Best Genealogy Tips & Tricks (Free Webinar Replay)

[@Jan-xp8yi]

I got interested in genealogy as a teenager. Had the privilege of going to my great aunt’s house in 1969, she had all the family bibles in her attic. Wrote down lots of information in them. I then typed them up later. But my original notes are lost. I wish I knew where those bibles are. My aunt has been dead for years, she had only one daughter who is also deceased. Thanks for all your helpful information

[@lindashankle9645]

Jan, pray that the attic still has some stuff in it that haven't been moved. Find out who lives there now and kindly ask them to check. There may still be a box or two that haven't been touched yet.

[@mab426]

Check the local historical society where your aunt or her daughter lived.

[@anellawrites]

I have a unique situation where I am obsessed with genealogy, but I’m estranged from virtually every family member (thanks to significant childhood trauma I lived through). I am also 61 and starting to wonder who I would leave all my research with in the event something happens to me.

[@GenealogyTV]

If nothing else, leave it as a public tree on Ancestry so others can benefit from your work.

[@moderick]

Hi, your local or State Genealogical Society or Family History Society may also be interested. They may be able to digitise your records so they are available to a wider group, than your immediate family. Good luck.

[@anellawrites]

@@moderick Hmmm. Well I do live in Allen County Indiana. Home of the Allen County Public Library.

[@Lady_Susan_Wright]

I glanced up at the name of this subscriber because I didn't remember writing it. 😅 Your story is so similar to mine. I like the suggestion of leaving all of your work with a local society. And how cool that you live in Allen County Indiana.

[@djcchicago]

So, I listened to your advice about researching the neighbors of our ancestors, and thought, oh, that's a lot of work. But I gave it a shot, and went to my great grandparent's census record in 1910, and scrolled up a bit, finding a name. That name was attached to a person, whose name sounded rather familiar. It's my grand aunt. And with that, a mystery solved. We lived around the corner from a family my mother called cousins. I never knew how they were related, and now I see that they likely came to Poland with my great grandparents, and moved right next door. Thanks a million!!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Yay. Glad you solved it.

[@kennabartz3830]

Thank you for explaining leaving flowers, never thought about the time stamp and didn’t know it was free

[@GenealogyTV]

You’re welcome 😊

[@conniekessinger472]

I am in the middle of watching your video right now, but I have a question and don't want to forget it. :D When you are gathering names for the FAN Club. What do you do with them? Do they go in to your research notes? Do you record ALL the names on those 20 or so pages? I appreciate you so much. I try to watch all your videos.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Connie. It depends on how important the FAN club members are to me. I usually add them as a floating member of my tree. Since you're an avid viewer, I'm sure you are aware of how to add FAN club members on Ancestry (assuming you're using Ancestry). If they witnesses on documents, I will for sure note them in my research notes. You could also keep track of them in a spreadsheet. It all depends on your research question.. your mission. Great question. For the most part, I add them as floaters in my tree (AND MARK THEM) with tree tags so you can find them again.

[@conniekessinger472]

@@GenealogyTV Thank you so much.

[@susanbodlak6769]

Amazing information- thank you!

[@Kay-Living-my-Way]

I am hoping someone can help me. My brick wall is who was my maternal great-grandfather. My great-grandmother was married to a man who is not my great-grandfather when my grandfather was born in 1903 in Indiana. There is no birth record, but I did find a boy with his exact name and birthday in an orphanage in Indiana in the 1910 Indiana census. Orphanage records state that his parents had the same names as one of my great-grandmother’s brothers and his 1st wife. The boy ended up in Missouri in 1911. My grandparents married in the same area of Missouri in 1922. This is where I am stuck. An additional problem is my grandfather’s last name and his mother’s maiden name was Smith. Any advice of where I can look would be appreciated. Thank you

[@GenealogyTV]

Oh boy. I hope you have written research notes. If not, that is my first advice. See some of the many videos on keeping good research notes. From there you can lay out all that you don't have. Sometimes writing research notes in chronological order abstracting all that you already have makes you see details you didn't notice before.

[@Kay-Living-my-Way]

Thank you I did watch your video and have research notes started, but still need to add the last few things I found. I am not sure if I can go any further. However, today I found a scrapbook that appears to be my mother's. I am hoping she has something more about her father in there. The empty time frame is 1903 or 1911, if the boy in orphanage is him, and 1922. I have done some fan researching, but have not found any connection yet. @@GenealogyTV

[@dlc943g]

Family search has changed so much over the years, that it just agrievates and confuses me. It used to be so much more user friendly back in the 90's. In the last year or 2 I can't even find anything there anymore.

