The Genealogy Interview: Asking Relatives Questions to Grow Your Family Tree

 To read the article in full, hit here Article first published in NGY&B; author unknown

Have you had the chance to sit down with your relatives and capture their knowledge of the family? 

If you're a beginner, this is the absolute perfect place to start gathering details about your ancestors. And even if you're an experienced genealogist, conducting some conversational interviews with your family members can help you break through brick walls. 

Perhaps most importantly, sitting down with your relatives can result in amazing stories being shared - if you capture them properly, they can become treasured family heirlooms themselves. Your notes from these conversations can help form the basis of your first (or next) research question, and can also be useful to bring to a consultation with a professional genealogist.  

To be successful, you need to go in with a plan or you won't wind up capturing much useful information or many share-worthy family stories.

However, this doesn't mean constructing a massive list of questions to interrogate your relatives with one by one - that's far from the optimal approach! 

It's best to be flexible and open-minded, but there are several things to know that will make this effort far more successful. We consulted some of our genealogy experts and collected their advice into a list of top tips. Read on to see what they had to share with us! 

1. Consider sitting down with groups or pairs

The first thing to be aware of is that the initial experience can be slightly awkward - after all, most of our relatives are not used to getting interviewed, and most us aren't used to conducting interviews! 

This is why it's important to make the setting as natural as possible. The more it seems like a conversation to all involved, the better (more tips on this below).

One way to facilitate a comfortable setting is to ask groups or pairs of people to sit down with you - this can help some feel less shy by sharing the spotlight, and it can also create the opportunity for amazing interchanges and complementary answers from members of the group.

Think about the amazing stories a set of siblings can come up with or the loving back-and-forth you might capture from a couple that has been married for decades. 

2. Don't just find facts—collect stories 

There are two general categories of questions to ask and information to seek.

Finding out genealogically relevant facts - such as a marriage date, name of a grandparent, where an immigrant ancestor was born in the old country - is absolutely a worthy goal. Don't be shy about posing questions that directly ask for the information you're seeking.

However, direct questions like this can sometimes cause people to draw a blank - even when answered, the answer may not be very interesting. Our experts always point out that it's really important to ask more fluid, conversational questions - these kinds of questions will generate more spontaneous, story-based responses.

Sometimes we overlook asking about stories because we're so focused on names and dates. Those are certainly important, but keep in mind that those details may be most easily discovered through a story. 

3. Ask creative questions to get the best stories  

In general, asking open-ended, creative questions can often result in the most interesting answers and stories - knowing a little bit about the relative's life can give you some good ideas.

NYG&B President, D. Joshua Taylor, had a great suggestion here: 

“Usually, around the holidays I always center questions around food - this might seem funny, but after all, food involves the senses, which are closely tied to memory. You can smell and taste food, so if someone can’t answer a question such as “where did you go to school,” you might ask – “what was lunch like when you went to school?” Or alternatively, "do you remember a meal that your mother would have made for you when you came home from school?"

And that sometimes triggers a conversation about school that can allow natural memories to surface. You'll often get a better answer than if you just pinned them down and asked: “What was the first year you attended school?”

Other topics you may want to ask about are summer vacations, family trips, or more generally where or with whom they celebrated the holidays in years past. 

4. Seek the same information you do in other research - names, dates, and places

If you're looking to get information that can help you begin your family tree, or if you're looking for information to solve a specific research question, focus on the usual key genealogical information:

The names of individuals involved in events or stories

The date an event occurred (if memory is fuzzy, even a ballpark estimate is useful) 

The place an event or story took place

Collecting this information will help you fill in basic details on individual relatives and ancestors, and this information can then be proven definitively with further research. Knowing general dates and places is crucial for deciding what record sets and repositories to look in to answer your research question. 

Even though you may be seeking specific information, creativity can be useful here as well. For instance, instead of asking "where did you live in 1940?" you may want to calculate the rough age of the relative you're speaking to. If you knew your grandparent was young in 1940, you might instead ask "where did you live when you went to grade school?" 

5. Ask about parents and grandparents, but don't forget about collateral relatives

Because we often are thinking about direct descendants when doing genealogy, we tend to ask questions about a relative's parents or grandparents. 

But don't forget about the other relatives! 

It's possible that due to a distant relationship with a given ancestor, your relative may not have much information to offer. But many will have spent a lot of time with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Asking the question, "who did you grow up with" can often give you an idea of who your relative knew best, and may provide good direction for further questions to ask. 

Remember, every piece of information you can collect on your family is a potential clue, even if it doesn't directly answer a question you're investigating - you may find that the birthplace of an aunt gives you meaningful direction in answering future research questions. 

6. Make use of photo albums

There are many reasons busting out an old photo album can lead to amazing stories or crucial information. First of all, it's an activity that is familiar to many of us, especially at family gatherings - sitting next to someone and looking through photos may make the relative more comfortable than sitting face-to-face. 

Susan R. Miller, editor of the NYG&B's New York Researcher magazine, and a managing editor of the New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer, had some additional reasons why photo albums are a great tool to use: 

"Showing pictures and looking through old photo albums can always jog the memory. If you see a picture of someone, just ask about the person – did you ever spend any time with them, did you ever visit with them or travel with them? Asking about the stories behind pictures, or asking for more information about the time or place of the photo can also generate stories." 

