Kindo Family Blog

Everyone hits a brick wall in genealogy, where the birth and death records just aren’t easy to find. In that case, try some different records. One good source you may try:  historic land records. Deeds often contain information on who sold what to whom; who inherited what from whom; or how some land was divided among a family.  Historic tax records on land also sometimes have interesting information, such as co-ownership.

One example from Flickr

photo credit: S Migol

Most archives have land records, and many have an online way to search the index and then order a copy of the record you want for a small fee. Just as an example, you could use these sites in Great Britain.

• For English and Welsh records see Public Record Office Leaflet: Tithe Records in the Public Record Office. Scottish records are held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.
• Legal Terms in Land Records is a useful glossary of obscure terms which occur in property deeds.
• Robin Alston’s Country House Database “represents a first attempt at listing country houses in the British Isles from the late medieval period to ca. 1850, together with an index to all the families so far traced as having occupied them”.
• Estate Records held by Kings College, Cambridge.

Most beginners to genealogy are fuzzy about cousinship. For example, while many understand first cousins are people with common grandparents, many folks confuse first cousin once removed and second cousin.

Then, there are families like mine: My mother’s siblings were born from 1911 to 1932. That means her youngest brother “Mike” went to school with the oldest sister’s oldest child, his niece “Karen”. As it turned out, Uncle “Mike” and niece “Karen” married two people who were siblings, “Michelle”  and “Kevin”, making their children both first cousins and first cousins once removed.

Confused yet? Okay. The number of cousinship is how many generations back the connection is, and the removed part shows the connection is more generations back for one person than another. “Mike” and “Michelle” ’s kids have common grandparents with “Kevin” and “Karen’s”, ergo, first cousins. But on the other side, “Mike” and “Michelle’s” kids have an aunt who is grandmother to “Karen’s” and “Kevin’s” children, ergo, first cousins removed by one generation.

“Mike” and “Michelle’s” grandkids are second cousins to my mother’s grandkids, i. e. my children. “Mike” and “Michelle’s” children are my first cousins. “Kevin” and “Karen’s” children are my first cousins once removed, because “Karen” and I are first cousins.

Another way to look at it: Determine the latest common ancestor, and then the number of “G”s you share.  That is the number of cousins you are. Any difference in “G”s is the number “Removed”. So, people who have the same great-grand-parents (2G) are second cousins (2C). If the great-grand-parents (2G) of one person are the great-great-grand-parents (3G) of another person, then those two people are second cousins, once removed (2C1R). They share 2Gs with a difference of 1G (3-2=1).

Here are some links to charts that might make it easier to see:

• A Chart for Figuring Relationships
• A Chart for Figuring Relationships
• A Chart of Consanguinity
• Consanguinity Chart
  Showing degrees of relationship by blood.
• Cousin Calculator
• Cousin Chart
  From Wikipedia.

It’s back to school time, and maybe you’re thinking you need to know more about genealogy techniques and methods. One way to learn about genealogy is to take an online  course. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: Introduction to Genealogy from National Genealogical Society (U.S.) Most genealogists take this course first. It is very American-centric, but the techniques can be applied to any country’s vital statistics. There are more advance courses for specific regions and resources (e.g. wills). Introduction to Genealogy is an online course for those who have done little, if any, research on their families. It is open to anyone who wishes to enroll. Members of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) receive a tuition discount. Family History Personal Enrichment Classes Learn from Brigham Young University about research in the United States, France and Germany. These are non-credit courses, so there are no exams! Certificate in Genealogical Studies The National Institute for Genealogical Studies has joined forces with the Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto to provide web-based courses for both family historians and professional genealogists. Canadian-based. GenClass Online classes in a variety of genealogical topics are conducted online by qualified, experienced instructors. Each four-week class includes a detailed course curriculum and online class meetings for $29.95. A more comprehensive listing, along with seminars, workshops and classes, can be found in my book.

Boris family tree is full of surprises. Not only does his family tree disclose Turkish and noble relatives but also royal antecedents.

Indeed, on the one hand his great grandfather was Ali Kemal, Minister of the Interior in the government of Damat Ferid Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, his great, grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul von Rothenburg. The latter is linked to the Royal British Family as the great, great Grandson of George II but also to the Swedish and Dutch royals and the Romanoffs.

Therefore, we can easily understand Boris when he described himself as a “one-man melting point”

For those who want to know more, the Mayor’s royal antecedents are revealed in an episode of the BBC documentary Who do You Think You Are? screened on 20 August.

Modern genealogy programs all have a way to output your data to paper, at least  by GEDCOM. Some common output forms are:

Ahnentafel :  a numeric list with all male ancestors assigned odd numbers and all female ancestors assigned even numbers.

Pedigree Charts: using the same numbering system as above, this is the familiar branching chart. It can run from left to right, or be formatted as a fan or a tree.

Outline or narrative: A format where the earliest known ancestor is the beginning, and spouses and children are listed, in many cases with notes on major life milestones, careers, etc.

But these are not the only ways to display your research. Especially at a family reunion, you may want to try these formats:

Time Line: Starting with the earliest known ancestor, show the names of all by birthdate. Add historical events to understand your ancestor’s life better, including a location timeline for your ancestor, entering in where he was for each date.  Show the cousin relationships by entering dates of birth on a timeline and putting your common ancestor in parenthesis.

