Healing the Rift of a Century A cousin reached out to me last week on FindAGrave.com , because I had posted pictures to her grandfather's memorial.  Find a Grave, database and images ( https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38737708/rolland_stewart-wade : accessed August 23, 2024), memorial page for Rolland Stewart Wade (14 Jun 1898–3 Dec 1962), {{FindAGrave|38737708}}, citing Blue Mountain Memorial Gardens, College Place, Walla Walla County, Washington, USA; Maintained by Blue Mountain Memorial Gardens (contributor 47135041). She had never known her grandfather or anyone from his side of the family, for reasons her father had never wanted to discuss. But now that her parents have passed on, she felt that she was missing a piece of her history, and decided to go looking for some answers. Rolland Wade Her grandfather, Rolland Wade (1898-1962), was an older brother of my great-grandmother, Olive Wade Swenson, whom I was fortunate enough to know as a child. I told her what I knew of Roll...

Generated with AI (Microsoft Bing Image Creator) ∙ January 7, 2024 at 12:54 PM Jones Family Tree: Sanford Talbert Jones and Ethelyn Stephens At the end of 2023, I had a wonderful surprise and wrote about it here: Piggy-back . Antoinette has been generous, sharing family photos and history, which really led to breakthroughs in my son-in-law Jason's tree. Researching families outside of my "own" has been enriching, and I learned so much researching the family of  Ethelyn Stephens, Jason's great-grandmother. She married Sanford Talbert Jones the first, who was a laborer for the City of Los Angeles at the end of his life. To the right is a part of a photo of their son Sanford II (in the middle) in an old fire truck, from a great article about Black firefighters in Los Angeles. [1]  Sanford Talbert Jones II and Ruby Alexander Sanford carried on his father's experience in working for LA city. He  married Ruby Alexander who was born in Louisiana, possibly in New Orlea...

 I came across a useful feature of Wikitree yesterday; I was updating the Biography of my first cousin Pat, who died yesterday. Rest in peace, dear cousin. New DNA Clue Before I left her page I noticed a new name on the right, where DNA Connections are found. I've blurred the name of my new-found relative, but this is what I saw:  Search for a Match My first step was to search for him on 23andMe -- not found. Then, a one-to-one comparison on Gedmatch -- no shared segments. Nor with my sister, or another first cousin either.  How about with my uncle? Yes!  35.1 cM , quite a healthy segment for a third cousin. One to One Gedmatch comparison between my uncle and his Baysinger match Find Common Ancestors Next step: check the match's tree. His parents were private, but his grandfather's name was familiar, and in my own Ancestry.com tree. As I examined our two ancestral paths back to our common ancestor, an important aspect became clear: we share only a single ancestor, no...

This week the South King County Genealogical Society begins a new study group [1] , of the book Mastering Genealogical Proof , by Thomas W. Jones [2] . The first chapter, Genealogy's Standard of Proof , first considers What is Genealogy . I can't better Jones' measured prose, but here is why I do genealogy. Why? Solving Puzzles Doing the research is satisfying! When there is a gap in the timeline, finding the right record is like fitting in a puzzle piece! That bit of satisfaction keeps me at it, often far too late into the night. Especially when the family group or locality (or both) are unfamiliar, finding the records feels like getting to know that person and the time and place where they lived. The contrast in how the lives of some the folks in the family fall into a pattern, and those who bushwhack their own path, is often surprising.  Why? Putting Meat on the Bones So solving puzzles are fun, but genealogy is work, too. Aside from the little rewards, there is enormous...

 Collaboration is magic! Your own work, experience and inspiration combined with others who share an interest, create more than seems possible. See  The Magic of Collaboration (and Wikitree)  for more about that. But how to begin?  First, collaborate with relatives Pick up the phone! Set up an interview Write a letter Send images, information and questions, through the mail or email, or shared documents such as Google Drive Ask them to share images and questions too Invite them to your Ancestry or MyHeritage tree Share a timeline for your family Next, collaborate with DNA matches Start with the closest and largest matches, and put them into your tree Use the site tools to figure out who they are (shared matches, dots) Use the site messaging system; give them your email and some information • As you learn one site, upload to another, 1, 2, 3! • Sometimes you will need to build their trees for them; invite them to the tree • Keep sharing as you find more information • ...

  Larry Strobel with Jan Gammel in basket June 1949 Ralph Strobel and MaryLynn Gammel photobombing in window If you have been around me at SKCGS for very long, you have probably heard me tell about a member of my family who asks those innocent questions I should be able to answer at a moment's notice--my Cousin Larry. You also have heard me suggest that every genealogist needs a "Cousin Larry" because his questions often lead to challenging research and opportunities to learn lots of new stuff. The answer to Aunt Minnie's burial question took about three months with searches at the newly opened Washington State Digital Archives and assistance from a member of Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane and her persistent calls to the funeral home.  Great Aunt Minnie's cremains were still in the vault, after 48 1/2 years!  Final disposition of Great Aunt Minnie is a story for another day. Larry's question about a newly married couples' "honeymo...

  Peter Calver of LostCousins has a new edition of his DNA Masterclass . If you don't use LostCousins, you are missing out! And you don't even need DNA results for that. If you have UK or Canadian ancestry, you really do need to add as many ancestors and cousins to LostCousins as possible, if you want to connect with British cousins. Distant Cousins are Gold In this Masterclass, Mr. Calver points out how important distant cousins will be to you. He published a chart I've not seen before: Based on Table 2 from: Henn BM, Hon L, Macpherson JM, Eriksson N, Saxonov S, Pe'er I, et al. (2012) Cryptic Distant Relatives Are Common in Both Isolated and Cosmopolitan Genetic Samples. PLoS ONE 7(4): e34267. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034267 Revised using Ancestry DNA estimates for the chances of detecting cousins and the expected number of 1st to 6th cousins for those of British ancestry; the numbers for 7th to 10th cousins are my own guesstimates Calver leaves out steps that I do on...

Cleaning is work! Why bother? It's your tree, after all, and you can build it any way you want!  That's true, but most of us want to share our research with others and find cousins to collaborate with! And to do that successfully, we need to clear out duplicate people,  extraneous relationships (such as step-parents who didn't raise the children),  alternative facts (such as a vague "abt. 1882") when we have the precise date of birth, immigration, marriage, or death. Having accurate, clear facts and sources make it possible to tell the story of our ancestors better. And if you are working in an online genealogy site, a clean tree will allow their matching algorithms to get you the best hints to more sources, and more cousin  matches . Best Practices Be sure to list each woman with her birth surname; if you do not not know it, leave it blank. If you know only the married name, link her to a spouse with that surname and if you do not know his forename, lea...