Category Archives: Ancestry.com

Ancestry Reverts ThruLines to the Original View

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Just a quick note to let everyone know that Ancestry has reverted ThruLines back to the original, legacy version, and has obsoleted the new pedigree view. I wrote about the new version in the article Ancestry’s ThruLines Has a New Pedigree View just three days ago.

  • If you didn’t yet have the new version of ThruLines, you won’t receive it because it has now been obsoleted.
  • If you DID have the new version, everyone has now been reverted back to the original or legacy version, including the important “Evaluate” feature that was missing in the new version

It’s always a good thing when vendors listen to their customers.

That said, I hope Ancestry is working on a new and truly “improved” version that combines the best features of both views, including Evaluate, as suggested by many customers and blog readers, and provides customers with the option to default to either view.

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Ancestry’s ThruLines Has a New Pedigree View

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Update: Ancestry obsoleted this new feature on December 5, 2025.

Ancestry recently updated ThruLines and introduced a new pedigree view.

I’m not sure that everyone has the new view yet, so here’s what to expect.

If you do have the new feature, let’s take a look, because there’s new functionality you may not have discovered.

When I signed in and clicked on ThruLines on the DNA tab, the first thing I saw certainly looked different. Needless to say, I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting anything new.

Click on any image to enlarge

This doesn’t look anything like what we’re used to, but Ancestry provides navigation buttons.

One person mentioned that the new view was so small they couldn’t really see clearly, but by rolling your mouse button up or clicking on the little “+” button in the upper right-hand corner, it’s easy to enlarge.

That said, on this and especially on subsequent screens, I would very much like for there to be less white space at the top, or have a “full screen” option.

You can navigate up your tree by clicking on the little up arrows above the ancestors in the top row.

The Tile Display is Still There

But perhaps more importantly for people who prefer the previous display, it’s actually right there.

Click on the little tile button to switch from the pedigree to the traditional tile view.

It’s easy to toggle back and forth.

Take a look at the new ThruLines layout. If you don’t like it, select the tiled version

Why Do I Like the Pedigree View?

I like the pedigree view because it lets me easily see how people connect with each other. While I’m intimately familiar with the more recent generations, I don’t like the more distant ancestors all being smooshed together in the tile view.

In the pedigree view, I can see how many of my matches descend from each ancestor in the tree format.

Clicking on that number opens the dropdown showing the matches and how they descend from that ancestor.

In these expanded tree views, we really do need a full-screen option. It is challenging to see the entire sequence of descent.

My focus right now is on determining if anyone that I match carries the mitochondrial DNA of my paternal grandmother. On other ancestral lines, I have both the Y-DNA and mtDNA from generations back in time, but not my grandmother. I’m hoping to remedy that.

This layout makes it easy to see that there are many potential candidates for generations upstream. If I find the right person, descended from that ancestor through all females to the current generation, which can be male, I’ll be offering them a DNA testing scholarship for a mitochondrial DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA.

Suggestions for Improving the View

Perhaps Ancestry will provide the option of selecting a default view, so we can select our favorite – tile or pedigree – plus a full-screen option for pedigree view.

Another alternative would be for the pedigree view to be horizontal and extend left to right instead of top to bottom, the same as Ancestry’s traditional trees.

Truthfully, I really like the pedigree format and functionality of the new ThruLines pedigree view, but I greatly prefer the layout of this traditional tree. It’s much easier to see and is expandable without running off the top or bottom of the screen. Maybe Ancestry could combine the best features of both.

Update: A sharp-eyed reader caught that the “Evaluate” feature is now gone, which used to allow you to evaluate other people’s trees that suggested the ThruLines connection. This is really important, and I hope that Ancestry restores it. Genealogists must evaluate everything and weigh the evidence when determining if a connection is accurate.

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How to Use Ancestry’s New Match Clusters and What They Mean

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Ancestry recently introduced matches by cluster a new ProTools feature that clusters your matches together. And no, before you ask, this is not the long-awaited triangulation.

Ancestry’s new match clusters are a grid-based visualization of your shared matches.

Manual clustering was introduced by Dana Leeds in September of 2018, and, appropriately, named the Leeds Method.

You’ve probably seen similar automated clustering features at Genetic Affairs, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. Now Ancestry has climbed on the bandwagon, too.

The purpose of clustering is to group your matches that also match each other together. Clustered matches don’t necessarily match on the same segments, which is what defines triangulation.

Cluster members who match each other share common ancestors. Grouping them together in clusters helps you figure out the ancestor for the entire group.

Note that clustering requires a ProTools subscription, in addition to either an Ancestry family history membership or AncestryDNA Plus. Ancestry’s subscription model can be viewed here.

Let’s take a look at Ancestry’s clusters, discuss how clusters work conceptually, and then how clusters can help us with our genealogy.

Viewing Your Clusters

Sign on, select DNA, Matches, and then “By cluster.”

Everyone in a cluster matches you, and many of your matches match each other too.

Ancestry, in their Clustering introduction and support article, explains that:

  • Clustering looks at matches on each side of your family between 65 cM and 1300 cM.
  • They exclude close family members, such as parents, children, siblings, half-siblings, aunts, uncles and their children. Many of the people designated as “Close Family” on my match list are included in clusters, so “Close Family” on your match list is not the same as “close family” who is excluded from clusters.
  • While cousins are very useful to separate matches, close relatives like parents and siblings would be in just about every cluster, so they aren’t useful.
  • Ancestry compares your qualifying matches to see who shares 20 cM or more of DNA with each other
  • People who all match you above 65 cM, AND each other at 20 cM or greater, after Timber, are candidates to form a cluster. Not everyone in a cluster matches everyone else, but everyone matches some other cluster members.

To be clear, Ancestry includes SOME qualifying people in clusters, but not all people who qualify. We don’t know how or why that decision is made, but not everyone who meets these qualifications is included in a cluster.

While that’s frustrating and confusing, the clusters we do have are valuable for determining where those people fit in the puzzle, plus, I’ve developed an easy workaround for those unclustered shared matches.

Let’s view your clusters.

Viewing Your Cluster Members

I have two separate Ancestry DNA tests because I tested on two different chip versions. I have intentionally used all of the tools on one kit, and have not on the other, so that I can see a test “in the raw” compared to one that has utilized all of Ancestry’s available tools.

I refer to the first test as my V1 “tricked out” version, and the second test, V2 is “less developed”.

My cluster results are somewhat different between the two.

Also, every time you sign in or click on “By cluster,” Ancestry recalculates your clusters, so they may be slightly different from one time to the next, or one day to the next. This could be a function of Clusters being in Beta, or maybe not. New matches may also force reclustering, of course, but I haven’t had new qualifying matches since clusters was released. Basically, Ancestry uses between first and third cousins to define clusters.

Roberta’s V2 “Less Developed” Test

I’m starting with the less developed V2 test, because I did NOT use SideView to designate which parent is which by assigning either identifiable unique ethnicity or known matches to a specific parent. Everyone who can should utilize SideView.

Ancestry does their best to assign clusters to one parent or the other, even if you don’t (or can’t) designate parental “sides,” meaning which parent is which.

At the top of the cluster page, you’ll see tabs for “All”, “Parent 1”, and “Parent 2.”

The default view is “All,” so clusters from both parental sides are included in this display, if you have clusters on both sides.

Even though I did NOT use sideview to designate which parent certain matches or ethnicity are from, Ancestry was able to identify some clusters from Parent 1 and some from Parent 2. In total, I have 9 clusters with a total of 92 different people in those clusters.

In this test, you can see the clusters at the top of the page, but my V1 “tricked out” test is different.

Roberta’s V1 “Tricked Out” Test

I have used SideView to indicate parental “sides” using my ethnicity and/or known close matches for this test.

If you have used Sideview to indicate which side is which, then your cluster selections will say “All,” “Maternal,” and “Paternal.”

Notice, though, that this test does NOT show any of my clusters at the top like the V2 test did, just the dropdown description boxes where you can view each individual cluster.

This is because I have more than 100 cluster members, but it’s anything but intuitive and is apparently what the message, “Chart view is available for clusters of 100 matches or fewer,” is trying to tell me. However, I had no idea what “chart view” was, or, without adding the totals from each cluster, that I have more than 100 cluster members. In other words, no one who sees this will know what is missing, or why. Now you know!

Fortunately, I have other tests available from other testers that I could check.

For example, I manage my Acadian cousin’s test. He is heavily endogamous and has more than 700 people in his clusters. His clusters don’t show at the top of his page either. The tests I manage with less than 100 cluster members all show their clusters when they first open their cluster page.

This restriction also pertains to the number of matches within any individual cluster. Essentially, a cluster or combined clusters of 100 people is just about all that can be displayed on a computer screen, left to right.

Regardless, either way, your entire group of clusters is shown together initially, either in the grid format, which they’ve named “chart format” if 100 or fewer, and in a list accessible via dropdowns for everyone.

My Clusters

I’m using my V1 “tricked out” test for the rest of this article because it’s the one where I’ve used all the available tools. Therefore, my best result should be obtained using this test.

Ancestry has created eight clusters for me with a total of 102 members, which is why I don’t see the nice little grid view at the top of my list, but my V2 test with only 92 cluster members displays the chart/grid view.

To view any individual cluster, click on the dropdown box. If the clusters are displayed at the top, scroll down to the dropdown boxes beneath the colorful cluster view.

After clicking the down arrow, here’s a view of my first cluster.

  • All of these people match me at a qualifying level meaning 65-1300 cM and are not a close relative.
  • Not everyone included in a cluster will match each other.
  • The colored cells indicate matches, meaning those people also match each other at 20 cM or greater.
  • The non-colored or “blank” cells indicate that those two intersecting people don’t match each other at 20 cM or more. It does NOT mean they don’t match each other at all, just not above 20 cM which is the lowest amount of shared DNA between your matches that you can see using ProTools.

The first person in this cluster, meaning “DP”, the person in the top row (also the first column), matches everyone else in the cluster. The second person, “ER”, matches everyone except five people in the cluster, and so forth.

Hovering over any colored cell tells you how closely these two individuals are related to each other.

Scrolling down below the cluster displays your match information to each cluster member, including whether they have a tree and their estimated relationship to you.

I label my matches by MRCA, or most recent common ancestor, in the notes field. If Ancestry can identify a common ancestor based on both of your trees, they will note that there is a “Common ancestor,” which is ThruLines. To view additional information, click on that link.

Each cluster can be traced back to an ancestral couple.

My first cluster has 27 members, and I had previously figured out how most of them are related to me, meaning our common ancestor. I had already labeled them accordingly in the Notes field, and also by creating “group labels” for each ancestral couple, which we’ll discuss in a minute.

Of these 27 cluster members:

  • 13 track back to Lazarus Estes and Elizabeth Vannoy
  • 3 track back to John Y. Estes and Martha Ruthy Dodson
  • 4 have private trees
  • 2 have no trees
  • 2 have very tiny trees
  • 2 people share multiple ancestors with me, so they may be in other clusters too
  • The common ancestor of 3 cluster members remains a mystery, but I know this is “how” they are related because they are a member of this cluster

Clusters may contain people with generational differences. For example, it’s very likely that this entire cluster descends from John Y. Estes and Martha Ruth Dodson, but 13 people can only be tracked to Lazarus Estes and Elizabeth Vannoy based on their trees alone. No one in this cluster can be traced to Elizabeth Vannoy’s parents. Since 3 cluster members can be traced to Lazarus Estes’s parents, the entire cluster probably originated with John Y. Estes and Martha Rutha Dodson.

However, for now, I’m assigning this cluster to Lazarus and Elizabeth.

Viewing Maternal and Paternal Groups of Clusters

By clicking on either Maternal or Paternal at the top, you see a view of multiple maternal or paternal clusters, so long as the total number of members isn’t over 100.

I have three clusters on my mother’s side: two fairly large ones, plus the small green third cluster.

I can tell by the matches, some of whom I know, that the purple cluster is my mother’s paternal side, and the blue cluster is my mother’s maternal side.

The green cluster also includes my mother’s paternal line. How do I know this? The grey cells indicate people who are members of both clusters. Grey cells are intersections between two different clusters.

Follow the first person, “DZ”, or any purple person, through the purple cells, across the blue cells to their first grey cell, then directly down to the green cell, and those two people are members of the green cluster too.

So, for any one person, to see how many clusters they are a member of, and who they match in every cluster, just follow their row straight across, left to right. Or straight down, if you prefer top to bottom.

If you’re wondering how someone could be in BOTH my mother’s maternal and paternal clusters, the answer is first cousins and their descendants who descend from both of my grandparents.

Cluster Members in Multiple Clusters

Please note that when viewing cluster members in the cluster dropdown boxes, that:

  • When someone is a member of BOTH the purple and green cluster, they are only listed as a member of ONE cluster, not both.
  • Therefore, any individual person is only listed once, not in each cluster of which they are a member.
  • This also means they are only counted once, not twice.

For example, the person in the first row, “DZ”, is a member of both the purple and the green cluster, but in the cluster dropdown, DZ is only listed as a member of the purple cluster, NOT the green cluster. It’s exactly the opposite for “MF” who is a member of both, but is listed only in the green cluster but not the purple cluster.

Looking back at the image, you can see that everyone in the green cluster is also a member of either the purple cluster, the blue cluster, or all three.

Someone that is a member of two clusters, but only listed in one cluster, was very confusing until I realized what was going on. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to identify clusters and associate them with ancestors.

However, I created an easy workaround.

While listing someone who is a member of multiple clusters in only one cluster makes it difficult to identify ancestors with whom clusters are associated, you can overcome this by creating a separate spreadsheet or chart and manually add the people associated with two or more clusters. Just follow each person’s row across left to right and use the grey squares in the cluster image. Of course, your analysis will reveal WHY they are members of multiple clusters.

