Collectible State Research Guides: Delaware and Utah

W W W. FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E .CO M
J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8

How to Map
Your Roots
with DNA
Our COMPLETE GUIDE
to Ancestry.com’s Cutting-edge
Genetic Migrations PAGE 18

Found Your Family Crest?

THINK AGAIN

3
Essential Newspaper
Searches for
Enslaved Ancestors

9 Ways to Do Genealogy on
Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest 13 Tips to Save
Grandma’s Jewelry
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 contents feature articles

33 Collectible State Research Guides: Delaware and Utah

W W W. FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E .CO M
J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8

PeopleImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

18 r
Our COMPLETE GUIDE
to Ancestry.com’s Cutting-edge
Genetic Migrations PAGE 18

january/february 2018 • volume 19, issue 1 48 Found Your Family Crest?

THINK AGAIN

3
Essential Newspaper
26 Searches for
Enslaved Ancestors

42 9 Ways to Do Genealogy on
Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest 13 Tips to Save
Grandma’s Jewelry 14

18 Migration
Revelations
48
|
Hark! the Heraldry
By Shannon Combs Bennett
| By Diahan Southard
Should you hang up your family coat
Learn how AncestryDNA’s new of arms—or zip it up and show it off ?
Migrations tool can reveal research We’ll untangle the myths of family
clues and help you put your ancestors heraldry and help you start discover-
in their place. ing your armigerous ancestry.

18
42 54 Treasure-Hunting
in the Archives
| By Shelley K. Bishop

26 From Runaways
to Reunions
Learn how to dig up the genealogical
treasures awaiting you in your ances-
| By James M. Beidler tors’ state archives.
and Timothy N. Pinnick

Search old newspapers for these three

kinds of articles unique to your Afri-
26 can-American ancestors.
48
42
|
Social Work
By Rachel Fountain

Sites like Facebook and Pinterest give

you unprecedented access to people
and ideas. Our social media expert
helps you leverage that power of con-
nection for your genealogy research.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 1
contents columns & departments

4 Out on a Limb
| By Diane Haddad
10 A letter from our editor.

6 Tree Talk
Readers respond to
Family Tree Magazine.

10 History Matters
| By David A. Fryxell
The impactful history of explosives.

14 Family Archivist
| By Denise May Levenick
Tips to care for Grandma’s handed-
down jewelry.

8 Genealogy Insider
| By Sunny Jane Morton
66
|
The Toolkit
Edited by Diane Haddad
16 Now What?
| By David A. Fryxell
Answers to your questions on
What’s new in discovering, preserving Reviews and roundups of the latest Civil War records and identifying
and celebrating your family history: and greatest family history resources: old photos.
» New records and resources at » Resource Roundup: Subreddits for
FamilySearch genealogists
» FreeCen offers free UK censuses » Tutorial: Search for UK records in 61 Research Roadmap
| By Andrew Koch
» Family Tree DNA adds health the Discovery Online catalog
The wide-open West of the mid-1800s.
reports » Quick Guide: Apps that make your
photos talk
62 DNA Solutions
| By Diahan Southard
STATE What to do with your Y-DNA results.
RESEARCH GUIDES 66
64 Photo Detective
33
|
Delaware
By Allison Dolan
| B y M a u r e e n A . Ta y l o r
Clues to a family mystery in an old
candid image.

37
|
Utah
B y M a u r e e n A . Ta y l o r 72 Photo Finish
Readers’ photos of relatives’
Our collectible State Research Guides resemblances.
series shows you what you need to
know to research your ancestors in
every US state.
IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
» Make the most of online tree hints
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outonalimb

Be It Resolved
3 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS have
a bad reputation. By the second week
of February, 80 percent of Americans’
resolutions are toast.
It’s easy, fresh from holiday time
off and inspired by the possibilities of
a new year, to set the bar really high.
To vow we’ll go to the gym every day,
declutter the house, or do a family tree.
Those are just the type of resolutions
experts say we abandon when we get
busy, overwhelmed or bored. So I’m not
ashamed to say it: This year, I’m aiming
low. Setting modest, specific genealogy
goals, instead of big sweeping ones:
 Read a social history book about
life in the places where my immigrant
ancestors came from. Those include
the German areas of Oldenburg and
Hanover in the 1800s, or Lebanon at
the turn of the century. (If you have any
recommendations, I’m all ears.)
 Put together a narrative about
one of my ancestors. Maybe my third-
great-grandfather Thomas Frost, a
carpenter from England who married
and sensationally divorced my third-
great-grandmother. Or perhaps, my
great-great-grandfather George Reuter,
a farmer in Indiana.
DIANE’S TOP 3 TIPS
 Research at a library. With two
kids, my library visits in 2017 revolved
around picture books. I miss loading
microfilm reels and pulling heavy books
off the shelves. So at least once this year,
I want to head to the library and look up
some records on my research list.
What small genealogy goal would you
like to accomplish this year? Maybe you
want to start using your DNA results or
figure out if that Smith Family Crest on
your parents’ wall is really part of your
history. Or maybe you want to discover
new resources in your state archives.
It’s easy to make your first step toward
genealogy success in the new year: Just
turn the page. 
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 •
VOLUME 19, ISSUE 1
Group Publisher » Allison Dolan
Editor » Diane Haddad
Art Director » Julie Barnett
Editor/Content Producer » Andrew Koch
Online Community Editor » Vanessa Wieland
Online Content Director » Ashlee Peck
Social Media Manager » Rachel Fountain
Contributing Editors » Lisa A. Alzo, Sharon
DeBartolo Carmack, Rick Crume, David A. Fryxell,
Nancy Hendrickson, Sunny Jane Morton,
Maureen A. Taylor
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NEWSSTAND AND INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION:

1 You don’t need to register with social media sites to view
profile pages of most organizations and businesses.
2 Explore the state archives website for each state where
you’ve discovered family living or migrating through.
3 When searching digitized newspapers, outsmart optical
character recognition problems by using shorter search strings
and swapping often-confused characters.
Curtis Circulation Co., (201) 634-7400
PRIVACY PROMISE: Occasionally we make portions of our
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of F+W Media, Inc.

4 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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treetalk
Documents, photos and artifacts handed down from the Iowa farming family of Peter B. Olson and
Christina Johanisdotter made a unique genealogy display at the Ventura (Calif.) County Fair.
Show Your Roots
I would like to share with you my
entry in the Genealogy Division of our
Ventura County (Calif.) Fair last year.
It was a “Family Heirloom Collection
Over 75 Years Old.” It consisted of heir-
loom materials from the family and farm
of my great-grandfather (my mother’s
grandfather) Peter B. Olson. I inherited
the material about 60 years ago from his
oldest son, my great-uncle Otto, who
was the executor of Peter’s will.
Peter was born in 1843 in Skane, Swe-
den. He immigrated to the United States
in 1869, settling in Sac County, Iowa. He
married Christina Johanisdotter, also
from Sweden, in 1875. He purchased
120 acres of virgin farmland from the
Iowa Rail Road Land Co. in two trans-
actions: $528 in 1870 and $264 in 1875.
Later, in 1883, he purchased another
40 acres adjacent to his farm from the
Bethel Church for $820. Corn was his
main crop. Their original farmhouse
was built in about 1874 and replaced in
about 1900 by a large two-story house.
Peter retired from farming in 1910 after
suffering from blindness. His sons con-
tinued farming. Peter passed away in
1926 in an automobile accident.
My display included the three origi-
nal land deeds and the original Abstract
6 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y
Readers respond to Family Tree Magazine
Oscar plowing, Peter’s wooden trunk,
and several family members. I included
a plat map of the farm, a Google aerial
view of the farm area, a short geneal-
ogy of the family, and a timeline of the
family and farm from 1817 to 1973. The
farm was sold in 1927, when my grand-
parents retired and moved to nearby
c o u r t e s y o f Te r r y D . B e r g m a n
Kiron, Iowa. I had a chance to visit it
in 1973, and it still looked like the old
photographs.
My entry was in a 46x23-inch glass
display case. It received a first place
award, and also the Judge’s Choice rib-
bon. I continue to enjoy and use your
magazine to help make this “hobby” of
genealogy more meaningful to me and
my family.
Terry D. Bergman » Ventura, Calif.
of Title. Other heirlooms included
family photographs large and small, Grandma’s Grater
a large charcoal portrait of Peter, his I have a close friend who dis-
citizenship paper beside his picture, cusses family history with me. We talk
some Sioux Indian artifacts found on about how even the simplest kitchen
the property, and a large photo of my item has a story.
grandfather, Oscar, at a corn-judging Like me, my friend loves using things
competition. from her family’s past. As you touch
Photos showed the farm buildings, each item, you wonder what your
the large farmhouse, their tractor, ancestors’ lives might’ve been like. She
As you
touch each
thing from
the past, you
Ira Leoni/StockFood Creative/Getty Images
wonder what
your ancestors’
lives might’ve
”
been like.
An antique grater borrowed from a neighbor more than 75 years
ago is still in use by the borrower’s granddaughter.
2018 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 FACEBOOK FAN MAIL
IMAGINE YOUR ANCESTORS HAD SOCIAL
MEDIA. WHAT WOULD THEY HAVE POSTED?
FYI: All three of our daughters died
this week. Info l8er on services.
#worstweekever #choleraisabitch
» Amy Zimmer Schneider
I need help to get my sister-in-law
and her children off the island Föhr. It
will be dangerous. I’m sure it is full of
soldiers. » Karen Jensen Letendre
It’s so scary around my area right now,
there is a murderer on the loose in
Whitechapel and no one knows who
he is! » Josie Briggs
OMG, we came here for farmland,
but as far as I can see, there’s only
this nasty, tough, tall grass that our
wagons can’t even pass through.
» Bobbie Leamer
I’ll be darned. I dropped my phone in
the outhouse! » Amy Uehara
Join our community at <www.facebook.com/familytreemagazine>.
has a grater from her grandmother, and
it, too, has a story.
It seems her grandmother borrowed
this grater from a neighbor and failed
to return it. Years later, she noticed
it sitting in the kitchen drawer and
was embarrassed that she’d forgotten
to return it. She immediately took it
across the street to her neighbor and
apologized. The neighbor laughed and
showed my friend’s grandmother the
new one that she’d purchased, rather
than asking for the loaned one to be
returned. Since she no longer needed
TALK TO US We’d love to hear your research stories, family memories and thoughts about this issue. Email ftmedit@
fwmedia.com or leave us a note on Facebook <www.facebook.com/familytreemagazine>. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
didn’t mention the wonderful geneal-
ogy department of the St. Louis County
Library headquarters <www.slcl.org>
at 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis.
The staff is very knowledgeable and
helpful. Their catalog of genealogy
Fellow distillers of our fair Pennsyl-
resources is amazingly complete,
vania! We fought off the oppressive
including very old newspaper micro-
British with their unfair taxes and
films, FamilySearch microfilms of St.
now, our own tax our whiskey unfairly.
Louis church records, many Ortssip-
We cannot allow one tyranny to be
penbücher (compiled German parish
exchanged for another. » Traycie
records) with standing orders for more
West Pinkoski
as they are published, and many pub-
Walter died instantly when he got lished genealogies.
kicked in the head while shoe- The county library, incidentally, is
ing a horse (true story). » Steve L. separate from the St. Louis (city) Public
Easterday Library <www.slpl.org> on Olive Street,
which is listed in the Toolkit. 
Please view this fundraiser for two Lila Niemann Garner » Hamburg, Iowa
young, orphaned girls. Their mama
met an untimely death at the hands of BEHIND THE SCENES
a crew member and was buried at sea
during their travel across the Atlantic
from the Falkland Islands to Liverpool.
Just a few months earlier, they lost
their father from a brain abscess.
Their uncle will assume guardianship.
» Wendy Fausett
Ashlee Peck
the grater, she told her neighbor to keep
it. The women laughed and hugged.
My friend now uses that same grater.
In honor of Visit a Cemetery Day
Her mother had used it for many years,
last Oct. 29, our own Ashlee
before buying herself a new one and
Peck and Rachel Fountain visited
giving her daughter the old one. The
Cincinnati’s historic Spring Grove
borrowed grater is now 75 years old and
Cemetery and Arboretum <www.
still in use.
springgrove.org>. You can see
Katie Martin » Danbury, NC
their photos of the breathtaking,
peaceful setting on our blog at
Missouri Miss
<familytreemagazine.com/articles/
It was disappointing to me that
spring-grove-visit-cemetery-day>.
the Missouri State Research Guide
Toolkit (October/November 2017)
<familytreemagazine.com> 7
genealogyinsider Behind the scenes of family history news and trends {BY SUNNY JANE MORTON}

