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Tips & Tricks

"Global" searches generally are a great way to find information you are looking for in digitized databases, and in search engines such as Google or DuckDuckGo. But I have found an easier-to-sift-through lists of search results when I elect to "browse" specific newspapers. Selecting that option will give you a screen like the one above. You can choose the country you are researching, with the default coming up as the United States. The next column allows you to select the state you are focusing on. In this case, I am choosing Indiana. That will open a list of all the cities in the state that have newspapers represented in the NA database. When I select "Madison," I then get a list of the newspapers that have digitized pages in the database. To find out when these papers were published and the dates of available digitized issues, I click on "Browse All Madison." That opens a page showing, in alphabetical order, all of the newspapers available in the collection, along with what years are included, the number of digitized pages, and when that specific newspaper collection was updated. As you can see, the Daily Democrat was updated a few days ago, so I should check that out to see what's new. But the window also opens a search form, allowing you to add the name of a person you are researching, or a keyword, along with the option of "advanced" search, which allows you to narrow your search by adding specific dates. I usually choose this one, if I have an idea of when that person may have been in Madison, or when a specific event occurred. Keep in mind that the text that shows up in each listing is AI generated, and at this point, AI is very spotty at correctly "reading" what's on the page. Also, be aware that you can change the list filter so that you can look at the oldest pages to the newest, vice-versa, or "recently added," which would bring up those new Daily Democrat pages if they include references to the person or thing I am researching. This search revealed a real-estate transaction in Lancaster Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, in which Amos Cook, the subject of this search, sold a two-acrew portion of land to Mary J. Stout, and another parcel to O.H. Stout. This means if I want more information, I can go to the Recorder's Office at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Madison and find the deeds to the land, if I want more information. Many of the items in your list of results will not really match what you are looking for; if Amos and Cook appear separately on a page, the AI will still count it among the results, even though the article likely has nothing to do with the person, Amos Cook. As with any genealogical evidence, you must be diligent in analyzing the information to determine if there is any value to what you've found.

Search Tips: NewspaperArchive.com

To Browse or not to Browse

Focus your search for better results
There's nothing more daunting for new DNA testers than seeing the seemingly impossible numbers of people that show up in the matches list. It is fairly easy to determine who those who match you with a high number of shared centimorgans (cM), especially if you have spent a lot of time building your own family tree. A trick I use for those who share less than, say, 50cM with me is so easy, beginners can do it. In this example, I looked at how many of my matches at MyHeritage live in Germany--where my most persistant brick-wall ancestors came from. I went to that list and clicked on the first name, Christan, shown here to match me at 25cM. Next, I click "Review DNA Match" and scroll down to the list of the matches he shares with me. I was surpised and, well, excited, to see that our top shared match was my paternal half-niece, Melissa (username starts with "wild")! What's great about that is now I know for sure that this person in Germany is related to me somehow through my second-great-grandparents on my father's maternal side! All of a sudden, I have a great lead as to figuring out where they are from. On his tree, which is sparse, one of his ancestors was born in Bayern, which is a German location I have seen in documentation I have found on John (Johannes) and Catherine (maiden name unknown) Hill or Heil. So, now I'm on a mission that I hadn't anticipated when I began writing this tip. Wish me luck, and good luck with YOUR search!

Maternal or Paternal Cousins?

Whose Side are They On?

Making Sense of those 17,000+ distant cousins
Check out the interactive maps available for your state. One great site is the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, where I was able to find this early map of Kentucky, before all 120 counties were established. This tool will show you how the county lines shifted as new counties were added, from the time Kentucky was actually a county of Virginia to when it first became a state in 1792, and all the way up to the year the last county was created. Visit https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/.

Why did my early ancestors move around so much?

Changes in boundaries and borders as the U.S. expanded

They may never have moved at all.
I've been a subscriber to Ancestry.com almost since the beginning, around 1999 or 2000. While it may still leave some things to be desired, it has become a fairly powerful tool with new features that have been added in the past few years. One of these I played around with over the weekend was the "Check Facts" feature, one of the Pro tools that require an additional $10/month. (Personally, charging anything more for features seems kind of outrageous, seeing how much one pays for the various subscriptions. But, it is what it is.) So with this feature, I can go into my personal family tree, which I started many moons ago before I learned NOT to trust information in other people's family trees on the site. A rookie mistake, to be sure, and no matter how long we've been doing this work now, we've all made them. So, this feature will give you an overview of duplicate people in your tree, as well as how many people are in your tree with no documentation, how many where the only source is another tree, and other uncategorized possible errors. Below is a screenshot of my tree's rating. So why is my tree so far from meticulous? Many of the people I have added in the past few years are DNA matches who I've used the "quick and dirty" tree-building method simply to determine our most recent common ancestor. And yes, I should go back and add better documentation. But, that's a lot of people! And it's also the reason my tree is marked private and unsearchable. I know there are mistakes, and I also want to maintain the privacy of the DNA matches I've researched. MY OPINION: I think it's worthwhile, even if you only sign up for the tools for a few months. I went through and cleaned up a few of the duplicates and fixed a few of the other errors. But what I probably should do is just start a new tree from scratch, one that is meticulously documented, so that I can allow others to see my information. (And probably steal it. lol) If you are just starting on your research journey, or are a new member at Ancestry, and you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here or at TwistedRootsResearch.com! Happy hunting!

Pro Tools at Ancestry

Pro Tools: Ancestry's AI Tree Fixer

Is it worth that extra $10/month?
The mission, as stated on the ConferenceKeeper website, is to connect individuals seeking genealogy education with those providing such opportunities. In this way, we support local genealogical societies and libraries, as well as genealogy-related businesses, by providing a wider audience for their programs while offering our calendar of thousands of genealogical education opportunities as a free resource for anyone who may be interested in furthering their own family history research knowledge. I have relied on this site for at least five or six years, and I find it invaluable. I have been able to send proposals for speaking engagements and find out what conferences are coming up, and how to register for them by the early-bird deadline. In addition to listings of "virtual" events, the site also has categories listing in-person events specific interests, such as African American research, DNA/genetic genealogy research, and Jewish genealogical research classes or presentations. There are also lists for genealogy jobs that are open, volunteer opportunities, upcoming genealogy-related tours, cruises and other travel; genealogy-related fiction and nonfiction books; and more. And it's global, not just events and activities that are located in the United States. The site also is an advertising opportunity for professional genealogy businesses, and a form for submitting your organization's upcoming events. Check it out!

Conference Keeper

A Great Resource

Whats happening in the genealogy world
Sometimes we get so focused on looking for new information to discover that we forget that there may be some things missing from the information we'd collected over the years for all of our various ancestors and relatives. So, revisiting can help us better document those we already have in our tree. This week, while writing about my grandmother, Lovina Hackett Codling, I realized that I had never attached birth certificates for her children. So, I went back and was able to find all but two of them: one for the oldest child, Eugene Edward "Teddy" Codling (b. 1903) and the youngest , my father, Paul Emmitt Codling (b. 1917). By finding or rediscovering them, there were two things that happened. First, I was reminded that my Uncle Howard's name on his birth certificate was Howard Wayne Codling, though I knew his legal name was Howard Kenneth. Second, I found information that I either overlooked before or just hadn't seen. According to my Aunt Iris's birth certificate, my grandparents seemed to be living apart when she was born in 1906. Also, I realized that the midwife who helped deliver Iris was my great-grandmother, Lovina's mother Emma Hackett.​

Always something new to find

Revisit those Ancestors

Update Your Family Tree Sources!
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