This approach works as long as you don’t have more than 100 people on either your maternal or paternal side, respectively. If the page of clusters is larger than 100, you can’t see the multiple cluster image, so you’re out of luck tracking matches in multiple clusters because you need to see those grey cells.

One person who is a member of two clusters means that they are in a cluster for each of two different ancestral couples. For example, let’s say Cousin John is in a cluster for Joe Smith and Jane Johnson. He’s also in a second cluster for Jane Johnson’s parents. Cousin John could be in a third cluster too, for Joe Smith’s parents, or a different ancestral couple on his other parent’s side.

Every cluster has their own unique history and it’s your job to figure out which ancestral couple each cluster represents. .

For example, I’ve scrolled down on my Paternal Clusters to the bottom. I have five clusters, and you can see that many people are members of multiple clusters. Some people are in four clusters, counting the marks in the spaces for the various clusters for each match.

One person is a member of all five clusters, but I happen to know some of my matches descend separately from both sides of my father’s family – so we have pedigree collapse. These people could also be descendants of my aunts and uncles, for example, so we do share all of our ancestors on my father’s side.

It’s easiest to work with clusters if we create cluster groups.

Creating and Using Cluster Groups

Groups allow you to tag someone with various colored group labels that you define for your genealogy.

I created a new group for each of my 8 clusters. You can easily create the new group and tag everyone at the same time by clicking on “Add All” at the top, which opens your defined groups, at right. You can either select an existing group, or create a new one. You can assign this group identifier to everyone in this cluster, or just some people by checking their box (at far left), or not. Remember, your matches are only listed in ONE cluster, so you’ll need to add people into multiple cluster groups manually.

I’m using the grouping feature to track who is in which cluster or clusters, and who is not. Please note that I found assigning a group to everyone in the cluster using the “Add all” feature to be a bit buggy, so check closely to be sure the clusters are recorded correctly and everyone who should be labeled with a group cluster tag actually is. Also, be sure to click on “Save changes” at the bottom.

Returning to my primary DNA match list, now it’s easy to see who is and is not included in a cluster, or multiple clusters based on my group tags.

Of my first four matches, two are maternal and two are paternal, and they are assigned to a purple or a yellow cluster accordingly.

Who’s Missing?

To quote another genetic genealogist, many qualifying matches who clearly meet the cluster criteria “have been left on the cutting room floor.”

I noticed that several of my cousins are missing from my clusters. Known cousins are used to identify matches. While these people clearly don’t fall in the ecluded “Close Family” category, they are certainly close enough to be very useful, first to third cousins, and meet the cluster criteria.

Adding to the confusion, many who match me more distantly, AND match these people, ARE included in clusters.

So, if you think you’re imagining things, no, you’re probably not!

Let’s take a look.

The first person NOT included in a cluster is only my 10th match, “MB” a suggested second cousin with whom I share 238 cM.

You can see that the people both above and below her on the list are included in clusters. Even more confusing is that a ThruLine has been formed, which is what the “Common Ancestor” designation means.

That makes it even easier for me to identify the cluster, so one would think that matches with ThruLines would be a priority to include in clusters.

The second cluster criterion is that the match also matches other people in the cluster with 20 cM or more. Looking at our shared matches, that’s clearly the case. All of our closest common matches are also clustered, but “MB” is not.

I’m baffled.

We have 20 pages of common matches. Of the first 25 matches, 22 are clustered and 3 are not, which is also a bit baffling. All meet the criteria.

One reason that someone might not be clustered is that two matches are too closely related to each other, like parent and child, and the other person is already clustered. But that’s not the situation here. In fact, MBs adult child, my third cousin, is also on my match list and is also not clustered, although people on both sides of MB’s child are in clusters too.

As I work down my match list, by the 5th page or so, there’s little consistency between who is and is not a cluster member. Each match page displays 20 matches. On the 7th page, there are only 5 matches who are clustered, sprinkled between the rest who are not. All of those matches meet the criteria and so do our shared matches.

At the point on my match list where clustering ends, and no one else further down my match list is a cluster member, that person shares 67 cM with me, and they share 20 cM or more with all of our 31 shared matches. Of our shared matches, five share more than 65 cM with me, so no matter how you slice it, we all qualify to be in a cluster, several of us together. In fact, four of the other five are members of cluster 4, but the other two are not.

There are a total of 35 people who match me at 66 cM to 238 cM who clearly qualify to be in a cluster, but who are not. If the threshold is actually 65 cM, instead of “above 65 cM,” there are six more.

Easy Workaround

While having clusters formed with all of the qualifying members would be extremely useful, I’ve found a way to work around it, using my spreadsheet.We are going to use these clusters as seeds to grow into something better.

I’ve identified the ancestral couple associated with cluster members and labeled each cluster with their name. The omitted shared matches between me and cluster members should be in the same or a related cluster, barring issues like pedigree collapse and endogamy.

In this example, Omitted person #1 matches with both DZ and SL in cluster 1, so should be in Cluster 1. Omitted person #2 matches MF and LS in Cluster 2, so they should be a member of Cluster 2. Of course, I’ll be reviewing everyone’s trees and sometimes doing their genealogy for them to uncover our common ancestor.

So, while Ancestry’s clusters may not cluster everyone that they logically should, you can:

  1. Use the clusters that have formed
  2. Combined with shared matches to other cluster members
  3. To further identify, or at least find hints pointing to common ancestors

Now, let’s analyze the clusters.

My Cluster Results

So, what have I been able to do with Ancestry’s clusters?

Ancestors defined by clusters can be identified in multiple ways:

  • Because the tester is known
  • A match has a common ancestor in their tree
  • You extended their tree to find your common ancestor
  • A ThruLine has been formed

I’ve placed cluster numbers on ancestor couples identified as common ancestors with cluster members.

  • 1 cluster descends from my paternal great-grandparents (cluster 1)
  • 3 clusters descend from my paternal great-great-grandparents (clusters 2, 3 and 4)
  • 1 cluster descends from my maternal great-great-grandparents (cluster 6)
  • 1 cluster descends from my maternal great-great-great-grandparents (cluster 5)
  • 2 of the smallest clusters can be identified only to grandparents, meaning just the maternal or paternal side (clusters 7 and 8)

Conversely, that means clusters didn’t develop for:

  • My father’s grandfather, Joseph B. Bolton’s line
  • My mother’s grandfather’s line, Hiram Bauke Ferverda
  • My mother’s grandmother’s father’s line, John David Miller
  • My mother’s grandmother’s line, Ellenora Kirsch

How Can Clusters Kick-Start Your Genealogy?

The answer to how clusters can help you depends, in part, on your goals.

If you’re searching for unknown parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents, and assuming enough other people have tested, clusters should work well for you.

  • Of my 8 clusters, all can be identified maternally or paternally, meaning those sets of grandparents.
  • Keep in mind, though, that I identified my maternal and paternal “side” through Sideview for my V1 “tricked out” test, so your mileage without having indicated parental “sides” may vary a bit. My V2 test where I did not select sides, still had about 90% of the clustered matches of my V1 test with Sideview. Clusters are essential for people seeking unknown, relatively closely related family members.
  • If you’re searching for unknown parents or grandparents, smaller clusters that include members from several larger clusters, especially all clusters on one of your parent’s sides, may be pointing to grandparents.
  • Please note that clusters always identify a couple, not an individual. As soon as you can identify which one of the couple by matching with someone who descends from one of that ancestors’ siblings, then you’re automatically bumped back another generation to their parents.
  • You may only be able to identify a cluster match to a generation closer in time.
  • Remember that Ancestry’s clustering is not triangulation, so your matches may not match on the same segment. You could match person A due to one set of ancestors, person B due to another set of ancestors, and A and B could match each other due to a third set of ancestors.
  • This, in part, is why clustering is useful, as it reduces, not eliminates, the possibility of that happening because you’re dealing with groups of people, not just 3, multiple match criteria, and larger size segments.
  • When pedigree collapse or endogamy is involved, the three (or multiple) people may match due to different ancestors that they can’t identify because the group of matches shares multiple or many ancestors. Think of either first cousins marrying each other a couple of generations ago, which is pedigree collapse, or endogamous groups like Acadians or Jewish people, isolated cultural groups who intermarried for generations.
  • Triangulation, which clusters are NOT, further reduces ambiguity because the same segment of DNA is being measured and compared. Ancestry does not offer triangulation, but both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage do in various ways.

If you’re looking to collaborate with genealogists who descend from ancestors in the past three generations, contact matches in formed clusters.

If you’re looking to break through a recent brick wall, you may be able to do that. In part, it’s a roll of the dice depending on who has tested, the size of the testing pool where your ancestors are from, combined with the unknown internal Ancestry algorithm. For example, if you descend from ancestors in an under-tested part of the world, you may have fewer or even no clusters. To aid in breaking down brick walls, utilize clusters that do form as seeds to group additional people using your cheat sheet.

If you’re an experienced genealogist trying to break through a distant brick wall, Ancestry’s clusters, as they are today, probably aren’t going to help you much, but never say never. You don’t know where that desperately needed next hint might come from. If you’re hunting for the identify of a 4th great-grandparent, pay close attention to the common ancestors of the people in your closest cluster to that unknown ancestor in your tree.

Work on each cluster. If you find a cluster you can’t attribute to one of your ancestors, compare the ancestors in the trees of each cluster member, looking for commonality. Ancestors shared between them and not you may point to your brick wall..

Use the clusters as a starting point, and continue working down your match list. Use shared matches with cluster members to continue to associate your matches with clusters, even if Ancestry doesn’t assign them. Your cheat sheet spreadsheet is your friend, and so are notes and grouping tags.

Beta

If things aren’t working quite right, remember that Ancestry’s clusters are in Beta. Just try again later.

Ancestry has also noted that they are rolling this feature out in stages, and some members won’t be able to access Clusters until December 2025.

Ancestry has announced that soon you’ll be able to create custom clusters with specific matches and cM ranges.

Try Additional Cluster Resources

Each vendor has a different pool of people who have tested there.

Other vendors and third-party tools provide cluster resources and various types of automated tree-building. I have between 18 and 40 clusters using these various tools at different places.

Take a look and see how many clusters you have, and what you can do with them at:

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

You Can Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Leave No Stone Unturned, No Ancestor Behind: 10 Easy Steps to Capture DNA Clues

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There’s a lot, a whole lot that DNA testing can tell you. Not just your own tests, but the genetic information carried by your relatives that you do not.

Recently, I’ve been reviewing my brick walls, which led me to realize there are several ancestors who are missing their mitochondrial DNA and/or Y-DNA  results. I need these to learn more about my ancestors that can’t be revealed any other way – and to break down those pesky brick walls.

I’ve solved two mysteries recently, one thanks to a Big Y-700 test, and a second very unexpectedly thanks to mitochondrial DNA – both thanks to cousins who tested. These revelations were very encouraging, especially since there’s no way other than DNA for me to break through these brick walls. The mitochondrial test had been sitting there, waiting for what seemed like forever until just the right other person tested.

I am in the process of unlocking several brick-walled ancestors by providing testing scholarships to people who are appropriately descended from known ancestors in those lines.

Don’t leave information on the table. If I were to tell you there even MIGHT be a book available about your family, you’d overturn Heaven and Earth to find it – but you don’t need to do that. All you need to do is order DNA tests for cousins.

All cousins can provide useful autosomal DNA results, but you do need to find appropriate cousins for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing.

I’m sharing the steps for how I accomplish this! You’ll be amazed at what’s out there – and someone may already have tested!

Take Advantage of the Holidays

I’m sharing NOW because it’s the holidays and you’re likely to gather with people you don’t see any other time – and because the best sale of the year for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA lasts from now through the end of the year.

These two factors combined mean strike while the iron is hot.

Prices for new tests and bundles are at an all-time low.

If you or your relatives have already taken a lower-level test, now is the time to upgrade to either the Big Y-700 or the mtFull Sequence test.

Step 1 – Test Yourself and Your Known Family

If you’re a male, order both the Big Y-700 test and mitochondrial DNA tests.

Be sure to click on “See More” for more useful tools.

When you receive your results, be sure to click on all of the tabs in your results, and do the same by clicking through to Discover from your account. Discover has 13 more goodies for you to help with your genealogy.

Both your personal page and Discover are essentially chapters of your own personal book about your DNA results. 25 very interesting chapters, to be precise, that are uniquely you.

I’ve written about understanding Y-DNA results here, and mitochondrial results here. My book, Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA, covers both along with Discover.

Discover provides robust information for Y-DNA haplogroups. If you’ve taken a Big Y-700 test, you’ll want to click through from your page to receive additional, personalized and more robust information than is available through the free public Discover tool. That said, the public version of Discover is an amazing tool for everyone.

After the new Mitotree is released for mitochondrial DNA, mitochondrial haplogroups will be available in Discover too.

I can’t even begin to stress how important these tools are – in particular the Time Tree, the Group Time Tree for members of group projects, and the Match Time Tree for your own matches.

Who Can Test For What?

Once you’ve tested yourself, you will want to take a look in your pedigree chart at branches further up your tree to see who can be tested to represent specific ancestors.

Let’s begin with my father’s side.

A mother contributes her mitochondrial DNA to all of her children, so your father carries the mitochondrial DNA of his mother.

If you’re a female, and your father is available to test, you’ll want to test BOTH his mitochondrial DNA and Y-DNA, because there’s no way for you to obtain that information from your own test. Females don’t have a Y chromosome, and men don’t pass on their mitochondrial DNA.

If you’re a male, you can test your own mitochondrial DNA and Y-DNA, but you’ll need to test your father’s mitochondrial DNA to obtain his mother’s. You might still want to test your father’s Y-DNA, however, because you may discover a personal family haplogroup. How cool is that??!! Your own tiny branch on the tree of mankind!

