Indholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2024 i Family Tree

We family historians are kind of like arborists: We carefully nurture the “trees” in our care, planting them in good soil and making sure they have what they need to grow. Fortunately, tech companies have created intuitive tools that make it easier than ever to cultivate a family tree online. You can view and edit your tree from nearly any internet-enabled device, then share it widely with relatives (if you so choose). You can find and cite records in minutes, saving hours of research and documentation time. And the work of other genealogists from around the world—representing billions of photos, family stories and documents that we may never have seen otherwise—are available at our fingertips. Whether to “plant” your tree online is thus a question of where, not if. Our tech…

Long-running genealogy podcast and radio show ExtremeGenes ceased its weekly schedule in December. In his newsletter announcing the change, host Scott Fisher assured listeners that he’d continue recording episodes periodically. The show’s episode archive, which dates to July 2013, remains on its website <www.extremegenes.com>. Editor’s note: Page 7 of the January/February 2024 issue reported that the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI) had not publicly confirmed whether its 2024 event would be virtual, in-person or a hybrid event. After that issue’s print date, the organization announced the event will be hybrid, with both in-person sessions in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and virtual programming.…

IN THE NEWS: Opening War Letters When a University of Cambridge professor requested to view a stash of 18th-century letters at the UK National Archives, he found they had never been opened or read. The letters had been sent—but not delivered—to French sailors captured in 1758 during the Seven Years’ War. After receiving permission to open and read them, the professor was amazed by their intimacy. The story about his “discovery,” published by The Guardian <www.theguardian.com/century-love-letters-to-french-sailors-read for-first-time,> is a great reminder that not all items housed in archives have been fully reviewed and cataloged. And it begs the question: “What family treasures await you at your local archive?” PHOTO SEARCH TIP: Treasures Behind Treasures Archivists see a lot of unusual things as they sift through collections and artifacts that land…

My mom’s voice was strained. “There’s something I need to tell you, and it’s going to rock your world.” I was 45 years old, still grieving my dad’s death the previous year. Mom explained that in the early 1970s, my dad learned he was incapable of fathering children. Heartbroken, they saw a physician who suggested using a sperm donor. And there it was—the truth. My dad, whom I loved and missed more than seemed possible, was not my biological father. With recent developments in DNA testing, many people are discovering that their paternity differs from what they believed. They might find that they were adopted, conceived through a sperm donor, or conceived naturally by a different father. The revelation is fraught with emotion, both for us learning the news and…

When people die, families gather—for comfort, to say goodbye, and to tie up loose ends. Loved ones of our deceased ancestors would meet for the reading of the will and to divide up the departed person’s belongings. Today, genealogists can read all about that process in probate paperwork. These records are often packed with relatives’ names, relationships and residences. They offer intimate glimpses into family love, loyalties and sometimes feuds. You often can find dates of birth, marriage and death, and clues to family migrations and household composition. You may even learn the contents of the family home, barn, closets and pantry. Probate records can be daunting to find and use. Originals may be buried in remote courthouses or unknown archives. Different counties’ records are organized differently. Thick files, packed…

BY THE NUMBERS • Launched in 2012 • Retail price: $99 USD ($119 USD with Traits add-on) • 22 million DNA kits in database • Available in 128 countries QUICK LINKS AncestryDNA home <www.ancestry.com/dna> Support Center <support.ancestry.com/s/ancestrydna> Learning Hub <www.ancestry.com/c/dna-learning-hub> Ancestry Academy <www.ancestryacademy.com/understanding-dna> ANCESTRYDNA FEATURES *Premium DNA tools require AncestryDNA Plus ($29.99/six months) or one of Ancestry.com’s other paid subscription plans <www.ancestry.com/offers/subscribe>. Frequently Asked Questions Which ancestors can my results tell me about? AncestryDNA tests can give information about any of your ancestors, maternal or paternal. They’re most reliable for details about the previous five or so generations. How long will my results take to come back? Response times vary. But AncestryDNA estimates you can expect to see results under your account’s DNA tab within eight weeks…

1 Relationship estimates and shared DNA: AncestryDNA reports how you and a DNA match are related based on the amount of DNA you share. Click to view more details, including other possible relationships based on the amount of shared DNA and what your longest shared segment is. Note that a shared-DNA amount can result in various relationships; AncestryDNA reports on the most likely, but also lists other possibilities. See the chart in this cheat sheet for more. 2 DNA and family trees: You can attach your DNA test to a Member Tree created on Ancestry.com. If your DNA match has also done this (and their tree is public), you can view the ancestors you have in common and the relevant part of the tree, plus shared surnames and ancestral birth locations. (See…