7. Use an audio recorder

This one is a must! Thanks to modern technology, you don't need to have advanced technical skills to pull this off - almost all phones now have built-in audio recorders that are very easy to use. If you have a smart phone, there are plenty of apps that can make recording very simple and effective as well. 

If you don't use a recorder, you will be constantly scribbling notes and won't be able to pay full attention to the flow of the conversation. You may miss major opportunities for further questions and stories. 

You'll also want to save the interview and refer back to it later. Not only for informational purposes, but for the stories and voices of your family members. Many people who make such recordings treasure them for years, and they can easily be shared with other relatives. 

8. Go with the flow! 

You may go into the conversation with a set idea of the things you’ll discuss, or perhaps you’ll be seeking a very specific piece of information. But these types of conversations can go in any direction - especially if you’re sitting down with a pair or group of relatives.

One story may trigger another memory and another story, and before you know it you’re very far away from the topic of the original question – if this happens, that’s great! Just go with it, and you'll be surprised at the gems you uncover. 

9. Treat the information like any other genealogical source

As with any oral history or other genealogical source, you should consider who the informant is and their relationship to the information they’re providing. Ask yourself – is this something the person had firsthand knowledge of, or is it something they may have heard from a second-hand source themselves?

Also, consider the imperfection of memory, and if anyone who passed along this information had a reason to obfuscate or exaggerate the details. Of course, we all should be doing this with any genealogical source we encounter, whether it’s a marriage certificate, census record, or oral interview.  

Consideration should always be rooted in those core genealogical research tenets – it’s always crucial to think critically about your sources.

10. What to do when you're finished

After you have completed your interview or interviews, return to the recording and pull out any key facts that you think are relevant to your family history. You can use these pieces of information to form the basis of a research question, which you can then find documentary evidence to prove or disprove. Scanning and labeling any key pictures that were identified or relevant to the information you collected is also a great idea.

Another really great thing to do is preserve the audio files by backing them up somewhere – you may also want to share them with other family members, either by emailing the recordings around (assuming you have permission to share them of course), or uploading them to a place where your family can privately access them.

11. Just go for it! 

The last and most important piece of advice is to just go for it! Yearly family gatherings are relatively rare occasions, so don’t pass up this golden opportunity.

No need to wait until you have a specific piece of information to seek, or until you have that perfect question or interview subject. Talk to anyone and everyone willing to sit down with you.

In the end, time with all of our family is limited, so don't miss an opportunity at the next family gathering! Many people regret not having these wonderful conversations until it's too late - start preserving your family history today! 

Why Do Genealogy?

 To read the blog article, written by Jessica Edwards for Genealogy Bank Blog, hit here

Introduction: In this article, Jessica Edwards looks back at her many years exploring her family history and explains why she loves genealogy. Jessica has had a lifelong interest in her family’s history – especially on her father’s side, which goes back to the first settlers in Pennsylvania, Jamestown and New England – and has documented and added more than 30,400 people to her family tree!

Inevitably when I meet someone new and they hear I spend my time doing genealogy I get one of three responses: a rolling of the eyes; a look that seems to ask, “Are you nuts?” or a look of interest. Short of strong-arming them and dragging them to a family history center, the first two reactions lead to my trying to convince them that it is a great hobby. This led to my desire to come up with as many reasons as I could for doing and enjoying genealogy. If you can think of any others, feel free to drop me a line.

My first reasons are why I like to do genealogy, and then the rest are reasons given by other people.

(1) I have always had an interest in both sides of my family. My mother’s maternal grandparents came from an area owned at different times by the countries of Poland, Austria, and Hungary. Because these regions were Communist-controlled, little information is available prior to when they came to the United States. My father’s side is the exact opposite, as they settled in what became the United States among the first settlers, and prior to that were fairly well documented. My ex-husband’s family were among the first converts in Scandinavia to the LDS Church, so generations have been following and documenting all of those who came here (difficult and complicated, as many practiced polygamy back in the late 1800s).

I always seemed to have a “need” to belong (probably due to moving a lot as a child). Genealogy helped me to understand more about my ancestors, which also helped me learn more about who I am as a person. It taught me about an inner strength passed down in my families (just looking at all they went through throughout their lives). For example, I have a grandmother who gave birth to one daughter who came down with diphtheria and died in her arms, and then later that same grandmother had a late term miscarriage and a still birth. My two paternal aunts had to step into their mother’s place caring for the family (that included a newborn) when she suddenly died of a cerebral aneurism at age 45. It’s also reassuring that I’m not the only one who has gone through trials and tribulations in my life (or what I thought were such, but when they are compared to what some of my other relatives have gone through, they weren’t so bad after all).

(2) I find the search for documentation a mental challenge – do I have the right person? What can this tell me about who they were? What trials and tribulations did they go through or what great things? Can I find the documentation to support their lives?

(3) What can I learn about the time period they lived in – how they dressed, food they ate, toys and pastimes that kept them occupied when they had free time?

