"Doubt" courtesy of Freepik.com Doubt: hidden superpower Doubt and uncertainty are no fun. Our brains prefer confidence. However, listening to doubt can be your superpower IF it helps you stop, evaluate the situation, then  consider alternatives .  As a beginner genealogy researcher, I was not only confident, but ignorant. We don't know what we don't know. I assumed memories of what I had been told about my family were accurate. I've since realized that while no one lied to me, my memories were incomplete and so were the memories of my family members. Unpleasant facts such as divorce and child deaths were never mentioned. No wonder it took me years to untangle even my own recent family, much less more distant relatives and ancestors. The idea of research planning seemed absurd to this beginner. Now I'm looking at doubt and skepticism in a new light as I clean up my sprawling tree. I caused much of the mess years ago by accepting whatever "facts" I f...

 Time Horizon   Ttime Horizon by   nicola2002f (pixabay.com)   How far do you see into your future? It turns out, not only does that vary widely, but it makes a huge difference in how we live our lives. The same was true of our ancestors, but the reason I'm writing about this is that it governs how we choose to do our work. When I was young, I was interested in knowing more about my family history, but did not have the know-how. These days, many aspects are easier, but it seems like I'm running out of time. And that's OK, because it helps to focus. For more about this, listen to The Best Years of Your Life , part of the Hidden Brain podcast.  So how can I do ALL the THINGS?  I think the best way to focus is to first, listen to my heart. What do I truly want to investigate, do for someone, or even finish up? So it starts with a question, which can then become a plan . It is important to me to write it down, so even if there is inter...

Courtesy OpenClipArt,  CC0 1.0 Universal The introduction of DNA testing for genealogy was revolutionary. The Sorensen Foundation, NatGeo and other non-profit efforts, along with scientific research yielded books such as Bryan Sykes'  The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry   back in 2001.  But until Family Tree DNA began offering Y and mitochondrial (mt) DNA kits for sale, there was only the crudest information available.  Thanks to Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA, who persisted in finding a way for this important data to be available to genealogists, we now have these wonderful record sets. He and other citizen scientists have persisted; the more we test, the more we know about shared relatives and our deep ancestral history.  The  Human Genome Project helped immensely and scientists of all types continue to deepen our knowledge of not just Y and mitochondrial (mt) DNA, but also autosomal and the more-rare...

 Our Journey When you take the first step of a journey, you never know what's around the next corner, or where you will end up. For millennia, people have made pilgrimage a part of their life-plan. According to  Books: A Living History by Lyons [1] Pilgrim's Progress , published in English in 1678, has been translated into over 200 languages and is still in print  [2] . So this is a oft-used metaphor and we still take literal journeys which may be pilgrimages to the home places of our ancestors, or retracing their migrations. There is something profound and important about seeing those places now, and experiencing a bit of what those who came before saw and felt. I will never forget visiting the churches that my second-great-grandfather Cowan would have worshipped or traveling over the hills where he herded sheep as a boy.  Some of our journeys are more based on education and practice than travel. Barbara Mattoon has written some wonderful posts about educatio...

Revisit Old Research   White Goose Flying - Royalty free from pickpic.com Why Rake Up Old Research?  There are lots of reasons to revisit old research. Perhaps: New DNA match New record  Questions from connections Or maybe questions you ask yourself based on new education, more experience and newly-found connections. No matter the reason, I have found that revisiting is more useful than a "do over. " We all learn as we gain experience, both in methodology and as we deepen our understanding of our families and their stories, migrations, and the places where they lived.  DNA Tools Give a Reason for a Fresh Look Recently I asked my cousin to generate a DNA cluster report for my McBee uncle, because he is one generation closer to our ancestors than any of us cousins are. If you have never seen an autocluster, see one here:  https://education.myheritage.com/article/autoclusters-for-dna-matches/ . It is fun to see the report take shape, and the groups are very useful....

Courtesy of Amethyst Studio from The Noun Project What Do You Seek? There's an old story about the cop walking his beat when he encounters an old man on his hands and knees under the street light. "What are you looking for, buddy?" The reply: "I'm looking for my car keys." Cop says, "there are no cars right close. Where did you lose them?" Reply: "I dropped them when getting out of my car, but the light is here!" Do you sometimes feel that way while you are searching for records, and finding nothing? Have you considered that Ancestry or FamilySearch might not have the records you seek?   Or that the record you wish for was never created? What's the Plan? When I began doing genealogy research, I never had a plan, didn't know one could plan research, and I'm sure I would have thought the idea of taking research time to create a plan was ridiculous!   These days, some of my research is still unplanned. After studying Research Li...

We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...

How to Get from Research to Proving Your Case   Making your proof argument a fun project! What do you do when you have finished a lot of research on one of your families? We all know what we're supposed to do -- write it up! Write It Up Devon Noel Lee from the Family History Fanatics in her series " Researching Over My Shoulder " has inspired me over the past couple of years to get better about this. When tackling a bit sticky family, I now generally start a new Google Sheet, and start roughing out a plan. As I work, I try to keep it updated with records found (and not found), other notes, and lately, adding citations as I go. Our Persons Of Interest group was an excellent impetus for that, because if you have written a detailed timeline for your person or family, it is much easier to have others look at your work and offer ideas and suggestions you have not yet considered. Of course not everything we write is a proof, but not every family is easy, and not every localit...

courtesy Pixabay Sheer Joy of Research  Sometimes you've got the bull by the horns and rush along researching recklessly, breathlessly. That's fun! But we all know that details are missed this way and sometimes, in your hurry, you take the wrong road, pick the wrong parents, mix the records of two people with the same name. . .we've all been there!  It's fun, but there is sometimes quite a bit of cleanup to do after the rampage.   Professional Approach Professional researchers do it differently. Time is of the essence, and getting results efficiently is what creates success. So the pros will plan their work by working out a research question or a series of questions  with the client , and then begin by  doing a literature and record set survey.  Then is it time to assess what websites will yield the information needed? What repositories will need to be visited, or contacted? After the planning stage, the professional will consult the client for any fin...