The UK’s Ministry of Justice announced in 2023 its plans to digitize more than 100 million wills, dating back 150 years. The catch? The department’s current proposal would have original documents destroyed once they’ve been digitized, perhaps retaining wills only of famous people or those created in the past 25 years. Genealogists and historians are rallying against the proposal, demanding the government reconsider its plans. You can find a petition at <petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654081> (open only to British citizens and UK residents) and more information with the hashtag #SaveOurWills on social media. The government’s “consultation period” is scheduled to end in February 2024.…

Jenn Bokoch grew up hearing stories from her mother’s family about the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa. <www.eriebenedictines.org>. The sisters ran St. Benedict Academy, an all-girls high school that served Erie for nearly 120 years (1869–1988). Bokoch’s mother (Janet) and aunt both went to St. Benedict; Janet was in the class of 1972. Over the years, Janet kept in touch with some of the sisters, even after she relocated to San Diego. And she met up with a few of them when they traveled to California. But it wasn’t until Bokoch began an interview-based theater piece about the sisters that their deep impact on her family became clear. When Janet became ill, Bokoch started communicating with the sisters—many of whom were Janet’s teachers. “Initially, we were just reconnecting,” Bokoch says.…

Each state-by-state guide includes: • How-to tutorials for finding records Notes on how and when key documents were kept in the state, including vital records, state censuses and land records • Historical summaries and timelines Narrative history with special emphasis on events that affected your ancestors, including year of statehood, large migrations, and major border changes • Links to key resources Websites, books, and archives and organizations for further research 1 READ AS PART OF FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE Each issue contains two newly updated guides on a rolling basis. Subscribers collect all 52 guides. 2 VIEW ONLINE FOR FREE <www.familytreemagazine.com/explore-by-state> New states added each month. 3 PURCHASE & DOWNLOAD PDFS <store.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-research-state-guides> Purchase ($9.99 per guide; $49.95 for full collection) includes perpetual access to the most-recent version of the guide. RESEARCH…

CREATE ONE ‘MASTER’ FAMILY TREE ON YOUR DESKTOP, then selectively publish it online at various websites. Having at least parts of your tree in multiple places can attract cousins and help your research outlive you. But having to make updates at so many services can be cumbersome and timeconsuming. And relying on third-party websites (which may change their terms of service or charge subscription fees to access) is generally less secure than hosting a tree on your own desktop. Lisa Louise Cooke outlines the “one-tree” strategy at <www.familytreemagazine.com/strategies/build-family-tree-software>. We compare the features of the most-popular online family trees on page 12, and provide a form for tracking all of them on page 72. You’ll find links to help resources at the big genealogy websites on page 70.…

1 Once logged in, you can enter your tree from scratch, as I started to do. But then I changed my mind and instead decided to use the site’s option for importing a GEDCOM file for my mother’s side (Research > GEDCOM). It was created by someone else and given to me; it still needs a lot of work. As you upload your GED-COM, follow the site’s prompts to compare data with that already put on Geni. That way, you’ll minimize adding duplicate people. 2 Geni has a tool (Research > Consistency Checker) that helps you spot potential inaccuracies in your tree, perfect for working off this GEDCOM that I know needs work. The Consistency Checker, for example, will highlight missing surnames or implausible ages for someone to have been a parent.…

AncestryDNA tests autosomal DNA, which is passed from parent to child in each generation. As you’ll see below, a child receives roughly 50% of their DNA from each parent, 25% from each grandparent, and so on. Because of this inheritance pattern, you will not have a detectable amount of DNA from all your ancestors. You can used shared DNA to determine how you’re related to an unknown DNA match. (See the table at right.) In general, you share more DNA with closer relatives. Note that the same shared-DNA value could apply to multiple relationships. And each relationship has a range of possible shared DNA. ESTIMATED DNA INHERITED FROM EACH GENERATION SHARED DNA AND RELATIONSHIPS *Based on the Shared cM Project 4.0, published in 2020 <www.dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4> GLOSSARY autosomal DNA (atDNA): The…

ThruLines This tool use artificial intelligence, shared-DNA values, and Public Member Trees to generate suggested family trees that include you and your DNA matches. To use ThruLines, you’ll need to have a Public Member Tree and attach your DNA to it. Access ThruLines either by clicking that box on your DNA summary page or by clicking Matches > By Ancestor. Click an ancestor, and AncestryDNA will create a possible family tree makeup for you and the DNA matches whom the program believes are also related to that ancestor. Relatives in ThruLines but not your family tree will appear in green. You can view some details in ThruLines without a paid membership, but you’ll need a subscription to see full details in other users’ trees. Learn more about ThruLines at <support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-ThruLines>.…

