How do you know that record belongs to your ancestor? Evidence Analysis and Correlation
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- How do you know if the record you are looking at is your ancestor? I’ve got some suggestions that might help you figure it out. Today we’re talking about correlating evidence using U.S. census and Fold3 records demonstrated on Ancestry.
There is a handout for this episode for the Information Access level channel members and the Happy Dance level Patreon members. Information about how to get the handouts is below. Also it's at GenealogyTV.org - FAN Club Tracking Worksheet here genealogytv.org/product/works...
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TIMING
0:00 Intro
1:24 Correlating Genealogy Evidence
2:11 Example: Mary Elizabeth Vanhoy
2:41 Census Records
3:32 Transcription Errors Ancestry
4:55 Example: William M. Knox
5:12 Civil War Records
6:44 The FAN Club
8:19 How to freeze rows and columns in excel
8:36 Evidence from the FAN Club
10:00 Cross Referencing Census Records
10:58 Change background color Excel
11:28 1840 Census
13:37 Extract Census Data
14:27 Neighbors on Census
15:16 1830 Census
16:41 Add Comments Excel
17:54 Correlating Census and Confederate Records
18:51 Verifying Birth Year
19:38 Civil War Pay Vouchers
21:29 Civil War Death Records
23:41 Cemetery records online
26:05 Tying all the records together
28:28 Handout overview
30:17 Conclusion
30:46 Handout info
31:35 Outro
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I am a fanatic for genealogy, family history and DNA to research my American ancestors. I create the best free genealogy videos and webinars on CZcams. I teach the genealogy research skills to help you with your family tree and family origins. I am a professional genealogist; I teach research skills and records research. The best videos on “Genealogy TV” (CZcams) are about learning research notes, logs, staying organized, genetic genealogy, finding missing ancestors, and where to find family history records.
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Sometimes Census takers knew the neighborhood well enough that they didn't even go to every house. A story I heard was a Census taker for where my ancestors lived , just filled it in at his kitchen table. He told my Dad that years later. Great video!
Interesting!
WOW! That just seems insane, but may explain some things.
Absolutely true in my case as well. Searched high and low for my g-grandfather and g-Aunt. They were listed in 1905 census but when found, my g-aunt died in October of 1900 and my g-grandfather...her father...the following January of 1901.
Ive found a few records where individuals were listed under completely different first names that I can figure out where the enumerator got those names, but I know it's them, last name, ages, address, occupation, etc are all correct. Like, "Siphorus" and "Daniel" don't even sound similar and Daniel was NOT his middle name. It's just weird.
And then I have others that just simply dropped off the earth. No census records past a certain point, no death records, no tax records, no burial records, no obits, no mentions in family obits, no property records, no newspaper articles, no headstones, nothing. Yet, I know they remained in the area because my grandmother remembers visiting her grandparents home, where it was, etc, the years they died, what cemetery they were in.
Perhaps he was called “Willis” to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, both “William”. My grandfather was named “Thomas” as well as his father and grandfather. The family called him “Bob”!
And his son (my father) and grandson (my brother) we also “Thomas”-all with same middle and last name. Confusing during their lifetimes, not to mention to future genealogists!
Connie, there are not enough words to express my thanks for this video. Now, I have a tool to verify that I have the right person. Thank you so much.
My pleasure Diane.
I learned something new again. I didn't know we could make a change when we know it is a transcription error. I also send a report. Those errors try me crazy. Thank you Connie.
Thanks for sharing!
Interesting video. I would love to see you do a follow-up version for those of us with ancestors who lived in cities - especially NYC. There are ships passenger lists and citizenship documents that can be very hard to tell if those people are your ancestors. It would be very helpful to learn some new tips/tricks/hints that would help us distinguish between people with the same or similar names with similar ages and places of birth. Thanks very much.
Great suggestion! Here is a video I did on Passenger Lists. czcams.com/video/Wqk08S7SajU/video.html
@@GenealogyTV Thanks Connie.
Great video Connie. Thinking outside the box, this concept can be used in several ways. Unmarried to married women, migrated families, slave to emancipated peeps, on and on. Thank You! And for that Pitts County thing? There could be a possibility of the county name changing because of subdivision. That may or may not be the case here but always something to keep in mind.
Thanks Darlene. And thanks for supporting the channel.
I have an ancestral line in the "Pickens District" of S. Carolina, that eventually transformed into 2 or 3 different county names as the population grew. I have found looking up historical maps to be useful in tracing county changes, as the county name holding the records I need is no longer the same as that used in the OLD records.
Don't forget to look at pages before and after your target page. In one early 1800s census, I found the "missing" too-young-for-school age child 2 or 3 houses over (on the next page), included with the neighbors. Baby-sitting? Visiting a friend? I'll never know, but I'm sure glad I "turned" the page!
Love this video and learned a lot with how to work when moving from the census where everyone in the household is named to the census with just the head of household and tick marks for the rest of the household.
Have been avoiding those tick mark census b/c seemed to be no way to confirm whether I had the correct family or not.
Thank you for sharing!
