What exactly does this mean? You cannot always take things at face value and must thoroughly look at all aspects of what you have found. Also, you must not stop just because you think you have found your answer. I …
As some of you know, I am working on getting certified by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). To that end, one of the pieces required is a Kinship Determination Project (KDP) consisting of an indepth look at three …
One of the techniques I have learned over the years in trying to solve a brick wall is to set it aside for anywhere from 2 months to 2 years. While this may sound like a crazy idea, let me …
I am sitting here drinking my coffee on this sunny 4th of July morning and one of the items someone posted on Facebook talked about our founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence. When they signed their name to …
We all hope to find the answers readily available like the below from the Revolutionary War pension application of Jacob Higginbotham. [i] Here, Jacob’s son, John, gave the date of his parents’ marriage, names of all the children along with …
If my 7th Great Grandfather, Lawrence Gailshiott signed his will on 4 March 1743 and died around the first of June 1744 how could that be about 3 months later? I promise you, this is not any kind of new …
So many times I have been asked to help someone do their research and when I look at their family tree, there are very few branches because either every family had only one child or none of the siblings were …
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question, I could have retired by now. If you attend any seminars, including the one I participate in every year, the standard answer is, “Start with yourself.” However, …
I have been teaching the young lady I am dating how to do genealogy research so she can help me with the business. Besides simply enjoying her company, she tends to make the research fun. She jokingly makes up stories …
One of the tenets of the Board for Certification of Genealogists is the first of five elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard which is, “A reasonably exhaustive search.” But what does that mean? It means several things. To start, do …
This blog goes beyond the constant harping we all hear about backing up our data we hear that so often it tends to go in one ear and out the other. Well, guess who failed miserably at this simple task? …
I just received an email from FamilySearch.org that is telling me I am related to Pocohantas. I will tell you that I am not even going to look at how they perceive this connection. Why? Because it is based on …