FamilySearch
Facilitates Records Access
3 FAMILYSEARCH, THE GENEAL-
OGY arm of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, is the biggest force
behind efforts to provide free genealogy
records online. Its most noteworthy

projects in 2017 include:|
 The free FamilySearch site <www.
familysearch.org> added an estimated
300 million indexed records (meaning,
names in the site’s searchable data-
bases) last year. Another 1.1 billion digi-
tized document images await indexing,
but are available for browsing (similar
to the way you’d use microfilm). Find
these collections in the listing at <www.
familysearch.org/search/collection/list>
or by searching the FamilySearch
online catalog <www.familysearch.org/
catalog/search> for a place or keywords.
 About 300 FamilySearch camera
crews are digitizing records in 45 to 50
countries at any given time, capturing
about 150 million images annually plus
FAMILY-FINDING TIPS
FOR FAMILYSEARCH
 To check for new online collec-
tions, click the "Last Updated" head-
ing on the collections listing <www.
familysearch.org>.
 The name search doesn't provide
results in unindexed collections;
instead, browse them from the col-
lections listing page.
 Trouble finding a person? Try leav-
ing his name out and searching with
the parents' names instead.
Volunteers using FamilySearch's cloud-based indexing tool indexed about 58 million records in 2017.
other records such as oral histories.
Their ambitious goal is to digitize a
third of the not-yet-imaged genealogi-
cal records in 80 countries. Records at
highest risk of destruction or deteriora-
tion are prioritized.
 In September, improvements to
hinting algorithms and new online col-
lections generated 230 million new auto-
mated record hints for the FamilySearch
unified family tree. These hints suggest
potential matches between indexed
historical records and individuals in the
tree. FamilySearch estimates its auto-
mated hints are 98 percent accurate.
 Volunteer record indexers help
make those digitized collections search-
able by name. FamilySearch introduced
a new, cloud-based tool <www.family
search.org/indexing> to make indexing
faster and easier. At press time, 81,000
volunteers had indexed around 58 mil-
lion records in 2017, and 1.3 billion total.
Nearly 600 record collections from
Neustockimages/iStock/Getty Images
around the world were available for
indexing in several languages.
 FamilySearch closed its longstand-
ing microfilm lending program in 2017,
but announced that all microfilmed
records that researchers have requested
over the past five years have now been
digitized—over 1.5 million films. Scan-
ning of remaining microfilmed records
should be complete within two years
(except for films that FamilySearch
doesn’t have permission to digitize).
If you need access to a FamilySearch
microfilm that’s not digitized, you can
request it for priority digitization by
calling toll-free (866) 406-1830.
 Organizers of RootsTech <www.
rootstech.org> , FamilySearch’s annual
genealogy conference in Salt Lake City,
have expanded the event to four days.
This year, it’s scheduled for Feb. 28-Mar.
3. See the opposite page for a behind-
the-scenes glimpse of this conference
with RootsTech’s Tara Bergeson. 

8 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 Find Free UK Censuses
A new website called FreeCEN <www.
5 Questions With
freecen.org.uk> offers free access—
no login needed—to 32 million names
TARA BERGESON
in 19th-century census records from
England, Scotland and Wales. Volun- Tara Bergeson is the director of content for
teers are transcribing UK censuses RootsTech <rootstech.org> , the biggest gene-
taken every decade from 1841 to 1891. alogy conference in the world (which you
The 1861 census has the most entries can watch online or attend Feb. 28-March 3).
so far, with more than 10 million. See Here’s what that entails.
progress by year and county at <www.

1
freecen.org.uk/statistics.html>. Free- You have a full-time job supporting
CEN is a project of Free UK Gene- a single annual conference?
alogy <www.freeukgenealogy.org. Yes—there are actually seven of us full-
uk>, which also supports the popular time, plus seasonal helpers. RootsTech has
FreeBMD site <www.freebmd.org.uk> grown to average 25,000 to 30,000 attendees.
for civil registration records and Free- It’s four days long, with 200-plus speakers teaching more than 275 classes,
REG <www.freereg.org.uk> site with as well as evening events and over 300 Expo Hall booths. The Expo Hall has
church parish registers. booths with all the major genealogy companies and hundreds of smaller ones.
There’s a demo stage where you can sit and put your feet up and hear extra
talks. I handle only the class sessions and registration process.

Family Tree DNA

2
What’s your favorite task at RootsTech?
Adds Health Reports Talking to people and hearing their stories. It’s a large crowd, but each
Family Tree DNA person comes with his own goals and stories. One year I talked to a cute
A n d r e i _ r/ i S t o c k /G e t t y I m a g e s

<www.family older couple about moving into the digital age. Every year since then, they find
treedna.com> me and report their progress.
n ow o f fe rs i t s

3
DNA testing You’re a self-described “soccer mom.” What
customers a $49 skills do you use most at work and home?
a d d - o n “ We l l - All three of my boys (ages 11 to 21) have played soccer; I’m on the board
ness Report.” The of a competitive soccer club. I’m very organized and committed and I have a
report promises lot of drive. I need all that to succeed with RootsTech, too.
to inform decisions about “nutrition,

4
exercise, and supplementation” by What do your kids think of your work?
providing insights and recommenda- The younger two boys have actually volunteered at RootsTech in the
tions based on your DNA test and a FamilySearch booth, demonstrating touch screens and apps and talk-
lifestyle questionnaire. ing to other kids who come through. It’s been great to watch them become
The analysis comes from Vitagene involved.
<vitagene.com> , a nutrigenomics

5
company. Reports address obesity What do you do when RootsTech is over?
risk, alcohol metabolism, cholesterol I go home and sleep, watch a movie with my kids and eat my mom’s home
and triglyceride levels, lactose and cooking. But the RootsTech team all reports back to work on Monday to
gluten sensitivity, and other factors. start preparing for the next one.
No additional DNA test is required;
results appear in the Family Tree DNA
dashboard within a week. READ MORE interviews with genealogy industry insiders at <family
treemagazine.com/articles/news-blogs/genealogy-industry/5-questions-plus>.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 9
historymatters Innovations and trends that shaped your ancestors’ lives { B Y D AV I D A . F R Y X E L L }

1 9 0 6 , N e w Yo r k P u b l i c L I b r a r y , M i r i a m a n d I r a D . W a l l a c h D i v i s i o n o f A r t , P r i n t s a n d
Dynamiting the earthquake and fire-wrecked buildings on Market St., San Francisco,

Photographs: Photography Collection, MFY Dennis Coll 90-F1

Bang-up Jobs
3 YOU MIGHT SAY that civilization has progressed, at thunderclap bombs were used, hitting the lines of the enemy
least in part, by blowing up stuff. Not just competing civiliza- well, and throwing them into great confusion. Many fled,
tions, but also mine shafts, tunnels, roads and railways. For screaming in fright.”
much of human history, these explosions relied on gun- Mongol conquerors—who learned about gunpowder
powder, invented in China during the ninth-century the hard way, while attacking China—helped spread
Tang dynasty. Practical alternatives came along TNT the explosive westward in the 13th century. The
only in the 19th century, when safer and more and dynamite successors to Genghis Khan also improved
effective explosives enabled breakthroughs in have largely been the formula to make gunpowder more truly
mining and transportation. supplanted by modern explosive.
Ironically, the discovery of gunpowder—or high explosives such as The earliest European mention of gun-
“black powder”—may have been part of a Tao- ANFO and ammonium- powder is found in the Opus Majus, an ency-
ist alchemical quest for “the elixir of life.” Con- nitrate base clopedic 1267 tome by the English friar and
sidered one of the four great inventions of China water gels. philosopher Roger Bacon. “Black powder” was
(along with the compass, paper and printing), gun- soon put to use in guns, cannons and fireworks.
powder combines saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. The As early as the 15th century, miners and civil engi-
earliest surviving formula for gunpowder dates from 1044, in neers recognized gunpowder’s potential for more-construc-
a manual whose title translates to The Complete Essentials for tive destruction. The oldest written record of gunpowder
the Military Classics. Although too low in saltpeter to actu- used in mining dates from 1627 in Hungary. German miners
ally explode, this early gunpowder was nonetheless highly took the idea to Britain in 1638. The first major civil engi-
flammable, useful for creating flaming arrows and firebombs. neering project to benefit from gunpowder was the Canal du
China’s Gunpowder Age also introduced the “thunderclap Midi, completed in 1681. Its 150 miles of waterways with 100
bomb,” described after the 1126 siege of Kaifeng: “At night the locks connected the Atlantic and the Mediterranean across

10 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 TAKE YOUR
RESEARCH
After the San Francisco fire and earthquake in 1906, dynamite was used to
bring down the ruins that were still standing.
IN TIME TO THE
700s | Chinese
NEXT LEVEL!
southern France. In America, gunpowder helped build the use gunpowder
363-mile Erie Canal between 1817 and 1825. for signaling and
But mining and construction with gunpowder remained a fireworks
risky endeavor, however, until the invention of the safety fuse
by William Bickford in 1831. Inspired by watching a friend 1267 | Roger
braid a rope, the English inventor wove together yarn and Bacon writes
gunpowder, then waterproofed the fuse by coating it with tar. about gunpowder
A factory in Tuckingmill, launched with Bickford’s son-in-
law shortly before the inventor’s death, churned out 45 miles 1681 | Canal du
of safety fuse its first year. Midi is completed
By that time, other inventors were finally exploring alter- with the help of Join the Family Tree VIP
natives to gunpowder. In 1832, French chemist Henri Brac- gunpowder program for advice, tools
onnot first made nitrocellulose, or guncotton, by combining and resources to
nitric acid with wood fibers or starch. Christian Friedrich 1831 | William enhance your
Schönbein, a German-Swiss chemist, accidentally discov- Bickford invents ONLY
ered a practical method of making guncotton in 1845, when
genealogy
the safety fuse $59.99
he used his wife’s cotton apron to wipe up spilled nitric acid. search. ($112 VA
LU
1832 | Henri
E)
When he hung the apron by the stove to dry, the fabric spon-
taneously and almost smokelessly ignited. Braconnot
A few years later, German chemist Julius Wilbrand discovers
YOUR ONE-YEAR
invented another nitrogen compound, trinitrotoluene—bet- guncotton PAID MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES:
ter known as TNT. But Wilbrand’s 1863 discovery was ini- » Family Tree Magazine one-year
tially used as a yellow dye rather than an explosive. His TNT 1847 | Ascanio subscription (seven issues)
was too difficult to detonate using the technology of the time. Sobrero creates
Beginning in 1891, though, TNT’s “high activation energy” nitroglycerin » Members-Only Savings: Log in
before you shop for an automatic 10%
eventually made it a safer alternative to more volatile explo-
discount in the Family Tree Shop! Plus,
sives. After Americans’ widespread adoption of TNT for 1863 | Joseph enjoy free shipping and private sales
building railroads, it became the standard for explosives: Wilbrand develops just for VIPs.
Years later, even the yield of atomic bombs would be mea- TNT as a dye
sured in terms of TNT. » Family Tree University discount:
Dynamite is often confused with TNT, but Alfred Nobel 1867 | Alfred VIPs save an extra 10% off registration
for live online courses and webinars.
(yes, the namesake of the peace prize) invented the former Nobel invents
in 1867. It employed yet another nitrogen compound, nitro- dynamite » One-year subscription to
glycerin, which Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero had cre- Family Tree Magazine Premium:
ated in 1847. Although Sobrero succeeded in formulating an 1875 | Nobel Get members-only access to
explosive more powerful than gunpowder, he warned that it invents the first thousands of how-to articles on
was too unstable for practical use and later lamented, “I am “plastic” explosive, FamilyTreeMagazine.com.
almost ashamed to admit to be its discoverer.” Simply shak- gelignite » Family Tree Toolkit: This VIP-
ing a bottle of nitroglycerin might cause it to explode. exclusive PDF includes the 101 Best
Liquid nitroglycerin would claim many lives in accidental 1891 | TNT Websites for genealogy, project forms
explosions, including those of Nobel’s younger brother and first used as an and decorative family tree charts.
several factory workers in Heleneberg, Sweden, in 1864. explosive
A crate of nitroglycerin destined to help build the Central BECOME A VIP TODAY!
Pacific railroad’s Summit Tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas 1945 | First
<familytreemagazine.com/store/
exploded in a San Francisco Wells Fargo office in 1866, kill- atomic bomb
ftm-xsub-vip-print-bundle>
ing 15 people. That blast led to a California ban on the trans- tested in New
portation of nitroglycerin, requiring much of the explosives Mexico

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 11
historymatters
used for the transcontinental railroad to be
manufactured on site.
Alfred Nobel, who had introduced Sobre-
ro’s invention to his family’s business, spent
several years trying to make it safer to use.
In 1865 he invented the blasting cap, which
made nitroglycerin safer to detonate. But a Nobel
factory in Krümmel, Germany, that made a nitroglycerin-
gunpowder mixture called “blasting oil,” was destroyed not
once but twice.
Finally, Nobel came up with the idea of mixing nitroglycerin
with diatomaceous earth, a soft, absorbent rock mostly made
of fossilized algae (and today found in potting soil and cat lit-
ter). The resulting paste could be formed into sticks—perfect
for inserting into holes drilled in rocks meant for demolition.
Nobel called his invention, patented in 1867, dynamite.
Like TNT, whose explosive power had not yet been appre-
ciated, dynamite truly explodes rather than merely burning
rapidly. That detonation releases much more energy than
previous explosives, making dynamite ideal for blasting even
the most stubborn natural obstacles.
The USSR’s
Tsar Bomba device—
the most powerful nuclear
weapon ever exploded, before The first commercial use of dynamite was
the nuclear test ban treaty— a demonstration at the Merstham quarry in
had an estimated yield of 50 Surrey, England. Miners and civil engineers
megatons (million tons) were quick to catch on to the potential of
of TNT. Nobel’s invention. Dynamite—and more than
350 other patents—made him a wealthy man.
Alfred Nobel used his fortune to endow a series of
annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, physi-
ology/medicine, literature and peace. (An economics prize
was added in 1968 with a donation from Sweden’s central
bank.) A few months before his death on Dec. 10, 1896, Nobel
was prescribed a medication for his heart—nitroglycerin. Wil-
liam Murrell, an English physician and toxicologist, had begun
experimenting with small doses of nitroglycerin in 1878 to
alleviate the chest pain of angina. After The Lancet published
his results in 1879, the treatment became widespread.
The irony of this medicinal use of the dangerous explosive
wasn’t lost on the inventor. He wrote to a friend: “Isn’t it the
irony of fate that I have been prescribed nitro-glycerin, to be
taken internally! They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the
chemist and the public.” 