I learn something new each time I watch one of your videos. Thanks,
Excellent presentation! I would like to emphasize that the set of source documents for an ancestor should be as complete as possible, using as many different types of records (census, vitals, military, directories, yearbooks, clippings, etc.) as possible. Allows one to view an ancestor's entire life. Too often I have seen the opposite in family trees: a marriage license, a couple of census records, and a gravestone photo. Not enough to tell much about the ancestor's life.
Agreed. There was not enough time in this video to reveal it all. Thanks for the feedback.
Have seen several with no sources listed at all...
Sometimes that's all you can find.
When my mother was 17, about 1926, her parents divorced and the family broke up. She never saw them again. My father only had his mother and an absentee father. I was born late in their lives so I never had the chance to meet anyone other than one great-uncle, one grandmother and a step-grandfather. When they died I was only beginning my genealogy journey. Very little to go on since only relatives, per AncestryDNA, are very distant cousins I've never heard of. And there's the stories that aren't quite accurate.
Extremely informative! Thank u I really enjoy your tips on ancestry! I've been working on my ancestry for quite a few years and some of the things you share are very helpful!
Connie there is another way to freeze panes when your header is 2 or more lines, rather than splitting. if you click on the first line of "data" (line 3 in your case), then click on "View", then click on the drop down box "Freeze Panes", then click on "Freeze Panes"; it will freeze "all" lines above your first "data" line.
I use freeze panes and split. It just depends on what I'm doing. You can Google the difference between the functions and find lots of video on how to do this.
Boy did this come at the perfect time. I just stumbled upon someone in my husband's tree, Joseph White, that I want to make sure I am following the correct line. Also, love the handouts! It allows me to sit and listen to the video without having to take notes, as it is in the handout. Thank you for all you do. I know that I am becoming "faster" at my research and my tree is more "factual" than it used to be, allowing me to take it "further".
Love it! Thanks April... and thanks for supporting the channel... for over a year now. You rock!
Wow! Mind blowing! Now I see how to takle those hard research questions. I am going to be watching this video several times! Thank you
, thank you, thank you!!
You're welcome, welcome, welcome. :)
Thanks I am so confused on all of this , lol taking my time doing all this … so so happy I found You !! ❤
Happy to help! Yes there are advantages to slowing down the research and being thorough.
This was such an interesting topic. Love how you pieced this all together. I have been binge watching your channel and it is getting me back in the mood to work on my stuff. Definitely going to “start” over with organizing and get my questions together. I have been enjoying all the tips and techniques that I am learning. I have been working on a specific brick wall for 40 years (also started in my teens). Now maybe I can start knocking down those bricks!!
My biggest advice on the brick wall is learning to take proper research notes. I have ton of videos on the subject. Doing so you'll see details you never noticed before.
I was noticing during the study that i watched today that this gentleman was obliged to sign his name a nuber of tiies throught his military career. I think that this can also be a good way to establish when someone is the same person throught time (of course would only be useful for docments bearing a signature).
This is how I was able to confirm that my Grandfather had joined the coast guard despite NO ONE believing me. His signature on his enlistment papers. It was unmistakable. Yet, my fam still refuses to believe.
Thanks in particular for two things. 1. I always wondered what those Xs were for! 2. I am SO glad to learn I can correct obvious transcription errors in the census records on Ancestry! I don't want to connect erroneous information to my person, yet I want to have the census record. This solves my problem!
Hi Connie Im from Ontario Canada and for many years wanting to know my family history! thanks to you and the way you teach its clicked in at last. im not only found my family down to my great grand parents i have learned how to use the google spreadsheet from your other videos! thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Ah very kind of you. You made my day. Thank you.
Connie.. That was so strange seeing one of those records from your mother-in-law's family. My ex-boyfriend was from Sparta, NC (as were his parents, grandparents, etc...) and until you showed that one record, it's the first time I had ever seen that town mentioned on anything before. (genealogy wise I mean).. ~~ Thanks for the video! ☺👍
Thanks
I love researching my family history. On my dad's side I could find very little. But I have to say watching your videos has greatly helped. I decided to start from scratch and use your strategies. Well I'm back to 1817 on my dad's mom's side. But nothing on his dad's side.
Bravo! Data parsing is the great pathway.
This video is amazing. So much great information.
Thanks
WOW! Thank you, this is very informative and useful information.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you… can’t wait to go back and start looking this way
Thanks Sue
Excellent video! Just like your other worksheets, I will put this to good use
Glad you like it!
I have only watched two of your videos so far. The video is excellent for identifying men of the same name by tying the records together and looking at at least two sources. Easy to follow. The video on is less clear, perhaps because it seemed more complicated. I had difficulty following the steps in the exact order. It would help to explain each step (e.g., Step 1 - do this; Step 2 - do this; etc.) without any asides until all the steps have been explained. All in all, though, good work! Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback.
Did not know you could edit it .... Thanks for all the education you do .....
Very interesting and helpful. It gives additional meaning to the term "paper trail"...
Yes, exactly
Fantastic video. Census records are the best. I only subscribe to the UK and Australia ancestry, so I find the info on there, then go over to FamilySearch to view it. I have learnt so much from your videos, I love all your tricks and tips. Thank you x
Mornin' all. Great point on how to validate an ancestor.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this method of connecting the dots. Using an excel spreadsheet never occurred to me as a resource! I use excel almost every day for my day job. Now I can use it to help untangle portions of my family tree!
