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How To Research Your Illegitimate Ancestors
Researching illegitimate ancestors is challenging for genealogy researchers. Explore these tips and resources for clues to your ancestor’s parents. Are you researching an ancestor born out of wedlock? Do you suspect your ancestor was illegitimate? If your answer to either question is “Yes”, then you have encountered the difficulties in researching an illegitimate ancestor. Is it possible to determine the parents of an illegitimate child? Sometimes. Sometimes you know one parent (typically the mother, but not always). Sometimes you only find circumstantial evidence pointing to the potential parents. The challenge is finding which records hold the clues you need. What Types of Genealogy Records Should You Pursue When Researching an…
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Mother’s Day Gift Guide – Genealogy Style!
Mother’s Day is coming soon! I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to honoring all the women in my family. But let’s get down to the burning question….. What do you get the mother who has everything? I am here to help. Your Mother’s Day Gift Guide – Genealogy Style! 1. Ancestors – Maybe you cannot literally give your mother an ancestor(s), but you can give her the tools to find them. A subscription to a genealogy focused database could be just thing. Suggestions include Ancestry.com , FindMyPast, MyHeritage, GenealogyBank or Fold3. 2. DNA Testing – Yes, your Mother’s Day present is an opportunity to spit! Order your mother (or…
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How To Track Females in the Family Tree Using the Children’s Records
Explore an unusual genealogy research strategy to find the females in the family tree. Elusive female ancestors may be hiding in their children’s records. Tracking down our female ancestors requires thinking “outside the box”. Always focusing on her may not yield our desired results. By taking our focus off of our female ancestor and shifting that focus to other family members and even friends in her life, we can be sure of exhausting all possibilities of finding her in the records. Today, we are going to focus on your elusive female ancestor’s children. Uh oh….I can see that questioning look on your face! Grab a cup of coffee or tea…
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How To Use Pre-1850 Census Records to Find Your Female Ancestors
Genealogy researchers can struggle to find female ancestors in pre-1850 census records. We are familiar with the US census records, and they are often some of the first records we search when looking at a family line. In those early census records, we pay more attention to the male ancestors listed. We (you can read that as “I”) can fail to see our female ancestors in these records. I used to dread the point in my census research when my ancestors preceded the 1850 U.S. census. (The truth is, I still do sometimes!) I especially dreaded those pre-1850 census records when I researched anyone other than the head of household.…
