Really glad that you point out in many of your videos the errors in some official documents especially death records and census are sometimes very sloppy and can be very inaccurate. Some other points "my son" doesn't always mean biological son. Jr. In an old census doesn't always mean son of Sr...can just mean younger person of same name in same area. I would also highly recommend using Newspapers.com. Often very clear obits, stories, advertisements of ancestors, court battles, etc. I've learned a lot from reading these old articles. Just wish we had more older newspapers and hope someday ancestry transcribes more deed and court records. Very helpful.
This is useful information. However, there doesn't seem to be a way in the Ancestry on-line tree to specifically indicate that the source citation supports the relationship between the parent and child. You can add sources to "Facts" which are generally events but not to relationships directly? Is there a recommendation for software that allows this or do you just use notes to track that the source provides evidence for the relationship?
My father and his brother told the Funeral Director the wrong name of his father's mother. They were unaware that their grandfather had two wives. The first one dying young, which was their actual grandmother. Their Uncle told them they were wrong about his mother. The Funeral Director refused to correct the mistake, so his death certificate is incorrect. Despite being a close record and knowing his "grandparents" as an adult.
I once used negative evidence to try to prove that Joseph Crane of Habberley, Kidderminster was not Thomas Crane's father. Perusing Joseph's 1785 will found no mention of Thomas Crane among the listed children. I spent six months looking for another father before I found by chance the will of a Joan Crane. Joan was one of the children listed in Joseph's will and her will confirmed this was that person. The executor of her will was her brother Thomas. Thomas had married the daughter of a local entrepreneur and had received his inheritance at marriage.
That's some great work. When we apply the Genealogical Proof Standard of a "reasonably exhaustive search" the pieces usually come together very nicely. (Crista)
Christa another excellent episode. I have heard you say several times that you transcribe your records. The implication is that you actually type them. Wouldn't this be good use of the index itself, to copy and paste rather than have to type the record contents? Just saying cuz I hate to type.
Hi Crista! I have a question. I have a great grandfather and I found a news article, the person has the same name and lives in the same state as he did. The news article mentioned a court case was for non support but it doesn't mention the name of wife or children and I don't have access to the case so I can't confirm if its actually him. Do you think at some point they may add a section of child support or alimony cases? Those types of documents could also give us some really good information on relatives and relationships.
Ancestry is always working with organizations to acquire new records. However, for your specific case, you should contact the court and request a copy of the full case file so you have all the information. (Crista)
Hi Crista, You were talking about censuses and how it proves the relationship from father to child, but not mother to child. Can I use censuses as solid evidence of marriage between the parents? I cannot locate a marriage certificate for a couple in my family tree, so I was thinking possibly the census would prove that and build a solid case. And thanks for making these videos. I am a relatively young genealogist aspiring to become somewhat like yourself. Sometimes when I get frustrated and I am just ready to give up all together, I watch a couple of your videos and it boosts my self esteem to keep going. It has very much helped me become a better genealogist. Thank you and the videos are very much appreciated.
Justin - First of all, thank you very much for the kind words. We were all new genealogists once. And, I still learn something new every day. You can use a census as a piece of evidence to build a case for marriage between a couple. From 1880 on, it lists the relationship to the head of household. "Wife" is a pretty good indicator that they were married. If you can prove (through birth and/or death records for the children) which, if any, of the children are hers, you can narrow down their time of marriage, sometimes to a specific year. Records don't exist for all marriages. But, indirect evidence will suffice if you can build a strong enough case. (Crista)
christa, when you're out and using your phone with the ancestry app, how do you go about the fact we can't see the notes? I also have many notes and it's frustrating..
Very helpful, thank you. I made the big mistake of going all gung-ho crazy when I first started working on my tree. I based almost all the additions to my tree on hints from others member's trees without checking sources. (I can feel you cringe..) As you can imagine, I now have a lot of cleanup to do! I'm finding impossibly long lists of children, some duplicates, some too close together in age, others that appear to have been born when one or both parents were either over 50, or even deceased, or the opposite, i.e. a child born when his mother was only 5. As cleanup, I am simply going to the edit relationships feature to delete the relationship of these children to their impossible parents. Would it be better to delete these 'floaters' from my tree altogether? I am guessing that some may actually be grandchildren, especially those with very unusual names that get recycled generation after generation. Still, should I delete them for now or keep them somewhere?