I think you mentioned this in a different video: the month each census was taken has varied over the years. This could explain some minor age discrepancies. You might consider adding the census month the header in your summary spreadsheet. I would imagine some of the age differences might be understood as you look across those six or seven decades.
I can see how a variation on this, using marriage records/newspaper announcements, divorce dates, etcetera, and including the “FAN’s” who are present, to verify ancestors!
I look forward to seeing how this can help confirm the correct background of family members we’ve just met!
Great idea Bruce!
Thank you for sharing this information . I have several ancestors that this will help prove I have the right Hampton ancestor.
Wonderful!
Great video! Love Excel spreadsheets! Super example of using them well! Thanks!!
You're so welcome Aimee. Love your channel. Thanks for joining the membership!
Something I would like to learn more about are common names that people used as nicknames. For instance, in this episode we have Mary Ann, who also went by Sally. In my own research, I've seen Mary and Polly, Sally and Sarah, and I don't remember what else. It makes tying these records together a bit more difficult when one is not familiar with these older name relations. Thankfully some of these are still fairly common: Robert > Bob, William > Bill.
Google it! That's what I do.
There's also the name Peggy, which is evidently a nickname for Margaret. Daisy is, too, which I just found out. I learned about Peggy quite sometime ago, as it was what one of my aunts was called.
One of my great-grandfather's was named Jared, as is my oldest son. :)
My partner's tree has at least three individuals who went by nicknames for their entire lives that were unrelated to their actual name. Very confusing!
@@JT1358 It sure is!
And then there is the New England custom of using the first syllable of a name for a nickname. I was a grown woman before I realized that "Aunt L" was really Aunt Ella and "Aunt M" was Aunt Emma or Emily! And don't forget family oddities. My paternal grandmother gave her sons elegant sounding names. Her husband laughed at her and gave them all nicknames that were used in the family for the rest of their lives. So "Harry Millard" was "Kelly," "Paul Jones" was "Jig," "Ladwin DeVere" was "Tom," and so on. And then there are the people who simply go by a different name. My uncle's name on the birth certificate was "Mark," but he was always called "Robin." And his sister hated her first name and always used her middle name -- except on legal papers. It seems as if they were actually trying to confuse researchers!
This is really helpful. Thank you.
My GGFather was an immigrant from Germany in 1882. No, absolutely no family information prior to his arrival in the USA - but, I happen to have his original passport. I always thought I could find him from a ship manifest, but no luck there. It has taken me literally years to figure all this out, and your recent videos have helped me. Knowing his city of origin, I was able to trace back “possible” ancestors based on that as it appears that 4 or 5 generations lived there before my GGF. I asked to join a FaceBook group from his town. The response has been wonderful and just today I received a record that traces the family back to 1645! One person is trying to find out if there are any of my relatives still living there!
Wow! That's great. Have you confirmed this is your family line?
@@GenealogyTV Working on that now.
Near the end of the “lesson” you show a Nancy. My gr gr grandmother’s given name was Anne (Ann too of course), and Nancy shows up as her given name too, especially in earlier documents, like a baptism. So I think Nancy may be a nickname. And then there’s the use of Mary Ann(e). Wow!
Yes... wow.
I have an ancestor whom is always listed in trees as "Namy" but her name was Nancy. Oddly, her sister, my 3rd Ggrandmother, is always listed as "Frances"(her twin brother was Francis), but her death record in the NYS index shoes her name as "Amy F".
It makes me think someone writing the family history somewhere got Nancy and Amy Frances confused with each other.
I like the tip about adding corrections/notes to the transcription. My grandmother on the 1940 census was transcribed as "Male" when her name is "Merle". The cursive 'M' is obviously followed by a poorly written 'e'. As someone who often makes poor cursive e's I get it. (It helps to be old enough to have been taught cursive and used it for decades.)
The notes you can add can be extensive. I like that there was room for me to explain How I know what her name is. It is actually her middle name, but that's what everyone called her. It was also her mother's middle name, my father's middle name, and my middle name as a Jr. I'm the last so the 4 generation "tradition" of that middle name ends with me.
I wish there was a video this detailed about verifying an African American person before the 1870s. I watched your video with Renate Yarborough Sanders as guest host and I enjoyed it by learning some things, but I was really looking forward to her using an example like yours, where she took us on a journey of how she pieced together a specifically difficult person's life by finding records to tie together.
Also, figuring out birth parents of an "unofficial adoption" (i.e. family member or family friend raising another member's child). A search angel in a Fb group helped me find my dad's birth father, but I want to learn how to do the research myself, since there are possibly two more adoptions that occurred in my family. Can you have a guest do these? I appreciate your informative and entertaining videos. Thank you!
Connie, you're the greatest! I learn so much when listening to your video trainings. Just wondering, do you have a video training on your workflow - what you do first, next, etc. Also wondering if you have a training about connecting our media to our FTMaker people. Somehow all of mine have become unlinked and I'm not sure where to start to reconnect everyone. thanks!
Thanks Natalie. You are so kind. Workflow... stay tuned. FTM, no I don't have a video on that. I don't use it often enough. I have reached out to FTM several times to do an interview with no success. They are owned now by Intuit... which has made things more difficult to reach them.