Your father’s mitochondrial DNA provides you with mitochondrial matches and haplogroup information for your paternal grandmother – in this case, Ollie Bolton.

If your father and his siblings can’t test, then all of the children of your paternal aunts carry your paternal grandmother’s mitochondrial DNA.

If they have no children or they can’t test, then the children of Ollie Bolton’s mother, Margaret Claxton/Clarkson all carry her mitochondrial DNA, and the children of Ollie’s sisters continue the line of descent through all daughters to the current generation.

The male children of Joseph “Dode” Bolton and Margaret Claxton carry his Y-DNA. Fortunately, that’s not one of our missing haplogroups.

Yes, you may have to climb up your tree and climb down various branches to find a testing candidate.

One of the reasons I’m using this example is because, while I have a high-level haplogroup for my grandmother, Ollie Bolton, we need a full sequence tester – and I’m offering a mitochondrial DNA testing scholarship for anyone descending from Margaret Claxton (or her direct female ancestors) through all females to the current generation, which can be male.

Ok, now let’s switch to the maternal side of your tree.

On the other side of your tree, your maternal grandfather or your mother’s brothers will provide the Y-DNA of your mother’s father’s line. Your mother’s uncles or their sons will provide your grandfather’s Y-DNA line, too. In this case, that’s John Whitney Ferverda, who carries the Y-DNA of his father, Hiram Bauke Ferverda/Ferwerda.

Your maternal grandfather or his siblings will provide the mitochondrial DNA of their mother, Evaline Louise Miller.

If they are deceased or can’t test, for mitochondrial DNA, look to the children of Evaline Miller’s daughters or their descendants through all females to the current generation, which can be male.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, I do need Evaline Miller’s mitochondrial line too and am offering a scholarship.

You might have noticed that I’ve been inching my way up my tree. All of my immediate relatives have passed over already, so I’m now looking for testers that I don’t know but who I’m related to.

If you’re seeing family members anytime soon, figure out if their Y-DNA, mitochondrial DNA, or autosomal DNA would be useful for your common genealogy. Take advantage of the opportunity.

Next, you’ll want to figure out which ancestors need haplogroups and locate appropriate cousins.

Step 2 – Identify Ancestors Who Need Haplogroups

Peruse your tree to determine which of your ancestors you need haplogroup information for. To make it easy, on my computer, but never in a public tree anyplace, I store the haplogroup of my ancestor as a “middle name” so I can easily see which ones I have and which ones I need. Sometimes, I have a high-level haplogroup and either need a new tester or someone to upgrade.

Sometimes, I have one tester from a line but need a second for confirmation.

In this example, I’m not missing confirmation on any Y-DNA haplogroups (although I am further upstream on different lines,) but I do need four different mitochondrial DNA lineages.

For easy reference, make a list of all of the lines you can’t confirm with two testers from different children of the same ancestor.

You just might get lucky and discover that someone has already tested!

Step 3 – Check FamilyTreeDNA Projects

Check FamilyTreeDNA Projects to see if someone has already tested to represent those ancestors on your list.

Click here for the Group Project Search. It’s located at the very bottom of the main FamilyTreeDNA page in the footer.

I’m going to use Estes as an example since I’m the volunteer administrator of that project and am very familiar with the lineages.

I’m searching for projects that include the surname Estes.

The projects displayed on the list are projects where the volunteer administrators listed Estes as a possible surname of interest. It doesn’t mean those projects will be of interest to everyone or every line with that surname, but evaluate each project listed.

You probably want the surname project, but if there’s not a surname project for your surname, try alternate spellings or consider checking other projects.

You can see at the bottom that 384 people of both sexes by the surname of Estes have tested at FamilyTreeDNA.

Now, let’s look at the Estes project. Note that not everyone with the Estes surname has joined the Estes project.

I’ve clicked on the “Estes” link which takes me to an additional information page where I can read a description and click to view the project.

For the Estes project, you do not have to join to view the results. Nor does your surname have to be Estes. All Estes descendants of any line are welcome. Everyone can benefit from the Advanced Matching within project feature to see who else you match within the project by selecting a wide range of individual and combined filters.

Click on the Project Website link shown in the search results.

If you’re searching for a male Estes ancestor, you’ll want to review the project’s Y-DNA Results and the Group Time Tree, for sure, and possibly the Map as well.

Let’s pretend I’m trying to determine if anyone has tested who descends from my ancestor, Abraham Estes, the founding Estes ancestor in Virginia who arrived in the mid-1600s.

In the Estes project, the volunteer administrator has divided the Estes male participants by sons of Abraham, the immigrant. Only three are shown here, but there are several.

Some of the participants have completed their Earliest Known Ancestor information, in the red box. Sometimes people don’t think to update these when they make breakthroughs.

If you descend from Abraham’s son, Sylvester, three men have taken the Big Y-700. That’s the test results you need.

If you descend from Abraham’s son, Abraham, no project participants have taken the Big-Y test to represent that line, although six people have tested, so that’s great news. Maybe you can offer an upgrade scholarship to one or some of those men.

In other words, to establish the haplogroup for that lineage, at least two men need to test or upgrade to the Big Y-700, preferably through two different sons of the common ancestor. A new, more defining haplogroup is often formed every two or three generations for Y-DNA.

Your genetic pedigree chart looks a lot like your genealogy pedigree chart.

Click any image to enlarge

The project Group Time Tree shows selected groups of men who have taken Big Y tests, along with their Earliest Known Ancestor, if they’ve provided the information. This is one of the reasons why the Big Y-700 is so critically important to genealogy. The time granularity is amazing and can answer the question of whether men by the same surname descend from the same common ancestor – and when.

If you’ve taken a Family Finder autosomal test at FamilyTreeDNA, or uploaded an autosomal file from another vendor, you may match one of these men or another male that descends from the Estes line if they, too, have taken an autosomal test.

This same process applies to mitochondrial DNA, but generally surname projects aren’t (as) relevant for mitochondrial DNA since the surname changes every generation. However, sometimes other projects, such as the Acadian AmerIndian Project are quite beneficial if you have Acadian ancestry, or a geographic or regional project like the French Heritage Project, or something like the American Indian Project.

Another great way to find testers is by utilizing your Family Finder test.

Step 4 – Family Finder at FamilyTreeDNA

The next step is to see if you match anyone with the surname you’re searching for by using your autosomal test results, so select your Family Finder Matches.

At FamilyTreeDNA you’ll want to search your matches by the surname you seek. This surname search lists any tester who has that surname, or anyone who has entered that surname in their surname list. Please note that this search does NOT read ancestors in your matches’ trees. You’ll still need to view trees.

Reviewing the 32 Estes Family Finder matches reveals several men, but one man with the Estes surname has already taken a Y-DNA 25-marker test, so he would be an excellent candidate to offer a Big Y-700 upgrade scholarship. If he’s not interested or doesn’t respond, there are several more men to contact.

Click on your match’s name to display the profile card, along with the Earliest Known Ancestors, both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups if they have tested, and the assigned haplogroup based on their testing level.

Craft an email and offer a testing scholarship. This will help both of you. I’ll provide a sample email at the end of this article.

If you match a female with an Estes surname, her father, brother, uncle or cousin may either have already tested or be willing.

If you match someone who has a different surname, that means they have an Estes surname in their surname list and may know a potential tester. If your match has a tree, click to check.

I’ve found that matching through a company where you’ve both tested is the easiest way to encourage someone to take an additional test, but certainly, it’s not the only way.

Step 5 – WikiTree

WikiTree is a quick and easy way to see if anyone has taken a Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA test that should reflect a particular ancestor’s Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA.

I just googled “Moses Estes 1711-1787 WikiTree” and clicked to view.

Each ancestor includes both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA information, in addition to people who descend from that ancestor through only autosomal lines.

In this case, two men have provided their Y-DNA results that pertain to Moses Estes. They have tested at different levels, which is why they have different haplogroups. That doesn’t mean either is “wrong,” one is just more refined than the other. You can correlate their kit number with the Estes surname project. People often don’t update their haplogroup information at WikiTree when it’s updated at FamilyTreeDNA.

Please note that if the genealogy is wrong, either at WikiTree or individually, the haplogroup may not reflect the appropriate lineage for the ancestor. Check to be sure that there’s no conflict showing between two testers for the same ancestor. For example, the same ancestor clearly can’t have two different base haplogroups, like E and R. The Discover Compare tool can help you evaluate if two haplogroups are in the same part of the Y-DNA tree.

When possible, it’s always best to test a close family member to represent your lineage even if someone else has already tested.

Scan down the list of autosomal testers for that ancestor to see if there’s someone with the Estes surname.

WikiTree provides additional tools to find descendants.

Sign in to WikiTree. You’ll see the ID of the profile you’re viewing – in this case – Estes-167. Click the down arrow and select “Descendants.”

This view shows all descendants through five generations, but you can click on DNA Descendants to see only Y-DNA descendants, X-DNA, or mitochondrial DNA descendants for female ancestors.

You may find people who are living and have added themselves who you can contact to offer a DNA testing scholarship.

Step 6 – MyHeritage

At MyHeritage, you can also search your DNA matches by surname.

Click on “Review DNA Match” to view more detail, including locations. Look to see if you have a Theory of Family Relativity Match which suggests how you may be related. That’s golden!

There’s no Y-DNA information at MyHeritage, BUT, you can search by surname and view DNA matches that either carry that surname or have that surname in their tree as an ancestor.

I have a total of 75 “Estes” matches, and other than the kits that I manage, searching through my matches shows:

  • Two Estes men connected to the same small tree, but that’s OK, I’m a genealogist!

  • One Estes male match with a Theory of Family Relativity. My lucky day!

You can contact your match easily through the MyHeritage messaging system and offer a DNA testing scholarship at FamilyTreeDNA. You may also want to share your email address.

MyHeritage customers may not be familiar with Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA testing, so you might want to share this article about the 4 Kinds of DNA for Genealogy.

MyHeritage testers can also upload their DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA for free to receive autosomal matches plus a complimentary mid-range Y-DNA haplogroup. This free haplogroup is not even close to the detailed resolution of a Big Y-700 test, but it’s something, and it may well be an enticing first step for people who are only familiar with autosomal testing.

Step 7 – At Ancestry

At Ancestry, select DNA Matches and then search by surname.

You can search by the surname of the tester, which is very useful, or by people who have Estes in their trees.

I started with the surname Estes, because it’s the most straightforward and I may find a perfect male candidate for Y-DNA. If someone’s “screen name” doesn’t show as Estes, they won’t appear in the results of this search. In other words, if your Ancestry screen name is “robertaestes” you won’t show in this search, but “Roberta Estes” will.

For mitochondrial DNA, you would want to search for the surname in your matches’ trees. Unfortunately, you cannot search for the specific ancestor in someone’s tree, at least not directly.

Of my 19 Estes surname matches, ten are males, and of them:

  • Three have unlinked trees
  • Three have very small linked trees, but I can work on extending those if need be
  • Three have public linked trees AND a common ancestor, which means ThruLines

I can review which ancestor we share by clicking on my match’s name

The Estes side of this man’s tree has only one person and is marked “private,” but Ancestry has suggested common ancestors based on other people’s trees. (Yes, I know trees are dicey, but bear with me.)

It’s also worth mentioning that you can be related through multiple lines. I share surnames from Acadian lines with this man, but that really doesn’t matter here because I’m only using autosomal matching to find an Estes male.

Click on “View Relationship” to see our common Estes ancestor’s ThruLine.

The ThruLine shows how Ancestry thinks we’re related on the Estes line.

I can also click on “View ThruLines” to see all Thrulines for John R. Estes, which shows four additional males, some of which did NOT appear in the Estes surname search, and some of which don’t appear further up the tree. In other words, check all Estes ThruLine ancestor generations.

Don’t rely solely on Ancestry’s surname search.

Go directly to your ThruLines on the DNA menu.

Ancestry only reaches back seven generations, which for me is Moses Estes and Luremia Combs. Moses has 95 matches, but he has been given some incorrect children. Again, for this purpose, it doesn’t matter. Within all ThruLine matches, I found three Estes males who all descend through John R. Estes. Check every generation.

However, Luremia Combs shows promise for mitochondrial DNA descendants. Unfortunately, only two of her daughters are represented in ThruLines, and both of their descendants descend through Luremia’s grandsons. That’s too bad, because I need Luremia’s mitochondrial DNA line.

It’s easy to message your Ancestry matches. You may want to mention that they can upload their DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA for free where they will receive more matches and males will receive a complimentary mid-level Y-DNA haplogroup.

Please note that, in general, ThruLines need to be evaluated very carefully and are prone to errors, especially if you accept Ancestry’s suggestions of ancestors instead of carefully building out your own tree. Regardless, you can still find Estes cousin matches in your match list and by using ThruLines to find people that do not show up in an “Estes” match search.

Step 8 – At 23andMe

At 23andMe, you can search for anyone who either has the Estes surname or has included that surname in their “Family surnames” list. Keep in mind that your matches at 23andMe are restricted to either 1500 if you don’t have a subscripition, or about 4500 if you do have a subscription.

On my match list, I have two males with the Estes surname.

23andMe provides a mid-level Y-DNA haplogroup. You can’t use this to confirm the lineage when comparing with FamilyTreeDNA, especially given that 23andMe provides no genealogy or user-provided tree, but it is a clue.

Both Estes men at 23andMe have Y-DNA haplogroup R-CTS241. You could use this in some cases to potentially eliminate these matches at 23andMe. For example, if men in your lineage in the Estes project are in haplogroup R and your 23andMe matches are showing as haplogroup E, or any other base haplogroup, their common ancestor is tens of thousands of years ago.

