How To Trace Your Family Tree
Wondering how to trace your family tree? Find genealogy how-to articles to successfully find your ancestors and build your family tree. Finding your ancestors does not have to overwhelming, but it does take time. Learning step by step is the key to successful genealogy research. Here at Are You My Cousin? you will learn:
- How to start your research the right way (Hint: It's with a plan!)
- How to progress your research forward
- How to find and use both common and uncommon genealogy records.
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Use A Genealogy Wildcard Search For Better Ancestor Search Results
Use a genealogy wildcard search in Google and genealogy databases to find more ancestor search results and grow your family tree. It’s a wild, wild, wild(card) world of genealogy records out there! Are your ancestors hiding in them? As a researcher you perform genealogy searches daily to find your ancestors. But you wonder…. Are you maximizing your search results? Getting the best results for finding your ancestors? Are your search results limited because of misspellings and/or transcription errors? Or are you searching for ancestors but unsure of what spelling they used in the records? It’s time for a wildcard search! What is a Genealogy Wildcard Search? One of the best…
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How To Find & Use Google Books For Genealogy Research
Find thousands of free family history books at Google Books. Include these rich sources of information in your genealogy research plan for your ancestors. Genealogy researchers love books. I’m no different, but know what I love more? Free Books! Are you missing out on finding online free genealogy related books (including family histories)? If you have not already, it’s time to start exploring Google Books! What is Google Books? Google Books is a service of Google. It is essentially a very large digital public library of of books, magazines, and newspapers. Just image browsing the bookshelves of your favorite genealogy library – only digitally. Best of all, you as a…
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Understanding Your AncestryDNA Matches
Your AncestryDNA results are in. Maybe you’ve always been interested in genealogy, or perhaps you received the test as a gift, and really have no idea what to expect. There is a learning curve to understand DNA test results, even for seasoned genealogists. AncestryDNA’s test is an autosomal DNA test, which looks at chromosomes 1-22 and the X-chromosome and provides information about many relationships and ancestors from both paternal and maternal ancestral lines. This post focuses on AncestryDNA’s results, but several other companies which offer autosomal DNA testing, including MyHeritage, 23andMe, and Family Tree DNA, provide similar features. Autosomal DNA results include ethnicity predictions, as well as a “match list” – a…
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Introductory Guide: How To Decipher Your Scandinavian Naming Patterns
Researching Scandinavian ancestors? Learn about important Scandinavian naming patterns and how they impact your genealogy research. Welcome Jenny Hansen of My Favorite Ancestor as a guest contributor. One of the biggest challenges for research in Denmark, Norway and Sweden is understanding the Scandinavian naming patterns. I have an experiment I like to conduct when I teach groups about Scandinavian research. I ask, “Who here is related to Hans Jensen?” Usually the majority of the room answers in the affirmative. This question would be similar to asking if anyone is related to John Smith, except multiplied by about 100! Scandinavian Naming Patterns Our Scandinavian ancestors, like many other cultures, used patronymic…