[photopress:record_books_309.jpg,thumb,pp_style] By LaRae Free Kerr
Four brothers inherited a business from their father, which then failed, due to a vice of one of the brothers. This brother withdrew from the family, and his descendants didn’t even know of their relatives in the same city. When a modern descendant contacted a descendant of one of the other brothers, the cousin left out the “falling out” part of the story. The reader telling this tale then asked, “I’m wondering a) if I should have (left it out), and b) whether I should approach any member of the “estranged” branch of the family to see if they would like a gentle account of the story.”(This story has been changed to protect privacy.)

Continue Reading »

[photopress:roots_background_0209.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By LaRae Free Kerr
There are other folks I’d like to mention but I really
haven’t time.

Continue Reading »

[photopress:roots_background_0109.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By LaRae Free Kerr
In a perfect genealogical world, every single person would be represented on a family group record with at least three vital records: birth, marriage, and death certificates. Each certificate would give a name, an event, a date, a place, one or more persons, and a connector which, when combined,

Continue Reading »

[photopress:wedding_invitation_1108.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By LaRae Free Kerr

A cousin wrote, “Ephraim Perkins, born 1795 in NC, son of Joshua Perkins and Rebecca Sherrill has 5 wives listed for him—Mary Stubblefield md 9 Aug 1817, Lucinda Rushing md 1817, Lucinda E. Livingston md 4 Sep 1845, Milly J. Holmes md 7 Nov 1854, Mary Wylie Moses md abt 1865. Some of the children of Ephraim are connected to more than one of these wives. Can you clear this up?”

Continue Reading »

[photopress:roots_background_1008.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By LaRae Free Kerr

Genetic genealogy is “the use of DNA to explore ancestral origins and relationships between individuals…another tool for the genealogist’s toolbox,” wrote Blaine T. Bettinger, Ph. D. at http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/wp-content/uploads/InterpretingTheResultsofGeneticGenealogyTests.PDF. Following is an example, based on a true situation but with the names changed, showing what YDNA can do and undo for researchers.

Continue Reading »