Find Your Ancestors, Grow Your Family Tree, Lose the Overwhelm!
Hey, there, I'm Lisa Lisson, and I am genealogy researcher, creator of genealogy masterclasses and blogger at Are You My Cousin?. I'm here to help you successfully find your ancestors and uncover those family stories! From records to old family photos, learn how to grow your family tree.
🎥Stop Overlooking These 3 Totally FREE Genealogy Research Tools ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CgoLGGXFrHw.htmlsi=KcXByZkCoZS-GhlF
🌳Grab my favorite genealogy resources, tips and strategies: The Big Genie List lisalisson.com/Big-Genie-List
Visit the Are You My Cousin? blog at LisaLisson.com.
What an insightful video! I watched hoping for some more clarity on the traditions of family bibles but I still wonder when a copy would’ve been made? I’m looking for my family bible but it’s overwhelming because I don’t know how many lines of the family tree I should consider.
Does Family Search have something similar? It’s frustrating to discover a child added to someone 50 years after the parent died. It would be nice if FS would flag that error.
The report is very helpful. I uploaded my file from Ancestry to MH, and found a few bugs. Blank death dates don't always transfer over, so I ended up with a lot of people marked as living. We actually have quite a few 15 year olds....pioneers LOL. Ancestry doesn't really have fields for titles, so those transferred over a bit wonky as well. I would like to see an endogamy report, unless I'm just missing it. My husband's part Newfoundlander, so we have a lot of 2C/2C+ relationships and double cousins in our tree. I've found some potential closer relationships, but I don't see anything that flags that.
So glad you find those reports helpful like I do. I've not seen an endogamy report like you mentioned. That would be an interesting and helpful report, too. I'll have to ask them.
In my case it was an indexing error. The 1870 census what's missing for some time. When I researched at a different genealogy company, up it popped with no problem. Sometime later I saw it had been indexed as Fasting instead of Fortney!
You bring up a good tip. It an be helpful to check more than one genealogy database for a name. I , too, have found that an indexer on a different platform may have different take on how the name reads.
@@LisaLissonAYMC One that eludes me is Mathew Hayward in the 1861 UK census. I've tried different spellings, but I can't find him and his family. Haywood, Heywood, Heymann, Heyward. It still happens in the 20th century. Both my parents' middle names have various spellings!
I suspect that my father-in-law was born with a different last name than what he used. We know very little about him or his parents as he left when my husband was a small child. According to his discharge papers from the military, he was born in Rochester, NY in 1922 but we're not even sure of his mother's name. Do you have any tips on finding his birth certificate?
Great question! Try a "no surname" search. Your search query would have only the first name, date of birth, and location. You may have to work with the county office to get the search done if not online.
It took me quite a while to find my 2nd-great-grandparents' marriage record; John Dimond had been transcribed as John Binnord. I've got one family in my tree who changed their surname from Hunnybun to Vaughn for 2 censuses, then back again to Hunnybun.
Nicknames can be very tricky. I have a letter from someone signed Cissie and it took a lot of collateral research she was Emily, my father's cousin who we knew nothing of till doing family research
I was searching for the death certificate of a little girl named Carol Jean who died at age 7 from a seizure. I could not find it on any of the main genealogy websites. Then one day I was going through images of death certificates arranged alphabetically, looking for someone else with the same surname as Carol Jean, and I saw a death certificate for a Carroll Gene (male name). I almost skipped on by it, but then took a closer look and it was not for a man, but for a 7-year-old female child who died of epilepsy! Whoever prepared the certificate had messed up the name and it was only by accident that Carol Jean's record was found. Also, some relatives from Sweden (Anders and Sigrid Carlsson) were listed in a census, but could not be found by name search in the census 10 years later. After flipping through the census images for where they lived, a couple named Andrew and Sarah Carlson was found - and it was them. They had 'Americanized' their names.
When my grandmas house was destroyed by a tornado we discover a box of old photos most of which as you were describing seem to date around early 1800's to early 1900's ,a few tin types. No idea who they are because we were never allowed to look at them. I don't see photographers name on any of them.
What an interesting story of how you found those pics. You might share them with the local genealogy society there and see if any collateral family or researchers recognize them.
