"How do we make our ancestors real? We tell their stories." (Rosemary Wixom) My genealogy journey began a number of years ago when I decided to compile a book about my ancestors. As I discovered stories that I had never before heard, I remember ...
Finding William’s Father: Timeline Analysis in a DNA Project
Last week I gave some background information and shared my objective and limitations for my current DNA project, Finding William's Father. I also sent a letter to a potential Y-DNA test taker. On Sunday afternoon I uploaded my Dad’s DN ...
How Reasonably Exhaustive Research Helped Me Discover an Elusive Ancestor
I have been researching an ancestor from Pennsylvania named Jacob Fisher for over a decade. I discovered him as the father of Hannah Fisher and have put together details about his life in little bits of time over the years. He is the subject of the f ...
What’s in a Name?
What do you know about your name? One of the suggested "About Me" activities on FamilySearch's In-Home Activities page is learning all about "My Name." To do so, some of the suggested items include the following: Ask a parent about the story of ...
Close to Home: Discovering Ancestor Events in Your Neighborhood
This is my 4th great-grandfather, Morris Charles Phelps: I love reading stories about the adventures and trials he and his wife Laura experienced as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in its early days in Missouri an ...
Using Compare-a-Face to Identify Old Photos
Do you have a favorite ancestor photo? This is one of my current favorites. A few months ago, I logged in to FamilySearch and discovered that it had been added to my 2x great-grandmother's profile. I was overjoyed! Be ...
Finding Mary (Marna) Andersdotter: A Search for Immigration Records
Mary (Marna) Anderstdotter was born in Sweden. At the age of 18 she joined the Mormon church. Her mother was horrified and told Mary she must either give up her religion or leave home. Mary would not give up her new-found faith, so she left ...
Belle Sanders–Belle of Wyoming Day
My grandmother is Isabelle Lyman Sanders. One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up was to visit Grandma Sanders. She owned a small country store on the highway that passed through Otto, Wyoming. Her house was attached to the store, and ...
Separating Men of the Same Name
A few months ago, I completed a project in which the objective was to determine which of two Jacob Fishers living in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1790 census was my ancestor. I used the FAN principle and created a fan club made up of ...