[@johnmills4792]

Thank you for these videos. I have been using Ancestry for years. I think I'm pretty good at it, but it seems like every video of yours that I watch I learn something new. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these. One thing I have learned to do is to not only use the tags to say verified, or unverified or hypothesis, but I also add a custom field to every entry titled "Reason lineage is verified" (or whatever status I assigned). And I write in a couple of sentences the key documents found for that person that confirm why the link is verified (or list things like find-a-grave or geneanet that are pretty good, but not up to my standards for proof, and therefore make the link unverified). This has saved me hours of time. I'm guessing that like you, my early work wasn't up to my current standards. So for parts of my tree that I haven't looked at in a while, rather than review the documents that I have amassed every time I go back to that person to confirm that it really is a good fit, I can simply look at the one or two sentences that I wrote to confirm to me that evidence for the relationship is solid (or not).

[@GenealogyTV]

Good idea for a video. Records that are good for proof and records that or not.

[@fionagarrett2730]

Hi Connie, as a patreon viewer for a few years now, you have taught me so much with your channel and I wonder if because I live in Australia and all my research is Scotland and Ireland would the Academy suit me. I already use Ancestry, Findmypast, RootsIreland, Familysearch, Wikitree so I pay a lot of money to sit in my loungeroom and trace my family tree. Also I think you've maybe added a extra 0 to your calculation for the year. $667 not $6,670 haha!! Let me know your thoughts. Keep up the great work?

[@MusicInMotion_67]

Connie has covered information regarding Irish records etc. Much of what she teaches is how to do the research, extracting info from census records in order to help find people, keeping documentation and keeping records for your research transcribing etc. Lots of great information that I think could be of tremendous help to you. She also offers handouts for her videos which is nice to have so you don't have to rewrite everything she covers in her videos. I myself tend to make notations on her notes but that's just me and how I learn.

[@tracymeyers616]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how you mentioned at the end during your story of how you progressed from doing genealogy to creating a Genealogy KZbin channel because you realized along the way that “no one was really teaching genealogy SKILLS [methodology].” I can’t tell how much I appreciate that. It has been how I’ve been feeling for the last 7 - 10 years. It’s always about having fun and in some instances I feel that some online genealogy website platforms have now moved into the “gaming” industry. I have FUN using tried and true research skills and methodology to ACCURATELY research, find and document my ancestors. But with the genealogy websites focusing more on fun and “gaming” click, copy, paste - gotta catch them all - type thing the SKILL / methodology isn’t there and the teaching of those things (and with the retirement of some REALLY GOOD genealogy speakers/TEACHERS ) seems to be disappearing/waning. I recently came across your channel and I’ve been REALLY ENJOYING and LEARNING from your content. Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

Ah... what a nice note. Thanks.

[@richardhoover4471]

Connie, you continually surprise me with your tips and tricks, and helps! I did not realize that if you’re on a profile page of someone in your tree on Ancestry, that the relationship line of the person was a clickable link!! I have spent literally hours trying to figure the pathway to that person and me. This has come up a lot with my Norwegian relatives, because of the change in the surname every generation! I was also delighted when you mentioned the Floating Trees and gave your example of Samuel Clark and Elizabeth Bennett, because I descend from their son Baptist Clark!! I saw that I had not pursued Elizabeth’s parents either. Now I must check out the hint I have also for William Bennett! It says, on my iphone Ancestry app that the “someone” else has the same hint for Elizabeth. Maybe that someone was you!! Thanks always.🌳

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Richard... or should I say cousin?

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks, Richard

[@shelleymonson8750]

There is a character limit on the Notes field on Ancestry, which is quite annoying.

[@user-he1lt8ex8t]

I am trying to locate documents for my husband's Sicilian immigrant ancestors. This is a bit out of my area of comfort. I need mostly immigration, birth and marriages in Sicily. Can you tell me where to go? Thanks

[@manymoms920]

I'm lucky to have two monitors for work. Having two screens for doing ancestry is a game changer. I have my known facts on one screen for the new resource, easy to cross reference and check.

[@adventureswithtime]

I’ve been researching my ancestry for only a month. I believe my grandfather came to USA around 1911 (that’s what a census says). But I can find any entry record anywhere. Is this common? Any ideas how to dig more?

[@GenealogyTV]

Look at various ports. Work backwards and gather all records first before trying to find immigration. Think about what records/events are you missing. Some of these records might help figure out what point of entry. Consider land crossings from the north or south too.

[@JDAnnyInskeep]

Are we related my Aunt and Uncle are the Bennetts and I have Clark and Norris.

[@rashadkilliebrew]

Can you do african American break wall

[@GenealogyTV]

African American research has some unique opportunities for research. Here are a couple of videos about how to do AA research. kzbin.info/aero/PLiMXWjHlj5RQzojKOI1FmaCQDOXUeUd3C

[@janetcarlson4923]

1. Standardize dates. When using dates the US and Europe have the order different so does 3/6 mean 3 Jun or 6 March. So spell out or abbreviate the month. 2. In Scandinavian christenings write down every person mentioned as either the woman who held the baby or were witnesses at chustenings. Then do the same for every child in the family and compare against each other. Can give you hints as to grandoarents or aunts and uncles. A friend of mine created a form I use...one page for the whole family. 3. Use split screens to pull up Ancestry, familysearch, My Heritage or any other site to compare. I find different sources on a site that isnt on another. I look at private trees. I recently fiound a family had 16 children when I only had 7! I verified sources and 16 was correct.