(4) When I was a teenager, I’d mention to my father the name of a boy I had developed a crush on and 99.9% of the time my dad would say, “You can’t date him because he is your cousin,” and I started imaging giving birth to deformed children until I learned to ask him HOW we were related? He’d proceed to tell me how we were related off the top of his head (it was usually 5th cousins or something further away), and I’d reply that’s not a relation! I thought he was joking but I have since learned that he wasn’t and actually could do it all in his head (whereas I have to use my computer and notebooks).

(5) During the period I was getting started with genealogy, a cousin (the child of my mother’s sister) was rushed to the hospital and died in a matter of hours. The doctors found that both his hernia twisted and his intestines developed minute perforations that spilled waste into his abdomen and caused him to develop gangrene and die. I found out that this type of perforation is thought to be genetic, so I decided to do a “medical genealogy” of as many blood relatives as I could gather information on and type it up and keep it in my wallet (his care was delayed because his emergency contact information was in a locked cell phone and outdated by more than 10 years).

By having the copy in my wallet, nursing staff can access it easily (no locking it) and I update it about every six months. I also learned the symptoms and my life was saved as I, too, developed it – but it was caught in time. My “medical genealogy” has also alerted physicians of the prevalence of cancer (many types) and heart problems in my family, so I started having screenings a number of years before the average person and take preventive action to keep from getting anything.

Stay tuned for more reasons!

Free zoom presentations from Genealogy Society on Monday, June 12, 5:00PM PST and Tuesday, June 13, 5:00pm PST

TIGR 2023 is delighted to offer two bonus evening presentations for all attendees and the public. We encourage you to attend and invite a friend. Registration is required.

Monday, June 12, 7:00 p.m. CDT

"How 100 Pine Trees and the Subject of Usufruct Shape our Genealogical Research"

by J. Mark Lowe, FUGA

Our research projects often consist of small bits of evidence and tradition. With persistence and a knowledgeable focus, we can often combine those bits into a full story. Let's consider some of those little morsels and how we can improve our view.

Register for Mark's presentation by clicking HERE.

  

_________________________________

Tuesday, June 13, 7:00 p.m. CDT

"Margaret's Mother: Using DNA to Solve a Mystery"

by Judy G. Russell, JD, CG®, CGL(SM)

Family lore assigns the maiden name of Battles to Margaret (c1827-c1890), wife of Daniel Shew, of Cherokee County, Alabama. Documentary evidence identifies William Battles (c1794-1874) as her father, but he was married twice and no paper trail identifies either wife as the mother. Can DNA solve the mystery and identify Margaret's mother?

Register for Judy's presentation by clicking HERE. 

Comparing DNA Results – Different Tests at the Same Testing Company

 To read the article from Roberta Estes' blog in full, hit here

Several people have asked about different tests at the same DNA testing company. They wondered if matching is affected, meaning whether your matches are different if you have two different tests at the same company. Specifically, they asked if you are better off purchasing a test AT a DNA testing vendor that allows uploads, rather than uploading a test from a different vendor. Does it make a difference to the tester or their matches? Do they have the same matches?

These are great questions, and the answer isn’t conclusive. It varies based on several factors.

Having multiple tests at the same DNA testing company can occur in three ways:

The same person tests twice at the same DNA testing company.

The same person tests once at the DNA testing company and uploads a test from a different testing company. Only two of the primary four DNA testing companies accept uploads from other vendors – FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage.

The same person uploads two different files from other DNA testing companies to the DNA testing company in question. For example, the DNA company could be FamilyTreeDNA and the two uploaded DNA files could be from either MyHeritage, 23andMe or Ancestry.

All DNA testing companies allow users to download their raw DNA data files. This enables the tester to upload their DNA file to the vendors who accept uploaded files. Both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage provide matching for free, but advanced tools require a small unlock fee of $19 and $29, respectively.

Cuban Genealogy Research: Useful Tips and Tricks

 To read the article in full, hit here First published by Elizabeth on LegacyTree blog 

Cuban genealogy relies primarily on government civil registration and Roman Catholic church records. Unfortunately, very few of these records are available online. And knowing your ancestor’s exact location of where they lived in Cuba is also a requirement, making Cuban research seem next to impossible. 

Though limited by access problems, researching your Cuban family is possible and can be highly successful given the right tools. Tracking down the town of origin and identifying available records in the country with our genealogists in Cuba has helped families build back their trees on the island but also to their family’s original country of origin before immigrating to Cuba.

Cuban Genealogy Research: How To Get Started

The best source of information is the immigration story from your older family members. Stories were often all they could take to America, and this information is invaluable. Afterward, conduct a preliminary survey of available documents in the home to gather details to determine the precise location in Cuba where research needs to begin. Cuban records are held within individual churches or regional government civil registration offices. 

If your family was from a larger city like Havana or Santiago de Cuba, narrowing down the exact area of the town is essential because of the large number of parishes and municipal districts in those regions.

If the area where your ancestors are from is unknown, our genealogists can research in the United States to help with that process. Plane manifests, naturalization papers, alien registration documents, and death certificates are excellent starting documents to pinpoint information before research can begin in Cuba.