Fabric: You can create a family tree in the pedigree chart of your choice using photographs and the transfer paper that allows you to iron images onto cloth. You can do this with quilt blocks, t-shirts, tablecloths, and many other textiles.

Photograph Collage: Scan in old photographs of ancestors, print them out and create a pedigree chart, framed and captioned with names and dates.

Maps: Show the migration of your ancestors with map pins attached to names and dates. You can find outline maps at  http://www.eduplace.com/ss/ssmaps/. Use different colors for different generations!

In my book,Genealogy Online 8th Edition, the first chapter is about how to begin your genealogy project. For a detailed description, read my book ;D. But here is a short version of how to get started.

To begin your genealogy, begin with yourself.  Collect the information that you know for certain about yourself, your spouse, and your children. The data you want are birth, marriage, graduation, and other major life milestones. The documentation would ideally be the original certificates; such documents are considered primary sources. A primary source is an original piece of information that documents an event: a death certificate, an adoption order, a birth certificate, a military record, a marriage license,  a divorce decree, etc. Photographs, with the people in them identified and the date on back, can also be valuable. Such documents are considered primary sources because they reflect data recorded close to the time and place of an event.

If possible, scan in your sources of information on your immediate family.

Now, you’re ready to begin gathering data on one surname. A good place to begin is interviewing family members—parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. Ask them for stories, names, dates, and places of the people  and events in the family.  It’s a good idea, and lots of fun, to record these interviews. You’ll cherish the audio or video later, I promise.

You can also gather secondary sources to expand your information: A secondary source is a source that may cite an original source but is not the source itself: an obituary, wedding story, or birth notice in a newspaper; a printed genealogy; a Web site genealogy, etc.  When possible, get documents to back up what you’re told. Family Bibles, newspapers, diaries, wills, and letters can help here. A good question to ask at this point is whether any genealogy of the family has been published. Understand that such a work is still a secondary source, not a primary source. However, if such a genealogy has good documentation included, citing primary sources, you might find it a great help.

Now you’ve got a good start on your genealogy!

Eight years ago I was touring France  with a group of 30 students (including my two children), three teachers and about 5 other adults. We learned so much about records and history in France! If you have some French genealogy, you might want to check out these sites:

• Footnote has some documents related to the Bastille
• This site has a list of all those executed by the guillotine. It’s in French, so you may need to translate it.
• Alliance Genealogie is another French site
• Notre Temps.com is a French portal aimed at seniors, with a Genealogy Beginners Guide. It has searches of several French databases and articles highlighting genealogy. This site is exclusively in French.
• The French president’s site has a page (in English) on the history of 14 July.
• Cyndi’s List has a whole page of links related to France.
• This clip from Casablanca c’est formidable!
• And this site has the French National Anthem’s history and lyrics.

Spanish striker Fernando Torres might have scored the lone goal in Spain’s Euro 2008 final victory but German goalkeeper Lehman still feels that Torres has a long way to go when compared with Thierry Henry.

Many experts have started terming Torres as the successor to Henry’s throne but Lehman believes it would still take him more time. Lehman played alongside Henry as a goalkeeper in the Arsenal team. He watched Henry’s exploits from the other side of the post and feels that Thierry Henry is close to god in terms of performance on the football field.

Team Kindo follows soccer quite closely. Football fans can checkout the celebrity trees of Thierry Henry and Fernando Torres. There are other soccer stars too including our friend Martin’s favorite Zlatan Ibrahamovic

One way to share what data you have and note what data you need is to post your genealogy on the web. Before you do that, however, please read the Guidelines For Publishing Web Pages On The Internet. This document sets out the best ways to make your page findable and useable by other genealogists.

How do you publish? Why using the Kindo interface, of course, is one easy way. Just remember this important rule: Leave out data on living persons if you can.

That brings up another point, that is very, very important. Some folks are afraid that their hard work and research might be “stolen” from the Internet, so they deliberately insert factual errors on their web pages.

Dont. Do. That.

Ever.

If you have data you want to keep in reserve for future information swaps, simply omit it. If you have data you want to keep private until you publish your hardbound, limited edition genealogy, that’s fine. And of course, never publish anything that could be used to steal your identity.

But do not ever publish anything, in print or online, that you know to be false. It’s extremely difficult to remove all traces of anything on the Web, and that incorrect information may linger longer than you do!

Happy Family Tree Climbing!

EPC

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809–April 15, 1865), the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest crisis, the Civil War, only to be assassinated less than a month after the war’s end. Before his election as President, he was a lawyer, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. During his term, he helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. Kindo has Linconln’s family tree.

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the forty-second President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president, older only than Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and as he was born in the period after World War II, is known as the first Baby Boomer president. He is the husband of New York Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. The famous Clinton family is up here on Kindo. Visit their family tree here.

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America. He served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and is the eldest son of former American President George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush. On October 7, 2001, U.S. and Australian forces initiated bombing campaigns that led to the arrival on November 13 of Northern Alliance troops in Kabul. The main goals of the war were to defeat the Taliban, drive al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, and capture key al Qaeda leaders. In December 2001, the Pentagon reported that the Taliban had been defeated but cautioned that the war would go on to continue weakening Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Later that month the UN had installed the Afghan Interim Authority chaired by Hamid KarzaiHe was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2001 and his current term is scheduled to end at noon EST (17:00 UTC) on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Check out his family tree here.

For more information about other celebrity trees visit our celebrity family trees page.