Comparing the 23andMe haplogroup, which in this case is about 4500 years old, to contemporary testers who have taken the Big Y-700, which reaches within a few generations, isn’t terribly useful. These matches are extremely useful to identify individuals to reach out to for further information and potentially offer a Y-DNA testing scholarship at FamilyTreeDNA.

Remember, this also applies to females who have included Estes in their family surnames, given that they may have Estes male relatives.

By clicking to view your match, you can see if they have provided Family Background information, including a link to a family tree someplace.

Sometimes, there’s great information here, and other times, nothing.

You can’t verify this lineage without genealogy information.

I suggest leaving a genealogy-focused message, including where they can see your tree in addition to your Estes connection. Also include your e-mail.

You may want to say that if they descend appropriately, you have a Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA testing scholarship, or you may want to wait to see how they descend. You can also ask if they have already taken a Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA.

Step 9 – FamilySearch and Relatives at RootsTech

We’re getting ready for RootsTech 2025 which takes place in March. In the month or so before the last two RootsTechs, FamilySearch provided an absolutely wonderful tool called “Relatives at RootsTech.”

I’ve written about this several times, but essentially, you can see, by ancestor, other people who are registered both in-person and virtually for RootsTech, and how they descend.

Here’s an example.

In both years, I’ve found several people who descended from common ancestors AND were very willing to take the relevant DNA test. That’s a huge win-win for everyone.

The best part is that because these people have freshly registered for RootsTech, the reply rate is almost 100%.

I’ll write about this as soon as RootsTech makes it available this year. Fingers crossed that they do!

Step 10 – Social Media

Social media wouldn’t be my first choice to find DNA testers, but I have found perfectly willing cousins this way. You may be less successful on Facebook or other social media platforms, but if you’re striking out elsewhere, there’s absolutely no downside to trying.

You can enter a surname and search on Facebook, but I prefer to do a Google search like “Estes genealogy on Facebook” or even just “Estes genealogy,” which will produce far more widespread information, some of which may be irrelevant.

That Facebook Google search provided the names of two groups. People join groups because they have an interest, and I’ve had good luck in Facebook genealogy groups.

A Search of “Estes” on Facebook itself, then selecting “people” provided a list of Estes Facebook users.

I’ve had far better luck by joining a group that is focused on Estes genealogy, or even a county genealogy group that includes Estes families, than individuals. People who join any Estes group or project likely have an interest in that surname.

If you have a common surname, or there’s a park named after your surname, like Estes Park, you’ll probably want to focus by using Google searches for Estes genealogy.

The Descendants of Abraham Estes Facebook group has 222 members, of whom at least 31 are males with the Estes surname. Facebook just might be an underestimated resource.

If there isn’t a genealogy-focused group for your surname, you might want to consider starting one and encouraging people to join.

It can’t hurt, and it just might help. Before you start reaching out to random people on Facebook, please do a privacy checkup – I wrote about how, here.

Sale Prices

Remember, the sale prices at FamilyTreeDNA for new tests and upgrades last through year-end.

In my experience, it’s best to test as soon as someone agrees. You never know what will happen otherwise. I’ve had people pass away before they could swab. And yes, we’ve done funeral home swabs, too.

There’s no one-size-fits-all, but here’s a rough draft contact letter.

Potential Contact Letter

You’ll want to include several critical pieces of information.

Essentially:

  • Introduce yourself
  • Say their full name on their test AND the testing company in the title of an email. I manage many tests and if I receive an email that says, “Hi, can you tell me how we match” without telling me which person they match, I can’t even begin to answer.
  • Explain your genealogy connection
  • State your purpose in writing
  • Explain how a specific test will help them too
  • Offer to answer questions

Be sure to modify this letter to reflect your own voice and circumstances. You don’t want this to read like a form letter.

Dear cousin (insert their full name here,)

It was so nice to find our DNA match at <company name> (or we share a common ancestor, or appropriate circumstance.) (If you are managing someone else’s kit, say the name of who they match and explain that you manage their DNA kit.)

I descend from (ancestor plus birth and death date) who lived in Halifax County, Virginia and was married to (spouse.) You can view my tree at (insert link that does not require a subscription for viewing unless you match them on that platform. I use MyHeritage because everyone can view their trees)

I would very much like to confirm that our line descends from Abraham Estes (or relevant information meaning your reason for wanting them to test.)

Given that my surname is x (or I’m a female), we need to test the Y-DNA of a male who is descended from (ancestor) through all males to the current generation. (Or mitochondrial DNA descended through females to the current generation which can be male.)

FamilyTreeDNA provides this testing and shows who you match on that specific line using the Y chromosome (mitochondrial DNA).

This testing may connect us with earlier ancestors. Genetics can be used to determine when we share common Estes ancestors with others who test, where we come from overseas, and when. Even if we match ancient DNA samples that may tell us where our ancestors lived before surnames. In other words, where did we come from?

(Include a nice paragraph, but not a book about your ancestral lineage here.)

I have a DNA testing scholarship for someone from this line and you are the perfect candidate. I would like to take advantage of the current sales. If you’re interested, I only need two things from you.

First, permission so that I can order (or upgrade) and pay for the test, and second, an address where to send the test (unless it’s an upgrade). (If it’s an upgrade at FamilyTreeDNA, they can use a stored sample or will sent them a new kit if there’s not enough DNA.)

If you have any questions, please let me know. I’m very excited that we may be able to learn more about our heritage.

Please email me at xxx or call me at xxx if you have questions.

Your name

I know one person who offers to review results over Zoom. Someone else stresses that the tester’s email is attached to their test and they are always in control of their results. Another person asks them to join a project they manage to assure that they can follow their matches over time.

Customize this communication in your own voice and to fit the circumstances of each match.

It’s just me, but since I’m ordering while the tests are on sale, unless the person uploads their DNA file from another vendor, I add on a Family Finder test too and explain why. You never know if they will match you or another cousin, and they may have that match that eventually breaks down the next brick wall. Shared matches are powerful evidence and it’s a lot easier to add that test on now than try to contact them again later.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Which ancestors do you need Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA results for? Methodically check each line.

There’s so much to learn. Don’t leave information on the table by virtue of omission.

Leave no stone unturned!

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Who’s waiting out there for you?

____________________________________________________________

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Ancestry Updates Ethnicity, Renames Features, and Rearranges the Room

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How many of you woke up recently to discover things were a bit different at Ancestry?

Ancestry has renamed their DNA tools, updated some of them, and essentially rearranged the furniture in the room.

It appears that the updates are rolling out to different users at different times, so if you don’t have these updates yet, you will soon.

A lot looks different and can be confusing until you figure out where things are.

Let’s start at the beginning – the first DNA option you see – the DNA Summary.

DNA Summary

Ancestry has rearranged the furniture with a new user interface and is in the process of updating some features, including ethnicity.

Your summary now looks like this.

New Terminology

Ancestry has changed their terminology too. No, I have no idea why.

What was previously called “Ethnicity” is now called “Ancestral Regions.”

What was previously called “Communities” is now called “Ancestral Journeys” and “Origins,” which is a very unfortunate choice because FamilyTreeDNA’s ethnicity feature is called myOrigins.

Nothing confusing here, right?

Where Are My Tests

Additionally, the location to find other DNA tests you have access to has changed as well. It’s not present on all pages, and it’s in a different location on some pages.

When in doubt or if you get lost, just go back to the main summary page.

On the main DNA Summary page, on the left, you’ll see your name with a down arrow. Click on the down arrow to display the names of others whose tests you have access to. In my case, I took the original Ancestry test and, later, the V2 test, which is why you see my name twice on the list, above, of DNA tests that I have access to.

Updated Regions

Ancestry has updated the regions and subregions that they report in their ethnicity, now “Ancestral Regions,” results.

Everyone is always excited to see their new results, but keep in mind that the smaller the size of reported regions becomes, the more like comparing ancestors from Indiana to ancestors from Illinois or Ohio and hoping to find enough genetic differences in order to separate them.

I wrote the article, Ethnicity is Just an Estimate – Yes, Really, a few years ago, and it’s just as true today as it was when I wrote it. That said, ethnicity is interesting and can be useful – just understand what you’re looking at and how it works.

The good news for genealogists is that updated ethnicity, at Ancestry or any other vendor, re-engages people and rekindles interest.

People not quite as interested in genealogy as we are might sign in to see “what’s new” and discover new matches or other interesting information. Genealogy, and genetic genealogy, are team sports so the more active players, the better. Whether you are happy or unhappy with your updated results, know that they serve as “bait” for the majority of testers.

Ancestral Regions

Ancestral Regions, previously known as ethnicity at Ancestry, are geographic locations where part of your DNA matches the DNA of people whose ancestors have, in theory, been there “forever.” People with known heritage in that region, and ostensibly no other regions, are called a “reference population,” and that group of people is who others, including you, are compared to.

Ancestry and other vendors tweak their results as new people and new populations are added. Sometimes, that tweaking improves things, and other times, not so much.

You’ll hear some people complaining loudly and others singing their praises with every update, regardless of which vendor.

My Native American DNA comes and goes at Ancestry. It’s back now.

This screenshot from February 2024 shows my V1 Ancestry test compared to my V2 test. One shows my Native heritage, and the other does not.

Unfortunately, without segment location information, there’s little more you can do with your ethnicity information unless there’s a high percentage of divergent regions. For example, European versus Native American versus African versus Asian. Continental differences are easy to discern from each other, and you can compare regions with your matches.

Another revelation might be a high percentage of a really surprising region that you weren’t expecting, which might suggest a grandparent or relatively close ancestor might have a different genealogy than you thought. Ireland versus Scotland isn’t surprising, given their location and migration heritage. However, Sweden versus Italy would be an unexpected finding if you thought you had a Swedish grandparent, for example, and instead you have 25% Italian.

Ancestral Journeys

In my own experience, Ancestral Journeys is much more useful than ethnicity (Ancestral Regions), but that isn’t universal, as we’ll see in a minute.

  1. Ancestral Journeys reflects where your ancestors lived within roughly 50-300 years, while Ancestral Regions (ethnicity) generally reaches back further in time.
  2. Ancestral Journeys regions are determined by common surnames of your DNA matches and where your matches’ ancestors lived, plus those same surnames and locations in your tree.

I find this information to be mostly accurate for my own tests, as far as it goes, but that’s not universal. Several regions are identified where my ancestors originated or lived in the US, but not in Europe, where 75% of my mother’s heritage was from prior to the 1880s.

Conversely, looking at the map, my mother had no Southern Louisiana French Settlers, but her Acadian cousins settled there, so that region makes perfect sense.

Divided By Parent

Ancestry encourages you to identify your ethnicity by parent, if possible, which allows them to divide (some of) your matches.

I wrote about how to accomplish this in the article, Ancestry’s SideView – Dividing Your Ethnicity in Two.

Alternatively, if you can’t identify which parent is which by ethnicity, if you can identify matches from either parental side, you can divide your matches that way as well.

This allows Ancestry to divide your results by parent, or at least try. They offer your Ancestral Regions (ethnicity), Ancestral Journeys (formerly Communities), and Chromosome Painter by parent.

Chromosome Painter

Ancestry paints your ethnicity regions on your chromosomes. You can view both your maternal and paternal chromosomes, or one at a time.

Ancestry’s Chromosome Painter shows an image, but doesn’t provide any additional useful information such as segment addresses.

In other words, I can see that Ancestry has assigned three separate segments of my DNA as Native American on my mother’s side, but they don’t provide that location so that I can compare it with other people to identify either a common segment that can be attributed to a specific ancestor, or common ethnicity.

However, you can upload your Ancestry DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA who provides chromosome painting PLUS ethnicity segment information, so you can determine which ancestor contributed that specific segment.

Additionally, DNAPainter allows you to paint your ethnicity and matching segments with others. Neither of those features is possible at Ancestry – so don’t get confused.

Origins By Parent

Ancestry divides, or attempts to divide, your Ancestral Regions (ethnicity) by parent.

In some cases, both parents may contribute DNA from some of the same world regions, as with mine, above. However, other regions are attributed to one parent and not the other.

Sometimes, you might notice that you have a small amount of DNA from a region that neither of your parents has. This is known as “noise” and happens when the DNA of your two parents combines in you to look like a different region. You can read more about how Ancestry does this division, here.

Journeys By Parent

You can view your Ancestral Journeys by parent as well.

My maternal journeys include the Acadian homeland in maritime Canada and another region that spans Pennsylvania, the Northern Blue Ridge, and on into Ohio.

Within that second orange grouping is a darker subgroup that includes Dayton, Ohio, shown with the green arrows, where Mom’s Brethren ancestors settled after migrating from Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Clicking on the region provides additional information, including a description and timeline of settlement in that region.

Ancestry connected the dots between this specific region and some ancestors shown in my tree, although these are just a few of my known ancestors who lived in Acadia.

Ancestry only shows a total of 7, but don’t limit your thinking to just what’s shown. I have more than 60 documented Acadian ancestors in my tree. In other words, don’t assume that Ancestry is showing you every ancestor you have that might fall into a region or category. Ancestry may be displaying only select ancestors.

Ancestry then shows selected matches by either Region or Journey.

Matches by Region and Journey

I need to say this in bright red before we review matches by Region and Journey, because it’s fundamentally important.

Just because you and another individual share a specific Ancestral Region or Ancestral Journey does NOT mean that your DNA and their DNA from that common Region or Journey is from a common ancestor that you share!

The DNA that you share may be from a completely different ancestor that lived in a region that neither of you show.

This is where genealogy research is required. Don’t be lulled into complacency and assume that because you share either a Region (ethnicity) or Journey (location settlement group) that your common ancestor is connected to either.

DNA Compare

That said, let’s take a look at these matching comparison features by scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on “DNA Compare.”