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12 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Perfect Choice HD Ultra™ is simple to use, hard to see and easy to afford…
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f mil archivist Tools for taking care of your family’s legacy { B Y D E N I S E M AY L E V E N I C K }

Grandma’s Jewelry

3 WILL YOUR CHILDREN, nieces and

nephews know the story of the rings
and brooches they find in your dresser
drawer or jewelry box one day? With-
out a little help, my sons probably won’t
recall who’s pictured in my grandmoth-
er’s gold-tone brooch. These simple
tips will help you preserve treasured
heirlooms and the stories that make
them special.

1
Look for engravings.
Use a magnifying glass or
jeweler’s loupe to carefully
examine watches, brooches, fraternal

e c h a t n o i r/C o l l e c t i o n : E + /G e t t y I m a g e s
organization pins, wedding rings and
charms for engraved names and dates.
These can help you identify the original
owner and significance of the piece.
Transcribe what you find and add it
to an heirloom history stored with the
jewelry (see the opposite page).

2
Remember red,
white and blue.
You may clean red rubies,

4
white diamonds and blue sapphires Go for the gold. <www.tiffany.com/gifts/product-care-
with mild dish detergent and water. True gold won’t tarnish and items>. Exposure to air will hasten tar-
But according to the Jewelers Mutual needs cleaning only with a nishing, so store your vintage silver
Insurance Co., “Many other gemstones soft, dry cloth. Avoid abrasive cleaners jewelry in a cloth pouch. Bags of Pacific
have fickle properties that require spe- such as baking soda, toothpaste and Silvercloth <www.silverguard.com> are
cific care.” Even ultrasonic cleaners can bleach. Be careful not to rub off any embedded with tiny silver particles
damage some gemstones, like pearls engraving. that absorb tarnish-producing gases.
and coral. Take other stones to a jew-

5 6
eler for cleaning and maintenance. Save your silver. Make a cameo
Gently polish sterling silver appearance.

3
Preserve pearls.
Store pearls in a soft pouch
or case to prevent scratches
from other jewelry. Don’t hang your
necklace, which can stretch or break
the cord.
with a soft, dry cloth. Remove
stubborn tarnish with a small amount
of nonabrasive silver cleaner, such
as Hagerty Silver Clean <hagertyusa.
com/jewelry/products/silver_clean.htm>
or Tiffany & Co. Silver Polish Spray
Cameos feature intricate
designs carved on stone, ivory, lava,
coral, tortoiseshell, bisque or other
materials. Portraits have always been
popular, but you’ll also see flowers,
birds and other natural images. The

14 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••


E
Seek help from a professional jeweler
to clean and repair heirloom pieces.
carving is typically set in a 14K gold or
sterling silver. Avoid synthetic clean-
ers, dips and stiff brushes. Use only a
soft, natural artist’s brush with warm
distilled water. Have any cracks profes-
sionally repaired before cleaning.
7
To avoid stains and
hard-to-remove
residue, don’t apply
hairspray, perfume or lotion
while wearing your heirloom
jewelry.
8
Make it yours.
A good jeweler can restring
and add to a beaded or pearl
necklace to suit your style and neck
size. Knotting between pearls mini-
mizes loss in case of breakage. Replace
broken clasps with suitable vintage
pieces to maintain the historical integ-
rity of your jewelry.
9
Use it or lose it.
With phones and Fitbits to
keep folks on schedule, many
no longer wear wristwatches. But
mechanical timepieces are best pre-
served in working condition: Broken
springs and gunky lubricants can make
it difficult to get an old watch ticking
again. Wind and run your heirloom
watch every month and have a jeweler
service it every five to seven years.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
inside your home where the humid-
ity and temperature are moderate and
consistent.
Set it up for success.
12 Jewelry sets and collections
are more valuable than indi-
Separate for storage. vidual pieces. When possible, keep
10 Avoid jumbled jewelry boxes
where bumping can cause
a set together instead of giving one
daughter earrings; another, the brace-
scratches. Soft cloth pouches or lined let; a third, the necklace. If the set
boxes are the best way to store rings, must be split among family members,
pearls, watches, and individual jewelry encourage borrowing to reunite the
pieces. pieces for special occasions.
Don’t dehydrate. Insure properly.
11 Very dry air can dehydrate
your pearls and cause stones
13 Talk to your insurance agent
about any special arrange-
to crack. But damp conditions can ments needed to cover valuable jewelry
encourage tarnish and erode the metal under your home insurance policy.
on settings, chains, clasps and watch You’ll probably need to get an appraisal
movements. Store jewelry in a place from a reputable jeweler. 
Document the Details
Record the story that goes with your
heirloom jewelry and keep a copy with
photos of the original and current own-
ers. Add the photos and stories of the
piece to a scrapbook or digitally created
photo book (I give step-by-step instruc-
tions in How to Archive Family Photos
<familytreemagazine.com/store/how-
to-archive-family-photos> ) and give a
copy to each member of the family.
A special, archival-quality storage con-
wragg /Collection:E+/Getty Images
tainer marks the jewelry as an “heirloom”
and is more likely to be noticed than an
ordinary cardboard box. Inside, cushion
the jewelry with acid-free tissue paper or
a square of polyester fiberfill batting.
Find more tips on caring for inherited
treasures in my book How to Archive Fam-
ily Keepsakes <familytreemagazine.com/
store/ht-archive-family-keepsakes>.
<familytreemagazine.com> 15
nowwhat? Answers to your genealogy questions { B Y D AV I D A . F R Y X E L L }

My great-grandfather’s Confederate army

Certificate of Disability for Discharge
annotates “enlisted,” replacing it in two
places with “enrolled.” What does this mean?
We here at the “Now What?”
brain trust aren’t afraid to admit
when we’re stumped. We even turned
to Mike Millner, systems support
librarian for the North Carolina Gov-
ernment & Heritage Library, who said,
“I can find no information about the
difference between the terms ‘enrolled’
and ‘enlisted’ in this context.”
Some sources suggest that “enrolled”
might refer to soldiers who served as
substitutes for men who were drafted
but paid for someone to take their
place. As the Confederate cause grew
more desperate, this practice was for-
bidden by an order issued Jan. 13, 1864.
This order continued: “All persons who
have heretofore been exempted from
military service by reason of having
furnished substitutes, are rendered lia-
ble to such service. Commandants will
forthwith proceed to the enrollment
of all persons who have been exempted
by reason having furnished substi-
tutes. A distinct roll will be kept of
the persons thus enrolled, containing
the name of the substitute, the date
of the substitution, the company and
regiment in which the substitution
was made, and as far as practicable
whether the substitute is still in ser-
vice, and if not, whether lost by deser-
tion, discharge or casualty.” You can

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CITIES
By Allison Dolan resources like directories
9781440350610 | $34.99 and vital records
1800-1920
E track relatives’
Order now! <bit.ly/ft-cities-atlas> migrations

E identify jurisdictions
that may hold your
ancestors’ records

16 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 learn more about Confederate States
of America (CSA) conscription rules
at <docsouth.unc.edu/imls/conscript/
conscription.html>.
Since your ancestor was discharged
for medical reasons, you might also
learn more from the CSA military doc-
ument transcribed at <docsouth.unc.
edu/imls/regulations/regulations.html> ,
particularly the section covering dis-
charges, which begins on page 48. It
doesn’t answer your specific question,
but it does give an idea what written
instructions were given to CSA doctors.
If readers can supply any further
explanation of the difference between
“enrolled” and “enlisted,” we’re all
ears—email us at ftmedit@fwmedia.com.
I have a slide my father
took at Christmas in
1958. I can identify most of the
people, including myself as a
child. But I’m stumped about
the identities of two women
and a man. Any suggestions?
Slides are even more likely than
photographic prints to lack iden-
tification, because of the limited space
to write on the cardboard or plastic
frame. Figuring out who might be who
in a slide, as in other old family photos,
is a bit like solving a murder mystery:
Start by assembling the possible sus-
pects. That is, which relatives might
plausibly have been in the photo in 1958?
Since family might’ve traveled to holi-
day gatherings, you can’t always go by
where people lived. But you can scan
your family tree for people of the right
gender and approximate age at the time,
and with a similar relationship as those
STUMPED? ASK OUR EXPERT!
Send questions to ftmedit@fwmedia.com or post them on Facebook <www.facebook.com/
familytreemagazine>. Sorry, we can’t respond personally or answer all questions.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
you’ve already identified. For example,
if every known adult present is a cousin
or spouse of a cousin, it’s most likely
that your mystery women and man are,
too. If others in the photo are couples
(except your mother, since your father
was behind the camera), it’s also likely
that the unidentified man is married to
one of the unknown women. The other
woman might then be unmarried or a
widow, so check your family tree for
single women of the right age.
If you have cousins who might be
able to help with identification, email
the photo to them. Don’t overlook sec-
ond cousins and “removed” cousins:
If the older unknown people in the
photo are your grandfather’s siblings,
the living relatives most able to identify
them would be their children (your
first cousins once removed) and grand-
children (your second cousins). For
tips on finding living relatives, see the
December 2017 Family Tree Magazine
“Now What?” (And in fact, we learned
just prior to publication that our
question-asker’s second cousins identi-
fied one mystery woman as their grand-
mother, and the man as her second
husband. The other mystery woman
was probably the grandfather’s second
wife, whom he had not yet married but
certainly knew by late 1958.)
When cousins can’t help, try looking
for photos of candidate relatives in old
yearbooks. Although aging changes the Discover
face, you can compare distinctive fea-
tures such as overall face shape, nose,
eyes and ears. Find old yearbooks at sites your DNA
such as Ancestry.com <search.ancestry.
c o m /s e a r c h /d b . a s p x ? d b i d = 1 2 6 5 > ,
Classmates.com <www.classmates. story today.
com/yearbooks> and E-Yearbook.com
<www.e-yearbook.com>. 
<familytreemagazine.com> 17
MiGRATiON
REVELATiONS
Learn how AncestryDNA’s new
Migrations tool can reveal research clues
and help you put your ancestors in their place.
BY DIAHAN SOUTHARD
 3 OFTEN, THE KEY to identifying your ancestors isn’t just people have genetic overlap in multiple groups. In these
their names, but also the places they lived. Knowing their cases, the system chooses the best option: Does this person
village or town can help you distinguish them from others of more closely match one smaller group or a different one?
the same names living during that time. The place also may Remember that the system is still comparing only people’s
have been home to other relatives. And of course, the history DNA, not their family trees.
and culture of places they called home can broaden your To become more genealogically useful, though, these little
understanding of your family’s unique story. clusters of related people now need to be identified with
The allure of identifying your ancestral homeland also a place. So Ancestry.com next adds data from family trees
can be emotional. In fact, the desire to “know where I came associated with these people. But they don’t simply place
from” has already driven millions to take DNA tests. They ancestral birth locations for each person on a map. They also
want to see their ancestral ethnicity estimates: pretty pie use fancy math to give preference to locations that are more
charts showing the areas of the world their ancestors once associated with this particular community than any other.
called home.
However, as many of you have already discovered, ethnic-
ity estimates often fall short of expectations. Some places in Comparing Ethnicity Estimates
your pie chart may not correspond to your family tree. And and Migrations
your ethnicity breakdown is unlikely to help you determine
where your great-great-grandmother Matilda was born. The Ethnicity
MIgrations
geographic origins provided by DNA tests of the past few estimates
years have had extremely limited genealogical value. Requires purchase yes yes
Then last April, AncestryDNA <ancestry.com/dna> of AncestryDNA
launched an unprecedented new feature: Genetic Com- test
munities (now called Migrations). The goal of this tool is to Results guaranteed yes No, this depends
identify a smallish geographic region where your ancestors for every test whether sufficient
actually walked, lived and breathed between 1750 and 1850. people have
tested to form a
This is a specific and ambitious goal. It’s also—potentially— Migrations group
much more genealogically useful than percentages from that matches your
here and there. origins.
To get the most out of your Migrations, you’ll need to Requires you to link no No, but you must
understand how you became a part of them. And that will your AncestryDNA have a linked tree
require just a bit of science, as well as some exploration of the test to a family tree to see ancestors
AncestryDNA website. Whether or not you’ve already tested listed in your DNA
Story.
with AncestryDNA, we’ll tell you what this tool can reveal
about your family tree—and what may yet be in store. How they’re Your DNA Your DNA places
determined is compared you into groups,
to reference which are then
THE GREAT DIVIDE populations associated with
Ancestry.com requires three key components to build its associated with recent pedigree
Migrations groups: First is enormous numbers of DNA the area. charts.
samples (good thing about 2 million users consented to have Ancestral time thousands of the years 1750
their data included in the initial research). Second is the frame years ago to 1850
online family tree data that’s linked to those DNA samples.
Geographic regions 24 more than 300
Third is a really smart bunch of computers that can identify reported
connections among the samples and people.
Includes information no yes
The super-smart computers first divide everyone in the about migration
site’s DNA database into groups of related people based solely patterns and history
on their DNA, not their family trees. The system identifies
Suggests which no yes
several tiny pieces of DNA called SNPs (pronounced “snips”) ancestors place you
in each person. Then it compares SNPs across people to see in the group
who shares enough DNA to have a common ancestor. Those Usefulness for little to no value low to moderate
who share the same SNPs form a network. genealogical value (with
This dividing process continues again and again, creating research potential for more),
smaller and smaller groups until no additional subgroups can when used along
be detected. There isn’t usually a perfect split because many with other data

