Ancestral Discovery

A guide to non-digital educational resources.

In the genealogy world, we use the term “brick wall” when we seem to go as far as we can in finding a particular ancestor or branch. I hope this isn’t too controversial a statement, but most of the brick walls we hit are ones that we inadvertently create.

FamilySearch has many features, but this column will only deal with the database, since it’s the most popular one.

The major genealogy databases are Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage and FindMyPast. All have international record sets and are overlapping, but all have some unique collections.

An important part of finding your ancestors (and not someone else’s with the same name) is developing your genealogical skills.

I want to share some other genealogical databases that are more general.

Here, we’re going to look at the value of newspapers. This insightful record set can give us details of our ancestors not found elsewhere.

When doing family research, first — or given — names can also be perplexing.

For Jewish genealogists, names are one of the most challenging aspects of finding our ancestors.

About creating online family trees: genealogy software can be a tremendous help in keeping your work organized.

Previously, I talked about organizing your genealogical documents, photos, stories and other materials and passing them on to future generations. One of the most recognizable results of all that work is the family tree.

As I watched the horrific Marshall Fire spread just five miles from me, I couldn’t help but think not only of the human suffering, but also those irreplaceable pieces of family history gone in moments.

There’s a political adage: “Don’t agonize — organize!” This applies to genealogy, too. We often agonize over our unorganized, growing mountain of “stuff,” whether paper or digital.

I previously presented the different kinds of documents that might have captured your ancestors, and where you might find them.

First a correction: Last month I implied that immigrants who didn’t want to become citizens don’t have immigration records. Actually, ship manifests — which are records — exist for them, …

I will not address the politics of immigration here, although there are intersections of Jewish immigration and politics. Instead, I’ll focus on our ancestors’ arrival, and how to find their …

Recap: Part 1 discussed why to do a DNA test. Part 2 about how and where to test. Part 3 delved who to test and the two other genealogical DNA …

Part 1 on my DNA series looked at why to test for genealogy and ethnic estimates. Part 2 explored who the big testing companies are, the best place to start, …

Hopefully you have read DNA part 1, in which I talked about why to take a test, and ethnic estimates. Let’s start here with some other fundamentals. We are the …

DNA tests — why? how? In DNA part 1, I talked about why to take a test, and ethnicity estimates. Let’s start here with some other fundamentals. We are the …

I’m going to step away from “documentary” genealogy — which focuses on written records — and talk about DNA or genetic genealogy, which is gaining much cultural attention. Is this …

Hopefully by now, you have spent time gathering existing information, including family stories, starting your pedigree (June 25, 2020), and interviewing relatives (July 23, 2020). My last few columns talked …

While I have focused on death records in the last three columns due to some personal tragedy, it’s time to look at other evidence of our ancestors’ lives. Death records …

I’m not one to talk about my personal life in these columns, but my absence last month was due to helping with the aftermath of losing a second nephew. Readers …