  • The first person shown is always you.
  • The second person is my other test at Ancestry.
  • The third person, Michael, is my first cousin, with whom I share 11% of my DNA and the same amount of Acadian heritage. We are both about 6.25% Acadian through our grandmother’s father’s paternal line.
  • Paul, a more distant cousin, and I share only our Acadian heritage.
  • This view shows both parents, so the fifth match is cousin Gregory, with whom I share known Danish ancestors. However, I have less than 1% Danish heritage, not the 16% that Ancestry has attributed. That’s a big difference and is unquestionably inaccurate.

Look at the results when we compare Ancestral Journeys for the same people I’m related to through my French Acadian heritage.

My two cousins who share Acadian DNA from Nova Scotia with me aren’t shown to be in the Canadian Maritimes Acadians Ancestral Journey. They clearly have numerous Acadian ancestors, and in Paul’s case, this is the only genealogical connection we share.

Michael and I share the same Acadian great-great-grandfather, Antoine Lore. Both of us would have inherited approximately 6.25% of his DNA, although not necessarily the same DNA. Antoine only had Acadian and Native American DNA to pass on to us, so any DNA descending from Antoine has to be one or the other.

Paul is 50% Acadian, and was assigned 49% French DNA, so he absolutely should have the Acadian Ancestral Journey. If you’re wondering if Michael and Paul are actually Acadian, they are, as proven by matches and shared matches.

While our Ancestral Regions both display some amount of “French,” neither Michael nor Paul are assigned the Acadian Journey. One might argue that Michael’s 5% French wasn’t sufficient to generate the Acadian Journey – but my 3% did – plus Michael and I share several Acadian matches and all of our Acadian ancestors.

Paul is another matter entirely. Regardless of our shared matches, with unquestionable 50% Acadian heritage, meaning his entire paternal line – there’s no reason Paul shouldn’t have been assigned an Acadian Journey.

So, what’s the moral of this story?

Don’t Get Too Attached

Don’t fall in love with ethnicity, now called Ancestral Origins, because it will change from time to time. So will your Ancestral Journeys.

For better or worse.

Maintain your genealogy skepticism and work to prove or disprove ethnicity and ethnicity-related information just as you would any other hint.

Evaluate your ethnicity percentages and locations based on known and proven genealogy. I wrote the article, Ancestral DNA Percentages – How Much of Them is in You?, where I explain how to determine, on average, what percent of each of your ancestors you would expect to inherit. Remember that recombination doesn’t give you that exact percentage, though. You could have inherited more or less.

Evaluate Ancestral Origins, Ancestral Journeys, and other relationship information, such as shared matches, logically. Does anything conflict? Does anything not make sense? Did anything click? Was there an “aha” moment?

Are there surprises that you wouldn’t have expected, and can you identify other forms of corroborating evidence? Build a case, and be sure to include genealogical information in the mix as well.

Essentially, treat everything as a hint to be proven or disproven.

Furthermore, be gentle with yourself as you learn your way around the rearranged furniture in the room. You might trip over the coffee table, but you can’t break it, so scroll around and click on everything to gather as much information as possible.

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Six Ways to Figure Out How We’re Related

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In my latest Webinar, Six Ways to Figure Out How We’re Related, I discuss the various tools from Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and 23andMe – plus clusters from Genetic Affairs and the amazing DNAPainter.

This webinar lives in the Legacy Family Tree Webinar library, but as part of the “webtember” lineup, you can view it for free through the end of September.

It’s always exciting to discover a new match at one of the DNA testing companies, which, of course, begs the question of how you’re related.

So, what are the six ways to figure out how you’re related, and how do you use them?

Come along for a step-by-step guide!

Shared Matches

We begin with how each vendor handles shared matches, what that feature is called, where to find the information, and how to interpret what they are telling you.

23andMe goes a step further and creates a genetic tree, of sorts, although that functionality has changed since their breach last October.

Bucketing and Sides

Two vendors go a step further and provide unique tools to divide your matches maternally and paternally.

FamilyTreeDNA buckets your matches maternally and paternally (or both) based on matches you link to their profile cards in your tree. FamilyTreeDNA then uses your linked matches to triangulate with other matches and assign your matches accordingly, providing a maternal and paternal match list. Bucketing, also known as Family Matching, is one of my favorite tools.

Note that linking matches at FamilyTreeDNA requires that you have transferred your tree to MyHeritage. I wrote about that and provided instructions here and here, and produced a complimentary webinar, too.

Ancestry also divides your matches by parent, but they use a different technique based on their Sideview technology and either ethnicity or shared matches.

Surnames and Locations

Surnames and locations, either separately or together, provide HUGE hints!

MyHeritage provides a nice summary for each of your matches that includes ancestral surnames, a map of locations in common, and “Smart Matches” which shows you people in common in both of your trees. There are several ways to use these tools.

FamilyTreeDNA also provides a list of surnames. You can view either the surnames in common with a match, or all of their ancestral surnames, with locations if provided. The tester enters these surnames, and we review how to complete that step.

Ancestry also provides shared surnames, with clickable links to the number of people in your matches tree with that surname, plus common locations.

X-DNA

X-DNA is probably the most underutilized DNA matching tool. While each of the vendors actually test the X chromosome, only one, FamilyTreeDNA, provides X-matching. You can obtain X-matching results by uploading your DNA file to FamilyTreeDNA. I’ve provided upload/download instructions for all companies, here.

X-DNA has a very unique inheritance pattern because males only inherit an X chromosome from their mother which limits the number of potential common ancestors for any two testers. In other words, X-DNA matching does half your work for you!

Clustering Technology – AutoClusters, the Matrix and DNAPainter

In the past few years, match clustering has become a very useful tool. Clustering shows which of your matches match you and each other.

Genetic Affairs offers several flavors of these clusters, and both MyHeritage and GEDmatch have incorporated Genetic Affairs clusters into their product offerings.

If you haven’t used AutoClusters yet, by all means, try them out.

FamilyTreeDNA offers the Matrix, a slightly different version of clustering. You can select 10 people from your match list to see if they also match each other. Shared matches don’t automatically mean triangulation between you and those two people, or even that all three people descend from the same line. However, if the people are bucketed to your same side (parent) and they share common segments with you in the chromosome browser, they triangulate.

You’ll want to paint those matches to DNAPainter to determine which ancestor you share, especially if they haven’t provided a tree.

DNAPainter provides your chromosomes as the “canvas” upon which to paint your matches in order to correlate segments with ancestors and identify common ancestral lines with mystery matches.

Three vendors, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch provide segment information with matches for you to paint. I illustrate how I walk segments back in time, identifying our most distant common ancestor possible.

Theories of Family Relativity and ThruLines

Both MyHeritage and Ancestry provide a combination of DNA matching and tree triangulation, where they search the trees of your DNA matches to find common ancestors with you – although their implementation is different.

MyHeritage’s Theories of Family Relativity provides varying theories about common ancestors for you and a specific match using both trees and historical documents. You can review the various pathways and confirm or reject theories. I love this tool.

Ancestry’s Thrulines functions a bit differently, showing you all of your matches that descend from a common ancestor in all your matches’ trees. Sometimes, the trees are incorrect, but Theories of Family Relativity and ThruLines should still be used as hints.

I showed how ThruLines helped me discover what happened to one of my ancestor’s grandchildren who was lost to the family at his mother’s death – and to all of us since. Not anymore.

Bonus – Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA

Only FamilyTreeDNA offers both Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA testing and matching. All of the tools above pertain to autosomal DNA testing, which is named Family Finder at FamilyTreeDNA. Illustrated by the green arrow below, autosomal DNA testing measures and compares the DNA you inherited from each ancestral line, but that’s not the only game in town.

Y-DNA, in blue, for males, tracks the direct paternal line, which is the surname line in Western cultures. Mitochondrial DNA, in red, is passed from mothers to all of their children. Therefore, everyone can test, revealing matches and information about their mother’s direct matrilineal lineage.

Y-DNA testing includes the amazing Discover tool with a baker’s dozen different reports, including ancient DNA. Mitochondrial DNA will soon have its own MitoDiscover after the rollout of the new Mitotree.

Both tests include “Matches Maps” to help you determine how you are related to your matches, as well as where your ancestors came from before the advent of surnames.

The Advanced Matching feature allows you to select multiple tests to see if your matches match you on combined types of tests.

Tune In

Now that you know what we cover in the webinar, please tune in to see how to use these awesome tools. Be sure to fish in all four “ponds” plus GEDmatch, where you may find people who didn’t test at a company that provides a chromosome browser or matching segment information.

Tools provided by the DNA testing vendors facilitate multiple ways to determine how we match and which ancestor(s) we have in common.

You can watch the webinar, here.

Additionally, subscribers to Legacy Family Tree Webinars have access to the 25-page syllabus with even more information!

A Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscription normally costs $49.95 per year, but through the end of September, there’s a coupon code good for 20% off. Just click here, then enter webtember24 at the checkout.

Enjoy!

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DNA Academy Webinar Series Released

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Great news! Legacy Family Tree Webinars has just released DNA Academy.

DNA Academy is a three-part series designed to introduce the basics of DNA for genetic genealogy and how Y-DNA, X-DNA, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA can be utilized. Each of these different types of DNA serves a different function for genealogists – and reveals different matches and hints for genealogy.

  1. DNA Academy Part 1 introduces genetic genealogy basics, then, Ancestry’s DNA tools – including their new pricing structure for DNA features. Click here to view.
  2. DNA Academy Part 2 covers FamilyTreeDNA’s products. Click here to view the webinar, which includes:
    1. Y-DNA for males which tracks the direct paternal line
    2. Mitochondrial DNA for everyone which tracks your direct maternal line – your mother’s mother’s mother’s lineage
    3. Autosomal DNA which includes matches from all of your ancestral lines and along with X-DNA matching, which has a very distinctive inheritance path.
  3. DNA Academy Part 3 includes MyHeritage, 23andMe, and third-party tools such as DNAPainter and Genetic Affairs. Click here to view.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars has graciously made Part 2, the FamilyTreeDNA class, free through August 22nd for everyone – so be sure to watch now.

After August 22nd, Part 2 will join Part 1 and Part 3 in the webinar library for subscribers with more than 2240 webinars for $49.95 per year.

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Genealogy Proof Series: Surname Searching

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This is the third article in the Genealogy Proof series, in addition to the introduction.

In the article titled Gathering Location Resources, we focused on locations where you know your ancestor lived – but what if you’re looking for books or information about a particular family or surname?

Maybe you’d like to know if an article or book has been written about that family, either generally or maybe a branch more specifically. Many early books are no longer in print.

Maybe you can find information about your family in resources not typically checked by genealogists.

Of course, there are lots of resources, but I’m including several here that you can use and might otherwise miss. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Recording Your Findings

Don’t forget to record your search results and which resources you used on the spreadsheet we created in the Extracting and Recording Data article.

If you find that the information in the book or resource is too long for the text field in your spreadsheet, record and index the item anyway. Then, transcribe or copy/paste the entire text version in one of two places, but don’t forget to note in your spreadsheet where you put it.

  • Your genealogy software under that person’s name
  • A Word document under that person’s name

When I write my 52 Ancestors articles, everything I know about that person is gathered into a Word document and then organized and arranged into a cohesive story. The pieces have been gathered over the years in various locations and I have to be able to find them to be able to use them.

Book List

I have also created a list of books that I own.

This list needs to be updated because I moved and I would like to more accurately detail the locations of books I still have. It’s nice to know what you already have and where to find it. Tell me I’m not the only person who has purchased the same book twice!

Ok, now for surname resources where you just might find your ancestor!

Cyndi’s List

Cyndi’s list has a HUGE number of resources generally, but it also includes a surname category.

Under each letter of the alphabet, available resources are listed.

Be sure to check out everything for your surnames of interest.

BookFinder

At Bookfinder.com, you can enter a name in the title field.

That query produced a significant list. Remember that this list changes often, based on availability.

I now have another book on the way!

Higginson Book Company

The Higginson Book Company has long been known for carrying heritage books – both by location and for genealogy.

You can search by surname or any keyword.

Higginson reprints copies of original books out of print in addition to maps and a few other things. Note that sometimes you can find the text version of copyright-free books free at other locations.

State Archives

Check the website of every state’s archive where your ancestors lived.

If in doubt about what might be available, call the State Archives and ask a librarian. You might not believe what’s there.

In Tennesee, for example, there’s an index of Supreme Court cases that can be searched for the entire state, or by county, or year.

Cases that appear in the Supreme Court Index will not be recorded in the county records, because the case was appealed from there to the Supreme Court. It’s worth noting that the Hancock County, Tennessee courthouse burned (twice), so the Supreme Court records in the archives reflect lawsuits that we don’t even know existed today.

In many cases, local courts no longer retain case packets, if they ever did. They often only have the names of plaintiffs and defendants in an index book – not even an outcome. However, the county clerks faithfully copied the case packets when the case was appealed and sent to the Supreme Court, where this valuable information resides today – including depositions and receipts.

I’m entering the surname of every ancestor that was found in Hancock County. Sometimes, I search for their in-laws and neighbors too, just in case my ancestor is mentioned.

Look – paydirt! In an estate dispute – you know there are relationships explained and maybe also the source of the dispute.

When utilizing archives, be sure to search the archives of parent-states and parent-counties, meaning states and counties your state/county was formed from. The same goes for descendant states/counties formed from your state/county.

But wait, there are more resources.

Librarians

In addition to resources shown at the Tennessee Archives website, you can also click to chat with a librarian.

Librarians are an encyclopedia of knowledge.

Thanks to a librarian, I recently discovered that the Michigan State Archives holds an obscure collection – prison newspapers published by the inmates over the years, reaching back into the 1800s and early 1900s. It’s not evident from the collection information, but a call to the archives and a lovely discussion with a research librarian revealed that those publications have recently been scanned and OCR indexed, which makes it possible to search by surname or topic.

