Tracking down our female ancestors requires thinking “outside the box”.  Always focusing on her may not yield the desired results.  By taking our focus off of our female ancestor, we can be sure of exhausting all possibilities of finding her in the records. We’ve discussed shifting our focus to your elusive female ancestor’s children in a previous post. [Go ahead and click over to read it.  I’ll wait.] Now that you are convinced of the need to shift your focus off of the female ancestor you are researching, let’s take a closer look at this in action. Tracing Female Ancestors Through A Child’s Records We are starting with John White…

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…