Final Touches on the First Draft

I’m getting close to “done” with this first attempt at a family history book. My “small” project is about 3-400 pages at this point. I’ve focused mainly on the family groups and gone back 6 generations – which gets to the last generation that was alive around 1850. I still…

Best DNA Service for Family History

Now that I’ve played around with the DNA features that several different companies have to offer, I think I can give some good advice. The most interesting part of doing the DNA test, for me, has been finding some distant cousins and adding new generations to my family tree. There…

Finding DNA Matches

Have you found a lot of DNA matches? I’ve done Ancestry and 23&Me DNA tests and both companies have found 10s of thousands of DNA matches for me. But who are they? And what do they tell me about my family history? I got lucky and matched a few close…

My Genealogical Wish List?

A time machine. Whatever terms you need. I could stay invisible like a ghost so I can’t change anything, for example. I’d like to be able to see first hand what was happening in some of these families so I could answer some questions. Did Betty have an affair, or…

The Evolving Family Tree

You would think your family tree was written in stone and would never change – but that’s not the case. Just this year my tree has transformed tremendously… I took a DNA test which turned up a bunch of cousins, even a couple first cousins I never knew I had!…

Notable People in the Family Tree?

I was almost related to George Washington, by marriage at least. Turns out the family mythology was only true if you went back to Noah… But I did discover a notable person much closer to me on my tree. Turns out my dad’s uncle was a pretty impressive guy. He…

My First Will

So what is it like to document my family’s slaves? First of all, there isn’t a lot of information. There is a will… and an image of that handwritten will is online at Ancestry.com. I can see where I got my handwriting abilities from…particularly the tendency to start out reasonably…

Slaves and Slave Owners

This year black history month is about more than Rosa Parks. Since I’ve started doing my genealogy on WikiTree I’ve participated in a few “challenges”. This one is about documenting more African-Americans, and for me particularly those who were enslaved by my ancestors. Like most white Americans, I don’t think…

Two Sides to Every Story

At least… In this case one side says he got married young and they lived happily ever after until death did them part. The other side says he got married 2 years later to a different woman, had some children, and eventually divorced her and disappeared into the sunset. How…