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 19
 The clustering of people into
Migrations groups is based not on place,
but solely on genetics.
The resulting smart map—fueled by data, super comput-
ers and calculations—was published in the scientific jour-
nal Nature Communications at <www.nature.com/articles/
ncomms14238/figures/3>. When the birth locations for ances-
tors of each person in the network were added to a map, it
revealed that one genetic community contains individuals
who all have ancestors from the North East; another has
ancestry from the South. Acadians clustered together in
Louisiana, while French Canadians were in Quebec. The
map displays migrations westward for Pennsylvania and the
Lower Midwest, Appalachians and the South.
These results may seem unimpressive at first. Don’t the
history textbooks already tell similar stories? Most people
know that migration in the United States generally moved
from east to west, and that certain groups settled in and
migrated to certain places.
But before you declare these Migrations to be old news,
remember that this clustering of people is based solely on
genetics. These Acadians and Southerners declared them-
selves as such not by their surnames or their locations, but
by their DNA. That’s what landed them in these groups.
The addition of place tags from family trees came later, to
try to identify why this particular group of people were
so genetically connected. If you don’t know your family
origins—or even if you do, and you’re interested in finding
others who share your ancestry—Migrations can provide
that revelation.
BACK THROUGH HISTORY
Your first step to “joining” an AncestryDNA Migrations
group is take an AncestryDNA test ($79 plus taxes and ship-
ping; but you might be able to find a sale). Because Migra-
tions are based on your DNA, you don’t have to link a family
tree to your test to be placed in a Migration group. But linking
your tree will let you see which ancestors are the probable
links to your Migrations. From your AncestryDNA home
page, click Settings, go to Family Tree Linking, select a tree,
and identify yourself in that tree (or identify the DNA test
subject, if it’s not you). To find your DNA home page, log in
to Ancestry.com, click the DNA tab and choose Your DNA
Results Summary.
When AncestryDNA analyzes your test results, it auto-
matically assigns you to any of the 300-plus Migrations your
DNA says you should belong to. To find this information, go
20 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
to your AncestryDNA home page and click Discover Your
DNA Story. Here, you can explore both your Ethnicity Esti-
mate and Migrations groups (see the table on page 19 for the
differences between these two tools).
When it switched from “Genetic Communities” to “Migra-
tions,” Ancestry DNA also reorganized these pages to visually
blend information about ethnic origins with information
about your family’s Migrations. The initial view displays a
box on the left that lists both your ethnicity estimates and
your Migrations groups 1 . The map shows colored blobs
that indicate your ethnic origins (with solid white borders)
and your Migrations groups (bordered in dashed white
lines). If you don’t have any Migrations, be patient: As the
DNA results database grows and more results are analyzed,
new Migrations will gradually form. You’ll automatically be
added to any that apply to you.
Now, click on one of your Migrations blobs on the map or
the name of a Migrations group in the panel. The panel on
the left now displays the name of the group, an overview of its
history, and your ethnic origins that likely connect you to that
Migration 2. Note the i in a circle icon in the top right of this
panel. Click this to see a simplified report of how closely you
match this Migrations group. Your connection score will range
from Very Likely (95 percent accuracy) to Possible (20 to 40
percent accuracy).
Click Learn More to link to a page with information on the
science behind how you’re assigned to Migrations (at press
time, still called Genetic Communities on that part of the web-
site). If you scroll down in the panel, you can see how many of
your matches have the same Migrations. Click the number to
open a new browser tab with your match list, filtered to show
only those matches.
Next, look at the timeline boxes at the bottom of the
screen. These give you access to the story, in general, of
TIP: It’s possible that the ancestors shown in
your Migrations timeline aren’t your link to that
community. That’s because many genetically
distinct communities overlap in the same locations.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 1

your genetic ancestry over time. If you’re in any Migrations
groups, you’ll see a color-coded dot in the block representing
the time period during which your family tree (the one that’s
linked to your DNA test) first has the names of ancestors
whose birthplaces are associated with that group.
Click one of the Migrations timeline boxes, and the panel
on the left side of the page changes to give you historical
information on your ancestors’ Migrations during that time
period 3. (You may need to click the down arrow at the top
of the panel to expand it.)
The transparent colored blobs that show your estimated
ethnic origins are on this map, too, but more transpar-
ent. Focus on the blobs that are color-coded to match the
Migrations groups that apply to your family history during

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 21

the selected time period. These blobs show the locations of
your Migrations groups at the time, with bigger blobs rep-
resenting areas that have a higher population from that par-
ticular group. In image 3, for example, the blue blobs show
the origins of the Germany & the Midwestern United States
Migrations group, as well as the locations of the group in
America between 1700 and 1775. As the AncestryDNA col-
22 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y
3
lects and analyzes more information from test-takers, the
sizes and locations of the dots may change.
Click the name of a Migrations group in the panel, then
click any subheads to read about its history during that time
span 4. You’ll also see the names of your ancestors living
at the time who likely are associated with this group. Your
view of the map changes, too: Pointers with profile icons
2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 Using the map and timeline,
you can begin to piece together
information about your ancestors.

(or numbers, in the case of multiple ancestors) show you
birthplaces of those ancestors, taken from the family tree
that’s linked to your DNA test. Click the pointer to see their
names and basic information.
Finally, white dashed lines connecting the colored Migra-
tions blobs show general migration routes of the group.
Remember, these colored blobs and routes are based on data
from the family trees of test-takers whose DNA put them into
that Migrations group.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
We talked about how to link from the DNA Story area to
view your genetic matches who’ve been placed in the same
Migrations groups as you. Here’s another way to view those
matches without going through your DNA Story: Go to your
AncestryDNA home page and click the green View All DNA
Matches button. This shows all your DNA matches, from
closest to most distant. Next, in the filters bar, click Genetic
Communities (that was the label on this button at press time,

How Migrations Are Created

1 Migrations group people based on shared
parts of DNA called SNPs. To symbolize how
this is done, we’ve grouped a broad category
of items: Things you could purchase at
your favorite big-box retail store. Items you
can’t buy there—a car, a house, a tiger—are
1
excluded.
2 Let’s further divide our purchases into
three groups of closely related items: school
supplies, household goods and everything
else. Note that some purchased items may
fit into two groups. For example, you might
find pencils and books both at home and
school. Similarly, a given SNP might occur in
two Migrations groups, but we’ll choose the

2
best-fitting category for them.
3 Now, let’s subdivide our items into even
narrower groups: writing implements, books
and everything else. We could continue,
sorting pencils from pens, red pens from
blue, until no meaningful subdivisions
remain.
Once we have the smallest possible

3
grouping, we can pretend that pencils
and books have family trees, and note
birthplaces that most often occur in the
trees for each group. This lets us plot the
movement of each group over time.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 23
but look for it to change to become consistent with the new
Migrations moniker).
If you have multiple Migrations groups, you’ll be able to
choose one from a dropdown menu. Once you’ve done that,
your match list will adjust itself to show you only matches
who are in that Migration with you. This is a helpful way to
narrow down how you’re related to people: If your paternal
and maternal sides are from different places, just knowing
that a match is in, say, your New England Migrations group
instead of Tennessee could at least help you narrow down
how you’re related to that person.
If you have hundreds of matches who belong to the same
Migrations group, this might mean the group itself is fairly
broad. Another possibility is that you have multiple ancestors
from this area—a common situation, as immigrants form the
same areas tended to settle together and intermarry.
You used to be able to see common last names from the
family trees of your Migrations group members, but Ances-
tryDNA has done away with this feature.
Using a combination of the map and timeline views, you
can begin to piece together information about your ances-
tors. Let’s say you’ve exhausted all local research options
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
 DNA and your genealogy <familytreemagazine.com/articles/
genealogy_research_strategies/genealogy-research-tips/
episode78>
 Free e-book download: Which DNA Test Is Right for Me?
<familytreemagazine.com/freebie/which-dna-test-is-right-for-me>
 Genetic Communities first look <familytreemagazine.com/article/
genealogy-websites/ancestry/ancestrydna-genetic-communities-
first-look-my-moms-munster-irish-connections-2>
For Plus Members
 Genetic genealogy myths <familytreemagazine.com/premium/
dna-fact-or-science-fiction>
 Understanding ethnicity results <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/autosomal-dna-ethnicity-results>
 Using autosomal test results <familytreemagazine.com/premium/
autosomal-dna-genealogy>
ShopFamilyTree.com
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<familytreemagazine.com/store/all-about-ancestrydna-ondemand-
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store/family-tree-tutorial-ancestrydna-shared-matches>
 DNA and ethnicity web seminar download <familytreemagazine.
com/store/the-truth-about-dna-and-ethnicity>
24 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
looking for the parents of your ancestor Belinda Monroe,
who was born in Kansas City, Mo. Take a look at your Migra-
tions. Perhaps one is Early Settlers of the Lower Midwest
and Virginia. While this is a large area, you can see that
many of those who moved to the Kansas City area origi-
nally came from Kentucky, and before that, Virginia. Now
you have a possible migration route to follow in looking for
Belinda’s family.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Explore each Migrations group you’ve been assigned to,
especially those that show high confidence scores. I recom-
mend clicking through the timeline chronologically. During
each era, note the historical information about your family
Migrations, as well as the names of ancestors who are asso-
ciated with those migrations. Examine the map, which you
can zoom in and click on, and compare it to what you’ve
discovered through your research.
You don’t need an Ancestry.com subscription to view your
Migrations. If you click to view a match’s Ancestry Member
Tree, though, you’ll be prompted to subscribe. If you’ve had
parents or aunts and uncles test, ask to explore their Migra-
tions as well (they can share their DNA results with you
under the settings area of their AncestryDNA home page).
Because they’re closer to the migrating generation, they’ll
have stronger confidence scores and may be in Migrations
groups you’re not.
If you find your interest piqued, redouble your research
efforts relating to the ancestors who “qualify” you for each
Migrations group. Expand your reading about historical
migration patterns beyond the summaries Ancestry.com
provides. Use the AncestryDNA messaging system to contact
any close matches who also are assigned to your Migrations.
You could say something like “Looks like we’re both in the
Munster, Ireland, Migrations group. I’ve learned that means
we could share an ancestor from that region. Even if you
don’t know of any ancestors from there, maybe we could
work together to find them.”
Follow clues in migration patterns, in historical events,
and in DNA matches. You might test other relatives from
family branches that place you in Genetic Communities of
particular interest (or that didn’t lead to your assignment to a
Migrations group you expected you’d be in).
What you should definitely do is get excited. Migrations
herald a new era in family history, one that brings together
genetic and genealogical knowledge with increasingly pow-
erful and precise results. Tools like these, when well-under-
stood and carefully applied, can help you find your family’s
place in history and illuminate your ancestors’ lives. ■
As the force behind Your DNA Guide <www.yourdnaguide.
com>, Diahan Southard helps clients use DNA testing to
answer genealogical questions.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 Affordable NEW Digital Hearing Amplifier Will Save
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Search old newspapers for these three kinds of
articles unique to your African-American ancestors. graphs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-53045
Library of Congress Prints and Photo-