I love librarians. They have saved my bacon so many times over the years, as have volunteers at local museums, and historical and genealogy societies.

Chronicling America

Chronicling American is provided by the Library of Congress. This link is for the newspaper collection which spans 1756-1963, but there are also other collections

In the photo collection, you can search generally or very specifically.

I had always wondered why my grandparents chose to move to a tiny out-of-the-way farming community outside very rural Fowler, Indiana. I found my answer in the Library of Congress. My grandfather’s cousin, who lived up the road in Tennessee, had moved to Indiana, was running a farm for an absentee owner and needed assistance.

The rest, as they say, is history.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch has an extremely robust and easy-to-use search functionality.

Select “Search,” then “Books.”

I entered the word “Estes” under the Books search and found this:

Notice that full text results are available, which means that either the book is out from under copyright, or they have obtained permission to image. It’s also worth noting that this is one of the books available for print-on-demand from Higginson Books.

Another option, the “Images” search, searches for information by historical location.

Searching “Genealogies” and “Family Trees” is obvious.

I find the “Catalog” search particularly productive.

You can filter your Catalog search in any number of ways, but, as luck would have it, the very first entry is where my Estes family lived.

Oh, look, it’s my lucky day…

If a desired book or article isn’t available for viewing, start a list and look to see if it’s available through your local Family History Center or check elsewhere.

FamilySearch New Full Text Search

I just love this new full text feature that automatically transcribes and indexes entire handwritten collections, such as the will or deed books in a particular county.

On the search page, scroll down until you see the FamilySearch Labs image and click on “View Experiments.”

Click on “Go to Experiment”

I detailed how to use FamilySearch full-text search in this article, but I want to remind you here that you can search by surname.

One of my huge brick walls is identifying the parents of James Lee Claxton (Clarkson/Clarkston) 1775-1815.

All of our Y-DNA matches are spelled Claxton and are found in North Carolina, but that group of Claxton researchers and my line are both stuck at about the same time in history. It’s very likely that the common ancestor of both groups came from Virginia, but where? And who?

I’m searching for Claxton with the hope that there is some mention of a Claxton we don’t already know about – or something connecting my ancestor to Lee County, VA in about 1795.

There are thousands of entries in this database, but I can filter to restrict my search to Virginia.

Remember that FamilySearch is adding to the collection of books and records that are digitized and indexed daily, so if you don’t find what you’re looking for today, check back often.

Google

A general Google search for “Estes genealogy” produced a list. I’m not showing their generative AI result here, because it’s half right and half wrong. It’s fine to use AI for hints, but verify absolutely everything. AI is not ready to be relied on and may never be.

Here is a list of Estes resources from Google.

Always beware of internet links. “Fly” over them first. If the link address even looks questionable, just don’t click.

That said, there are a HUGE number of legitimate resources here.

Google Books

Google books can help you locate books that may not be found elsewhere.

Some are available as an eBook at Google Books, but if not, you can use these as leads to search elsewhere, including AbeBooks and sometimes, Amazon. I usually use Bookfinder after finding a book I’m interested in through Google, because they include other sites such as AbeBooks, Amazon and many more. Bookfinder is an aggregator, not a reseller.

You can also request to “Find in a library,” which might be useful if your local library participates in interlibrary loans, although often heritage books are not eligible for loan.

Internet Archive

I love the Internet Archive, the same company that provides the Wayback Machine, which also allows you to search by surname. The two sites provide different results, so be sure to try both.

You’ll find all kinds of information at the Internet Archive.

Under eBooks and Texts, I often enter “<surname> genealogy” so that their metadata will use both terms to narrow the search. Metadata is data about data, and in this case, it means which keywords they used to index these entries.

Many records aren’t relevant, but some assuredly are.

You can also narrow the results by many features – including the Allen County Public Library which has one of the largest genealogy holdings in the US.

Keep in mind that I’ve selected only items with text, meaning that I can read or download for free. There are certainly other items available that aren’t free.

I sometimes struggle with their search feature, so I often just search at Google using the term “Estes books at internet archive.”

Allen County Public Library

At the Allen County Public Library website, you want to search in the research collection

Please note that you can filter your results in many ways.

One of the wonderful features is that they actively collect newsletters. Estes Trails has been published for decades.

These newsletters are in their physical holdings, but if you know they exist, you can track them down in other ways. In this case, the publisher’s name is included in the full display.

Many newsletters are no longer published, so, fortunately, there’s another way to obtain an article.

PERSI

PERSI, an index for periodicals, such as Estes Trails, above, is also hosted by the Allen County Public Library.

At PERSI, you can search by surname

I searched for Estes, and look what I received. I absolutely must read these Civil War letters.

This is a GOLDMINE. No, Aaron Estes isn’t my ancestor, but again, he’s related, and I just have to read these.

Scroll to the very bottom to order the items.

WikiTree

WikiTree is one of my favorite resources. You can enter your ancestor’s name, or a surname.

WikiTree is a collaborative tree where different individuals add information and sources to the profiles of ancestors. They have a small army of helpful volunteers that are willing to help too.

As with all shared resources, some information can be incorrect. Treat all trees as information to be verified and sources to be checked.

One of the great things about WikiTree is that individuals who descend from ancestors in a specific way can connect themselves and their Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA test information.

Descendants who have taken an autosomal test can list the testing company and information. While testing companies use the DNA of the tester to connect to other testers – it’s up to those two people to determine their common ancestor.

WikiTree works the other way and is ancestor-driven, meaning that you see who descends from the ancestor, and you can go to the testing company indicated to see if you’re an autosomal DNA match.

Furthermore, if you’re working on your genetic tree, you’ll want the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA information for each of your ancestors. If other testers have entered the information, you can find it here. Please enter yours as well.

Be sure to check the sources for each ancestor. There may be information and resources not found elsewhere. Add sources if you can. Collaboration is a good thing, and a rising tide lifts all ships.

Newspapers

After you’ve wrung out the more traditional records, such as deeds and wills and census schedules, you’ll want to turn to newspapers. Not all local newspapers have been scanned, OCRed, and indexed yet, and some quality is better than others.

Licensing and processing old newspapers is ongoing, so just because the location where your ancestor lived doesn’t have an indexed newspaper available today doesn’t mean they won’t soon.

Newspaper articles put meat on the bones of our ancestors as they reveal their everyday lives. Who visited whom after church for Sunday dinner, who hit someone’s cow, who had company from out of town, who was having a family reunion, who moved and to where, who caught a big fish, who went on vacation, who was “visited by the stork,” and much more. Some make you say “awww,” and some are downright juicy and scandalous!

News about neighboring counties and even neighboring states can be found in locations where you may not have thought to look for your ancestor.

Virginia Chronicle

The Virginia Chronicle is a historic newspaper collection curated by the Library of Virginia that produces amazing results.

What? A murder? You know, I just HAVE to go down this rabbit hole and read these stories.

Ok, so, here’s the skinny for those who are curious.

Theodore Estes was dating Miss Loving, the daughter of a judge who shot and murdered Theodore. As it turns out, Theodore’s father was the sheriff, so this story is particularly rich and full of intrigue.

It seems that Miss Loving, the judge’s daughter, drank whiskey, and one thing allegedly led to another, which Theodore, his family, and friends denied. However, the young woman’s father didn’t believe them and sought revenge. Some reports said that she only drank “one swig” of whiskey, and nothing happened. Others said that the whiskey was drugged, and “something” did happen. A third group said she asked for the whiskey and drank a whole lot more than a swig. Theodore took her home (to her house) in his buggy, to her parents, but clearly intoxicated.

It gets even more complex because it appears the families were related. I had to draw a chart to get this straight.

Theodore’s brother had married the Judge’s wife’s sister. I’m telling you, this trial was a humdinger. Whoo boy! Eventually, the charges against the judge were changed to something less severe than murder. This high-profile case was covered by several regional newspapers like the latest soap opera.

As I read through these articles, I noticed that some Estes family members had arrived from Danville, VA, which is in close proximity to where my Estes family was from. So, while this is not my ancestor, it involves my ancestor’s descendants.

Ok, enough of this rabbit hole, but you get the drift. You may never get anything resembling chores done ever again!

The National Genealogical Society membership now provides access to NewspaperArchive as a benefit of membership. As far as I’m concerned, this alone makes the membership worthwhile.

NewspaperArchive offers a notification service for subscribers, or did when I subscribed separately, so you’ll receive an email when the name of a saved search is found in a newly indexed newspaper.

I keep discovering previously unknown things!

Ancestry owns Newspapers.com for accessing newspapers and Fold3 for military records. I discussed the nuances of using Newspapers.com at Ancestry in this article. You’ll need to search in the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry and/or in Newspapers.com. Ancestry is reimaging the newspapers and using AI to create associations between people – for example family members mentioned in a wedding announcement. The results will not all be found in one place. The newspaper itself will be found at Newspapers.com but the associated family grouping will be found at Ancestry itself in their collections.

You can now reference the Birth Index, Marriage Index and Auctions of Enslaved People and Bounties on Freedom Seekers Index, here. The larger Newspapers and Publications category can be found here, and the Historical Newspapers Collection can be found here.

MyHeritage includes a large newspaper collection for their subscribers, much of which is unique and not found elsewhere.

This collection is where I found hundreds of items about my mother’s family in rural Northern Indiana. I found previously unknown photos of my grandfather, and that he attended the “Normal School” to become a teacher. He never taught, instead going to work for the railroad, moving away, and meeting the woman who would become my grandmother.

MyHeritage actually has newspapers in two places. This search is on the MyHeritage site itself, available with a subscription. MyHeritage has a second, independent site too – OldNews.

OldNews is big news!

At RootsTech 2024, MyHeritage announced a separate subscription site called OldNews, which essentially doubles the number of newspapers that they’ve digitized and made available. Take a look!

I found information about my mother, such as when she had her tonsils removed, when and where she danced in plays as a child, and the amount of my grandparents’ estate. Newspapers reported things back then that would be considered privacy violations today. Check OldNews to see what’s there for you.

Colonial Williamsburg has made the earliest Newspapers in the colonies available, here. Some are through a subscription site, and others aren’t. It was through these old newspapers years ago that I discovered the name of my ancestor’s indentured servant who ran away. Now, DNA seems to point to a potential relationship. There are no records other than that “runaway” notice to connect these people together, anyplace.

Check Cyndi’s list for more Newspaper services

MyHeritage Surnames

MyHeritage offers many ways to search, but you can start by entering the name of your ancestor or even just a surname.

I could have simply entered the surname, but I entered James Lee Claxton.

I can filter by any of the collections, at left.

I check them all, but I particularly like the Books and Publications, and the Newspapers category. You just never know what you’ll find, and many of the books are digitized and free.

You can also just enter a surname. I entered “Estes.”

I checked every one of these categories and, among other things, found some fascinating historic maps.

I love my MyHeritage subscription. If you don’t have one, you can try one free for 14 days.

Ancestry Message Boards

Ancestry discontinued the RootsWeb-hosted websites, WorldConnect Trees, and RootsWeb mailing lists last year, but the message boards are still functional.

After signing in to Ancestry, scroll down until you see Tools and Resources in the right margin.

Click on “Message boards.”

These boards reach back at least 20 years and many of the original posters are deceased now. I know that I often posted information as I found it while traveling.

There’s an advanced search function, too.

I was shocked to discover that you can still initiate a thread, but I’m not at all sure that other people on that board are notified today. I had no idea these boards even still existed.

Another feature that’s helpful at Ancestry is the Card Catalog, one of their Special Record Collections.

You can enter a surname in either the Title or Keyword box.

Of course, you’ll get different results, but both are certainly worth checking.

Genealogy.com

GenForum was the message board for Genealogy.com. Ancestry purchased it years ago, and while you can no longer post messages, you can still search for messages that were previously posted, here.

American Ancestors

American Ancestors holds a large database that includes periodicals such as the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and the Virginia Genealogist, which you can search by name, here.

Additionally, they have a number of immigration and naturalization records not available elsewhere.

HathiTrust

HathiTrust has indexed millions of documents, including many governmental records and publications.

Select any publication or narrow by categories. Then you can search within the text and also view the text on the relevant pages.

DNA Projects

FamilyTreeDNA offers surname projects, along with geographic, haplogroup, lineage, and regional DNA projects.

You can find surname projects in one of two ways.

The first way is to Google “Estes DNA Project.”

You’ll see two links, either of which will take you to the project.

I administer this project and welcome everyone who has an Estes ancestor, regardless of whether their surname is Estes or something else.

By clicking on “DNA Results,” you’ll see multiple options.

Clicking on the “Classic Chart” shows groupings of males who have taken the Y-DNA test, along with additional information, including their Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) and, in the final column at right, their haplogroup.

If you take a DNA test and match other people, you can contact them to collaborate through matches on your personal page. Not everyone can test for every ancestor – and women can’t test for Y-DNA lineages (because they don’t have a Y chromosome,) so we depend on being able to check for our ancestors in Y-DNA projects.

If your ancestral line is shown, you can use the confirmed haplogroup (green) in the free Discover tool, here, to learn more about your ancestor’s heritage.

Here’s the “Haplogroup Story” tab for R-BY490 that represents a number of Estes lineages. There are 11 other tabs in the left sidebar just waiting for you to read about your ancestry.

Note that “Suggested Projects” is one tab. The suggestions are based on projects other men with this haplogroup have joined.

Y-DNA information through Discover, and soon, mitochondrial DNA information through MitoDiscover, is the ONLY place you can find this kind of information. Be sure to check out all of the tabs at left, including Ancient Connections.

If you click on the Group Time Tree, you’ll see a different view of the results of the project members who have taken the advanced Big Y-700 test.

By selecting the relevant groups, you can see the surname of the testers, their earliest known ancestor (if known and entered), at right, along with the haplogroup genetic tree at left.