@@GenealogyTV Intuit - darn that's not fun. oh well. thanks i'll be looking for that workflow - take care!
Great video and very informative.
Glad it was helpful!
glad to find this channel. I am looking for anyone who may know how to find records information for people in born in San Francisco. I have a 2nd great grandfather who we know was born there, but the 1906 earthquake and fire burned all the files. I am at a standstill to find his birth certificate to see who his proper parents were and where they were from.
Work this list... and for the State of California. www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/San_Francisco_County,_California_Genealogy
BTW, NGS will be in Sacramento this year. You might want to go to do research too.
You make it look so easy! It took me 9 years to verify that I was correct regarding my maternal great grandfather in Ireland. ( to date I have 6 generations with the same name) My paternal grandfather in NC is just as crazy, at the least 3 generations with the same first, but different middle initials. I was very excited when I found "confirmation" in Family Search world tree. However, finding the will of the potential 2nd great grandfather leads me to believe either he or great grandfather are incorrect. Since I know less about that line I really am at a loss to 'prove' it.
Look to the NC state archives for that will, if it exists.
Perhaps the part of Pitt County where Willis Knox lived eventually became Martin County (or part of Martin County)? I have found that to be true more than once in my genealogy research. Great video!
Yes... If I recall they lived right on the border, with minor border changes. The records are hard to find since that was a burned county.
Rather than frustration, I am now having fun thanks to your tips! A funny story: I’m searching for a particular GGM. Her given and surnames are very common, and there is no information about her prior to her marriage to my GGF in 1888. In searching and comparing census records, I am literally looking at ANYONE named “Jane Doe” for a particular part of the country based on DOB. I found a man named “Sinkley ‘Doe’” (1880 census) who looked promising as her possible father. He ONLY shows up in that particular census record, so I broadened my search…..etc. etc, etc 😉. Well, I finally found him (won’t go into detail, but it was true detective work). Turns out his first (or middle name, as was the case) is “Sinclair.” Also turns out that that he wasn’t my ancestor - but I was so PROUD of myself for discovering that much and gaining the experience🤗! THANK YOU!
Nice. Good work. Sometimes we need to go through that process of elimination. Keep digging. Sounds like you have the skills to find him.
This is why it's called "research." My aunt always said my great grandfather divorced his first wife because she was a "spendthrift." None of the rest of the family ever heard that story(to be fair, my uncle never knew his mother had another sister from her father's first marriage, either). I was able to prove she died, by her death record and confirming I had the RIGHT woman by following the last census record of them married, living with her parents, back to when she was a child, and forward following her siblings records). To the day my Aunt died, she refused to accept that I was correct.
Sadly, not all digitized records are indexed so if you happen to have digitized archives which deal with individuals in the Caribbean islands under French rule, many documents from the slavery era and onward (abolition in 1848 in both Martinique and Guadeloupe) you better be able to read these handwritten notes. In birth records they're typically written in calligraphy so it's easier to read but the rest, not so easy. Spelling errors and misunderstandings were pretty common here so sometimes we have the same family but one sibling will be registered as " Fernand Privat" (Privat being the last name) and their brother comes up as " Montlouis Privat" but later the mistake made by some clerk remains and the registered last name for that branch of the family becomes "Montlouis-Privat". It's a terrible type of mess to wade through when looking at documents if you don't have family narratives to help you understand what happened...
I also keep a spreadsheet with information from the records I have/found as well as info from oral transmission (like nicknames)...
Even unindexed records can be searched of you can figure out how they are organized. The hardest one are just loose leaf unorganized documents.
Connie, Civil War records recently broke a brick wall that I had for years. I found a record for a veteran’s home and it not only had BOTH names my second great grandfather went by (Nagle and Nagles) but his wife’s name and the most important clue of all: a handwritten death date that matches the cemetery burial record for my ancestor’s plot and an address in Brooklyn that matched his death certificate. The records also gave me a birthplace: Cork, Ireland. I ordered his Civil War pension records from the National Archives. By the way, unlike Willie Knox, my second great grandfather’s birthdate calculations from his military records range wildly from 1817 to 1829! He probably fibbed a bit so as not to be viewed as too old to fight or he simply didn’t know his age, which is somewhat common from back then. I also discovered he enlisted for the Mexican American War in 1847. A goldmine.
Fantastic. Congratulations on the find. Yes... about the ages change wildly. I think people get too hung up on age sometimes.
Thanks bunches...you are awesome....
You are so welcome
The informant, now I know!!
Have you ever experience someone adding a year or two their age to enlist into the military? I have a few times, my step-father too for WWII. I've seen enlistment or draft cards changed a year later where they claim to be a year older with the exact same Bday, places and even contacts. The physical description has come in handy to help confirm their identity. I especially like your time period explanations that help us understand the possible reasons for events and why they might have happened. Thanks for this in detail video.
Yes... it happened a lot.
Regarding the change of regimental numbers, it was (and is) common to combine the remnants of regiments that were severely damaged in battle. That might account for the change.
I wonder if it would be helpful to look in Capt. Lanier’s company for some of those neighbors’ names - another cross-bearing!
