Category: BASICALLY GENEALOGY

Creating Effective Location Folders for Genealogy Research

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During my brick wall research coaching project with the ForeverⓇ professional genealogist, one of the first assignments was to create location folders for the birthplaces of my ancestor and his wife.  Besides wanting to know who his parents were, I was also curious about how he met his wife.

Creating a locality research reference guide first helps to better understand what events occurred in these locations at a given time.  This also provides some idea of where ancestor families were living geographically.  

Furthermore, locality research provided guidance in finding vital records.  Defining locations and the history behind them gave direction as to where to find these records both online and offline.

I created location folders in both digital format within my Google Drive and paper format in a binder dedicated to collecting locality research findings.  I would build a research reference guide to support documents such as Google Docs and Sheets in Google Drive and printouts of important information discovered along the way.

I also began a collection of information about the language spoken in the locations researched.  The birthplaces being researched had more than one language associated with them.  Political events resulted in my ancestors becoming subjects under rule of nearby countries over time.  

Knowing the language type at a given period of time was significant.  There was a strong possibility the vital records would be in one of three kinds of languages or a combination of them. 

I added information collected about these languages in both my Google Drive and my location binder.  In Google Drive, I created subfolders for each language.  In the binder, I created separate tabs for each country, placing the language information with the correct country. 

My ForeverⓇ professional genealogist provided me with lists for both cumulative research resources and cumulative methodology resources.  These included online links to websites providing information on geographical locations, specifically in Eastern Europe, and resources for locality research, methodologies and many other topics.  

Helpful links included:

As a result, I was able to visualize the why behind my ancestor’s family’s movement in Eastern Europe over a period of time.  This also helped fill in gaps in a timeline before and up to my ancestors’ births with migration maps.  I also was able to identify where vital records could be to assist with answering a brick wall research question.  Locality research made this possible.

Unlocking Family Histories: DNA Matches and Collateral Research Strategies

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During my hunt for anything I could find regarding my ancestor Henry, I discovered a border crossing document from Canada to the U.S.  It revealed Henry in the brother-in-law role helping  his wife Julia’s sister’s husband John.  

This led to the thought that perhaps I could apply Diahan Southard’s Ask The Wife strategy to researching Henry’s wife Julia.  After reviewing Diahan’s Your DNA Guide The Book on this topic, I took another look at what DNA matches had connections with Julia.  Perhaps I could connect with descendants of Julia’s sister Amalia.  

This prompted me to evaluate the couple’s family further.  I happened to have a copy of a set of books that focused on biographies of families from the area where they lived.  Fortunately, there was a biography written up about them. It provided me with the names of their children including married surnames of the daughters of the family.  

This sparked my interest in pursuing some more collateral research.  Even though Amalia wasn’t a direct ancestor to me, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of gaining some information about Henry through her descendants.  Amalia is what you call a collateral relative, an in-law to my direct ancestor Henry.  

My next move was to check out my Ancestry DNA matches.  I entered surnames associated with Amalia and John in the search box for surnames in DNA match trees.  I found two matches whose direct descendants were Amalia and John as either grandparents or great-grandparents.

Before making any connection with the matches, it was time to “do the genealogy” first.  This meant following my usual process of checking out:

  • Vital records like birth, marriage, death
  • Censuses
  • Obituaries
  • Other records that could give some insight as to names of descendants and their families

I took the time to create spreadsheets and logs with my findings.  Then it was time to connect with Amalia and John’s living descendants.  

The DNA match profiles showed that they were not online in their Ancestry accounts for quite some time. I checked Facebook out after a Google search revealed that one of the matches had a Facebook account.  It looked like the match wasn’t that active on Facebook either.  

I checked the friends and identified some people who appeared to be family members.  Next, I reached out to one of them who graciously responded to a chat and identified how the matches were connected to Amalia and John.  I was also provided with a phone number of a good family source to speak with about the couple.  

Although I didn’t get that much more information about Henry with this research strategy through living descendants, I did find my research efforts paid off.  I was able after going back again to “do the genealogy” that one of Amalia’s children was born in the same location Henry was born.  This did provide me with some background as to how Henry and Julia probably met.

I’m not done pursuing collateral research in regard to Julia and her family, as while I worked with the ForeverⓇ professional genealogist some old records related to them were found.  These will help shape out Julia’s story when I get to that point in writing about Henry and Julia.  Who knows what else I will find?  Time will tell.

Accessing Social Security Records: A Guide for Genealogy Research

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Without knowing how to access a deceased individual’s Social Security Application and Claims Index record, you won’t be able to verify an ancestor’s place of birth, location of residence or parent names.  Instead, you’ll continue to wonder if that record can answer a genealogy research question or get you unstuck from a genealogy brick wall dilemma.