BY JAMES M. BEIDLER AND TIMOTHY N. PINNICK

 From the moment they were snatched
from their homeland to the auction block,
separation was a reality that confronted
millions of enslaved Africans.
3 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF many African-Americans
before the Civil War shut this group from legal personhood
and the records this status entails. That includes newspaper
mentions we’re accustomed to finding on white ancestors:
real estate transactions, probate notices, death announce-
ments, and others.
But mainstream newspapers didn’t entirely ignore those
who were enslaved—especially when they tried to get away.
And after the war, African-American-owned papers would
run touching pleas from freedmen seeking family members
who’d been sold away from them. Recognizing the histori-
cal significance of slavery, papers also sought to preserve
and share memories of those who’d been enslaved. It’s get-
ting easier for you to locate these news items, thanks to the
digitization of historical newspapers and projects to create
free databases of newspaper items that name these rarely
recorded people. We’ll show you what you could discover
about your African-American family tree and offer tips to
help you find it.
Fugitive slave ads
The first widespread mentions of African-Americans by
name in newspapers were the pre-Civil War fugitive slave or
“runaway” advertisements. Slaveholders would place these,
often offering rewards for the return of what they considered
to be valuable property. Historians estimate that upwards
of 100,000 of these advertisements appeared in newspa-
pers from the Colonial period through the end of the Civil
War. See an example on the next page. You’ll also find simi-
larly descriptive notices seeking slaveowners of captured
African-Americans.
To help readers recognize the escaped slave, ads would
offer loads of details about the individual: name (first only,
as enslaved people didn’t have legally recognized surnames),
age, height, build, complexion (“bright” indicating a person
of lighter skin) and markings (often the result of severe pun-
ishment). Further detail might include personal and family
history details, such as when and where the person was
During the Civil War, enslaved individuals like these men in
Baton Rouge, La., seized opportunities to escape to Union lines.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
bought or sold. Some ads venture a guess about where the
enslaved person might be headed and why. You’ll also see the
slaveholder’s name, which can help you follow your enslaved
ancestor back in time (learn about this process at <family
treemagazine.com/premium/african-american-slave-ancestors>).
This level of information contrasts with the anonymity
of enslaved individuals in other records: US censuses, for
example, merely count the enslaved.
You can find many of these ads in digitized newspapers using
keyword searches, such as fugitive, ran away or absconded,
plus the name of a person (the slave or the slaveowner) or
place. You also can narrow the time period to 1865 and earlier.
Ads might appear in states beyond the location of the run-
away’s home, so don’t narrow the geographic scope too much.
Try newspaper databases such as GenealogyBank <genealogy
bank.com>, Newspapers.com <newspapers.com> and the free
Chronicling America <chroniclingamerica.loc.gov>.
Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives From North
American Slavery <freedomonthemove.org> will make it easier
to locate runaway notices. Cornell University associate pro-
fessor of history Edward E. Baptist is leading the ambitious
project to compile, digitize and index fugitive slave ads in
North American newspapers.
Crowdsourcing efforts to build the database include class
assignments in which professors and students analyze ads,
as well as providing individuals and historical or genealogi-
cal societies with opportunities to participate. The process
involves correcting errors introduced by optical character
recognition technology in “reading” the ads. The project,
which received a National Endowment for the Humanities
grant in August, could lead to better knowledge of the routes
African-Americans used in their attempts at self-liberation.
TIP: When searching digitized newspaper
collections, remember that optical character
recognition software can keep good matches out of
your search results. Try using shorter search strings
and swapping often-confused characters.
<familytreemagazine.com> 27
 In the Nov. 7, 1835, New-Orleans Commercial Bulletin,
Lewis Bissell described a group of enslaved individuals
who absconded with a “base white man.”

The Concordia Intelligencer of Vidalia, La.,

regularly ran listings of recovered slaves
needing to be claimed. The one at left
appears in the March 3, 1854, edition.
 Historians estimate that upwards of 100,000
runaway slave advertisements appeared
in newspapers from the Colonial period
through the end of the Civil War.
The narratives drawn in the ads may serve to emphasize the
individual nature of each slave’s escape. Not all—perhaps
even a minority—adhere to the dominant narrative of escape
along the Underground Railroad.
Reflections on enslavement
Even before the Civil War, some abolitionist newspapers ran
autobiographies of formerly enslaved people. These narra-
tives became more popular after the war, mostly in the black-
owned press but sometimes in mainstream newspapers, too.
They related the personal reflections of people who had
persevered through the slavery era.
Joe Clovese, at 105 the last surviving African-American
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, recounted his
20-plus-year search for his mother to the Indianapolis Times
and Indianapolis News in 1949. A chance conversation with
another patron of the French Market in New Orleans had led
him to his mother’s home only a few blocks away.
Articles like those about Joe have been overshadowed
somewhat by the narratives and oral histories produced by
the Depression-era WPA Writers Project <loc.gov/collections/
slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/
about-this-collection>. Many of these newspaper autobiogra-
phies and narratives, though, were published closer to the
time of enslavement and therefore might be less subject to
faded memories. Search for these articles in the aforemen-
tioned newspapers websites with the person’s name.
Information wanted notices
But as compelling as antebellum ads for runaways and
postbellum reflections on slavery are, they pale before the
heartache of a third type of distinctly African-American
newspaper item: notices from people who sought family
members torn from them during slavery.
From the moment they were snatched from their homeland
to the auction block, separation was a reality that confronted
millions of enslaved Africans throughout their lives. Even
attempts to escape North or into the lines of advancing Union
armies continued the cycle of separation. War didn’t help their
situation: Perceptive slaveowners sold their chattel in advance
of the freedom they saw on the horizon. Others removed
African-Americans to distant locations they deemed safer.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Postwar chaos displaced people all over the South. This expe-
rience is detailed in Help Me to Find My People: The African
American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea
Williams (University of North Carolina Press).
The peace at Appomattox set the majority of newly freed
African-Americans into motion with the objective of find-
ing their families. Although not tasked with reunifying
families, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned
Lands (better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau) nonethe-
less received scores of requests for help. Surviving bureau
records include correspondence and transportation vouchers
for those in search of parents, spouses and children. But the
agency also slowed the reunification process by transporting
freedmen away from their communities to labor opportuni-
ties both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
It’s somewhat serendipitous that the African-American
press is the instrument though which many former slaves
found family. Generations of enslaved people were denied
the opportunity to learn how to read and write. Defying this
prohibition could lead to brutal consequences. The freed-
men’s pent-up desire for knowledge manifested itself in the
formation of newspapers. The Black Republican, Colored
Tennessean and South Carolina Leader came into existence
the year that hostilities ended, 1865. The New Orleans Loui-
sianan began semi-weekly publication in 1866 and the illus-
trated Indianapolis Freeman started in 1888.
According to the 1913 edition of the Negro Yearbook, 288
newspapers served a primarily black audience. Over the
whole of American history, the Library of Congress’ US
A mother, Katy Perry, searched for her son in the Dec. 28, 1865, Richmond
(Va.) Dispatch. In addition to details about 9-year-old John, another research
clue is the name of the woman to whom messages for Katy could be sent.
<familytreemagazine.com> 29

Newspaper Directory <chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/
titles> shows more than 2,000 entries for African-American
papers. Read more about these papers in The Negro Press in
the United States by Frederick G. Detweiler (free at <catalog.
hathitrust.org/Record/008584563>).
The Christian Recorder was the official newspaper of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church. It gained fame during
the Civil War for publishing the letters of soldiers who were
serving with the US Colored Troops. Postwar, the paper
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
 Keys to success for African-American research
<familytreemagazine.com/articles/genealogy-websites/free-
genealogy-databases/6-keys-to-success-for-african-american-
genealogy-research>
 Trace Your African-American Ancestry e-book download
<familytreemagazine.com/freebie/25-genealogy-search-
strategies-to-trace-your-african-american-ancestry/>
 Tips to find family in old newspapers <familytreemagazine.com/
articles/genealogy_records/newspapers/find-your-family-in-old-
newspapers>
Premium Members
 Tracing enslaved ancestors <familytreemagazine.com/premium/
african-american-slave-ancestors>
 Searching newspapers with Elephind.com <familytreemagazine.
com/premium/searching-newspapers-elephind>
 Finding Southerners after the Civil War <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/following-southerners-who-left>
Family Tree Shop
 Newspapers Cheat Sheet <familytreemagazine.com/store/
newspapers-cheat-sheet>
 Researching African-American newspapers <familytreemagazine.
com/store/african-american-genealogy-guide-using-black-
newspapers>
 African-American Genealogy Research Essentials web seminar
<familytreemagazine.com/store/african-american-genealogy-
research-essentials>
30 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
The March 24, 1866, American Citizen (Canton, Miss.) carried Sicily’s ad
for information on her mother’s whereabouts. Like many freedmen, she
maintained ties—at least temporarily—to her former slaveowner.
published inquiries from these soldiers and others who
were looking for families. Notices were generally shorter
than 100 words, and typically named both the relatives and
a slaveowner. This example appears on page 4 of the Aug. 3,
1899 edition:
Information wanted of Moses Marlow or Howard, who
belonged to John Howard in Leflore county, near Smith
Mill, and about nine miles from Greenwood, Miss. His
mother was Ersia Howard. His father was Matthew
Howard. His mother had three sisters: Jane Pierson, Silva
House, Clarenda Miller, and two brothers: Louis Moore and
Robert Moore. Mrs. Clarenda Miller is the mother of the
writer, Ersia Jurault, of Whaley, Miss. Ministers at Vicks-
burg please read to congregations.
Notices also often specify locations, and might even state
when and to whom slaves were sold. Judith Giesberg, pro-
fessor and director of the graduate program in history at
Villanova University, is working with Mother Bethel AME
Church in Philadelphia to digitize and transcribe the Chris-
tian Recorder advertisements. The site, Last Seen: Finding
Family After Slavery <informationwanted.org/about>, has more
than 1,500 entries so far and now includes other newspapers,
too. You can browse by newspaper or search transcribed
information using the search box on the left. Look on digi-
tized newspapers websites, too, searching for names and
other terms associated with your relatives. Try including
the phrase “information wanted,” which appears in many of
these ads.
Most newspapers charged for the ads, but the Herald of
Kansas, published in Topeka, is an exception. Its Informa-
tion Wanted section states “Notices under this heading, not
exceeding ten lines, will be published free of charge.”
No one knows how many such advertisements resulted
in reunions. In the 1890s, when the Indianapolis Freeman
printed ads in a column titled “A Searcher Locaters Place
USA: Lost Relatives,” it stated that, “The Freeman goes to all
parts of the world and has been the means of bringing hun-
dreds of Lost Relatives and friends together.” A search of the
newspaper turns up only a few success stories reported on.
The Last Seen website and other sources also reveal a scat-
tering of triumphs.
Writer Dionne Ford’s great-great-grandmother Tempy
Burton placed an ad in the June 4, 1891, Southwestern
Christian Advocate. She sought her mother, siblings and
aunts. Just over a month later, Tempy again wrote the
paper, joyfully reporting that she’d found her sister. Ford
shares the story on her blog at <dionneford.com/treasure-
chest-thursday-another-enslaved-ancestor-found>.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 The 5-4-3-2-1 on African-American Newspapers

ONE weekly issue A Tale of TWO Newspapers

Most African-American papers
published on a weekly, not daily
schedule. The first outlier was the
New Orleans Tribune, which moved
from a triweekly to a daily in 1864.
Indianapolis has been home to two well-known African-American newspapers, the
Freeman and the Recorder; the latter is still in operation today. Despite their common
hometown, their approaches to out-of-town news were distinct. The Freeman prided
itself on covering the social news of cities in as many states as possible, whereas
the Recorder stayed centered on communities within Indiana.

THREE large collections FOUR essential websites to learn FIVE popular

of digitized African-
American newspapers
1. GenealogyBank <www.
genealogybank.com/static/
african-american-heritage.
html> (by subscription)
2. Chronicling America
<chroniclingamerica.loc.gov>:
Search 65 African-American
papers for free, and use the US
Newspapers Directory to locate
more papers in libraries.
3. ProQuest Historical
Newspapers—Black
Newspapers (available through
major research libraries)
about African-American newspapers African-American
1. The Ancestor Hunt <www.theancestorhunt.com/ newspapers you
newspaper-research-links.html>: Look under Special US should research
Collections. 1. Pittsburgh Courier
2. Newspapers at University of Georgia Libraries 2. Chicago Defender
<guides.libs.uga.edu/newspapers>: Download
an expansive, chronological listing of the library’s 3. Freeman (Indianapolis,
microfilmed African-American newspapers and get Ind.)
research tips. 4. Norfolk Journal and
3. African American Newspapers in Genealogical Guide (Virginia)
Research video <www.youtube.com/watch?v= 5. Cleveland Gazette
g2VVEgdLKFQ>: Watch Timothy N. Pinnick’s talk at
the Kalamazoo Public Library.
4. Black Press Resource Collective <blackpress
researchcollective.org/resources/scholarship-archives>:
Read articles on African-American newspapers and find
out about holdings accessible online and at universities.