I usually just delete them (especially if they were added due to tree copying not by adding a record - like a census). If I find them again in the process of research, it's not a big deal to just add them back into the tree. Whereas, if they are "floaters" out in my tree, I may not even remember I already had them in my tree to reconnect them when the time comes and then I end up with duplicates. Hope that helps! (Crista)
I hear yeah Stephen. I was doing the cleanup on my tree and was just "pruning" the tree when I realized that the people were still there but but not attached to the tree. I realized that I had to delete people individually and not in groups. Good luck
Hi Crista, Thank you for this information. I have a great great grandfather who's parents I would like to find. Information I know: he was born in Canada, his name was changed when he came to US, he was married in New York about 1855, he lived in New York from 1855 to 1865, then he moved to Wisconsin between 1865 and 1870. I have been told that he ran away from home because his parents wanted him to become a priest. I don't know any siblings or when he came to US. Where would you suggest I start? (Rosanne)
Have you traced him to his death? Have you located a death certificate and/or obituary for him? Those would likely list his parents' names and possibly even is specific birthplace in Canada. Do you have documentary proof that he changed his name or is that a family story? (Crista)
Thank you Crista, You should consider doing some programs for Ancestry Academy, as you present things is a clear manner. I do not have his Death Certificate, but I have a death record. I also have a picture of his tombstone. As far as his name change I do not have proof. And I have not looked for naturalization papers for him.
Really glad that you point out in many of your videos the errors in some official documents especially death records and census are sometimes very sloppy and can be very inaccurate. Some other points "my son" doesn't always mean biological son. Jr. In an old census doesn't always mean son of Sr...can just mean younger person of same name in same area. I would also highly recommend using Newspapers.com. Often very clear obits, stories, advertisements of ancestors, court battles, etc. I've learned a lot from reading these old articles. Just wish we had more older newspapers and hope someday ancestry transcribes more deed and court records. Very helpful.
And I should also mention due to partnership between ancestry.com and newspapers.com, you can link the article to your ancestor.
This is useful information. However, there doesn't seem to be a way in the Ancestry on-line tree to specifically indicate that the source citation supports the relationship between the parent and child. You can add sources to "Facts" which are generally events but not to relationships directly? Is there a recommendation for software that allows this or do you just use notes to track that the source provides evidence for the relationship?
My father and his brother told the Funeral Director the wrong name of his father's mother. They were unaware that their grandfather had two wives. The first one dying young, which was their actual grandmother. Their Uncle told them they were wrong about his mother. The Funeral Director refused to correct the mistake, so his death certificate is incorrect. Despite being a close record and knowing his "grandparents" as an adult.
Any record is only as good as the informant. We have to be vigilant and look for as much evidence as possible for any genealogy question.
That should be included in the "Funeral Directors' Code of Ethics" or something!
I once used negative evidence to try to prove that Joseph Crane of Habberley, Kidderminster was not Thomas Crane's father. Perusing Joseph's 1785 will found no mention of Thomas Crane among the listed children. I spent six months looking for another father before I found by chance the will of a Joan Crane. Joan was one of the children listed in Joseph's will and her will confirmed this was that person. The executor of her will was her brother Thomas. Thomas had married the daughter of a local entrepreneur and had received his inheritance at marriage.
That's some great work. When we apply the Genealogical Proof Standard of a "reasonably exhaustive search" the pieces usually come together very nicely. (Crista)
Christa another excellent episode. I have heard you say several times that you transcribe your records. The implication is that you actually type them. Wouldn't this be good use of the index itself, to copy and paste rather than have to type the record contents? Just saying cuz I hate to type.
Hi Crista! I have a question. I have a great grandfather and I found a news article, the person has the same name and lives in the same state as he did. The news article mentioned a court case was for non support but it doesn't mention the name of wife or children and I don't have access to the case so I can't confirm if its actually him.
