In the last post in this series, I discussed locality research as well as ethnicity estimates from Ancestry and MyHeritage. The next step in my project is to create a research plan for both DNA and traditional genealogy research. Here is how I have decided to approach this project:
First, I will use traditional genealogy records from Norfolk and Surrey counties in England to create a FAN club for William’s mother Ann Munford. The FAN club will include people in the households where Ann resided and the neighbors of these households on both the 1851 and 1861 censuses. It will also include FANs of her parents and siblings during the same decade because I have hypothesized that William’s father was an acquaintance of someone in the family. The FAN club should be useful in identifying possible candidates for William’s father.
For the DNA portion of my plan, I will follow the methodology for finding a 2x great-grandparent outlined in Diahan Southard’s book, Your DNA Guide, The Book: Step by Step Plans to Connect You With Your Family Using Your DNA. If you haven’t read her book, I would recommend it! I’ve enjoyed studying her methodology for this particular research objective, and I look forward to putting it into practice. In a nutshell, Diahan’s plan includes identifying best matches (which are defined in the book), extending their ancestry, and creating a genetic network using the shared matches tool. The book includes detailed step-by-step instructions for following through with this methodology. With any luck, the pedigrees of the shared matches will triangulate on a common ancestor. Using the common ancestors and clues from Ann’s FAN club should help me narrow down a possible candidate for William’s father.
I’m excited to move forward with this plan, and I’m hoping to be successful. I imagine it might take a while to finish the plan, especially since I am only working on it when I have a little spare time. But, since I have a plan in place, I can track everything in my research log and pick up right where I left off every time I sit down.