The ads were also a common way to search for relatives
who became separated after the war. Ellen Tate, a wife,
mother and AME church member, placed a notice in the
Information Wanted column of the March 26, 1887, Cleveland
Gazette. She sought her 28-year-old son:
Any information of the whereabouts of Fred Tate, who left
his home in Zanesville, O., May, 1884, will be thankfully
received by his mother, Mrs. Ellen Tate, No. 109 Muskingum
avenue, Zanesville, Ohio.
You’ll find that African-American newspapers often had
a larger geographic reach than mainstream papers. Publish-
ers were keenly aware that much of their audience had kin
in other areas, and therefore focused more of their “out-of-
town” news on the places from which their closer geographic
base had migrated. As with most genealogical research, the
newspaper notices we’ve described can be helpful even if
they don’t name your ancestors. An ad for a runaway from
the same plantation as your ancestor, for example, might
give clues about your relative’s conditions of enslavement. A
distant relative’s reunion ad might mention other family you
weren’t aware of.
After centuries of separation and dislocation, the increase
in digitized newspapers and emerging databases of advertise-
ments are expanding the access and reducing the difficulties
in finding these distinctive references to African-Americans.
It’s all resulting in new ways for researchers to discover fam-
ily and overcome the genealogical barriers of slavery. ■
James M. Beidler is the author of the new book The Fam-
ily Tree Historical Newspapers Guide <familytreemagazine.com/
store/historical-newspapers-guide>. Timothy N. Pinnick
is author of the book Finding and Using African American
Newspapers <blackcoalminerheritage.net/aanewspaper_book>.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 31

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 STATE GUIDE
DELAWARE
BY ALLISON DOLAN

3 IF DELAWARE HAD a cartoon alter ego, it would be Swedes, capturing Fort Christina in 1655. Then the Dutch
Speedy Gonzales. This miniature state—larger only than found themselves fending off England—which overtook
Rhode Island—has made its mark on American history by Delaware for good in 1674.
leaving bigger banditos in its dust. Eight years later, the Duke of York transferred Delaware
For starters, Delaware raced past the 12 other colonies to to William Penn, who also was the proprietor of the new
ratify the Constitution, resulting in its status as the first US Quaker colony next door. Though it got its own assembly in
state. More firsts followed, including the first automated 1704, for nine decades Delaware remained under Pennsylva-
flour-milling system, the first regularly scheduled steam nia’s jurisdiction as the three “Lower Counties” (with Mary-
railroad and the first divided highway (the DuPont Highway, land claiming southern and western Delaware from 1684 to
widened in 1933). 1736). The Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania
Delaware also has zoomed ahead of other states in recent declared Delaware’s independence in 1776, then pledged its
years in digitizing its genealogical records. The Delaware allegiance to the United States.
Public Archives (DPA) < a rc h i ve s .
delaware.gov> (click on Digital Archives) Land records
boasts indexes and record images that FAST FACTS Early land grants in what’s now Dela-
will speed your research. ware were made in New York from 1664
 Statehood: 1787
Want to follow in your First State until 1682, then Pennsylvania until 1776.
ancestors’ footsteps? Here’s how to get  First mostly extant federal The Delaware State Archives has micro-
census: 1800
your research off to a running start. film of the Pennsylvania grants.
 Statewide birth and death Today, Delaware has three counties:
Early history records begin: 161 to 1863; New Castle, created in 1673, is the only
resumed in 1881
Dutch colonists staked out Delaware’s original county. Kent County, estab-
first European settlement in 1631, at  Statewide marriage records lished in 1682, began as the Horrekill
modern- day Lewes. Their outpost begin: 1847 District (1664 to 1680), followed by a
didn’t last long, though: The next year,  State-land state two-year stint as St. Jones County. Sus-
the entire group of 32 perished in a sex County was also formed in 1682,
 Original counties: Deale,
scuffle with the local Lenape Indians New Castle, St. Jones from Durham County, Md., and Deale
(also called the Delaware). County, Del. County courts house deeds
The settlers’ Swedish counterparts  Contact for vital records: recording land transactions between
Office of Vital Statistics, Jesse S.
fared better. In 1638, Swedes established private parties, and there’s an unin-
Cooper Building, Federal and Water
Fort Christina (now Wilmington) and dexed collection of Delaware county
streets, Dover, DE 19901, (302)
dubbed their colony New Sweden. But land records on subscription site Ances-
744-4549, <dhss.delaware.gov/
the Dutch hadn’t yet given up on Dela- try.com <ancestry.com>
dph/ss/vitalstats.html>
ware. Settlers from New Netherland Many Delaware locales adopted new
(what’s now New York) challenged the monikers over the years. For a list of

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com>
 DELAWARE

Arden
Hockessin
Wilmington Bellefonte
Pike Creek Elsmere
Newark New Castle
Brookside

Delaware City

R.
w a re
New Castle

Dela
Middletown

Townsend

Smyrna
Clayton

Kenton Leipsic

Hartly Dover
TIP: The Society of Friends,
Camden
or Quakers, was one of
Delaware’s biggest religious Kent Woodside Bowers
denominations. Two resources
you’ll want to consult are Felton Frederica
Ancestry.com’s collection
Quaker Meeting Records,
1681-1935 and the 1921 book Harrington
Delaware Quaker Records: Milford
Farmington
Early Members of Wilmington
Meeting by Herbert Standing,
digitized free at Internet Greenwood Ellendale
Archive <archive.org>. Find Milton Lewes
Bridgeville
records of nearly 100 churches Sussex
of several denominations Rehoboth Beach
transcribed on microfilm at the Georgetown
Seaford
Delaware Public Archives.

Bethel Millsboro

Laurel Dagsboro
Bethany Beach

Delmar Selbyville Fenwick Island

t im eli n e
1610 1632 1638 1655 1664 1682
Samuel Argall names American Indians Swedes establish Delaware is part England seizes Pennsylvania
Cape De La Warr wipe out the Fort Christina and of Dutch New Delaware; Duke of annexes Delaware
(now Henlopen) Dutch settlement build America’s first Amsterdam York becomes the
after Virginia’s first Zwaanendael (Swan log cabins proprietary authority
colonial governor Valley)

Family Tree Magazine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

 DELAWARE

place-name changes, go to <newrivernotes.com/de/deplace. Peninsula families. The DPA owns the collection and has
htm>. Name changes also appear in the Delaware Genealogical posted portions at <archives.delaware.gov/exhibits/document/
Society’s Delaware Genealogical Research Guide (see the Tool- turner/toc.shtml>.
kit for publication details).  The Delaware Genealogical Society <delgensoc.org>
If you don’t live in Delaware, you’ll need a crash course has compiled a list of available family genealogies and
in “hundreds.” This Colonial tax-districting system is now journal articles; it’s available online to society members.
unique to Delaware. Roughly equivalent to a township, a Also check J. Thomas Scharf ’s History of Delaware, 1609-
hundred likely represented an area occupied by 100 fami- 1888, generally considered the best chronicle of the state’s
lies, although some sources say it referred to 100 people history. The Historical Society of Delaware published an
or 100 soldiers. Delaware’s 33 present-day hundreds index to it, and you can search the book for free online at
haven’t changed borders since 1897, Internet Archive <archive.org>.
and many bear the same names as cit-
ies. The Delaware Geological Survey has Census records
posted historical maps of hundreds at A “hundred,” roughly Despite its “first state” status, Dela-
<dgs.udel.edu/delaware-1868-hundreds- ware’s federal census records don’t
maps>. Scanned from the 1869 Pomeroy equivalent to a date back to the initial US head count.
and Beers Atlas, they show property Fire destroyed the 1790 enumeration of
ownership, churches and businesses. township, is a division Delaware. But Leon de Valinger’s book
Tax assessment records are arranged by Reconstructed 1790 Census of Dela-
hundreds at the DPA. They’re available in a Colonial tax- ware (National Genealogical Society),
on microfilm and in published indexes; compiled from tax lists, can serve as a
find a guide on the University of Dela- districting system substitute.
ware Libraries website <guides.lib.udel. You can search Delaware enumera-
edu/c.php?g=85348&p=548475>. that’s now unique tions from 1800 to 1930 (except 1890,
Don’t forget migrations. Delaware is which also was destroyed by fire) on sub-
situated on the Delmarva Peninsula, to Delaware. scription sites Ancestry.com, Findmypast
so named because it also encompasses <www.findmypast.com> and MyHeritage
parts of Maryland and Virginia. Some <www.myheritage.com> , or on the free
families moved multiple times within FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>.
the peninsula, irrespective of state or
colonial borders. Check surrounding Vital records
areas (and states) in case your ancestors Statewide vital record-keeping began
wandered down the coast, ventured inland or simply hopped in 1913. Before that, each county’s recorder of deeds was to
over to the opposite shore of the Delaware River. register births, marriages and deaths, and forward copies to
the state board of health. Delaware law makes birth records
Family histories private for 72 years after they’re created, and marriage and
To get a jump on your genealogy, take advantage of previously death records for 40 years. Children can request their par-
compiled, rich research on Delaware families. For example: ents’ more-recent records (photo ID required).
 The Delaware Historical Society (DHS) <dehistory.org> The DPA holds all publicly available vital records, includ-
maintains a Genealogical Surname File with 120,000-plus ing a sizable collection covering 1880 to 1913. See details
names from the society’s record holdings. This includes at <archives.delaware.gov/collections/vital.shtml>. For earlier
unpublished notes on Delaware families. births, deaths and marriages, check other records at the DPA
 The Rev. Joseph Brown Turner Collection, compiled or DHS: Both institutions hold vital stats compiled from
between 1900 and 1935, consists of notes on 3,000 Delmarva church records, family Bibles, newspapers and other sources.

1783 1787 1829 1832 1901 1924

Oliver Evans invents Delaware becomes Chesapeake and New Castle and Delaware’s Eldridge Delaware’s first
automated flour- first US state Delaware Canal Frenchtown Turnpike Johnson founds paved road, the
milling machinery opens and Rail Road links the Victor Talking DuPont Highway,
Chesapeake Bay and Machine Co. is completed
Delaware River

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com>
 DELAWARE

TOOLKIT Contact the Office of Vital Statistics for more-recent records.

You’ll find indexes and digitized records on FamilySearch for
Websites Delaware births as early as 1710; marriages from 1713; and
 Delaware Resources at RootsWeb deaths and burials dating to 1815.
<resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/usa/DE>
 Delaware Roots <delawareroots.org> Military records
With Delaware’s long legacy of power struggles, there’s a
 Delaware USGenWeb Project <theusgenweb.org/de>
good chance your ancestors participated in—or witnessed—
 A History of African-Americans of Delaware and military action. Despite the state’s small size, more than
Maryland’s Eastern Shore <udel.edu/BlackHistory> 4,000 men fought for independence in the Revolution. A bor-
der state during the Civil War, Delaware had a legacy of slav-
Publications ery but remained in the Union. The state sent about 12,000
 Colonial Families of Delaware, six volumes, soldiers to the Union cause; 2,000 residents joined the Con-
by F. Edward Wright (Willow Bend Books) federate army. They’re named in the Civil War Soldiers and
 Delaware Genealogical Research Guide, 3rd ed. edited Sailors Database <www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm>.
by Thomas P. Doherty (Delaware Genealogical Society) The DHS holds state military records from the Colonial
 Maryland and Delaware Genealogies and Family era through World War I. Consult the DPA’s online guides to
Histories by Donald Odell Virdin (Heritage Books) both Revolutionary and Civil War records (access both from
 Reconstructed 1790 Census of Delaware by Leon <archives.delaware.gov/collections/public.shtml>). You can view
de Valinger (National Genealogical Society) a selection of the DPA’s Civil War collection in the website’s
Digital Archives.
Archives & Organizations The National Archives and Records Administration holds
federal military service and pension records <archives.gov/
 Delaware Genealogical Society
research/military>, some of which are online at Ancestry.com,
505 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19801,
subscription site Fold3 <fold3.com> and FamilySearch.
<delgensoc.org>
 Delaware Historical Society More records to research
505 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19801, The DPA website also hosts indexes to probate records
(302) 655-7161, <dehistory.org> (1680 to 1925) from the state, as well as and nearly 10,000
 Delaware Public Archives naturalization records for all three counties <archives.
121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Dover, DE 19901, delaware.gov/checklists>. You can find many county natural-
(302) 744-5000, <archives.delaware.gov> ization records digitized (but not yet searchable by name)
 Diocese of Wilmington Archives (Roman Catholic) and free on FamilySearch. The state also published directo-
Box 2030, Wilmington, DE 19899, (302) ries of residents, arranged by town, a few times between 1859
655-0597, <cdow.org/archives.html> and 1895. Wilmington had a directory as early as 1814, and
 Edward H. Nabb Research Center Delmarva Peninsula towns had their own directories in the
for Delmarva History & Culture late 1800s. Look for these at the DHS, University of Delaware
Salisbury University, 1101 Camden Ave, Salisbury, MD Library and on Ancestry.com.
21801, (410) 543-6312, <salisbury.edu/nabb> For African-American ancestors who were enslaved in
 Fort Delaware Society Delaware, explore the DPA’s collection of petitions for free-
2711 Staff Lane, Box 553, Delaware City, DE 19706, dom, manumissions, court records and deeds. Find informa-
(302) 834-1630, <fortdelaware.org> tion about tracing African-American roots in the First State
at <archives.delaware.gov/aahm/genealogy/index.shtml>.
 Hagley Museum & Library
If your Delaware roots reach back before statehood, you’ll
298 Buck Road, Wilmington, DE 19807,
discover that the colony’s varied social and political land-
(302) 658-2400, <hagley.org/research>
scape produced a bounty of records. Of course, this complex
 Jewish Historical Society of Delaware history also presents genealogical challenges: Your family’s
505 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19801, records might be in Pennsylvania, Maryland or New York—or
(302) 655-6232, <jhsdelaware.org> even Sweden, the Netherlands or England. Luckily, the DHS’s
 University of Delaware Library printed sources cover some of those early records. So don’t
181 S. College Ave., Newark, DE 19717, get too discouraged if your research doesn’t progress at a pace
(302) 564-7895, <library.udel.edu> befitting Delaware’s cartoon counterpart. You still can come
out ahead—just like your clan’s tiny home state. 