Do you think at some point they may add a section of child support or alimony cases? Those types of documents could also give us some really good information on relatives and relationships.
Ancestry is always working with organizations to acquire new records. However, for your specific case, you should contact the court and request a copy of the full case file so you have all the information. (Crista)
can you put that this is for US records please... bit different over here in UK and esp before 1840
Hi Crista,
You were talking about censuses and how it proves the relationship from father to child, but not mother to child. Can I use censuses as solid evidence of marriage between the parents? I cannot locate a marriage certificate for a couple in my family tree, so I was thinking possibly the census would prove that and build a solid case.
And thanks for making these videos. I am a relatively young genealogist aspiring to become somewhat like yourself. Sometimes when I get frustrated and I am just ready to give up all together, I watch a couple of your videos and it boosts my self esteem to keep going. It has very much helped me become a better genealogist. Thank you and the videos are very much appreciated.
Justin - First of all, thank you very much for the kind words. We were all new genealogists once. And, I still learn something new every day.
You can use a census as a piece of evidence to build a case for marriage between a couple. From 1880 on, it lists the relationship to the head of household. "Wife" is a pretty good indicator that they were married. If you can prove (through birth and/or death records for the children) which, if any, of the children are hers, you can narrow down their time of marriage, sometimes to a specific year.
Records don't exist for all marriages. But, indirect evidence will suffice if you can build a strong enough case. (Crista)
Thanks for the advice Crista!
christa, when you're out and using your phone with the ancestry app, how do you go about the fact we can't see the notes? I also have many notes and it's frustrating..
I use my phone's web browser to log in to the website and access my tree from there. (Crista)
thank you, I'd hoped there was a way with the app, because I really like to use it :)
Very helpful, thank you. I made the big mistake of going all gung-ho crazy when I first started working on my tree. I based almost all the additions to my tree on hints from others member's trees without checking sources. (I can feel you cringe..) As you can imagine, I now have a lot of cleanup to do! I'm finding impossibly long lists of children, some duplicates, some too close together in age, others that appear to have been born when one or both parents were either over 50, or even deceased, or the opposite, i.e. a child born when his mother was only 5. As cleanup, I am simply going to the edit relationships feature to delete the relationship of these children to their impossible parents. Would it be better to delete these 'floaters' from my tree altogether? I am guessing that some may actually be grandchildren, especially those with very unusual names that get recycled generation after generation. Still, should I delete them for now or keep them somewhere?
I usually just delete them (especially if they were added due to tree copying not by adding a record - like a census). If I find them again in the process of research, it's not a big deal to just add them back into the tree. Whereas, if they are "floaters" out in my tree, I may not even remember I already had them in my tree to reconnect them when the time comes and then I end up with duplicates. Hope that helps! (Crista)
I hear yeah Stephen. I was doing the cleanup on my tree and was just "pruning" the tree when I realized that the people were still there but but not attached to the tree. I realized that I had to delete people individually and not in groups. Good luck
Hi Crista, Thank you for this information. I have a great great grandfather who's parents I would like to find. Information I know: he was born in Canada, his name was changed when he came to US, he was married in New York about 1855, he lived in New York from 1855 to 1865, then he moved to Wisconsin between 1865 and 1870. I have been told that he ran away from home because his parents wanted him to become a priest. I don't know any siblings or when he came to US. Where would you suggest I start? (Rosanne)
Have you traced him to his death? Have you located a death certificate and/or obituary for him? Those would likely list his parents' names and possibly even is specific birthplace in Canada.
Do you have documentary proof that he changed his name or is that a family story? (Crista)
Thank you Crista, You should consider doing some programs for Ancestry
Academy, as you present things is a clear manner. I do not have his
Death Certificate, but I have a death record. I also have a picture of
his tombstone. As far as his name change I do not have proof. And I have
not looked for naturalization papers for him.
👍👍👍 👌
Error at 27:45.
What is the error you are seeing? (Crista)
It stopped playing. I refreshed and it came back.