research is to develop a research question. What are you hoping to find out? Now many of you want to prove your lineage to someone on the Mayflower or the First Settler in an area. Some of you want to just find new names. Others, like me, gather ancestors methodically like we open a can of Pringles -- once you pop, you can’t stop. In other words, we can never stop making new discoveries and new relative connections. No matter our objective, and I’m including myself in this, we should develop a research question so we know what we’re hoping to discover, which will lead us to the records we need to resolve our investigations. Watch this video on YouTube. There are Three Basic Types of Genealogy Research Questions: When and where did an event happen in an individual’s life? To whom was an individual related to by marriage or genetically? What biographical details can be found about an ancestor? There are few questions in genealogy that don’t fit into these categories. Let’s dive into them just a little bit deeper. When and where did an event happen in an individual’s life? When and in what location was Christian Christopher Hoppe, husband of Anna Margaretha Kalsberger, born? When did Delbert Hanks, of Altus, Oklahoma, die and where was he buried? To whom was an individual related to by marriage or genetically? Who was the first wife of Edward T. Rang of Akron, Summit County, Ohio, and when did they marry? Who were the children of John Marr and Laney Shafley who lived in Wainfleet, Monck, Ontario, Canada? What biographical details can be found about an ancestor? Did William Townsend serve in the Civil War? Did Matthew Lepley sell a property to the federal government to become part of the national forest? Write a Narrow Genealogy Research Question The above sample questions are a good start, but they are still too broad. We want to narrow them down by adding details about our questions. But first, do you wonder how I came up with these questions? I know I did when I was starting out as a beginning family historian. Every question you have is based on previous knowledge or research. This is why experienced educators always tell you to begin by recording information about yourself and working backward from that point. Regardless of whether you follow that advice or not, your questions will come to mind as you examine a family tree, look at documents, and attempt to piece together aspects of an ancestor’s life. What was the trigger for your question? Let’s walk through a few questions that I shared earlier and how they were generated: When and in what location was Christian Christopher Hoppe, husband of Anna Margaretha Kalsberger, born? This question was triggered by the marriage record of Christian Hoppe and Anna Karlsberger. I knew the couple married, but the marriage certificate for Anna and her groom triggered the thought, “how old was Christian and where was he born?” I didn’t want to add Christian to my family tree just as the groom of Anna but as a complete person. Who was the first wife of Edward T. Rang of Akron, Summit County, Ohio, and when did they marry? Edward married Nancy Cole. On his marriage license, a note indicated that he was previously married, but did not include the name of the previous wife. Thus, I know have the question, who was that first wife? ↪️ Are you new to genealogy? Grab your copy of this FREE Beginner Guide: Writing a Quality Research Question Now that you understand where questions come from, let’s work on making our questions better so that we can recognize the answer when we find it. Let’s add to the question: When and in what location was Christian Christopher Hoppe, who married Anna Margaretha Kalsberger, born? We want to add all the specifics we know about Christian or Anna. Christian and Anna married on 12 April 1859 in Franklin County, Ohio Had the following children: Christian Christoph Hoppe b. 1859 in Ohio Marguerite Hoppe b. 1861 in Ohio Anna Hoppe b. 1869 in Ohio We’ll revise our question to look something like this: What is the birth date and place of Christian Christopher Hoppe, who married Anna Margaretha Kalsberger on 12 April 1859 in Franklin County, Ohio, and father of Christian, Marguerite, and Anna Hoppe? With this question, we have narrowed down all of the potential Christian Hoppe’s to the one we most want to discover -- the Christian who lived in Franklin County, Ohio, and had this family structure. As such, any document we may uncover will have to be compared to these facts to determine if the source is applicable to our ancestors.