Family Tree Magazine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

 STATE GUIDE
UTAH
B Y M A U R E E N A . TAY L O R

3 EACH YEAR, THOUSANDS of family historians make a not only what’s now Utah. It also included parts of what
beeline for Utah—home to the world’s largest genealogical became California, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Ari-
resource, the Family History Library (FHL) <www.family zona and New Mexico. Congress designated the region Utah
search.org>. This five-story Salt Lake City landmark maintains Territory in 1850. Utah became the 45th US state in 1896.
a massive collection of records from more than 100 countries,
and you can access it all for free. Though the FHL (deserv- Religious records
edly) gets much of the Beehive State’s genealogical buzz, Utah The state’s early history is intertwined with the history of the
hosts an entire colony of family history resources and reposi- LDS church. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund Co. provided
tories, including the state archives and historical society’s financial aid to converts from Illinois, New York, Ohio, Penn-
research center, the Brigham Young University’s (BYU) Fam- sylvania, Great Britain and Scandinavia so they could relocate
ily History Library, and the Church History Library (CHL). to Utah. Between 1847 and 1854, 22,000 European Mor-
See the Toolkit box for contact informa- mons flocked to Utah, and the territory’s
tion for these archives. If you have Utah population rose rapidly into the 1890s.
FAST FACTS
ancestors, our pointers will get your Both the FHL and CHL have Perpetual
research off to a flying start.  Statehood: 1896 Emigration Fund records and emigra-
tion records kept by European mission
Early history  First federal census: 1850 offices. Learn more about LDS church
(actually taken in 1851)
As in other Western states, Utah’s abun- records at <familytreemagazine.com/
dant natural resources attracted settlers.  Available state censuses: 1856, premium/tracing-mormon-ancestors>.
Fur trappers trekked there to capture 1872 (the latter is primarily Although Mormonism was—and still
the region’s plentiful wildlife, prospec- statistical) is—Utah’s dominant religion, people
tors came to mine its precious met- of other faiths settled there during the
als, and wagonloads of pioneers passed
 Statewide birth and death California Gold Rush and the Mexican
records begin: 1905
through on the journey west. War. In the late 19th century, European
Some pioneers stayed, of course—most  Statewide marriage records immigrants of various religious back-
begin: 1887
notably, the Latter-day Saints (members grounds sought employment in Utah’s
of the LDS church, also called Mor-  Public-land state mines, railroads and farms. Search for
mons), whose prophet-leader Brigham  Counties: 7 in 1850; 23 today Lutheran, Presbyterian and Method-
Young led them to the Salt Lake Valley ist records in local parishes and reli-
in 1847. Many of these pioneers are well-  Contact for vital records: Utah gious archives. Look for Roman Catholic
documented; start researching them in Department of Health, Office of church records in the diocesan archives
the Utah overland pioneer database on Vital Records, Box 141012, Salt Lake (see the Toolkit for contact information).
FamilySearch. City, UT 84114, (801) 538-6105, For details about the state’s religious
By the next year, the Mormons’ pro- <vitalrecords.utah.gov> records, consult the WPA-produced
visional state, called Deseret, comprised Inventory of the Church Archives of Utah

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com>
 UTAH

Logan

Cache
Brigham City
Box Elder Rich
North Ogden
Weber
Roy
Ogden
Clinton South Ogden Morgan
Clearfield
Great Salt L. Layton Kaysville
Farmington
Davis Centerville Summit
Bountiful Daggett
Salt Lake City Salt Lake
West Valley City Murray
West Jordan Midvale
South Jordan Sandy
Tooele Riverton Draper Wasatch
Tooele Lehi
Pleasant Grove R.
American Fork een
Gr
Orem
Utah L. Provo
Springville
Spanish Fork
Payson
Utah Duchesne
White R
.

Juab Uintah
Carbon

Sanpete
Millard Grand
Green R.
Emery
Sevier
.
oR
lorad
Co

Beaver Wayne
Piute Res. Piute

Iron Garfield

Cedar City San Juan

San Juan R.
Washington Kane
Saint George L. Powell

t im eli n e
1776 1821 1824 1847 1848 1850
Friars Silvestre Velez Mexico wins Explorer Jim Bridger Brigham Young and Utah becomes part US Senate passes a
de Escalante and independence from encounters the Great his followers settle in of the United States bill to organize Utah
Francisco Atanasio Spain and acquires Salt Lake, believing the Salt Lake Valley after the Mexican Territory
Dominquez explore Utah it to be part of the War
Utah Pacific Ocean

Family Tree Magazine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

 UTAH

(Utah Historical Records Survey), available in book form at of everyone in a household. You can search federal census
the FHL and online at HathiTrust <hathitrust.org>. records on major genealogy websites, including Family-
Search, and subscription websites on Ancestry.com <ancestry.
Vital records com>, Findmypast <www.findmypast.com> and MyHeritage
Polygamous marriages were an official part of Mormon life <www.myheritage.com>.
between 1852 and 1890, although only a small percentage of Before the real deal happened, Utah’s repeated bids for
followers actually followed the practice. Prior to 1887, only the statehood resulted in several territorial censuses. Two
church documented religious marriage ceremonies, which have been preserved: The 1856 census, available on FHL
when performed in a Mormon Temple are called sealings. microfilm, names all members of Utah households. Dupli-
Research sealings and other early Utah weddings at the FHL cate entries and inaccuracies, such as names of some LDS
and CHL. Congress’ Edmunds-Tucker church members not yet living in Utah,
Act of 1887 outlawed polygamy and estab- diminish its usefulness. That census is
lished procedures for the civil registra- indexed, along with an 1859 tax list, in
tion of marriages at the territorial level. Although Mormonism Ancestry.com’s database Utah, Com-
Find these records at the state archives’ piled Census and Census Substitutes
research center or the presiding county was—and still is— Index, 1850-1890. An 1872 territorial
clerk’s office. The Western States Mar- census is primarily statistical: Records
riage Records Index <abish.byui.edu/spe- Utah’s dominant for most counties say only how many
cialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm> people resided in each household. Find
includes unions from Utah. religion, people of other this census at the CHL in Salt Lake City.
Although some counties began keep-
ing birth and death records as early as faiths settled there Court records
1898, the state didn’t require civil regis- Several types of courts might have cre-
tration until 1905—and full compliance during the California ated documents about your Utah kin:
didn’t happen right away. Use the FHL ecclesiastical, provisional, territorial,
catalog <www.familysearch.org /catalog. Gold Rush and the state and federal. Where you’ll find
search> to find early death records on these records depends on when and
microfilm. The free FamilySearch hosts Mexican War. where they were created. The state
indexes to Utah births (1892-1941), mar- archives keeps state district court docu-
riages (1887-1937) and deaths (1888- ments, along with some local probate
1946). It has indexed images of Salt court records including estate settle-
Lake City births (1890-1915) and deaths ments, adoptions (which are sealed for
(1908-1949), as well as Utah death cer- 100 years), guardianships and name
tificates (1904-1964). You can search changes. But some 19th-century legal
or browse publicly available birth and papers remain in local courts. Various
death records from various Utah counties at the Utah State counties’ probate records are digitized (but not yet search-
Digital Archives <archives.utah.gov/digital>. For deaths before able) at FamilySearch. You can find links for researching
1905, try searching the Utah Cemeteries and Burials Data- records from courts around Utah at <openrecords.utah.gov>.
base <heritage.utah.gov/history/cemeteries>, an ongoing project Ecclesiastical courts, also known as bishops’ courts, which
of the state historical society. were operated by the LDS church. They handled many civil
and criminal cases until 1890, and later in come communities.
Census records Look for records at the CHL and consult Zion in the Courts by
The US government first enumerated Utah Territory in Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard C. Mangrum (University
the 1850 federal census—the first census to include names of Illinois Press) for information.

1854 1863 1887 1919 1981 2002

Grasshopper Construction begins Congress denies Zion National Park is Robert Redford Salt Lake City hosts
plagues endanger on the Mormon Utah women the established introduces the the Winter Olympics
crops Tabernacle in Salt right to vote (they Sundance Film
Lake City regain it when Utah Festival in Park City
becomes a state)

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com>
 UTAH

TOOLKIT Land records

The LDS church initially handled land distribution in the
Websites Beehive State; you may find deeds from this era at the CHL.
 Cyndi’s List: Utah <cyndislist.com/us/ut> Federal land surveys began in 1855, but the actual transfer
 Public Pioneer: Utah State Library of public lands in Utah didn’t begin until 1869. Records
<onlinelibrary.utah.gov> of those transfers are at the Utah office of the Bureau of
 Utah Digital Newspapers <digitalnewspapers.org> Land Management or at the National Archives and Records
 Utah GenWeb Project <rootsweb.ancestry. Administration’s (NARA) Rocky Mountain Region facil-
com/~utgenweb> ity in Denver (see the Toolkit, left). You can search land
 Utah State Digital Archives <archives.utah.gov/digital> patents online at the BLM’s General Land Office website
 Western States Historical Marriage Record Index <glorecords.blm.gov>.
<abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/ The Utah state archives research center holds more than
westernStates/search.cfm> 30,000 old maps. They include the 1878 Froiseth’s New
Sectional and Mineral Map, which can help you locate a
Publications now-defunct territorial town. (Find an 1898 version of this
 Utah Place Names by John Van Cott map at <archive.org/details/froisethsnewsect00wbwa>.) The
(University of Utah Press) state archives also has partial plat maps, which show land
 Utah’s History edited by Richard D. Poll ownership, as well as old Sanborn fire-insurance maps for
(Utah State University Press) 75 Utah communities.

Archives & Organizations Military records

 Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office Military records for territorial Utah begin with the Mexican
440 W. 200 S., Suite 500, Salt Lake City, UT War (1846-1848), when men from the area answered Presi-
84101, (801) 539-4001, <blm.gov/ut> dent James K. Polk’s call for volunteers. About 550 Mormon
 Brigham Young University Family History Library men, seeking federal assistance as they fled Illinois for Utah,
Harold B. Lee Library, 4th Floor, Provo, UT 84602, served in the Mormon Battalion. Another group assisted dur-
(801) 422-6200, <sites.lib.byu.edu/familyhistory> ing the 1832 Black Hawk War. You can browse Indian War
 Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City records in the Utah State Digital Archives at <archives.utah.
27 C St., Salt Lake City, UT 84103, gov/digital/2217.htm>.
(801) 328-8641, <dioslc.org> The Civil War happened 30 years before Utah statehood,
 Family History Library so fewer than 1,000 men from Utah Territory served. You
35 N. West Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT 84150, can find their names in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors
(866) 406-1830, <www.familysearch.org> Database <www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.
 J. Willard Marriott Library htm>. Likewise, a limited number of Utahans fought in the
University of Utah, 295 S. 1500 E., Salt Lake City, 1898 Spanish-American War. World War I was the first
UT 84112, (801) 581-8558, <lib.utah.edu> military campaign to call up thousands of servicemen from
 LDS Church History Library and Church Archives the state.
15 E. North Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT Records of the Utah militia are at the state archives; find
84150, (801) 240-2745, <history.lds.org>
a guide to those materials at <archives.utah.gov/research> .
 National Archives at Denver Pre-1917 federal service records are at NARA’s headquarters
17101 Huron St., Broomfield, CO 80023,
in Washington, DC. Later records, available only to veterans
(303) 604-4740, <archives.gov/denver>
or their immediate family, are in custody of the National
 Research Center for Utah State Archives
Personnel Records Center in St. Louis <archives.gov/st-louis/
346 S. Rio Grande St., Salt Lake City, UT 84101,
(801) 533-3848, <archives.utah.gov> military-personnel>. See <archives.gov/research/military> to
 Salt Lake Valley Health Department Bureau of Vital learn more about researching US military records at NARA.
Records 2001 S. State St., Suite S2-600, Salt Lake City, You’ll find some service records from the Civil War and some
UT 84190, (385) 468-4100, <slco.org> other wars digitized on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch or sub-
 Utah Genealogical Association scription website Fold3 <fold3.com>.
Box 1144, Salt Lake City, UT 84110, Like bees returning to the hive, genealogists will keep
(801) 259-4172, <ugagenealogy.org> swarming Utah’s stellar research facilities—no matter where
their roots lie. But for Utah residents and descendants, the
state’s legacy of preserving and promoting family history is
especially sweet. 

Family Tree Magazine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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 SOCIAL WORK Sites like Facebook and Pinterest give you
unprecedented access to people and ideas. Our
social media expert helps you leverage that power
of connection for your genealogy research.

B Y R A C H E L F O U N TA I N

I shared my I got answers!