My grandfather was already past sixty the first time he needed to get a copy of his birth certificate. He discovered that the name his parents chose when he was born (Gilbert Madison) was nothing like the name they actually called him (Marshall Melvin). None of his siblings remembered him ever being called by the name on his birth certificate. When I looked into it years later I discovered that his parents had done the same thing with other children in the family as well. Seemingly they just changed their minds.
I come from the French Dionne line. I found about 7 variations of the last name including Dionne, Dion, Guyonne, Guyon, Guion, Guionne, and even Young!. I suspect some of them were penmanship or lack of knowledge of how to spell. But in some cases, it also was pronouncing the name with the French accent in America. I created a spreadsheet for reference of these name changes. Another surname issue is when there are 2 or more parts to the name. La Plante is one example. It's French and means "the plant." Some variations include La Plante, Laplante (one word), Plante, Laplante dit Madore, Madore, de la Bourliere, DeLaBoureliere, Labourier (Laborer), Boureliere. NOTE: dit in French means "called" or another name. De La means "of the" and since these are "prepositions" sometimes they are combined into 1 word or left off. It's interesting how the name La Plante (plant) turned into Labourier (laborer). Another surname is Rohde. This can be Rohde, Rhode, Roda. Some of these depended if they were on the Polish boundary or the German boundary. de la Bourliere, Laplante dit Madore, Madore, DeLaBoureliere, Labourier (Laborer), Boureliere. NOTE: dit in French means "called" or "another name.} De La means "of the" and since these are "prepositions" sometimes the propositions are left off. In the 1500s and before, there were no last names. So people used different variations to determine who they were talking about. If the job of that man was baker, his last name became BAKER. Or similarly Cook, Fisher, Farmer, etc. If his job was a blacksmith or tinsmith, the last name could be SMITH If he lived in a distinct area of land his last name might be River or Rivers, Hill, Forest or Forester, Beech or Beach, etc. If he had black or brown hair, his last name might be Black or Brown. If he had red hair, he might be called "Eric the Red" and his son would be "Leif Erickson." (Eric's son). or John's son (Johnson) A wagon maker might be Wagner or Wheeler. SURNAMES ARE FASCINATING!
Hi Lisa, I really enjoy your videos and all of the great tips I've gotten. I've been working on my family tree for about 40 years as well as my husbands family and have assembled trees for friends. My dilemma is not with first names but for one particular surname. My mother had the "unfortunate'' maiden name of Porn. I have been able to trace the name back to the late 1700's but am now stuck. I have found the name spelled as pam, pom, perne, pourne, parn, pern, perne. And because Porn is only four letters, I cannot do a wild card. The first James Porn immigrated from Ireland in the late 1700's to Rhode Island. I have reached out to Irish websites and there is not record of Porn being Irish, so no help on that side. His son, James (Jr?) was born in Rhode Island in 1816 and at some point moved to New York. I cannot find any evidence of the first James Porn other than his name on James' Jr. death certificate. I don't have his mother's name, but did find a Martha Porn in Rhode Island as a widow and James Jr had a sister who I was able to trace. So after 40 years I am still on the hunt for more information on the Porn's of the USA and Ireland.
Howard/Harwood? Maybe someone back in the family was dyslexic? My grandfather changed the spelling of his last name because there were DOUBLE letters TWICE which "were not needed". Herrmann became Herman.
Tools to trim back grass growing over a tablet in the ground. Brush to use to clear away ,moss etc on tombstone. Spray bottle to spray water to better see writing on tombstone.
I have a block for years! My mother’s parents divorced when she was 5. I knew his name and located him as born in Tallahassee, FL. He, my grandmother, my mother and uncle lived in Massachusetts. After the divorce, her farther moved to Peru, Illinois. The corresponded occasionally, but she never saw him again. She did not know anything about his parents and he was an only child. I finally (after years and years of record research) got his parents names and states where they were born - Pennsylvania and Maryland. My mother said their heritage was German and Dutch. Her father remarried and had a son whom he referred to as “Sonny Boy.” He was institutionalized as a child and I wonder about Downes Syndrome. So no descendants from him. That led me to speculate on Pennsylvania Dutch heritage or fire destroying records. Are there special records for the Pennsylvania Dutch? Do you have any advice that might help me learn about them? Shirley
I could not help but notice the books behind you. One of my favorite cookbooks is on your top shelf! Your copy of the Huntsville Heritage Cookbook looks pristine compared to mine. LOL I have been catching up on genealogy because I put it aside a few years ago. Your videos are very informative. Thank you!