Cuban Research Transcriptions are the Same as the Original, Right? No!

Cuban civil and church records are patterned on the Spanish model and almost always mention the parents and the grandparents. These records often include where each of the ancestors was born, whether and where they lived during the event, and sometimes even their occupation. 

Frequently, transcribed records that family members possess only include a portion of what was on the original document. Obtaining the original is always an essential step in the research process.

Collateral Lines are Key

Researching a direct line of ancestors can yield a great deal of information. However, sometimes, baptismal and marriage records for an ancestor do not include essential clues needed to extend the family tree; however, the baptismal record or marriage of a sibling may contain the information required to build a tree back to its country of origin. 

Therefore, sibling research should not be discounted and should always be integral to Cuban research. The example below demonstrates how a sister’s baptismal record provided information that the family was from Telde, Gran Canaria, Spain. (San Agustín de Ceiba Mocha, Libro 7, Folio 49, no. 328)

Researching in the United States

Though having a genealogist in Cuba is the golden ticket to Cuban research, several research sources in the United States are invaluable to getting started. The following websites can help.

Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami

CubaGenWeb

The University of Miami Cuban Heritage Digital Collection

Florida International University, Digital Library of the Caribbean

GSHA-SC Writer's Workshop Sunday, May 28, 2023 2pm PST

 

Genealogy vs. Family History | Definitions and Examples of Each

 To read the article in full, hit here First published on FamilyTree Blog and was written by Andrew Koch

Definitions: Genealogy vs. Family History

Simply put, “genealogy” is the study of a person’s direct-line ancestors—parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.—proving descent back in time, generation by generation. (Indeed, genealogy is from the Greek genealogia, the “study of generation” or “making of a pedigree.”) Genealogists prioritize finding names and the dates and places of important life events like births, marriages and deaths through historical documents such as censuses and vital records. “Genealogy” might also refer to a report on the ancestral lineage of a person.

“Family history” is broader, referring to the more-holistic study of the people, places, objects, traditions and stories associated with a family. In addition to studying the basic facts of direct ancestors’ lives, family historians consider family stories and the social context in which their ancestors lived. They also generally expand their research to cover the details and experiences of non-direct family members such as siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. They might pull additional details (such as addresses or occupations) from historical records, and consider a wider variety of sources, such as newspapers, maps, oral tradition and local histories. They could even seek knowledge about people not related to the target family at all.

The terms are not mutually exclusive; one can be both a genealogist and a family historian. But the two fields can have different priorities. A genealogist, for example, might simply want to know the names and birthplaces of their ancestors. But a family historian would be equally as interested in reconstructing what those ancestors’ lives were like, and learning about other members of their nuclear families.

Is There a Difference Between ‘Genealogist’ and ‘Family Historian’?

Not all agree that these terms have different definitions. Lene Dræby Kottal, a professional researcher who holds the Certified Genealogist credential and specializes in Danish ancestry, argues that the two terms amount to a distinction without a difference.

“To me, a genealogist and a family historian are the same. Without data, there can be no narrative,” Kottal writes on her blog. “Without the narrative, a genealogy does not meet the industry standards. Context is essential when we research our family history.”

She cites the Genealogy Standards, a set of guidelines published by the Board for Certification of Genealogists. They compel genealogists to report on “aspects of identity, relationship, event, or situations,” but also “artifacts, authored narratives, oral histories…and other sources concerning agriculture, demographics, DNA, economies” and so on. Indeed, as part of the certification process, applicants must provide a narrative project.

Leading genealogy websites tend to agree with Kottal, blurring the lines between the two terms (emphasis added):

The National Genealogical Society: “Are a genealogist and a family historian one and the same? Well yes, sort of! Today, the two terms are used interchangeably most of the time…Basically both words mean the study of families, finding their stories, and tracing their lineage and history.”

FamilySearch Wiki: “Genealogy is the study of your human ancestors, their families, descendants, and the kinship relationships between them. Genealogical or family history research is the process of searching records to find information about your relatives and using those records to link individuals across several generations.”

GenealogyBank: “Genealogy is tracing the lines of your ancestors and their descendants. It’s the history of your family. It is the untold stories of your ancestors you’ve always wanted to know. It adds details and color to your family tree offering insights into your ancestor’s daily lives. And most importantly, it’s the history that makes you, you.”

Alternative Names

If the above terms sound stuffy to you—or you don’t want to wade into a debate over which is correct—maybe consider these other titles:

Family storyteller

Family archivist

Family history detective

Ancestor-seeker

In a 2021 blog post, UK researcher Paul Chiddicks suggests some of his own (snarky) terms for someone only interested in certain aspects of ancestry: Tree Harvester (for someone who merely clips “branches” off family trees others have created), The Ethnicity Expert (for a DNA test taker only interested in ethnicity results), the Surfer (for someone who aimlessly “surfs” the web for ancestors) and more.