Yeah... in doing more research I could not find where the regiments merged, but I did realize that there were two Officers by the name of Lanier, one was William B. Lanier and one was John Lanier... and another lower ranking Lanier. I'm thinking they were related. More investigation is needed.... as always :)
Thank you
You're welcome
Another great, informative video packed with info! As usual, I find I am often already doing some of the things you’re presenting but only after having “learned” it the hard way over many years of trial and error.
My question on this topic is what would you recommend as a short hand way of annotating how much record to record proof you have discovered tying records to your person? In other words in this example you’ve tied a number of census records together with correlation of children’s names and ages, location, and neighbor names. You’ve tied the war records by age and wife’s name, etc. Other than your memory, how do you notate the extent to which you’ve proven the records and how the records are tied together? I will sometimes write a list of records or print the profile page and draw a line between 1840 & 1850 and write “ same town, wife name, neighbors martin and Saunders” etc. indicating that I’ve already analyzed this and found these particular correlations. I know ancestry has tags for “proven” and”hypothesis” and things like that for the overall person, and on a fine detail level, you’ve broken down your research using spreadsheets, but in between those two levels, is there a way to have an at a glance notation for how much and how you have proven these individual records are associated with your person?
What you are describing is a Proof Statement. Typically, I would write a Proof Argument (lays out all the details and how they tie together with a conclusion) A Proof Statement is a shorter version of the same thing. This would go in your Research Notes.
@@GenealogyTV thank you so much!
Oh VERY INFORMATIVE.....
Glad you think so!
Thank you, Connie! Actually, that "ASBORNE" surname, you clicked as an example, does need an edit - to "OSBORNE" - that is definitely an "O". I have an interesting English ancestor who was in the military, around 1800. Military service usually means moving around, as seen in your example. Other people (in Canada & USA) who have him in their trees (not DNA matches to me, by the way) have this man and all his children only in one county in England. They have not been able to substantiate the birth of the children in that county. I have an international Ancestry subscription and have found this ancestor in records that show he married and had his first two children in another county. Later, the whole family moved back to his home county, subsequent children being born. It all fits together, yet I so far can't document the reason why he married and had the first two children in this other county, though I suspect the army was on the move, or based training camp nearby. Also, often marriages are held in the wife's home town/county, so that may not fit with the location the family ends up living in, afterwards. She also may go back to her childhood home for the first birth, to be with her mother & sisters. Anyway, I think these other folks who have him in their tree, may have the wrong man, with the same name, during the same time period. All they knew is that their grandfather was born in England, not where in England.
The year you quote, 1800, is in the middle of the Napoleonic War period, ie 1793-1815, so your ancestor was almost certainly in his local county militia, and he would have moved round the country a fair bit. There are a lot of militia records from this period at the UK National Archives at Kew. You may like to look into this.
You're a great teacher and encourager. Thanks for another great video that may help me to solve a problem.
I have a situation, also involving a Confederate soldier. My DNA match has no death date for his 2nd great-grandpa. I have found an old genealogical society newsletter for the right area and time frame showing a man of the same name. Their records show a birth year of 1835 and my match shows his birth year being about 1834. He knows that his ancestor served in the war. The newsletter says this same-named man "died during the last month of the conflict". By my calculations, that should be March/April 1865. But, his great-grandfather wasn't born until Feb 1872. Therein lies the problem.
He has an extensive tree, as do I, especially for the family line that his DNA maps to. Yet after several years of looking, we still have not been able to find our connection. If that soldier IS the 2nd great-grandpa listed in the match's tree, then, obviously, it doesn't add up for him to be the biological 2nd great-grandpa for my match and this may be why we can't find our connection. Maybe one of my distant uncles or grandpas is his true 2nd great-grandpa. So, I need to prove one way or another if they are different men with the same name or if they are one and the same. I'm thinking if I don't find his name(or some version of it!) in the 1870 census, then that quite possibly answers the question.
I had all but given up on trying to sort this one out. Thanks for the spark of hope. Have a blessed weekend!
Suzanne. Focus on the records, timeline and research you have. Use your DNA cousins and their records for clues. They either fit or they don't. If his doesn't add up to the facts you have, then maybe he's wrong... or maybe you're wrong. I don't worry too much about what other people do. I look for all the evidence I can find, correlate it, resolve it, write it, and move on. Keep in mind that you might connect with that DNA cousin through a different line too. Just a thought.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks, Connie. I am doing what I can to find more records on this CSA soldier and the man in my match's tree to try to work this out.
While either one of our trees (or both!) could be wrong, and goodness knows I've made plenty of mistakes along the way, this match maps to my mother's maternal grandpa's family on my chromosome map. He does not match her father's side cousins and he has no DNA match to my bio father.
My mother has matches to all of the people that she should have. Her tree 'appears' to be solid. But, I well know that appearances and reality are not always the same. It sure would be easier if they were!
Thanks again for the encouragement to keep digging. Have a blessed day.
Thank you so much! That was very helpful. But I have a question. On one of the Census records the wife was listed as Sally and the rest she is Mary Ann. You mentioned she was called Sally in that one year, but how are you sure she is the same person? Couldn't Sally have been the first wife and Mary Ann the second? Maybe I missed something?