Previously, I shared how invaluable a family tree is in a heritage scrapbook album. I hope you’ll include them in your future family history creations. One of my friends says she includes family trees in all of her journals, blog books (printed versions of her personal blog), and more. Why? In case her journals or books are ever ‘lost’ from the collection. A person reading the book can quickly know just who created these items in the first place. That habit reminded me of something I talk about in my book Family History Scrapbooking Simplified. When creating a scrapbook about a focal person, it pays to use small family trees throughout the project. They help your scrapbook reader quickly associate the person on the particular scrapbook page to others in the book. Take a look. I like including mini-trees throughout my family history projects. This mini-family tree includes my grandmother Louise Eleanor Long. It shows the names and dates of her parents and sister. I also love the metal bookplate and green brads embellishment that shares when the family was established. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Let me see the big picture because this doesn’t look like much.” Alright, here it is. Now you can see the mini-tree pulling its weight. This digital scrapbook page features my mother’s Grandpa Howard Lester Long. I included a photo of him and his wife when they were young adults. I included a photo of when Harry was older and looked more like the man who raised Louise. I included a brief biographical sketch of Harry in the journaling space. With the mini-tree, I have shown pertinent vital information in an eye-pleasing way. On the pages before this page, I featured the husband and wife combination of Lewis Brown and Louise Long and two pages featuring Lewis’ parents (see next page). Once my reader lands on the page above, they can quickly see that I’m not talking about the Brown family any longer. I’m talking about Louise’s Long family. Pretty effective. This family has more children, so the mini-tree takes up more space on the page layout. I decided not to include embellishments on this mini-tree and leave off the family establishment date. This gave me enough room to include middle names for the children, but not the parents. Here is the mini-tree in action. As you can see, the mini-tree is larger than the previous one. To balance out this visual block, I included only one photo of Sherman Lewis Brown. I still have a brief biographical sketch of Grandpa Sherman in the journaling block. The other thing I did was to highlight Lewis Sherman Brown in the descendant list. I wanted to assist my reader in knowing how this page relates to the previous ones in the heritage album. This page is sandwiched between a two-page layout featuring Lewis and Louise Brown (my mother’s parents) and another two-page layout featuring Harry and Lura Long (my mother’s maternal grandparents, the first layout in this post). By highlighting Lewis Sherman on Sherman Lewis’ page, you can see the progression ‘up’ the family tree quickly. ↪️ Do you want to write a family history book? Grab your copy of this FREE Writing Guide: I noticed that with larger numbers of children, the highlighting is easily seen. Whereas on Louise’s family tree, with two children, the highlighting didn’t stand out as much. Perhaps I could have used different colors. Or perhaps, with more children, the contrast color looks intentional. As I was posting this, I realized I needed to update the box for Grannie Louise to reflect her death date. I’ll put that on my to-do list, but an archival-safe pen will do the trick for now in the printed album As you can see, mini-trees are effective tools to help your reader quickly know who is related to whom. Try it out on your next scrapbook page. Share a link to your post or gallery where you used this technique in the comments below. You Might Also Like These Scrapbooking Posts Heritage Scrapbooking: Family Tree Pages Magazine Style Timeline for Heritage Scrapbook Heritage Scrapbooking: Photo Timeline Layout Mother Themed Pages in Heritage Scrapbooks

If you’ve looked at Ancestry recently, then you may have noticed that your ethnicity results have changed. Does that mean that you’ve changed as well? In 2018, Ancestry released an update to their algorithm that calculates your ethnicity and that resulted in a change of the results that are reported for lots of people. Let’s walk through how my results changed and then explain some of the reasons why they would have changed. Watch this video on YouTube. NO Big Surprises To begin with, my ethnicity results are what I would expect them to be based on paper genealogy research. Most of my ancestors are from England, with some of them from Germany. That’s exactly what my Ancestry ethnicity results show. If I want to see how my current results changed from my previous estimates, I can go up to the updates section, and by clicking on the “update section.” it’s going to give me a couple of bits of information. Larger Reference Population for AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimates Previously, Ancestry had 3,000 samples in their old reference population with 363 regions. So really less than a hundred samples per region if it was evenly spread which it’s not. That is a significant upgrade by going from 3,000 to 16,000 reference samples. Now, Ancestry says this new analysis is based on 16,000 samples. More samples hopefully are going to lead to more accurate information. Next, there are now 380 possible regions. I only have four of those possible regions. Some people might have a dozen or more of those possible regions depending on how mixed their heritage is. Percentage change thanks to new AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimates If we look over at the table of percentages, we can see a few little differences. First, the England/Wales area hasn’t really changed regarding the name or even what area is covering. The ethnicity percentage has increased by about 17 percent. Scandinavia has now been changed into a couple of different regions. The one that I’m apparently related to is what they call their Norway region. It is not near as much as what the overall Scandinavian region was before. That dropped by about 9% The Europe West region got renamed to Germanic Europe and the percentage changed by only a few percent. Finally, the Ireland/Scotland region's ethnicity percentage decreased by about two percent, but the region itself stayed the same. How is AncestryDNA calculating these ethnicity estimates? Some people get confused as to whether these results are accurate or whether Ancestry is just making stuff up. In the Ancestry FAQs, there are a few questions that help enlighten us on what is