GSHA-Utah Zoom Meeting Saturday, May 20, 2023 9:30am PST

 Enjoy the presentation from Virginia Sanchez, Author and Independent Scholar, on Spanish Colonial Wills and their contribution to the American Revolution.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: May 20, 2023 10:30 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting by hitting here:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

May 19, 2023 Zoom broadcast 11am PST of Your 19th & 20th Century Mexican Ancestors in the US

 

Zoom presentation: Tracing Your Indigenous Roots in Mexico Saturday, May 20, 2023 10:30am PST

To join Zoom Meeting hit below

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4281900129?pwd=TEhwRldKczh3eHYzcUdDaXJ0Qjlhdz09

Meeting ID: 428 190 0129

Passcode: rB8u98

Genealogy Garage: My China Roots Saturday, May 20, 2023 11am PST

  In the past, our organization has helped with the promotion of webinars that the Los Angeles Public Library's Genealogy Garage puts on for the general public. Even though we are a Hispanic genealogy group, we promote the education and knowledge that one may obtain from these presentations. Who knows if your ancestors may have some connection to these areas. Since the courses are free in person and possibly online via YouTube or Facebook, we are letting our members know that these courses are available to you if you sign in to YouTube or Facebook. For more information, please communicate with the Library directly. 

Watch it live on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@lapubliclibrary.

This upcoming Saturday, 7/15, at 11 a.m. will be The Los Angeles Public Library's free Genealogy Garage online program, spotlighting Ukraine genealogy. Laura Gold, president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, will touch on ways to find the town of your ancestors and the best resources you can access from afar. She will also discuss hiring local Ukrainian researchers and traveling there once peace is restored (she has traveled extensively in Ukraine!).

It will be broadcast live on YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5VOPaaVwq4 

The session is being recorded, so if you can't make it "live," you will be able to access it later via our library's YouTube channel.  Here's a quick link to our past recorded shows:  Genealogy Garage - YouTube

FamilySearch Investigates Facial Recognition

 To read the entire article, hit here First published on Genealogy's Star by James Tanner

(opinion from the author on facial recognition)

 Well, we are interested but don't have a lot more information other than our interest. Facial recognition is not a particularly new technology but tagging historical photos is more complicated than identifying possible relationships from. similar facial features. One genealogy program with facial recognition has a moderately low rate of accuracy. Yes, the concept is helpful but if you tell me I have a cousin that isn't much help, I have thousands, actually tens of thousands of cousins. Tagging photos is the first stage in identifying individuals in old photos. Unfortunately, I have thousands of old photos for which I have no identification. 

I know that this photo was likely taken by my Great-grandmother, Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. I can tell approximately when the photo was taken but that is about all I can identify. Even if I knew that I was related to these people, it would not be much help. I am related to a large percentage of all the people that lived in Apache County, Arizona from pioneer times. There is also a possibility that this particular photo, which is a copy of an earlier photo, was taken by Margaret's father, Charles Godfrey DeFriez Jarvis because with the animal hide and the backdrop, this may be from a photo taken as early as the 1880s. It may also be possible that my great-grandmother was just copying the photo from someone else because she was a professional photographer and the photo was taken somewhere else and the people in the photo are not even remotely related to me. Hmm. Photo ID seems to be complicated. 

Make Ancestry Find the Relationship - Using Thru Lines

Did you know that Ancestry can figure out how you are related to a DNA match if you both have trees linked to your DNA tests? You do not have to have anyone further back than your parents if other relatives have more extensive trees on Ancestry that include your family,

So how do you link your tree to your DNA? First log into Ancestry.com. Then click on DNA Result Summary in the pull down menu under DNA. Next click the gear on the far right that says Settings next to it as shown in the image below. 

 To read the full account of this blog post, click here --Kitty Cooper shows how she uses Thru Lines to find the relationship of a  DNA match. It was first published at Kitty Cooper's blog and she shows excellent examples in her blog. 

Why Didn’t We Match? by James Marion Baker, PhD – Wednesday, May 17, 6:00 PM PDT

In the past, our organization has helped with the promotion of webinars that the SCGS' Genealogy Group puts on for the general public. Even though we are a Hispanic genealogy group, we promote the education and knowledge that one may obtain from these presentations. Who knows if your ancestors may have some connection to these areas. Since they are free online via their GoToMeeting, we are letting our members know that these courses are available to you if you sign in and register in advance by hitting here.

Webinars offer Jamboree-style seminars for up to 500 attendees per session, at no charge.  While the original webcasts are available to all genealogists, SCGS members will be able to review archived sessions at any time by accessing the SCGS members-only section of this website. Archived sessions will be available approximately three days following the webinar. To view the webinar, you will need a computer with audio speakers or a headset. Those persons with a fast Internet connection (either broadband or DSL) will have the most satisfactory experience. 

Using AI Effectively for Genealogy Research

To read the article in full, hit here First published by Legacy Tree on their blog

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for genealogy research is still in its infancy but gaining momentum as each new tool is released, including ChatGPT and Google Translate. These tools do not replace the need for a professional genealogist to analyze the data but can speed up the research process by finding information more rapidly.

We asked our research team how genealogists can apply AI to their genealogy research projects. Here are some of their key learnings and cautions.

