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.

As I point out in my book, Genealogy Online 8th Edition, you can do a lot of good research using search engines and Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR, and parentheses.) Recently, Yahoo! has stopped supporting the operators NOT and AND, although the plus or minus sign in front of a term still work.

The NOT is very important to genealogists searching for surnames that are also common words: BROWN, FOX, BANKS, & WEEKS are just some examples.  To find genealogy pages for these surnames in Yahoo now, be sure to put a minus-sign directly in front of a term that you want excluded from search result (meaning that Yahoo! will exclude pages that has that term in their text) and a plus sign in front of terms you must have. So to get hits for pages with genealogy and Banks surname, instead of

BANKS AND GENEALOGY NOT FINANCE NOT RIVER

you would formulate it as

+BANKS +GENEALOGY -FINANCE -RIVER

The OR operator still works, and the AND is assumed if you use no operators, but nesting with parentheses doesn’t as in

+(BANKS AND GENEALOGY) - (FINANCE OR RIVER)

Advanced Google still accepts the most popular Boolean terms, and Exalead even supports the NEAR operator, which really helps with common surnames, but Live Search is now the only major search engine with full Boolean support.

For more details on how to do the Boolean Boogie for genealogy, read Genealogy Online 8th Edition.

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.

Residents of Iredell County learned a new way to trace their origins last Saturday during the Genealogical Society’s daylong event, “Genealogies of Yadkin Valley.”

“Using DNA is one of the newest and latest tools of tracing your genealogy, and it’s remarkable,” said Wells, who represented Family Tree DNA.”You can see if they migrated, you can find out more about your great-aunt and maybe she acted strangely, but that was because she had a baby die at childbirth … you just never know what secrets the past will reveal,” Wells said.

We all know that because of paper trails for genealogical lines usually stopping in the late 1700s or early 1800s, because of spelling changes and fires in courthouses or libraries… it is hard to find relatives. But DNA helps discover previously unknown kinships, identify errors in paper form and as a result makes research easier.

How does it work? After obtaining samples and finding a reliable testing company, it takes between almost a month and a half to get the results, it means a string of numbers that you’ll have to read and compare. Some group of administrator also exist to help you analyze results.

However, it’s worth shedding light on some shortcomings:

-First it does not replace paper documentation since it does not name common ancestors, it is more a tool to prove lineage. Several companies, like Family Tree DNA, can assist you to confirm your family tree or allow you to determine whether two people are related if you give them DNA of someone.

- It’s less reffective for females to use DNA than for males because thanks to Y-DNA, we can determine paternal and maternal lines, whereas for females it is just maternal.

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.

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.

Scams in genealogy are as old as the hobby itself. Many of the time honored ones (which I’ll cover in a minute) have moved from junk mail and classified ads to online. Others are brand new, taking advantage of the fact that on the Internet, no one knows if you’re a skunk. Here are a few of the more common ones.

The complete family history of [your surname here]! These scammers have been operating by regular mail, classified ads and online all my lifetime. For an exorbitant amount of money, you get a hard-bound book that is a mass-produced, glorified phone directory of randomly selected names, accompanied by a brief generic history unrelated to your actual family. This particular scam was run by Halberts of Ohio for years, by bulk surface and email, until they finally were run out of business by widespread reports of what they were really selling. However, it may reappear at any time; be forewarned.

A closely related scam promised you various junk with “your family crest” or “[Your Surname] coat of arms” and a “history of your family name.” Unless your genealogy can prove you are related to a family enrolled by the College of Arms, you don’t have a family coat of arms. The history of a given surname is often available for free on the Internet; don’t pay for it.

“Guides” and “programs” that only point you to free sites. Some software products and online services claim to be genealogical gold mines, but they really only point you to readily available phone books, compiled surnames and GEDCOMs.

In most cases this information available for free, but the scammer charges you for simply pointing you toward Cyndi’s List, RootsWeb, and Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter. Or worse, simply to the many different white pages available online.

The old phony inheritance ploy. This scam is designed to separate alleged rightful heirs from their money by charging them fees for “processing”. In fact a surface mail version of this was popular with scammers in the last century. The victim is informed that unclaimed inheritance connected to his family must be settled, and details on how to claim the inheritance will be sent to him—after paying for various service fees to the informer to handle the lost estate, which never existed to begin with.

A modern variation is the foreign widow who wants help transferring her money to your country. Any time you are asked to send personal and financial information, delete it. Check out this page: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/scams.asp#inherit for more on these scams.

Falsified credentials as professional genealogists. Genealogists are unregulated and do not require an official license. Anyone can legally claim to be one. Genealogical data is easy to just make up, and con artists often do. However, certain bodies do issue legitimate credentials to persons who have passed education and skills tests. If you want to hire a professional, look for certification from a third party such as the Association of Professional Genealogists, The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, and the Board for the Certification of Genealogists.

BTW,  I have an appendix in my book about how to choose a professional genealogist!

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