You can always just press the PAUSE button and stop and take notes or whatever OR you can easily just go back one minute or more and REPEAT the particular section.
Thanks for the explanation about merging duplicate records for one person. Have you a video about how to handle this situation. Doris married William …. Had two children. Divorced. 10 years later, Doris marries Robert. Robert adopts the two children and they then have more children. For some reason I have duplicates of the children in Doris ‘ record. Not sure if I should use the same technique to merge them.
That’s very helpful information to me. I’m not well acquainted with spreadsheets, but I could do this! And, it helps so much to know how to organize the information. Thank you. Maybe you could try to speak a little slower.
Some of the tools I like are Excel spreadsheets. I use one for "family group" and have 3 generations at my fingertips. It's helped me discover when a family immigrated and sometimes details pop up like someone remained single. Another one is the research log and census comparison chart. I created a list with most common/recent census years. Then I shade out the years not in the census for my research family. Now I don't have to search all the census records because this family didn't live in US before a certain date. Or they were in Canada and I need to find Canadian census records for certain years. Or 1 person died before next census so I don't need to continue to search for his or her records, but still research the spouse records in census. Finally, a timeline. I can include presidents, popes and social history based on the years. But it takes some time to maintain the information I find.
Excellent uses for a spreadsheet! I use Google Sheets (Google's version of a spreadsheet). It syncs across all my devices and I have everything at my fingertips.
Census records have been a great help in verifying information in my research and has helped me to learn more about my family and their circumstances as you said. Thank you for your dedication.
Sorry about that date! That video is a live that was recorded a previous year. (I'll update that.) Yes, you can use your ipad. Photo scanning apps have improved a lot recently and/or come on the market. For apps, I recommend Photomyne or the MyHeritage app. Both are excellent and allow you to update multiple photos at once.
That can be tough. First reach out to the person whose tree you find that name and work together. Often, they have info that can help. Otherwise, you need to research that person out to see how the might possibly fit in your family tree.
I've been trying for a few years now. To find some information about my grandmother's grandmother. Charleston South panorama. She came up out of slavery. The only information I could find is her last name. Miss Fulton. she lived on the hike in South Carolina. The information that I find. Is she was a nurse one the hike she took care of the poor people.
What I've found in searching, is to go back and comb through what I already have. Looking at records and information I may have missed. Maiden names, family listed. L looking at cemetery records turns up other relatives.
My maternal 2nd great grandfather, Johannes Wilhelm Becker (John W. Becker) died in 1875 or 1876. He died in Washington County, Texas. So, I'm at a brick wall???? I found his intestate will that did not give his date of death. His widow became the executor of his will in August of 1876. That's all I have. Do I need to contact the Washington County Court for his info?
So many great ideas. I'm impressed at your sleuthing ideas. I have all my paternal grandparent's photos and many of my maternal grandparent's. I'm saving this video for when I'm ready to take on the project. Almost done with my own photos so my daughter won't have the same issues. Thanks!
Discover who is NEARBY the grave of your loved one. FAN research is imperative. Besides, cemeteries are gems 💎 for relaxing, slowing down, and discovering places.
Hi Lisa. I love your RU-vids. This one gives me many good ideas. One problem I am having is locating my Great-grandfather's grave. I know the cemetery but it is not well maintained. Where could I find a "map" of where the grave is? Thanks. Bob Jackson
I'm having difficulty with my 3rd great-grandmother. It's not that I don't know where she's buried it's the date. Her headstone says 1888,but that can't be because her husband died in 1880 and in his will it mentioned there was no surviving spouse. She disappeared after they landed in June of 1870 in Baltimore. I've been working with a cousin and we can't figure it out. We've checked church records and they said that they didn't have any information, and any records prior to 1900 is very few. This is in Iowa,so there wouldn't be any death records since they didn't start recording until 1890. My cousin called the funeral home,but they don't have old records since the business has changed hands over the years. I'm at a complete loss with this ancestor.
One thing to consider is that tombstones are not always installed when the person died and was buried. Finding out when the tombstone was installed might offer you some insight. In my experience, I've seen some older tombstones that weren't installed until many, many years (sometimes decades) after the person died and was buried. By the time the tombstone was finally installed, informants often times couldn't remember when that relative passed away and would give inaccurate dates.