First, How AI Tools Work

The AI tools used most often by genealogists rely on NLP – Natural Language Processing. NLP enables machines to interpret, understand, apply, and generate human language. Researchers can use NLP effectively to extract data from historical documents for analysis. Documents most readily analyzed include birth and death certificates, census records, marriage licenses, and even newspapers. The NLP algorithms can extract names, dates, and locations from these records, saving a researcher valuable time.

AI tools also have machine learning algorithms that help to predict relationships. Large datasets of family history information can train the algorithm to make predictions about family relationships or to find missing information. The algorithm may then be able to fill in gaps in a family tree or predict how likely two people are related to one another based on their DNA test results.

New season for "Who Do You Think You Are" in United Kingdom

 New season lineup for Who Do You Think You Are? (UK) announced starting in June 2023! Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claire Foy, Emily Atack, Bear Grylls, Chris Ramsey, Kevin Clifton, Dev Griffin, Chris & Xand van Tulleken and Lesley Manville 

From early June Who Do You Think You Are? will return to BBC One, following nine celebrities on extremely personal journeys as they each delve into unknown family ancestry and unearth startling facts and truths about their heritage that they wouldn’t have begun to guess otherwise.

With familial discoveries ranging from clog-wearing rope dancers and Scottish royalty to murder trials and tragic accidents, the celebrities’ journeys take them across the UK as well as to Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Jamaica and Australia in pursuit of the truth behind their family stories.

This newest series of Who Do You Think You Are? is filled with astonishing revelations for the celebrities who have chosen to bare all in Series 20 of the show. Musical theatre master Andrew Lloyd Webber unearths uncanny parallels between his life and the lives of his ancestors. Actor and comedian Emily Atack discovers that she, Ryan Reynolds and a certain football club have a lot more in common than she might ever have guessed. Award-winning actors Claire Foy and Lesley Manville dive head-first into their family histories only to stumble upon stories worthy of any TV drama. Claire finds out that her family were caught up in a murder trial and Lesley learns how an ancestor fighting for workers’ rights ended up paying a very heavy price.

Meanwhile Strictly Come Dancing winner and actor Kevin Clifton and broadcaster & DJ Dev Griffin find themselves travelling overseas on the trail of their ancestors. Kevin ends up in one of the most remote places in Canada and Dev travels to Jamaica where he’s surprised by some very personal records about his great grandparents. Comedian, podcaster and TV host Chris Ramsey comes to realise that the saying ‘you make your own luck’ might be one of the most apt phrases applied to his family’s past as he discovers some extraordinary survival stories and an ancestor who won a very unusual lottery.

Twin doctors and presenters Chris and Xand van Tulleken make their Who Do You Think You Are? journey together, on the trail of their Dutch ancestry, and adventurer Bear Grylls is delighted to end up in the wild, surprisingly through a royal connection.

The highly anticipated Season 20 of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ will bring shocking truths, tears, and tragedies as well as moving and uplifting stories to viewers at home, as the celebrities uncover affecting moments in their family histories that will impact them in ways they didn’t think possible.

Simon Young, BBC Head of History, says: “As one of Britain’s most beloved documentary series returns for series 20, the line-up of household names, and the array of astonishing family histories, grow from strength to strength. This series is often imitated but never bettered, and this latest edition demonstrates why.”

Colette Flight, Executive Producer for Wall to Wall, says: “Who Do You Think You Are? is back with nine much-loved celebrities investigating their ancestry. The series will see them uncover incredible, moving and dramatic stories as their individual family trees reflect and shine a light on all of our shared history.”

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? launches on BBC One this June. Produced by Wall to Wall Media, Executive Produced by Colette Flight and series produced by Victoria Bell. The format is distributed by Warner Bros. International Television Production.

To read the article, hit here

GSHA-FACC Zoom Presentation Search for Civil War Soldier's Grave Saturday May 13, 2023 10am PST

 

Please note flyer is denoted Mountain Standard Time.

The presentation today will be the story of how my cousin, M. Patricio Montoya, set out to find the grave of his great grandfather and my great, great grandfather, Juan Domingo Montoya. Juan Domingo served as a private for the Union Army in the Civil War in Company B, 5th Regiment and Hubbell’s Co., 4th Regiment of the New Mexico Infantry. This presentation is dedicated to Patricio, who passed away in 2021. I am forever grateful for his meticulous research and devotion to finding our ancestor’s final resting place.

Register in advance for the Zoom meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvcuyprj0jGtaKGKNEwGkwJW79FCMjZzWh

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

5 Reason You MUST Look at Original Records

 To listen to this blog's podcast presentation, hit here The presentation is by Lisa Cooke on Genealogy Gems website. The Presenter has a handout to be able to downloaded.

Show Notes: When you find family history information online you MUST make every effort to find the original genealogy record so that your family tree will be accurate! There are 5 reasons to find original records. I’ll explain what they are, and what to look for so that you get the most information possible for your family tree.

If you’re a genealogy beginner, this video will help you avoid a lot of problems. And if you’re an advanced genealogist, now is the time to fix things. 

#1 Many online records are simply way too vague.

Records come in many forms. Many genealogy websites consider that each name that appears on a document is a “record” when they’re counting records. So, when you hear that 10 million records have been added to a website, it doesn’t necessarily mean that 10 million genealogical documents have been added. It oftentimes means that that’s the number of names that they’ve added.