Because in the timeline Mary Ann shows up before and after the reference to Sally. I'm thinking Sally was a nickname.
@@GenealogyTV Oh, okay, thanks, I did miss that.
It astounds me at how far off in years the Census' "estimated birth year" can be. I've found more than a few that are off by five years in either direction. I think to myself, "Do these people not know when they were born or the enumerators don't write as people speak, working from memory house to house? It's very frustrating.
I find the younger the child is in a census record, the more accurate it is. Perhaps the parents or informants hadn't forgotten how old thier children were yet. However, keep in mind, age was not that important back then... or the spelling of names.
People often lied about their age, for a variety of reasons.
how can I remove the 'blue lines' in the Birth/death/marriage Vital records image pages, that are being used to separate the individual records
If it is what I think you're talking about, you can't.
Great information! Funny the transcription error you clicked on as an example was most likely incorrect also. Asborne should've probably been Osborne!
As I'm listening to this video, I can conceive of 2 scenarios where Willis's birth year might be changed from 1826 to 1823: 1) Willis is underage but really wants to enlist, so he lies about his age to the enlistment clerk; 2) Lanier's enlistment clerk is pushing to meet his quota, so he fudges Willis's birth year to allow the boy in. Desperate times, desperate actions.
Both good ideas.
Nice job, Connie. It’s lovely when the ages line up properly for corroboration, isn’t it? It sure didn’t work that way with my great grandmother whose ages from the 1870 to 1940 censuses were given as: 4, 14, 34, 35, 40, 50, 60. She couldn’t have been lying about her age for the first two censuses, and even in 1900 she was willing to admit the truth. So, what happened by 1910? Her husband, who was her junior by 4-1/2 years, was a philanderer and by the time of the 1910 census (when she aged only one year in a decade) he was having an affair with their young nursery maid, who became pregnant. It’s interesting how it suddenly all makes sense-but sad.
Yeah... go with the earlier census years... those will be more accurate given that the mother was likely the informant and knew the ages of her children. As people get older, the informants change, people lie or just didn't care about age that much....Until Social Security came around. Then they had to prove their age.
We have a lady who was all over the place in the census & with her gravestone (no- they are not the gosple truth, people). I found very early records which I believe to be the most true, as Connie suggests. A new immigrant, she gave a certain age and maiden name (typically Catholic). She was married to the correct man, and had the first 3 children, whose names/ages fit. Then, as she assimilated into society and moved far away from her first city, she gave a generic Protestant maiden name (she had married a Protestant & moved from a predominantly Catholic city to a predominantly Protestant outpost town) and kept making herself younger. DNA matches are adding credence to her original maiden name as being the correct one, of course!
I struggle with this on my Finnish side. Non English records and VERY common names with surnames that are constantly changing.
I have a father (not my family) who on one census said he was born in France, then on the next census said he was born in Louisiana. When his son was older and now head of household, he answered that his father was born in France on one census, and In Louisiana in the next one! 🙄 And the mother is variously Mary, Estelle, Maria, and Stella…same woman.
Well, you know what they say in Louisiana (French).. _Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler_ ("Let the good times roll!) ... Seriously, though.. I hope you find more info so you can determine where he was born! When I was in Bisbee, Arizona, one of the people with the historical society gave me a copy of my great-great grandfather's death certificate. On his certificate, for race it's says "French". Who puts French down as a race?? He was born in Kentucky, but moved to Bisbee because of mining. His parents were Scottish, so how bizarre.... 😄
@@bearpawz_ There was some hint of his father being executed in France - not sure if he’s a victim or a criminal - so maybe there has been a history of misdirection aimed at safety? More research!
All good points as I read the thread here. Also consider the source of the information. Which one has more weight? Who was the informant? Was it the man himself or someone else? Fuel for thought.
Crazy, isn’t it? I have a great great grandfather who appears on no records except where he is referred to by others, like “birthplace of father” in censuses. Under those headings, as reported by his wife and kids, he is said to have been born in New York, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Pennsylvania. I’m inclined to go with Baltimore, since his son said that on a military record, but I still can’t find him-my 10 foot thick brick wall.
@@michelledenise5096 Wow. Michelle, it sounds you have some interesting work ahead of you! 😲👍
my question is how were you able to find all of the civil war records online? when writing to request my ancestor's confederate records, there were only about 2 to 4 pages found. are there more available that were not sent to me?
Check out your state archives for confederate records.
I'm having to do something similar in a timeline for a family of George MacQueen. He was born McQueen and somewhere along the line he changed and started spelling it MacQueen. To complicate the matter all of the birth years in almost all of the documents were bouncing around it seemed like he just gave an about year. I would get swings of 3 to years. The one consistency I found was in his wife and children's names. Even is occupations constantly change. Labor, Farmer, Private Caretaker Estate, drawbridge operator, and theatrical agent list on a masonic card. I'm pretty sure I've got it but I still have a question in my mind of, am I sure.
Well Matt... several things come to mind. Age was not important to people back then. Some didn't even know when they were born so they guessed. Keep in mind the differences in months when the various census was taken. Lastly, people went where the work was...so changing occupations was not uncommon.
When I copy the translated info & past into an excel spreadsheet, it only pastes into column A. What can I do to correct this?