The genetic tree shown at left confirms the genealogy of these testers, at least as far as the genetic tree is able to distinguish. I wrote about the Estes Group Time Tree, here, as an example,

If you are a male and have not taken the Big Y-700 test, please do. It unlocks your history in a way nothing else can.

A second way to find DNA projects that might be relevant to your surname is to navigate to the very bottom of the FamilyTreeDNA main page in the footer.

Click on “Group Projects.”

You can enter any surname and see the projects in which the project administrator listed Estes (or your surname of choice) as a surname that might be interested in their project.

If you’re a customer and signed on to your account at FamilyTreeDNA, you can find this same information at the top of your personal page under “Group Projects.” You can also join projects from there.

Social Media

I often overlook Facebook or other social media as a surname resource, but it is.

Today, many, if not most, genealogy and historical societies have pages, and so do many genealogists with an interest in a particular surname line.

Searching for “Estes” on Facebook shows several individual people, PLUS, two groups that might be very interesting.

Once you’re a member of a group, you can search within the group for a keyword.

This search gave me everything with either Moses or Estes, so I narrowed it by just using “Moses” or just searching for “Halifax” which is the county in Virginia where Moses Estes lived.

Facebook, especially groups with a genealogical focus, is a wonderful way to find men for Y-DNA testing.

I often ask if someone has already DNA tested, and if so, where.

If they have already tested at Ancestry, or 23andMe, but not at MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, they can upload to both companies for free. Matching is free after uploading, and so are other basic tools. Advanced tools require an inexpensive unlock, which costs far less than retesting. The unlock at FamilyTreeDNA for advanced tools costs $19, and it’s $29 at MyHeritage.

Next Topic – The Proof Table

Our next topic in this series will be the Genealogy Proof Table.

What is a Proof Table, how do you construct one, and why?

We will assemble a Genealogy Proof Table for one of my lines as an example. You’ll need one for every ancestral lineage.

After that, we have four more articles in this series.

  • Genealogy Proof Standard
  • DNA
  • Leveling up
  • Writing it Up

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Ancestry’s ProTools – See How Much DNA Your Matches Share and Their Relationship to Each Other

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Ancestry reports that a ProTools subscription is available to all US users now – and with it, access to additional DNA match information. Oh, happy day!!

ProTools is Ancestry’s new offering that provides DNA testers with:

  • How you and any selected DNA match are BOTH related to your mutually shared matches
  • How much DNA a selected match and any shared match share with each other

Please note that ProTools does NOT include a chromosome browser, and the location of your matching DNA is NOT revealed. Shared matches and shared DNA does NOT equate to triangulation because the matches may be on different segments or due to different ancestors altogether.

Shared matching means that you match person 1 and person 2, and that person 1 and person 2 also match each other. It does not mean that you match on the same segment or because of the same ancestor.

Even if you don’t have or want ProTools, you need to read this article so you understand what your matches who subscribe to ProTools can now see about you and your relatives, especially your close relatives.

How Do I Find ProTools?

To determine if ProTools is available to you, click on any match in your DNA match list. You’ll see normal match information, displayed below.

At the bottom, you’ll see a banner inviting you to upgrade to ProTools.

ProTools provides multiple features for $10 per month ($120 per year), in addition to your regular or AncestryDNA Plus subscription.

ProTools includes other features as well, which I’m not reviewing today in order to focus specifically on the new enhanced Shared Matches feature.

I subscribed to ProTools and immediately had access to the new features.

Now, I see the “Pro” label beside Shared Matches.

Click on Shared Matches.

ProToolsShared Matches

By clicking on Shared Matches, I can now see how my match, ER, and I are both related to people we match in common. Said another way, if ER and I both match someone, say Susan, a grid now displays how I’m related to Susan and how ER is related to Susan according to Ancestry’s DNA prediction calculations. I also see how much DNA our shared match, Susan, shares with each of us.

Ancestry has calculated my estimated relationship to my first match, Susan, as my First-cousin-1-time-removed (1C1R) or Half-first-cousin, which is genetically equivalent, on my paternal side.

Ancestry has estimated that ER is also the 1C1R of Susan and they share 395 cM of DNA. How ER is related to Susan, and how much DNA they share, is new information that I didn’t have access to before ProTools.

Ancestry had already calculated that ER and I are Half-1st-cousins-two-times-removed.

Viewing ThruLines shows me that ER is my Half-1st-cousin-once-removed, so either the relationship estimate (based on DNA only) or ThruLines (based on trees) is inaccurate, or maybe both. However, they are both close to each other.

Using the trees of both ER and Susan, if they have trees, helps immensely in working out relationships. If Susan is ER’s first cousin once removed, that means that she shares a common grandfather with ER and with me. They are both paternal side matches and some flavor of first cousin to me, so that means our common ancestor has to be William George Estes.

Now that I can see how my matches are related to each other, I can easily work out the possibilities of how the three of us are related – even without seeing anyone’s trees or ThruLines.

Of course, in more distant generations, it’s much more difficult to sort out relationships without trees. That also means that multiple shared relationships are important, and you’re likely to find links among several testers to common ancestors.

I finally solved one pesky relationship that has been bugging me for a very long time. My match’s mother was identified as such, which led to additional and closer shared matches that helped solve the mystery.

Caution – Children’s Names and Relationships Exposed

Given Ancestry’s previous privacy policies, I was surprised to see that the names of my matches’ living children (or parents) are identified as such. Of course, I’m presuming here that “child” means 18 or older per Ancestry’s Terms and Conditions.

Here are two examples of shared matches with their relationship to my match clearly identified as their child.

This isn’t an anomaly or a bug – it’s just how the feature works.

Under the circumstances, this makes me uncomfortable given that my cousin, the parent, may NOT have ProTools and has absolutely NO IDEA that his matches with ProTools can see the name of his daughter and son and that they are identified as his children.

I’m not upset about the enhanced ProTools shared match feature itself. Conversely, I love it. I’m concerned that people without ProTools don’t realize this information is revealed, because it wasn’t previously. Before ProTools, no one would ever have a reason to suspect that anyone could identify someone on Ancestry as their child.

This seems like a significant policy shift for Ancestry, who has traditionally been extremely careful about not providing identifying information about living relatives. I’m surprised this feature was implemented without informing customers who may be affected or without perhaps obtaining opt-in for that level of exposure.

Then, it occurred to me that maybe my cousin’s children are now deceased.

I checked my cousin’s tree to see if his children’s names were revealed there, indicating they had passed away. Neither his name nor those of his children are provided in his tree, so I’m presuming they are all alive and well. That’s a relief.

Given that Ancestry has steadfastly refused to provide a chromosome browser for years due to privacy concerns, I’m actually shocked to see a child’s name and identifying relationship revealed. A chromosome browser reveals much less.

Disparity

Placing this enhanced Shared Match feature of ProTools behind a paywall, meaning not providing it to everyone who took a DNA test, creates a significant disparity between the ProTool subscribers and those without.

  • In some other countries, ProTools isn’t available yet.
  • Many people don’t check results regularly and would have no idea that ProTools even exists.
  • People who don’t subscribe to ProTools won’t know that people who do subscribe can view this information because it wasn’t previously available.
  • People who have others manage their DNA kit are entirely unaware.

If you don’t subscribe to ProTools, how would you ever know that your matches with ProTools have access to this information?

People who don’t have access to ProTools shared matches, meaning those who don’t live in the US, don’t subscribe to ProTools, don’t sign in regularly, or have someone else manage their DNA kit, have absolutely no idea that all of their matches who subscribe to ProTools now have access to the names and confirmed relationships of their children and close relatives who have also taken DNA tests.

I was unable to find any way to opt out of having a parental or close relationship revealed to shared matches. Even if the relationship wasn’t noted as “son” or “daughter,” based on the amount of shared DNA, a parental relationship is obvious. This is relevant not just for your test but also for any tests you manage for others.

I hope that Ancestry informs its customers about this change. I really like the new enhanced shared match feature, and I certainly don’t want to jeopardize it. The community has waited a very long time for additional information that helps us identify common ancestors and figure out how and where our matches fit into our tree.

However, everyone who has taken a DNA test needs to be informed so that they understand the privacy changes and the additional information now provided to shared matches who subscribe to ProTools.

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Genealogy Proof Series: Gathering Location Resources

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This is the first article in the Genealogy Proof Series.

Most genealogists, even if they don’t realize they are genealogists yet, begin by creating a small tree of their known ancestors. Most people know who their grandparents are, and by asking a few questions, can probably complete another generation or two.

If your parents were born in 1950, your grandparents would have been born about 1920, and your great-grandparents may have been born around 1890. You probably have concrete facts about your parents. Their birthdates, birth location, marriage location, and so forth. They probably have the same information about their parents. However, with each generation reaching back in time, the information becomes less precise and less reliable. Memories fail people, and the information they were provided may not have been accurate in the first place.

For example, my mother told me what she knew about her maternal grandfather, which wasn’t much. He died when my grandmother was 20, several years before my mother was born.

As the information becomes thinner, the need for additional information and confirmation of facts becomes crucial. Furthermore, when utilizing new resources, you may discover information not previously known about close generations. One of the best resources for that is old newspapers.

Our ancestors are more than birth and death dates. I like to piece their life together, complete with historical events, both national and local, and how they influenced and affected their lives.

This first article explains how I gather and utilize location resources for each ancestor.

Before we start, let’s talk for a minute about where we are going and how this series will be organized.

The Genealogy Proof Series Roadmap

It’s difficult to put the steps in a specific order because often, I get very distracted and go right down a rabbit hole.

In other words, I’ll be working on gathering resources for a specific county, but then I find a listing for what I think is my ancestor, and before you know it, I’m off on the chase. I really, really try NOT to do that because it’s actually very distracting to the process as a whole.

It’s also difficult for me to select an order to write these articles. For example, do I write about Leveling Up, determining what you need for each ancestor, first or last?

I’ve chosen to write about that topic last because I want to step through how to gather and use the resources before we get distracted by what you need to do with individuals in your tree. It’s way too easy to go after that bright, shiny object:)

Gathering and Organizing Location Resources: This article is about how to find location resources for the area where your ancestor(s) lived. I suggest starting at the beginning, meaning your closest ancestors. You know where your parents and grandparents lived, so start there.

If you think there’s nothing there that matters because you know everything about your family – I guarantee you surprises are waiting. They may surprise you, touch your heart, or even shock you, and they are just waiting to be discovered. But before you can logically extract everything to do with your family and surname, you need a comprehensive list of what is available for your county and region.

You’ll also need to keep a record of what you looked for in that county, and when, because you may very well need to go back and access those records again in the future.

Recording Your Data: After you have a list of what’s available for your specific counties, in the next article, we’re going to talk about extracting information and recording it in a spreadsheet. If you don’t like spreadsheets, you can do the same thing in a table. But it’s critical that you record it someplace.

You’ll also index and transcribe it as you go so you can reasonably retrieve it. This is why I utilize spreadsheets – they are made for filtering and sorting.

Surname Searching: You’ve found location resources, but where do you find surname resources? For example, what about books written about the Estes surname, or internet resources? Some will be in books or webpages about the location, but certainly not everything.

How do you find additional resources?

Proof Table: Now that you HAVE data about all the people in a region or regions where your ancestors lived, how do you prove that the Moses Estes or George Estes in Halifax County, Virginia is YOUR Moses or George Estes? What about men with the same name? What if there is no definitive proof in ONE document?

We will discuss the Genealogy Proof Standard and create a proof table for every single generation because you need proof for every single generation.

Including DNA.

(If you’re beginning to think you might dislike me by the time this series is finished – I fully understand. If it helps any, some days I’m tired and mad at myself.)

DNA: How and when can you use DNA as part of your proof argument? What about the different types of DNA? When are they useful? Are they conclusive? How do they bolster or refute other evidence?

Can you resolve conflicts between DNA and a paper trail, and if so, how?

Leveling Up: Leveling up is a methodology of determining where you are in the process of evaluating EVERY PIECE OF EVIDENCE available about each ancestor.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

For those of us who have been working on genealogy for a long time, it’s easy not to think about using new resources when they become available. For example, the 1940 and 1950 census, new full-text AI from FamilySearch, and new newspaper resources like OldNews.

What do you need to do yet for each ancestor to bring them to current?

Writing It Up: Now that you HAVE this information assembled, what will you do with it? I fervently hope you’re going to write or record it for posterity. I’ve chosen the 52 Ancestors series that I’ve been writing weekly for several years, but there are other ways, too. Genealogy is about resurrecting and honoring the lives of our ancestors. The more factual information you can saturate the airwaves and internet with, the less “bad information” can take hold. Genealogy is a team sport.

Gathering and Organizing Location Resources

This article is focused on gathering and organizing resources for where your ancestor lived, NOT on retrieving the records in those resources for your ancestor and their surname. The next article will cover retrieving and recording the data using a consistent methodology.

If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m a spreadsheet person, but I also use MSWord documents to organize and utilize resources from time to time, especially if the text is long. I have one Word document for every ancestor.

I’m going to use a chart as an example, understanding that you will create your own resource-tracking tool that you’re most comfortable with.

The first consideration is that you probably have at least three ancestors in any specific location. By that, I mean at least two parents and one child. You may have significantly more ancestors and family members from that location.

Conversely, those same ancestors may have moved from location to location – even state to state or cross-country, so you may have multiple locations for the same ancestor(s).

In my family, I have clusters of ancestors in the same county. For example, my early Estes line, along with their wives’ lines including Combs, Younger and Moore, resided in Halifax County, Virginia for about 4 generations or more than 50 years. The first generation, Moses Estes (1711-1787) who moved to Halifax County by 1771 came from someplace else, and the last generation, John R. Estes (1787-1885), moved to Claiborne County, TN about 1820, not long after his marriage.