One document could have a lot of names. In the case of a death certificate, it could have the name of the deceased, the name of the spouse, the name of the informant, and the names of the parents. Each one of those gets counted as a record.

Recently, MyHeritage announced they’ve added 78 million new records to their website. However, many of these records are simply transcriptions, they’re extracting the information from whatever the original source was. That information becomes searchable, and that’s terrific because they are great clues. So, sometimes when you go and look at the records themselves, it turns out that record really is just a transcription. There is no digital record to look at.

Sometimes the website doesn’t even tell you what the original record was. There will be clues, though. You can use those clues and run a search on those words. So, if it talks about a particular location, or type of record, or the name of the record, you could start searching online and find out where are those original records are actually held. Sometimes they are on another genealogy website. But a lot of times, and I’ve seen this more recently, they are publicly available records, oftentimes from governmental agencies. Very recently, we’ve been seeing more recent records that are just selected text. They may be records for people who just passed away a year or two ago.

There are a wide range of places where these types of records can come from. But if that genealogy website got its hands on the record, chances are you could too. And it’s really important to do that.

#2 What’s important to you might not have been prioritized for indexing.

The indexer is a person, or perhaps even an artificial intelligence machine, who has gone through the documents and extracted information and provided it in text form. Sometimes when you search on a genealogy website, all you’re getting is just that typed text, that transcription, of some of the key data from the original document.

I’ll tell you about one example in my family. I was looking at a 2x great grandmother back in Germany. Her name was Louise Leckzyk. She’s listed as Louise Nikolowski in the Ancestry record hint. Technically, that’s true, she was Louise Nikolowski at the time of the birth of her child. But if you pull up the original record, what you discover is she’s not listed as Louise Nikolowski on the record. She’s listed with her maiden name, which was usually the case in those old German church records. So that’s huge. We’ve talked about how challenging it can be to find maiden names here on the Genealogy Gems channel. So, we don’t want to miss any opportunity to get one. But if we had taken this record hint at face value, and just extracted that information, put it in our database, or attached it to our online family tree, and never looked at the original document, we would have completely missed her maiden name. And that maiden name is the key to finding the next generation, her parents.

#3 Not all information on a record is indexed.

It’s very common for large portions of information on a document not to be indexed. Here’s the reason for that: Indexing costs money. When a genealogy company takes a look at a new record collection they have some hard decisions to make. They have to decide which fields of information will be included in the indexing. Oftentimes, there will be several columns, as in a church record or a census record. The 1950 census was an example of this. There’s so much data that the company has to look at that and say, what do we think would be of the most value to our users? They then index those fields. They’ve got to pay to not only have them indexed, but potentially also reviewed human eyes, or AI. That all costs money.

So, there will inevitably be information that gets left off the index. That means that when you search the website you’re going to see the record result, and it can give you the impression that that is the complete record. But very often, it’s not the complete record. Tracking down and taking a look at the original digital scan of the record is the only way to know.

It’s possible that the records have not been digitally scanned. In the case of public government records, that information may have been typed into a database, not extracted from a digital image. There may not be a digital scanned image. It may be very possible that the only original is sitting in a courthouse or church basement somewhere. It’s also possible that the digital images are only available on a subscription website that you don’t subscribe to.

We need to do our best to try to track down the original document and take a look at it to see if there’s anything else that’s of value to us in our research that the indexers or the company just didn’t pick up on or didn’t spend the money to index.

#4 Different websites potentially have different digital scans of the same record.

Websites sometimes collaborate on acquiring and indexing records. In those cases, they might be working with the same digital images. But oftentimes, they create their own digital scans. That means that a record may be darker or lighter, or sharper or blurrier from one website to the next. So while you found the record on one website, another might have a copy that’s much easier to read.

Digital scanning has also come a long way over the years. Many genealogy sites now are looking at some of the earlier scans they did. They’re realizing that some are pretty low quality by today’s standards. They might determine that it’s worth going back and rescanning the record collection. This happened with some of the earliest census records that were digitized many years ago. It makes a lot of sense, because a lot of time has passed, and technology has certainly changed.

So even though you found information many years ago, it might be worth taking a second look if you have any questions about what’s on that document. You may find that that record is actually a newly digitized image on the same website, or you might find that it’s also available somewhere else.

A lot of the partnerships out there are with FamilySearch which is free. So, while you may have a paid subscription to a site like Ancestry or MyHeritage, if there’s anything that you’re questionable on, or you didn’t actually see the original document from one of those paid websites, head to FamilySearch.org. Run a search and see if they happen to have the digitized images. There’s a good chance they might, and it’s worth taking a look.

Sometimes the genealogy website will have tools that allow you to get a better look at the digitized document. Ancestry is a great example of this. On the digitized image page click the tool icon to open the Tools menu. One of my favorite tools is “Invert colors”. Click that button, and it will turn it into a negative image. Sometimes this allows words to pop out in a way that they were not as clearly visible in the normal view.

I downloaded a digital scan from a website several years ago, and it was hard to decipher. I did some searching and was able to find  a clearer copy on another website.