actually being calculated and why we might be seeing these changes. The question, “how can my DNA change?” Ancestry assures us that our DNA doesn’t change. You’re still you. What has actually changed is their knowledge about analyzing that DNA and how that relates to the different ways we look at heritage. The next question is, “how do you actually predict the regions that my DNA is from?” Ancestry explains that they have this reference population and you’re being compared to that reference population. That reference population is people whose families have long-standing documented roots in a specific area. That’s where they’re getting all these different regions from. Next, “why are there different regions in my ethnicity that my family members may not have?” Ancestry tells us there are two reasons for this. One is that DNA inheritance is random and two they’ve updated their ethnicity results and so some of those regions may be showing different things. Another good question is, “why do my ethnicity results not match what I already know about my family tree?” There are several possible reasons for this. You might not have inherited DNA from that region even though you have one or two or even a handful of ancestors from a specific area, depending on how far back they appear on your family tree. Another reason is that DNA may look a lot like some regions nearby. Maybe you have the Ireland/Scotland DNA, but you don’t have the England/Wales DNA. Those two regions are right next to each other, so there’s actually some overlap between them. ↪️ Confused about DNA and genealogy? Grab your copy of this FREE DNA guide: Next is that genes don’t follow political boundaries. Genes follow people. People don’t necessarily follow political boundaries. We cross over all the time. The last reason they give me is the best. Some places are complicated. The reference that they use is Nigeria Africa being the birthplace of modern humans is the most genetically diverse place on earth. A country like Nigeria is going to have a lot of genetic diversity, and that makes trying to figure out which parts of the DNA belong to which groups really difficult. Some people, besides just having the ethnic regions, also have specific migrations. These migrations are figured out a little bit differently. Ancestry looks at people who were known to be a part of that migration and what their DNA looks like in comparison to yours. If your DNA is similar enough you might have ancestors that were part of that migration as well. Final Thoughts about AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimates Updates Even though Ancestry changed my ethnicity results, they didn’t really change anything about me. They might have changed the names of some regions and some of the percentages, but all of the areas were indeed from that northwestern part of Europe. My experience is not going to be the same as everybody else’s. Depending on where you are and how big a reference population was for specific areas you originated, you may have actually seen a drastic change in your results. There’s actually more information now that allows Ancestry to have a better calculation. People are still going to ask me what is the accuracy of this and whether or not Ancestry is the most accurate. I still don’t think that any of the companies have a large enough reference database to really say that they’re the most accurate.

Perhaps you want to find a document that mentions the birth, marriage, or death of your great-grandmother. How are you going to go about this? As a beginning genealogist, you may think that vital records were always available because they are so commonplace today. However, birth, marriage, and death records are a modern invention Depending on where you’re researching, you need to know if and when such records were kept and if they are still in existence today. Watch this video on YouTube. Where Are You Researching Your Ancestors? Before you begin looking for records you need to know the location you are researching. The more specific you can be, the better your chances of finding records for your ancestors. If you know you are researching in Ohio, you’re going to have a hard time finding John Smith when the Buckeye State had about 34 counties in 1814 and 88 counties today. It’s also important to know the culture of record-keeping for the ancestor you’re attempting to research. If you’re researching in a country or culture that has an oral record-keeping tradition, you’re not going to look for physical records that document your ancestry. When Are You Researching Your Ancestors? It’s important to know when you think your great-grandmother was born, got married, or died. Record-keeping began at a certain time in each location. And neighboring counties, states, and countries began keeping records at varying points in history. If your great-grandmother was born in Grundy County, Illinois in 1843, you have a problem. Grundy County began keeping records of birth around 1876. Since great-grandmother was born before that date, not going to find a civil birth registration for her. There are alternative sources, but you need to know when you’re researching your ancestor’s life events if you wish to be successful. When Time and Place Impact Your Genealogy Research Strategies Knowing the time and the place is important because a specific location at a specific date in history may have a very different name than what you expect from today’s place name. If you are researching in Germany in 1854, you’re going to be looking for a country that didn’t exist. Germany as we know it today did not form until 1871. So, you’re going to need a little more information to know where in “Germany” your ancestor was from in 1854 if you hope to have any success. Where to Look for the Existence of Genealogy Records? The best place to look for whether a record might exist for your ancestor is to consult the FamilySearch Wiki. This Wiki is a user-contributed resource, which means that it doesn’t necessarily have everything but it’s a great resource that’s ever-evolving. Home page of the FamilySearch Wiki Follow the link to the FamilySearch Wiki and then type in your location or use the clickable map to narrow down your research area. If you type in your place, begin with the smallest geopolitical name first (i.e. city, parish, country). Many records are kept at the county or parish level. Be sure to check each location designation. Huron County, Ohio FamilySearch Wiki Page Some Wiki Pages provide a handy snapshot of when records began to be kept. Be sure to read any follow-up commentary about the dates because the table might be factually accurate but not reveal the whole story about when records were kept at the civil level. Germany FamilySearch