I searched Halifax County records for at least four surnames and multiple generations.

This means I needed to compile the various resources for Halifax County across a significant amount of time.

Resources for Resources

There are multiple places to find available resources for a specific county and state.

We will use these to complete our own research list by county. In the next article, we’ll be checking each one of these resources for surnames.

FamilySearch Wiki

The first thing I do when beginning to compile resources is check the FamilySearch wiki.

Googling “Halifax County, Virginia FamilySearch wiki” brings up a lovely compilation of resources.

You’ll find general information by category, followed by very specific information and multiple resources for each category.

Click on any image to enlarge

Also note that the county website link is given, along with the county formation history further down the page. Don’t neglect to check each county’s individual resources and parent county, if relevant.

If you’ve checked the wiki, or any resource list before, check back often because things change.

I enter each of the resources into a spreadsheet for that county. This is NOT the same thing as making a list of information discovered for an individual ancestor or surname. We’ll get to that later.

Don’t limit yourself to just the years that you know your ancestor was living in that county because records pertaining to that family may exist before your ancestor arrived and long after they left. Other family members may have preceded them, while lawsuits, deeds, and other records may refer to them decades after they left or died.

Here’s the beginning of a list for Halifax County,

Resource State County Link Year Range Surnames Findings
Virginia Bible Records Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore One was donated by the Tune family.
Halifax Biographies Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore
1782 tax list Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm, http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/halifax/census/1782/1782tax.txt 1782 Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore 5 Estes, 1 Combs, 2 Younger 6 Moore
Slave Draft for Defense of Richmond Virginia Halifax http://usgwarchives.net/va/halifax.htm

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/halifax/court/1862slavedraft.txt

 1862 Estes, Younger, Combs, Moore 2 Younger, 2 Moore

I enter the county and state in two fields, so it’s sortable. If I’m checking multiple counties using the same resource, I enter the resource twice, one for each county and the surnames in that county that I searched for.

For example, this link for Virginia Bible records takes you to a link for Halifax County Bible records on the USGenWeb site. I listed the surnames I checked for. I also noted the Tune donation because I know from prior research that the Tune home is on the old Marcus Younger land and the families intermarried. When you search any county for another surname, be sure to add it to the list so you don’t have to wonder later if you checked for that surname.

For county histories and biographies, check to see if they are available digitally. In the next article, you’ll want to search for and record all instances of your surname, even if it’s NOT your ancestor, because of the FAN club, Friends and Neighbors (thank you ,Elizabeth Shown Mills). Those people may or will help you identify which ancestors are yours. Not to mention fleshing out their lives.

Tax lists are often used to replace or supplement the census. You should be able to determine if the lists are recorded in procession order or alphabetical order. Clearly, procession order is much more relevant because it shows who lives nearby or are neighbors. This may help you identify specific individuals, especially when there are multiple people with the same name. In the case of John Estes in Halifax County, Virginia, the tax list placed “my” John by his father, George, which was a huge clue. Eventually, on a tax list that was stuffed in the back of a deed book in the Clerk’s Office, I found another tax list with the note, “S. G.” by my John’s name, and another note on the “other” John that lived in the north end of the county. “S.G.” meant son of George, as that designation had been used and spelled out for other people elsewhere in the same tax list. I’ve never been so grateful to the taxman in my life!

The Slave Draft for the Defense of Richmond is a fascinating document transcribed by a volunteer from the court minute book.

From Minute Book 20 page 169 Halifax County, Va

At a Court Held for Halifax County on Monday the 4th day of April 1862. Present Beverly Sydnor, Howell Chastain, John M. Craddock, William Moorewell, James Kent, Henry C. Logan, James Richardson, E. A. Coleman, Archer A. Farmer

The court in consideration of the Draft from the Governor of the Commonwealth for laborers on the Public Defense near Richmond do order and direct that the Sheriff of this County do proceed for ___ to require the following named persons to deliver to him the said Sheriff at News Ferry Depot, Boston Depot, Clover Depot and as may be convenient to the parties on ___ the day of ___ at such see hours as he may designate the Slaves between the ages of eighteen and fifty five years directed to be furnished by each person in the said following list and proceed with them to the City of Richmond and deliver them to the Agent of the Confederate Government and take receipt for the Slaves furnished by each person.

Then, by district, the name of the owner, and the number of enslaved persons sent.

This information may provide insight into who enslaved others at that time, which may provide insight into families that were slaveholders historically. Additionally, it may provide important hints and clues for African American researchers who seek their family and may have adopted the surname of their former enslaver after the war.

Also, please note that these records may not be entirely accurate. For example, there’s a list of ministers who performed marriages, and my Rev. William Moore is not listed, but I actually have the list of his marriages, returns made in his own handwriting obtained in the courthouse in Halifax County.

If you remember, I found my way to GenWeb through the FamilySearch Wiki. When I finish listing the GenWeb resources, I need to return to the FamilySearch wiki to list any further resources.

You may find lists of out-of-print books for land and property records and other record types. I sometimes find out-of-print books for sale at www.bookfinder.com.

If you own the book, note that it’s in your own library.

To locate books, check the WorldCat entry, but also check both the FamilySearch Catalog by county, the Fort Wayne Public Library and other book resources as well.

Surnames

While the goal of this exercise is to document and record location resources, if you stumble across surname resources, certainly don’t ignore them and think you’ll find them later – you might not.

I suggest starting either a second spreadsheet, or new tab on this spreadsheet for each surname.

I maintain a separate spreadsheet for each location and one for each surname or group of surnames on the same migration path. For example, my Combs, Estes, Moore, and Younger families are migrating from the Virginia Colony into the new frontiers, so I track them together from Amelia and Prince Edward Counties, where they are first found through Halifax County.

Ok, back to searching for our county resources.

FamilySearch Catalog

To search the FamilySearch Catalog by county, sign in and then click on Search, Catalog, and Place.

I was given the choice of British Colonial America or the United States. I’ll check both to be sure I have all available resources.

Selecting “Land and Property,” one of the items displayed is the Antrim Parish Vestry book. By clicking on that entry, you can see that it’s available in the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. Maybe it’s available elsewhere too. I’ll check in a bit.

I build research lists from these resources routinely.

The entry for deed books shows that some are available online only at either the FamilySearch Library or a Family History Center (camera with key), which may be located near you. Other images are available online with no location requirement, indicated by the camera without a key, just by clicking.

These may or may not be indexed, and an index may be available elsewhere or by using the new FamilySearch Labs AI full text transcription tool. AI is not available for all records yet.

FamilySearch Labs

Next, try FamilySearch labs for additional assistance. I wrote about this new AI full text transcription tool, here.

You’ll see two features which may help you.

Using the “Find Help with AI Search” feature, type in what you’re searching for. I find the Full Text Search” to be much more helpful.

Click on “Go to Experiment.”

Typing “Halifax County, VA” into the search box returns resources from unexpected places. For example, county histories from elsewhere that reference Halifax County, or a Divorce degree, or a deed book from another county.

These are unexpected gold mines that you’d never find otherwise.

Note that this search is literally an exact match, so Halifax County, VA, is NOT the same as Halifax County, Virginia.

However, adding a surname to the location narrows the results substantially.

While normal deed and other books are indexed by the grantor and grantee, the FamilySearch full text search reveals EVERY instance of that name, including when referenced in another document. This feature is an absolute game-changer!

I can hardly wait to revisit my earlier work to see what’s new, but that’s part of the Level Up process.

It’s important to note that FamilySearch is adding new types of records to the AI collection almost daily, so check back often. Not everything uses the full-text transcription feature today, and while it’s quite accurate, it’s not 100%, so read carefully for yourself.

FamilySearch Book Search

You can also search for books by location or surname.

Allen County Public Library

The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana is one of the largest genealogy libraries in the US. You can search their site for locations, keywords, or surnames, here.

While these resources are generally not available online at this library, they alert you that they exist, and you may be able to find them elsewhere.

The one HUGE exception is the one-of-a-kind PERSI index.

PERSI

The PERSI, or Periodical Source Index is maintained by the Allen County Public Library as well, here.

You can search by location.

Click on a category that displays the results.

At the bottom of each page, you can open a form to request a copy of the article.

Ancestry.com Card Catalog

At Ancestry.com, you can search their Card Catalog by title or location.

Be sure to try different spellings and abbreviations, like VA for Virginia, or remove the word county, etc.

The results display a list of records for Halifax County in their collection.

You can click on the link to this book to search by surname or keyword.

These local histories are wonderful tools for fleshing out your ancestor’s stories because they tell us what was happening in their community during different time periods that would have affected and influenced their lives.

For example, in one of these histories, I discovered that one of the Revolutionary War generals and his troops marched right down the road in front of my ancestor’s home. It’s no wonder that he “contributed” brandy, food, and fodder for their horses.

Newspaper Sites

At Newspapers.com, you can see which papers were available and when.

You can also add a surname or first and last name.

Unless there’s a story about someone’s ancestors, there’s no point in looking for people who lived there in the 1700s and early 1800s. These are the publication dates, so an earlier ancestor could have been included in a 25 or 50-year history column in the local paper.

This same technique works with other genealogy Newspaper sites, too, including MyHeritage with a subscription and separately, their new OldNews site which contains newspapers not included in the MyHeritage subscription.

Also check out the Library of Congress digitized newspaper collection, here.

Newspaper Archive is available with an NGS membership, here.

Fulton County (not limited to Fulton County) and GenealogyBank are two additional newspaper resources.

MyHeritage

At MyHeritage, you can search by location or Newspapers as well.

MyHeritage has one book about Halifax County.

By clicking on the book, you can add additional search criteria.

Estes is mentioned 16 times in this book.

Library of Congress

Don’t forget about the Library of Congress, which has its own Historical Newspapers section, here.

You can also search by county or surname in the search box at the top. The images are all copyright-free.

State Archives

Don’t forget about your state archives.

Most have wonderful search capabilities and specific collections.

For example, the Library of Virginia has been indexing individual county chancery records dating back to the county’s formation. Chancery suits are where you find all the juicy stuff because people are asking for remediation and explaining why.

The index is here, and you can search by a combination of county and surname.

There are 59 records in Halifax County fitting this description, mentioning Estes in any capacity, reaching back as far as 1795.

Don’t neglect later cases because many times later cases tend to be lawsuits filed about much earlier estates and property divisions. They also tend to provide relationships in their narrative.

You’ll also notice that often, the plaintiff and defendant aren’t Estes, but they are clearly mentioned somewhere in that case, perhaps in a deposition.

Clicking on “View Details” displays the entire case file.

The resources at each state library are different and vast, so take a look and check back for new offerings and features.

Google is Your Friend

Google can turn up amazing resources, but it can also lead to some unsafe sites, so be careful and don’t just click without thinking.

Google “Halifax County Virginia genealogy society.” You’ll receive eight results that may have databases, members, or donated materials, but these resources may not be complete. For example, I wrote and donated a Moore genealogy to the local museum, which doubled as a genealogy society, and that “book” isn’t listed anywhere in any resource list.

You’ll often find multiple groups focused on the county of interest. These groups will likely have dedicated and interested volunteers and other researchers.

RootsWeb

Ancestry shut down the RootsWeb mailing lists, but they are still out there even though you can no longer add information.

If you Google “Halifax County, Virginia Rootsweb,” you’ll be shown several pages and entries, some of which may or may not be useful to you.

One link provides a list of the 1860 slaveholders compared to the 1870 African Americans on the census. This could be extremely useful!

Google Books

Another underutilized tool is Google books, found here.

Some of these resources you’ll not find elsewhere.

Also, check out the other Google features, such as Images, Maps, and more, which may lead you to other resources.

I love old maps where sometimes you’ll find old stream names, landmarks, or even settlers’ homes with their name.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is an initiative found at the Internet Archive to digitize out-of-copyright books for public consumption.

You can read more here.

Genealogical.com and American Ancestors

Don’t forget about book publishers that specialize in genealogy books like Genealogical.com and American Ancestors. Both are searchable, offer both hardcopy and e-books, and American Ancestors sells used books too.

Facebook

Last but not least, Facebook has many groups, including county-focused genealogy groups.

Sign in to Facebook and then use the Facebook search for the county you want.

Some groups maintain a list of resources.

Be sure to check both “Files” and “Features,” then use the Facebook search function to search for your surname(s) or other relevant locations or keywords in the Discussions.

In Summary

As you step through this process, it’s easiest if you include links to the various sites so that you can extract names in the next step. Links make it easy to return in the future and quickly review to see if anything has been added.

Even if you don’t find anything relevant at the site, be sure to NOTE THAT. That way, you never have to wonder and replow that same infertile ground. For example, if you determine that none of your four surnames are in a book written in 1937, they will never be in that book. If you don’t record that you looked, you’ll be left to wonder a few years from now and you’ll find yourself looking again.

However, a new book about that county might be written in the future, so it’s important to continue to look for new resources.

It’s also important to know that you searched for Estes, Moore, Younger, and Combs in Halifax County because you might, someday in the future, need to search for a new surname, like Hart. This way, you know what you did and did not search for in the past.

Why might you need to search for a new surname? Brick walls fall. Sometimes, the FAN Club turns out to be an important key to unlocking relationships that may extend back in time to earlier locations. People did not live or move in a vacuum.

I’ve made every one of these mistakes and nothing makes me unhappier than having to look something up, AGAIN, because I failed to record what I did.

The same advice holds for hard-copy books in research libraries. If nothing else, I take a picture of the front or inside cover and the index so I know what to record and that nothing was found. I wish I had done that from the beginning. Live and learn.

The biggest lie I’ve ever told myself is, “Of course I’ll remember that!”

Your Turn

It’s your turn now. Happy hunting!

Our next articles in this series will discuss how to record data from these resources so that it is both useful and findable again.

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