#5 You can verify that the words were indexed accurately.

Reviewing a scan of the entire document provides you with a lot of examples of the handwriting of the person who made the entry. If you have any doubt about words or spelling, making comparisons with other entries can be extremely helpful.

When I first looked at a baptismal record of my 2x great grandmother’s son, I thought her surname was Lekcyzk. However, after seeing a different digital scan, I started to question that. Having the original record allows me to review the handwriting of the person who wrote these records. Comparing the handwriting of other entries on the page helped me determine that the swish at the top is the dotting of an eye that just had a bit more flourish. I also reconfirmed that the Z in the name is definitely a Z by comparing it to other Zs on the page.  

How to write a family history

 To read this article in full, hit here First published in Who do You Think You Are?

Are you ready to turn your family history research into a book? Janet Few shares her top tips on writing your family history

You’ve been researching your family history for a while, you have notes and files, you have copies of documents and an unwieldy family tree. This is a sign that it is time to pause researching and write your family history, making sure that your family research is collated and preserved for the future in an interesting way.

When you set out to write a family history, you will discover that databases and scattered notes aren’t what captivates your audience; it is the stories that grab their attention. Maybe your family’s story doesn’t seem to have a wider appeal. You have ancestors who were born, got married, had children (not always in that order) and died; that is hardly going to be enthralling for anyone but the hardened genealogist. Here are ways to add the context that will make your family story interesting.

Take a look at the social history of the time: find out what life was actually like for your ancestor. Write about their home. You may not have an exact address, but you can describe the typical housing for someone of their social status in their town. You can also think about the furniture that might have been in that home. Move on to what they would have worn. When writing about clothes, add details of how they were made and laundered. Then there is food. Explain what they would have eaten, and how it was prepared, cooked and stored.

The history of medicine is another aspect that you might consider. This could be appealing to younger relations, who tend to have a fascination with the gory bits. All of our ancestors except the most recent ones are dead, so what did they die of? What were the symptoms and treatment for that condition at the time?

Investigating your ancestors’ occupation gives you more scope for developing an interesting narrative. You can write about what their work involved, what training or uniform was required, what tools would have been used, and what the hazards of that job might have been.

Visit the places where they lived, either in person or on Google Maps. It is important to think about where your relations were living, and to set them in their local historical context. Perhaps there are websites or books that can tell you about life in their town or village. You should make use of the expertise of a relevant local-history society, or someone doing a one-place study of the community where your family lived. Old newspapers are a mine of information about local events as well.

We often believe that national events would not have had much bearing on our ancestors’ lives, but some would have had a significant impact, and can provide hooks to help your audience view the characters against the background of their times. As soon as you say “Queen Victoria” or “the Agricultural Revolution”, this triggers certain associations, so it is useful to provide these pointers, along the lines of “Grandma was six when the First World War broke out”.

Some aspects of national history will be more relevant to particular ancestors than others, so you should prioritise those. You might want to refer to royalty or politics, telling your readers who the monarch or the prime minister was. Write about wars and conflicts that were going on at the time. Would your family have been involved as combatants, or would they have experienced hardships at home?

You might also like to consider what was happening religiously: was this a time of persecution, or rising nonconformity? How about the world of science, technology and inventions? Then there is the arts: what books were being written, what music was being played, what pictures were being painted? You can also note any special events that occurred. Did your ancestor attend the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, take part in the General Strike of 1926, or campaign for the right to vote for women and working-class men?

If this all sounds a bit daunting, take it one ancestor, or small family group, at a time. Begin with a simple timeline of the events in their life: birth, marriage, death, schooling, house moves and so on. You may have family history software that does this for you. Add national and local events to that timeline. Then expand each fact into a paragraph. If the first fact is “Annie Pepperell was born in 1855 in Croydon, Surrey”, there are several questions that you can answer. Was she named for a relative? What was her position in the family? What is the meaning and geographical distribution of her surname? What was happening in 1855, and in Croydon in particular? You can then repeat the process for subsequent facts, and weave in the social history. Congratulations! You now have a story to share.

It will enhance your narrative if you can add illustrations. You will want to include family trees and if possible old photographs of people and places, gravestones, the local church, the ships they sailed on, or the clothes that they might have worn. You may be able to add old maps and facsimile documents too, but remember that just because an image is online, it does not mean that it is free of copyright or can be used without seeking permission.

Finally, you also need to decide the most suitable medium for your story – writing a book or an article is far from the only option. For example, video presentations are increasingly easy to produce. Alternatively, you could create a website, a blog or a podcast. You could even think right outside the box and tell aspects of your family history in art, Lego or needlework. Whatever you decide, make a start and enjoy bringing your ancestors and their times to life.

Gsha-SC Hispanic Research with Alex King Thursday, May 18, 6:30pm PST "Leaving New Mexico: Emigration to California in the Mexican Period 1820-1850

Please join Alex King on his presentation on "Leaving New Mexico: Emigration to California in the Mexican Period 1820-1850 through a zoom presentation on

When: May 18, 2023 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) 

Please note that this presentation will not be recorded. 

Non Members will need to follow instructions to receive an invitation.

 

Ancestral Mathematics