[@GenealogyTV]

Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

[@Snagglemama]

Hi, your videos have been a godsend to me. Do you have any videos on how to deal with commonly reused first names? Im doing irish an ancestry and the amount of james, john, and daniel is mind boggling. Im arguing with a couple of of people on ancestry as they believe my great grandfather was married upto three times. I luckily have one of his children still alive who knows nothing about this.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yeah... kind of... it's an episode called How Do You Know. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJPPp5t9atVjars Thanks for the compliments.

[@brysonhatfield8958]

3:31 Question: If Benjamin died in 1884, how did he marry Martha Jane in 1886? LOL It stuck out at me....

[@GenealogyTV]

I'll have to go back and look. Thanks.

[@peggytravels793]

Your videos have so much information in them that I have to take them in smaller bites. You’re an excellent teacher and explain things so clearly, much appreciated. I started doing my genealogy 40 years ago and nothing was online so it was all notes from visits to court houses and libraries. I had Ancestry for a couple of years but couldn’t afford it after than but now back on for 6 moths…

[@GenealogyTV]

Awesome. Glad you are back.

[@ruthrobb4406]

This video starts at hint number 4. Before it use to start hint 3. I am hoping this can get fixed. I enjoy all of them.. Thanks Connie. 😅❤

[@lesliemcconnell2545]

Excellant! Easy to follow and understand. Thank you for all your work. It will be my go to reference .

[@GenealogyTV]

Awesome, thank you!

[@dinohunter902]

Im 14 doing genolgy on both sides of my family tree and your videos help a lot

[@GenealogyTV]

Oh fantastic. Keep it up. I started about your age too.

[@janetcarlson4923]

If you personally take a photo of a headstone, also do a 360. I have seen names of children on the back of some headstones.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes!

[@shelleymonson8750]

Thanks, Connie - I learned some new stuff!

[@GenealogyTV]

I'm so glad! Thanks Shelly!

[@carokat1111]

Thank you for the FindAGrave tutorial. I had no idea it was capable of being interrogated in the way you described.

[@Kiezik]

In Poland they do not understand Floating Trees they misunderstand them. Im addin tham as a Friend option on My Heritage.

[@suevize6853]

A session on strategies for searching unindexed record sets on FS would be useful. I do understand how to open and search a collection, but finding those worth putting the effort in to search would be useful plus ant tips to make the searching part more effective.

[@GenealogyTV]

Great suggestion!

[@gsteele83]

Another great video, thanks so much Connie! I have started keeping research notes because of you :) I'm using a program called iA Writer and it uses Markdown. I like it because it makes formatting easy for me and I'm more inclined to keep notes when it's easy to do. The cool thing too is I wrote a browser script to render Markdown in the Ancestry notes section, so when I'm finished working on notes for a while, I copy my iA Writer notes into Ancestry and it fully renders things like headings, bolds, italics, highlighting, images, links, tables and even footnotes right in the notes section of Ancestry. It works great for me until Ancestry improve what their notes can do.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good to know. I think there’s a limit on how many characters you can put in a note section on Ancestry. That may be a problem.

[@gsteele83]

@@GenealogyTV I just tested the limits and it's 65,532 characters (including spaces) so good to know

[@JDAnnyInskeep]

But I love Ancestry

[@GenealogyTV]

Me too.

[@Kptiger82]

Thank you for all your knowledge of genealogy sharing with us.

[@GenealogyTV]

My pleasure!

[@manymoms920]

Great information

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lorrainewalker9674]

Connie do you back up your trees in case they should disappear on the net, and if so can you please add this to one of your videos.

[@GenealogyTV]

Well, I download a Gedcom file every once in a while. And I was thinking with family tree maker, but they’ve had so many issues with their sinking lately that I don’t trust it even after they said it was fixed it was not fixed for me. Good idea for a video.

[@kimhealy6665]

Yes please to the video. Many years ago I bought FTM because of its ability to sync with Ancestry. I used it for a short while, but then it corrupted my Ancestry tree when syncing and I lost almost all major events (and other records that I don't now recall). Luckily I had a recently downloaded Gedcom and could reinstate my tree using that, but many items such as galleries and added facts still had to be reinstated manually. I was persuaded to try FTM again a few years ago, but stopped using it when I heard there were new syncing problems - my tree has grown exponentially since that first mishap and I don't think I have enough years left to fix it if it happened again! @@GenealogyTV

[@michelleharrison-kintner1015]

Thanks Connie ❤