Wiki Page Not all Wiki Pages are created the same, as seen on this page for Germany. However, these quick reference guides get you pointed in the right direction when you’re starting from ground zero. Learn how to use the FamilySearch Wiki. Does the genealogy record exist online? To research efficiently, don’t travel to a research facility if a collection is available online. Consult the FamilySearch Wiki pages for links to online record collections. Links for Huron County, Ohio record collections Many Wiki Pages will not only tell you record collection began to be kept, but also provide links to online collections. Not everything is online, but so much is! Consult the links and then review the Wiki Pages for locations of courthouses and archives to continue your research offline. ↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources? Grab your copy of this FREE Genealogy Research Guide: Does it exist off FamilySearch? Remember the FamilySearch Wiki pages are user-contributed. This means the links are to FamilySearch collections, as well as collections on FindMyPast, MyHeritage, Ancestry.com, and more. Since volunteers add links to these pages, you might not find all the possible online collections available. Use Google to Search Known Genealogy Websites On Google, add a known genealogy website, such as MyHeritage, FindMyPast, and Ancestry, to the search bar along with the place and record type you’re interested in. In the example above, I typed “MyHeritage Ohio marriage” to search the MyHeritage site for Ohio Marriage collections. Notice the three results, which are really two if you take a closer look at the URL. I could go to each of the genealogy database sites and search for collections but I find Google takes me directly to the pages I most want to view, so give it a try. Explore Archives The Michigan State Archive is called Seeking Michigan. Great name! Genealogy websites aren’t the only place to find online record collections. Many state and national archives have record collections online. They might not always be searchable, but they’ll save you time traveling to a physical facility. Could a genealogy record collection still exist? After consulting the FamilySearch Wiki, additional genealogy websites, and archives, is it possible that a record for your ancestor is available online? Yes. Is it possible that are record collection is available offline? Yes. The question is, where should you search next? For that, you’ll have to consult a regional expert because the short answer is -- It Depends.

Half-siblings are pretty straightforward. But half-relatives can confuse most genetic genealogists when they review DNA matches. Half relationships can be confusing for some people. I know it was for me, and still. I usually have to draw the half-relationships out to understand what I am talking about. So let’s talk about those people we are related to "half-ly." Growing up, I had friends who were part of blended families. They were step-siblings. Step-siblings are not genetically related, but their younger siblings were related to both step-siblings as half-siblings. That’s a mouthful, So let me try and use some pictures to explain it a little better. I know many of you like to read blogs posts. However, in this instance, the video is better than the blog post. Check it out. Everyone has two biological parents, a mother, and a father. We get half of our DNA from each one, so we are related to each other. Our full siblings with the same parents are then fully related to us because we are ½ related through our mother and ½ related through our father. If one of our parents had children with another person, they would be our ½ sibling because we are connected through 1 common parent, not 2. So an easy way to look at this is that a half relationship is related through ½ of the most recent common expected pair of ancestors. So half cousins - well, the common ancestor pair for cousins would-be grandparents. So half cousins only share one of their grandparents in common. In other words, the children of half-siblings are half cousins. That can seem pretty straightforward, but it can really get confusing when you go back a generation. So take a look at this. We have our half-siblings. They share one parent. ↪️ Confused about DNA and genealogy? Grab your copy of this FREE DNA guide: Relationship Between Half-Siblings and Their Aunt? What is the relationship between each of them and the children of their aunt? Half-cousin or cousin or something else? It turns out they are cousins because cousins share a common set of grandparents. So the relationships between half-siblings parents don’t affect their cousin relationships. This extends through all generations. You can be half 1st cousins with someone, but both of you be full 2nd cousins with a third person because you share the same great-grandparents. With DNA, half relationships are easy in theory but can be complicated in identifying unknown relationships. Half relationships share half of the expected amount of DNA as full relationships. So full siblings share 50% of their DNA, half-siblings only share 25% of their DNA. Half siblings also wouldn’t share any fully matched segments. Half 1st cousins share 6.25% of DNA, while full 1st cousins share 12.5% of DNA. In a perfect world where averages were the rule, these relationships would be easy to distinguish by DNA. But DNA doesn’t follow the average, so a Half 1st cousin could share as much or, in some cases, more DNA than a full 1st cousin. And this is the real trick in DNA research or unknown relationships. Two people may share DNA at the 1st cousin or second cousin level, indicating that they share common grandparents or great-grandparents. But comparing their family trees shows no overlap. So there must be a mistake in the family tree. There is likely a half relationship in there that is unknown in the family. And that is where knowing where people were at certain times is essential to identify where the half relationships are. Until the late 70s, the biological mother and father had to interact physically nine months before the child's birth. In the last 40 years, there have been thousands of sperm and egg donors who have children who are now or soon will be adults. If they take a DNA test, they may discover half-siblings. One thing that DNA testing has shown is something population scientists have suspected all along. There are a lot of half relationships out there. But, unfortunately, most of them are unknown and waiting to be discovered. Learn more about genetic genealogy from these posts: Can DNA Testing Determine Race? Should You Take a DNA Test if Your Tree is Full? 30 Questions that Cover the Basics of Genetic Genealogy Can an Ancestry DNA test prove paternity?