6 Ways to Get Beyond Missing Vital Records
Fortify Your Family Tree
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3d ago
Blog reader Steve asked how to find people who were born after available vital records end. Like me, he's dealing with Italian records that aren't online. My towns' birth records end in 1915. His town's online vital records end in 1899. The answer to his question is true for any ancestor's missing vital record. My grandmother was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1899. She had one sibling born before her in Italy. I have his 15 Dec 1898 Italian birth record, but his death record isn't available. I only know he died before his parents boarded a ship for New York on 3 July 1899. Grandma's October ..read more
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5 Tips for Success with Italian Vital Records
Fortify Your Family Tree
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1w ago
In 2009 I began a long process of viewing 1809–1860 vital records from my grandfather's hometown. I had to pay to view the microfilmed records at a Family History Center on crummy old equipment once or twice a week. In 2017 the same documents came online in pristine high resolution. I didn't begin this journey with any knowledge of Italian vital records. I figured it out with experience. And so can you—especially with these 5 tips for success. These 5 tips will make you an Italian vital record expert. 1. You Need to Know the Name of the Town Before you can find a vital record for your ..read more
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3 Important Tips for Great Genealogy Source Citations
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2w ago
Two weeks ago I wrote about "5 Ways to Find Loose Ends in Your Family Tree." Since then I've been having fun doing just that. I sorted the people in my family tree by birth date and focused on anyone with an incomplete birth date. (For example, 1870 instead of 12 Mar 1870.) Then I searched for the missing birth record for each person. Many of these people were not born in my ancestral hometowns, which explains the missing date. Luckily, I often had evidence to suggest which town they came from. A marriage record or banns can include the hometown of the other spouse. In other cases, I used the ..read more
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8 Tips for Researching Your Immigrant Ancestor
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3w ago
When my son's fiancé lost her father in 2021, I offered to research her family tree. It's become something of a tradition for me. I did the same for my brother's wife, my 1st cousins, and last week for my 2nd cousins when their father died. For my son's fiancé, you have to go back to generation 12 in her ancestors report to learn that her last name is French. In generation 13, we see she's a descendant of the Dutch/German family Rittenhouse. That's a very famous family in Philadelphia. My sister-in-law's German/Jewish origin shows up in her 2nd great grandfather, born in 1853. But for my all-I ..read more
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5 Ways to Find Loose Ends in Your Family Tree
Fortify Your Family Tree
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1M ago
After fitting 95% of the people from 3 of my ancestral hometowns into my family tree, I was eager for more. Now I'm working on a town I expected to be a problem. This town was part of the Papal State, owned by the church itself. They didn't keep civil records before 1861. (See "Becoming Italian Was a Long, Hard Journey.") I figured I'd never get very far since there are no vital records for my 3rd great grandparents and above. But I found a couple of entry points. Two spouses of my closest relatives had families I could search for in the documents. Before I knew it, I was adding between 100 an ..read more
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4 Ways to Safeguard Your Digital Family Tree
Fortify Your Family Tree
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1M ago
Imagine starting up your computer to add a new baby cousin to your family tree. But all you see is a File Not Found error. Nooooo! Panicked doesn't begin to describe how sick you feel. I'm someone who curses a blue streak in the face of computer problems. I can't describe the pain in my head and stomach at these times. That's why I take extreme precautions with my digital family tree files. (And many other types of computer files, too.) To avoid disaster, here are 4 crucial ways you can safeguard your digital family tree files. Get started before disaster strikes! Keep your family tree s ..read more
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These Tips Find Missing Maiden Names
Fortify Your Family Tree
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1M ago
Last weekend I cut my list of missing maiden names in half. It was exhilarating! I use Crista Cowan's method and mark missing names in my family tree with _____ (5 underscores). That makes it easy to find everyone who's missing a name. They're all at the top of the alphabetical list of names. By the way, if you're using a woman's married name in your tree because you don't know her maiden name, STOP IT. The tree already tells you who she married. I did a new search for each person in my tree with a missing last name. You may be thinking, "I already searched for them." Don't let that stop you f ..read more
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5 Cleanup Projects to Fortify Your Family Tree
Fortify Your Family Tree
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1M ago
A weird thing happened when I finished a massive genealogy project. I felt lost! I didn't know how I wanted to spend my genealogy time, so I bounced around from task to task. Then I found a cleanup project in my to-do list that kept me productive and happy. I may dive into another big project, but until then, here are 5 cleanup projects to fortify your family tree. Have a little time to spend on your family tree? Choose a task with big impact. 1. Chase Down Exact Dates I'm sure you have people in your family tree who are missing an exact birth date, marriage date, or death date. Use o ..read more
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Top 5 Uses for the Free Family Tree Analyzer
Fortify Your Family Tree
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2M ago
Family Tree Analyzer (FTA) is a free and powerful program from Alexander Bisset (see ftanalyzer.com). FTA has so many features that I've written about individual uses for the program many, many times. If you haven't tried it yet, here's a taste of the top 5 ways FTA can improve your family tree. Family Tree Analyzer has unlimited abilities, and it's free. 1. Finding accidental duplicates Your family tree may have hit a software glitch. You may have clicked the wrong fact type in a menu. Or you may have gotten a little loopy during a late-night genealogy session. No matter what the cau ..read more
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3 Key Signs a Family Tree is Wrong
Fortify Your Family Tree
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2M ago
When you find your relatives in a stranger's family tree, it means one of two things: You've discovered a new branch of your own family tree, or They made a mistake and put your relatives where they don't belong. When that stranger is also your DNA match, you hope they're right. It's up to you to see if their family tree is reliable or riddled with errors. Here are the 3 key signs that separate fact from fiction. Don't pull that family tree into your own. You don't know where it's been! 1. Their family is from the wrong place Giuseppe Nicola Mascia was born on 9 Oct 1794 in Colle Sa ..read more
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