Last week I decided to tackle my husband’s Smith line.  His ancestor Nehemiah Smith was born 1788, married Polly Stickney and died 1841 in Vermont.  To aid in this project, I turned to Ancestry’s Thrulines.  My husband had two matches on Thrulines attached to Nehemiah.  One said the father of Nehemiah was Ebenezer the other … More A father for Nehemiah Smith

Sometimes there are no records to prove a relationship.  It could be because the individuals lived in a remote area and didn’t bother to record the event, be it a marriage, birth or death.  It could be because the records burned.  Or it could be becauses of an illegitimate birth that was hidden. When a … More Solving a brick wall with DNA

A friend, Jane (all names in this story have been changed), asked me to help her identify her unknown maternal grandfather.  Her mother was born out of wedlock in 1913 to her 16 year grandmother and the father was unknown.  The first thing we did was write for a birth certificate.  That came back with … More Finding an unknown grandfather using DNA

I recently returned from a trip to the New York State Archives.  For those not familiar with an archive, they are the place where a genealogist can find all sorts of wonderful information that is not available online and probably never will be.  For my situation, I was looking for court records from 1827 about … More Visiting the New York State Archives

I just received my copy of a new book recently published called Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies edited by Debbie Parker Wayne.  My reason for ordering it was that the more I learn about DNA research in genealogy, the more I realize I don’t know.   Previously, I read Genetic Genealogy in Practice by … More Learning about Genetic Genealogy