Use Chrome as your browser, if you're copying from an online database. Use a recent version of Excel. When you paste, use Paste Special then Values only. I should do a new video as the menus have changed some.
My grandfather lied about his birthday to sign up earlier than legally allowed (changed it from Dec to Feb). His tombstone has Feb listed. 😂
It's a good idea to create a FACT about the creation date of new counties...COULD be a reason that you show a different county name from Martin County. Do you recommend showing name of birth county of what it was at the time of birth or the current name of county?
Great idea Paula about the border changes in the timeline. I do recall they lived on the edge of Martin County and Pitt County so it could be the border jumped over them. I have not been able to located the exact land yet. I typically document in the facts the information for which a documents supports it. So I need to find the information where it stated he was born in Pitt county or change it to Martin. It had been decades since I had worked on that line so clearly more investigation is needed.
Do you always use Ancestry for the information and does it cost?
I prefer Ancestry. You can build a tree on Ancestry for free and research some records and indexes for free. You can then use FamilySearch (totally free) to find some of the records you can't see on Ancestry without paying. See this episode about tracing your family tree for free. It is a little older episode but most of this still holds true. czcams.com/video/V3t2xwY7zVE/video.html I talk about Ancestry's free accounts.
I’ve only just started to go on my family tree journey I’m from England, my Mother’s Father is from Germany when I tried to go back it obviously is in German how do I get round this apart from learning German, any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks Tony
MyHeritage has records translated into about 42 languages.
@@GenealogyTV thank you
I need help! Please! Im stuck on my 4th granddad and lost as to figure out his parents. I finished going through the county records in the state that I know he was. In fact he and his wife were one of the first to apply for marriage bond there. I know he was born in Virginia on the late 1700s early 1800s but can’t find a record of parents or how he found his way to Kentucky from Virginia. There was apparently multiple people born that same year with same name at same place. Apparently there’s a break because even if I look at other public trees they have him married to someone before he was born. I’m at a list especially after going through the county records. Any suggestions??
I’ve also sadly but the bullet and subscribed to many other sites to see if I can find something, some kind of bread trail but seems to be the same problems. It’s a puzzle piece that’s driving me crazy!
And yes I’m a beginner but I’ve found so many flaws with this one ancestor on every public tree I’ve found, there’s got to be a document out there somewhere.
Look to the Library of Virginia (the state archives) for records not held at the county level. Also, try to study the history of the time, even if you have to read the newspapers in the area to get a sense of why they migrated. Think of what pushed or pulled them to the new location. It was likely work or a better way of life. State archives are always a great resource. Here is a good resource for a lot of records on Virginia. Book mark it, you'll use it over and over again. www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Virginia,_United_States_Genealogy
Curious to know why you have some ancestor's last name in ALL CAPS and not for others. Personally, I make all my DIRECT line LAST NAMES in ALL CAPS, so that I know wherever I am in my searches-particularly when in sibling lines-who is the DIRECT line back to me.
Personally, I would have used "Willis" for the first name of your ancestor as that seems to have been on the earliest records for him. Even his military records show this name. It is far more valid in my mind than in later records. Additionally, checking what MONTH a census was taken from one to another can tell you an approximate month of birth (between dates) when compared to each other as they will be off by one year. Useful to narrow down a birthdate that can lead to more records.
The all caps is a holdover from doing it the old way. I just haven't gotten to all the names in my tree to correct them.
@@GenealogyTV Yeah, I had that same "holdover" from the original files as well. I changed all my direct lines from the Ancestry Pedigree page, which was easy, and then whenever I am in a listing that is not direct, I will update those as I go.
How would you find someone who was in Marine Corp in 1980's that disappeared in 1987 or before. I've looked in marine Corp records on ancestry and come up empty. I graduated with this person
Since this person is likely still alive, you would need to look to City Directories, Yearbooks, and Social Media to find a living person.
I would wonder if “Sally” Knox passed away and then Willis/William Knox married “Mary Ann”?
Do you document this process in the sources or ... ?
I document the sources for the documents... and if I need to write a proof statement I do so in my files.
How do you go about finding the original source material for records? You can find a lot on family search, but a lot of that is questionable and youre relying on what other people dug up with a limited pool. If someone hasn't dug up something on a particular person then where do you go in order to find for a certificates to death certificates marriage certificates military records and so forth?
I know my mother's father's side The names are extraordinarily common and there are many instances of the same name or combination of names in the same state roughly at the same time so it's kind of one of those deals that's not easy to substantiate without like birth certificates or something that link parents directly.
Separately how would you link people back to the old world when you get to that generation that finally bridged over and then all of your records are in Europe? I know you're still looking for a records but then you become dependent on finding those original sources again and where they might be preserved. And then you start to run into things like what you mentioned before where certain names spellings start to change a little bit and it becomes a lot more ambiguous
Unless it is a photo of a record that a member put up, there are source citations, including the original source on almost all genealogy platforms.
When you have multiple people with the same first name right in a row how do you distinguish them besides their birth date.. would you put junior, senior, the third etc..
Also...what happened to poor Mary Ann..and why did he go to war having to support ALL those children.. always so many questions 🤔
For every research problem solved... it always prompts more questions. That's the fun of it.