AFTER MONTHS OF BETA-TESTING new features, Ancestry.com <www.ancestry.com> announced Pro Tools, a collection of enhancements to its Member Trees. New features include a tree-checking tool that analyzes your work for data errors, as well as additional reports and more-advanced filtering options. (See page 13 for more on Ancestry.com Member Trees.) Pro Tools are only available as a $10/month upgrade to one of Ancestry.com’s record subscriptions. It’s not included as part of any other plan, and also isn’t available as a standalone membership for users who don’t already subscribe to Ancestry.com. This new subscription option joins AncestryDNA-Plus <support.ancestry.com/s/article/AncestryDNA-Plus-Membership>, announced in September. See <www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestry-help/subscription-plans compared> for more information.…

IN LATE 2023 MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> was busy, releasing a trio of new tools: • AI Biographer: Have artificial intelligence write a Wikipedia-style entry about your ancestor, based on details in your MyHeritage family tree or from AI Record Finder. •  AI Record Finder: This AI chatbot walks you through the steps of a MyHeritage record search. Start with the name of your ancestor, then follow the bot’s prompts to refine your search. The tool is based on tech by OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. •  MyHeritage Wiki: This growing resource has entries for a variety of genealogical topics, ranging from DNA to place-specific research to naming traditions. See what’s been added at <www.myheritage.com/wiki/Home>. The former two are just the latest AI-assisted features at MyHeritage, which also has a library of photo-colorization and-enhancement tools.…

“EXCELSIOR!,” DECLARES NEW YORK’S COAT OF arms. That motto, Latin for “ever upward,” could easily refer to many aspects of the state’s history: the pattern of gradual settlement from the Hudson River north, the state’s burgeoning population size, or the daring heights of New York City’s skyscrapers. Read on for how to research your ancestors in New York State, whether they were life-long residents or just briefly passed through its bustling ports. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND Indigenous groups have lived in modern New York for thousands of years. Five tribes—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca—formed the powerful Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) in Upstate New York by the time of European contact in the 1600s. (A sixth, the Tuscarora, joined later.) Other notable groups include the Munsee Lenape, Schaghticoke and Mohicans.…

My research in Ireland has led me lots of places. I’ve climbed over iron fences, rusted farm gates, and stone walls to explore abandoned cemeteries in sheep fields and surrounding medieval churches. I’ve searched for relations and historians in pubs, restaurants, post offices, and even local nursing homes. And I’ve knocked on dozens of strangers’ doors—sometimes the wrong doors! But people happily pointed me in the right direction. Despite what may sound like exhaustive research, not once have I said, “I’ve searched everywhere, but still can’t trace my Irish ancestry.” A successful genealogist must have perseverance, positivity and creativity to break down an Irish brick wall. Record losses often discourage people from even attempting Irish research. True, many records were destroyed by fires or government order. But surviving church records,…

Q Why do my Y-DNA matches have multiple surnames? A You can take a Y-DNA test from only one of our big genetic genealogy companies: Family Tree DNA <www.familytreedna.com>. While both 23andMe<www.23andme.com> and Living DNA <www.livingdna.com> provide a bit of Y-DNA information, only Family Tree DNA offers a list of other individuals who “match” you. (More on that shortly.) Because Y-DNA and (generally) surnames are passed along the strictly paternal lines, you’d reasonably expect your matches to have the same surname. But that isn’t always the case. Here are three main reasons why, sorted in order from most likely to least. 1. You don’t actually match them Y-DNA matches are reported in terms of how many differences exist between you. Generally, a Y-DNA match has three or fewer differences from…

1 Percentages: AncestryDNA compares your DNA with that of others known to have lived in specific countries or regions for generations. It then assigns an estimate of how much of your DNA comes from that place, with an accompanying map. Click a place to see more detail, including the range of possible percentages and a link to more about the ethnicity. 2 Communities: In addition to ethnicities, AncestryDNA may assign you to one or more Communities. Communities (indicated by circles with dotted lines nested underneath an estimate) are more-specific historical groups of people who lived and migrated together. Click the name of a Community to learn more about it (see the next page for an image) and the DNA matches AncestryDNA also believes to descend from that Community. 3 Trace estimates: Estimates are…