Here’s how you can get access to the record through a request known as a FOIA or Freedom of Information Act request.  It is ideal to have the deceased individual’s Social Security Number.  If you don’t, you still can go ahead with the request.

Step 1.  Online Go To https://www.ssa.gov/foia/ 

Step 2.  Click on Make A FOIA Request.

Step 3.  Click on Request a copy of Deceased Person’s Original Application for a Social Security Card (SS-5) or Numident Record.

This will bring up more information about the process.  The top paragraphs give options of getting what you need either online or by mail.  There is a fee for receiving a copy.

Step 4. Complete the request form and submit along with fee payment.  

That’s all you need to do.

If you need more information about the Freedom of Information Act, visit https://www.foia.gov/faq.html 

The Document That Helped Bust The Genealogy Brick Wall

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For years the question lingered amongst paternal cousins regarding an ancestor I shall name Henry.  Who were Heinrich’s parents?

A record from the Social Security Application and Claims Index was found that had the possible answer to that question.  But, was this record for our Henry, we wondered.  Also, how would we access this record?

When I worked with the ForeverⓇ Family Research professional genealogist who worked as my genealogy project coach, I mentioned this Social Security Application and Claims Index record to her.  The information provided by the index did match Henry’s birth date and was perhaps a match to his birth place.  The Fred and Mary listed as his parents we weren’t clear about.

As a result, the research goal discussed during this coaching session was to confirm the parents of Henry presumably from a location that was once part of Russia but now is in Ukraine.  It was recommended that I build on location information utilizing the JewishGen.org Communities database, even though Henry wasn’t Jewish.  This website also offers extensive other information about regions of Eastern Europe.  

It was also recommended that I get access to the record listed on the Social Security Index.  I learned that a copy of the record can be ordered per the United States Freedom of Information Act.  I was also provided with links for ordering it and the FamilySearch wiki about this record.

The ForeverⓇ professional genealogist told me that it may take a month before I receive the record copy.  Perhaps this is so if the photocopy of the original Social Security Card application is sent by snail mail.

I discovered that opting for electronic access instead of the snail mail option sped up the delivery time.  Within a week’s time I was able to download the photocopy.

I was delighted to see that the photocopy was worth the $30.00 I spent to order it.  The record showed the Henry it named was the Henry I was researching.  The address for where he resided at the time was a match.  

What really sealed the deal was Henry’s signature.  It was identical to his signature on other documents I found.  

This was huge!  It gave me something to work with–I had the full names of Henry’s parents!  Of course, when I shared this with my cousins, they were excited too.

To learn more about how to request a Social Security Application and Claims Index record, click here.

How To Make The Most of Trello For Genealogy

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You may or may not know what Trello is.  If you do, it’s an online tool to manage projects and tasks.  It’s a system using boards, lists and cards.  You can access it online or via an app on your phone.  

I’ve used it for quite some time but didn’t know how it would work for genealogy.  One day while doing some Googling for genealogy research organization ideas, I discovered that Trello could be used for genealogy too.  

Here are some of the ideas that my Google search generated for making the most of Trello for genealogy:

  • Create multigenerational family trees in a vertical list form, utilizing labels and/or card covers to show how people are related.
  • Log your research in the form of a workflow or a visual tracker to document what you’ve found and cite your findings.
  • Set up a genealogy planner board to house lists for research tasks to do and other activities not related to research.

Here are some online resources I found that were helpful to better visualize how I could tailor Trello to my genealogy research needs:

My Google search resulted in these boards in one workspace titled Genealogy:

  • Family History Book Plan
  • Genealogy Reference
  • Genealogy Courses
  • Genealogy Processes
  • Genealogy To Do
  • Research Log

I started out with creating the Research Log with these lists:

  • Goals
  • Notes
  • Waiting Room (pending contacts with DNA matches/relatives)
  • To Do
  • Research (Ancestor Name) To Do
  • Doing
  • Done
  • Parking Lot (backburner items for another research project)
  • Relevant Resources (websites that I use along with username and passwords kept in the description)

The To Do lists for an ancestor helped me keep in focus what information I already had on that person along with citations of sources and what I didn’t have.  The other lists helped me stay on task to finish DNA match-related projects.  

Eventually, I tailored my Trello boards for genealogy work in tandem with my Google Drive.  They keep me accountable to get tasks completed.  Having the ability to mark or move cards on from the Doing list to Done gives me a great sense of accomplishment.