Why is Ancestry auto-filling people I did not add to my tree? New feature? Can I turn it off?
Are you sure they're not in your tree?
@@GenealogyTV No, I have not had the opportunity to research these people. They just showed up. I have added research from other ancestors, is it possible based on the research I have done that the algorithm is adding them based on other Ancestry members with these same ancestors?
I find it really annoying when Ancestry decides to "help" me by inserting extra stuff over and above what I actually entered. I've found a lot of the "information" they add is bogus.
I learn so much from your videos. I plan to use the techniques you showed in this video to determine if a want-ad from the 1800s which was looking for information about an ancestor that lived in the 1600s. Is the ancestor from the 1600s in the want-ad, the same person who is in my family tree? Wish me luck.
Sounds great! Good luck... and as always... Enjoy the Journey!
Why do siblings not connect to both parents on a tree. Drives me crazy
Me too.
You can manually add them.
I wouldn't have thought that Willis and William could be the same person.
Many of my ancestors lived in NYC, and had a different address every census. Very rude. Lol.
Yes... I see it a lot in the south.
What was your research question?
Ah? How do we know what we know? That is my favorite question in life. Its also part of the fun if genealogy.
Funny!
We are lucky in sweden because the church kept "tax records" on families even back in the 1600´s and because of that we can keep track on a lot of "regular farmers" in the past even
I'm pretty new to this (less than a year), and it's already obvious this endeavour is very time consuming. As such, it would be great if this kind of persnickety research was appealing to me. It's not. But, there's nobody else in my family likely do so it, so I feel compelled. I'd rather have the verified data was handed to me on a silver platter. This video illustrates (at least to me) the difficulty of reading cursive documents.
On the positive side, I'm pushing 69 years, and exercising the brain is certainly worthwhile as we age. And, your videos are most helpful and appreciated. I especially appreciate the spreadsheet tip.
It boggles the mind to think of the challenges we'd face without internet access.
Indeed, people who "don't do detail" are not ideally suited to this hobby.
The handwriting says Walls.
Amazing video! You apparently have an abundance of patience which I have very little of.
I try
I have a challenge. I have two cousins, who served in the Revolutionary War...one as a Captain and the other as a First Lieutenant. They are from the same state, Maryland, same generation and they share the same name....Philip Pindell. I came across a 1780's-something land record belonging to a Philip Pindle/Pindell/Pindall but.....WHICH ONE?
Watch this video Revolutionary War Records for Genealogy Research - Part 1 czcams.com/video/ucuhrIe-g-Y/video.html and Revolutionary War Records for Genealogy Research - Part Two czcams.com/video/HdLpafGWn6A/video.html. See if any of that helps.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks!
@@GenealogyTV I've been looking through the suggested resources and have already used many of them over the years. My ancestor, First Lieutenant Philip Pindell, is a new addition to the DAR website so the GRS database is not complete. It's an ongoing project. Also, well-meaning folks have attempted to insist that the Cousins Philip Pindell are one and the same person when he's not. Families tended to give their children the same names so multiple cousins, in the same generation, would have identical names such as Philip, Thomas, etc.
This is very interesting, but it sure is complicated. It must take years to learn how to do this.
45+ now.
Very interesting video and tutorial. Unfortunately, for my ancestral research, I don't have the liberty of journeying back that far, as a person of color
I dont either and I'm white
Sooner or later the records run out, same for everybody.
@@nickmiller76 it really isn't the same
@@Sean-jc6cu your choice
@@taejones5265 not really, my history was taken by the British
Omg I have twin aunts that were twins, then they were not twins, then they were twins again, all because of my mother's personal knowledge and documents that are 100% accurate., very confusing.
Interesting.
@@GenealogyTV Yes accurate birth records showing them born five years apart and a census record from 1911 said no not twins, but then the 1921 British census records came out and said yes, my great grandmother hand wrote the census document herself and listed them as born in 1916, so maybe she had two other daughters with the same names who died?
@@GenealogyTV So I ordered a death certificate for the Edith Wright from 1911 just to see if I was right that they had another Edith Wright who died in 1911, and I was right all of the info matches what I have for them, so I can assume that they also had a Lily Wright who died as well.
The DNA thing New York I could not figure that one out can't blame it on a record mistake unless that DNA thing wrong still can't figure that one out
So Willis is also William?
Yes!
If I wanted to make my own family tree, how would I go about doing this?
I would start with a free trial at Ancestry. Here's my affiliate link if you want to give it a try. prf.hn/click/camref:1101l4aFW/creativeref:1011l28781
Did you find out your nationality
This line likely comes from Scotland.
Can I hire you to help me ?? I'm trying to find my Great Grandfather's real mom, she's suppose to be Ute or Cherokee.
I have private coaching if you want to try that. That way we can jump on a Zoom call, share computer screens, and I can see your family tree. Here is a link with more information. genealogytv.org/virtual-private-coaching/ However, you should know I'm not an expert at Native American research.
Are you just for US researchers....because some of us are not in the USA so this is not so helpful.
For records research, I am a U.S. specialist. For genealogy strategies, they work just about anywhere. I am not an expert at records outside the U.S... for that I usually will bring in an expert in that area.