I found a great-grandparents’
third cousin. census record.

filadendron/Getty Images
 3 LOVE IT OR hate it (or both), social media sites like Real-Life Social Media Successes
Facebook <www.facebook.com> and Twitter <www.twitter.
com> have established themselves as important parts of our Yes, you can use Facebook and other social media websites to
culture and daily routines. Around 70 percent of Americans find ancestors—as these Family Tree Magazine followers attest:
used social media in 2017, which amounts to around 26 mil-
lion people.
So chances are you’re already on at least one of today’s I only signed up for Facebook last summer to
popular social media sites. And if you’re not using it as part locate a cousin. Now we have a relationship! It’s
of your genealogy search, you really should be. What other been a wonderful experience reconnecting with
tool gives you such broad access to other people—for free, we family. » Barbara Brazeal Collins
might add? The potential for leveraging the power of social
media to make genealogical discoveries is huge. We’ll show
you the best ways to use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest <www. I’ve liked Facebook pages of state and county historical
pinterest.com> and Instagram <www.instagram.com> for your and genealogical societies where my ancestors lived. Most
genealogy research. are a long way from me and I find the people so helpful. I
also belong to lineage society Facebook pages, and I find
Facebook Facebook a great way to get an answer to a question almost
This social media giant boasts the largest following, by far: immediately. » Becky Babbit Feaster
More than half of Americans who use social media are on
Facebook. This platform provides not only the potential to
reach lots of people, but it also gives you versatility. You can
I found a woman’s post from 2004 on RootsWeb <rootsweb.
share posts, obviously, but also photos, albums, videos, links,
ancestry.com> about a trunk she had that was filled with
and even blogs. Here are some easy ways you can do geneal-
papers from my great-great-grandfather. I searched for her
ogy on Facebook:
everywhere with no luck. I found her on Facebook and after
 LIKE AND FOLLOW PAGES: Facebook Pages are profiles
two years she responded. » Elana Parker
created by a business, organization, cause or public figure.
Major genealogy companies such as Ancestry.com <www.
facebook.com/AncestryUS> , Findmypast <www.facebook.
com/findmypastus> and MyHeritage <www.facebook.com/my Groups! I’m in several Facebook genealogy groups
heritage> share news, new products, search tips and sales on such as DNA Detectives, Random Acts of Genealogical
their Facebook Pages. Follow companies you patronize (or Kindness and Free Obituary Lookups. I’m even part of
are considering patronizing) to keep up-to-date on the com- family groups who all descend from one person, like
pany and engage in discussions with other customers. Like Descendants of Ebenezer Fairchild. I also follow several
the pages of libraries, museums and genealogical societies pages including Twisted Twigs On Gnarled Branches
focused on the places and topics you research. Genealogy, Federation of Genealogical Societies and
To like a page, type a name or phrase, such as Chase County Ancestral Findings. » Kasey Winter
Kansas, Ancestry.com or Illinois Civil War, into the search
box at the top of the page. Then you can either select from
the type-ahead options in the dropdown menu that appears,
or just hit Return to see all search results. If you don’t see Social media is a great way to stay motivated in your
what you’re looking for under the Pages heading, click the research. Whenever I feel like I’ve hit yet another brick
Pages link across the top of the screen to see more results wall, I post on related groups or pages and get the hints
in that category (unless you’re looking for a specific gene- and help I need. » Heidi Zimmerman Reid
alogist; in that case, click People). You can click a page’s Like
button then and there, or visit the page first to see what it’s
about. One you like it, its posts will show up in your News
Feed. If you change your mind later, visit the page and click Groups specific to a family are especially good. You can
“Liked” to unlike it. reconnect with family you haven’t seen in years and share
If you post on a page, your post won’t appear on the main resources, such as photos of ancestor stories from relatives
feed. Instead, it’ll be listed under Visitor Posts on the side, long gone. » Melanie Pancho
along with posts from other page visitors. You can post or
send a message with questions for the people behind the
scenes at organizations. If you’re writing about a problem

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with a product or service, it’s best to message the page
admin through Facebook instead of posting on the page.
This is the most direct means of contact and keeps your
inquiry from getting buried by all the visitor posts. To send
a message, go to the top of the page and click the icon that
looks like a speech bubble with a lightning bolt. Select New
Message, type your note, and hit Return to send.
 JOIN GROUPS: Think of groups as an ongoing conversa-
tion. A group—created around a specific interest, such as old
photos or German genealogy—allows members to post on the
group’s timeline. Members also can reply to others’ posts.
Facebook offers three types of groups:
» Public: Anyone on Facebook can see the group’s posts.
» Closed: Only group members can see posts, but the
group will show up when Facebook members search for it.
» Private: The group doesn’t show up in Facebook search
results, and only those who are invited can join.
Groups usually have a pretty narrow focus and posting
guidelines to keep everyone on topic. Genealogy examples
include Free Obituary Lookups <www.facebook.com/groups/
FREEOBITUARYLOOKUPS> (where you can request an obituary
lookup), Old Photos of Southern Ohio <www.facebook.com/
groups/761314303902403> (for sharing old photos) and DNA
What tool besides social media
gives you such broad access
to other people—for free?
Detectives <www.facebook.com/groups/DNADetectives> (for
solving DNA mysteries). Also search for genealogy groups
dedicated to the towns, counties and states where your
ancestors lived, or military units your ancestor served with.
You can search for a group the same way you would a page,
but click Group at the top of your search results to see match-
ing groups (see below for search tips when using your Face-
book app on a mobile device). Click Join to send your request
to the group admins. You’ll receive a notification when you’re
added to the group. Read the posting guidelines before post-
ing for the first time.
 SHARE YOUR SEARCH: Post on Facebook about research
breakthroughs and fun facts (such as your link to a famous

A B

Searching Facebook
for People, Pages
and Groups
To search for groups or pages
in your Facebook mobile app,
tap the search bar at the top
of the screen and type your
search term. Results (A)
show the first two or three
matches in each category—
Posts, People, Pages, Groups,
Events and more. (You may
need to scroll across the top
of your screen to see all the
category tabs.) To see more
results in a category, you can
either touch the category tab
or scroll down and touch See
All below the category.
If you touch Groups (B),
you can view Public Groups
you can join, My Groups
(those you already belong
to), or Friends’ Groups.

44 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 Finding Facebook Privacy Settings
On a mobile device, open your Facebook app and click the three
bars in the top right. Scroll down to Help & Settings, and choose
Account Settings. Next, choose Security and Login to change your
password. Tap Privacy to edit who can see your posts, who can view
your friends list, who can send you friend requests, and more.

If a person has labeled their relationships to Facebook friends,

you’ll find this in his profile under the About>Family and Rela-
tionships section. If the person’s privacy settings allow it, you
also can check their Friends list for family names.
If you want to reach out to a potential cousin, avoid send-
ing a friend request first. Facebook members are so used to
encountering fake profiles that they often ignore requests
from strangers. Instead, send a message to briefly introduce
yourself and explain why you’re trying to get in touch. The
person will receive a “message request” from you, prioritized

More Social Media Sites

person or a ne’er-do-well), ask family history questions, and
share old photos. Caption any records or pictures with the
source of the item, the names of any people, the location, date,
etc. Ask Facebook friends about their family history, too, to
give them opportunity to share in genealogy adventures.
Want to share your research discoveries and old pho-
tos—but only with interested family, not the guy you kind
of know from the Accounting department at work? Create
a page or group named after an ancestor or family. Another
benefit: If someone else Googles that ancestor, the Page is
likely to show up in her search results.
Go to Facebook and click the down arrow in the top right
corner, then choose Create Page or Create Group. For a Page,
Select Artist, Band or Public Figure as the category, then
fill out the information, add a picture and start posting. Let
people know about it by scrolling on the page to the Commu-
nity section and clicking Invite your friends to like this Page.
When creating a group, enter a name, select the privacy level
and choose people to invite.
As the administrator of the page or group, you can desig-
nate other administrators and add or remove posts and (for
groups) members.
 FIND COUSINS: Few sites let you access so many people’s
information for free, making Facebook a powerful tool for
tracking down cousins. Search for family names, both maiden
and married (many women include both in their usernames).
 INSTAGRAM <www.instagram.com>: This platform
is built for sharing photos and videos. Unlike Pinterest, posts
here don’t link to websites. Use Instagram to follow accounts
that post old and historic photos—a few we enjoy are
@HistoryPhotographed, @History and @WarHistory. Oh, and
@familytreemag.
 YOUTUBE <www.youtube.com>: Search YouTube for
video tutorials with genealogy tips, tours of historical sites,
and old video clips of ancestral places. Family Tree Magazine is
at <www.youtube.com/user/familytreemagazine>.
 FLICKR <www.flickr.com>: Here’s another photo-sharing
site where you can back up digital images and organize them
into albums. Many libraries and archives share collections
here, such as the National Archives <www.flickr.com/photos/
archivesnews>, the Library of Congress <www.flickr.com/
photos/library_of_congress> and the British Library <www.
flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary> to name just a few.
 BLOGS: A blog, or online diary, lets you write in depth (or
not—it’s up to you) about your ancestors. Genealogists often
call them “cousin bait,” because posts show up in Google
searches for your family. Keep a blog for free at <blogger.com>
or <wordpress.com>.
 REDDIT <www.reddit.com>: This collection of forums
lets you ask questions and hold focused discussions. Try
searching for genealogy or other specific topics related to your
research. See the Toolkit on page 66 for more information.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 45
 Social Media Dos and Don’ts
DON’T share others’
personal information DON’T “vaguebook.” Be clear
or photos without about your meaning when
their permission. you post. Avoid posting inside
Also, people have jokes where people who
different ideas of aren’t “inside” will see them.
what constitutes
“personal.” When
in doubt, ask.
DON’T overshare. Constant
updates about the same
mundane topics will get
you unfollowed.
after messages from friends, so it may take awhile for them to
see your note and reply.
Familiarize yourself with privacy settings on Facebook,
located under your profile’s Settings menu (see the box on
page 45). Among other settings, you can:
 make your account visible to the public, just your friends
or just you
 control whether people can search your Friends list
 hide any contact information you have on Facebook
 control whether Google can show your Facebook page to
people who search for your name
You also can control the privacy level of individual posts
by clicking the icon of two people. If you don’t want to see a
post in your newsfeed, click the three dots in the upper right
corner of the post for options to “unfriend” or unfollow the
person or page (i.e., remove his posts from your newsfeed).
To temporarily stop seeing posts from this feed, choose one
of the “snooze” options.
Twitter
Twitter is built on the idea of sharing short messages, called
“tweets,” of no more than 280 characters (including spaces).
The thing to understand about Twitter is that it moves fast.
Some might even call it chaotic. Each new tweet bumps
earlier ones further down your feed until they disappear.
(At least now, replies to a tweet, marked @NameofOriginal
Tweeter, are grouped with the original tweet.) This makes
Twitter a good tool for sharing quick news and asking time-
sensitive research questions that would bog down a Face-
book feed. Here’s what you can do with it:
 USE TWITTER LISTS TO FOLLOW FEEDS: Much like Face-
book, Twitter lets you follow businesses, organizations and
46 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
DO keep your DO familiarize yourself with
comments respectful, privacy and security settings
productive and on the site you’re using.
relevant to the topic
at hand. Share your
story in a way that
would make your DO use one or two hashtags
ancestors proud. (too many is distracting).
This keeps your tweet
concise and to the point.
individuals to hear about genealogy news, new records, sales
and more. To search for “tweeple” you want to follow, type
a name or keywords in the search bar at the top right of the
page. In the results, sort by People to see Twitter accounts that
match your search. To follow someone, click on the account
and hit the Follow button at the top right of their profile.
To streamline your feed, set up Twitter Lists. This tool lets
you group people you follow and create custom feeds about
topics you’re interested in. Start by clicking Lists on your
profile page. Create a list, add a title and description for it,
and add accounts you want included. Now you’ll see a Twit-
ter feed with only tweets from those on this list. You could
set up a list for genealogy, or multiple narrower lists of, say,
genealogy organizations related to each ancestral hometown.
 SEARCH FOR TWEETS ON TOPICS YOU’RE RESEARCHING:
An easy way to research on Twitter is by searching hashtags.
A hashtag is simply a topic. Twitter users add hashtags to
show what a tweet is about and make it part of a larger con-
versation. For example, if you search Twitter for #genealogy,
you would get a list of all the tweets containing the #geneal-
ogy hashtag. Events often have their own hashtags—such as
the RootsTech genealogy conference’s #RootsTech2017—to
make it easy to find tweets about the event.
TIP: You don’t need to register with social media sites to
view profile pages of most organizations and businesses.
You will need to register to friend or follow people and
pages, write posts and join groups.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
  ASK QUESTIONS AND CHAT: Need a quick answer, such
as how to request a copy of a record at the library? Tweet
your question. To make sure it appears in the library’s feed,
you’d employ the library’s Twitter “handle,” or username. It
appears on Twitter with @ stuck onto the front: @thelibrary.
When you want to send a tweet to someone specific, begin
your tweet with the person’s handle.
A Twitter chat is a scheduled discussion on a focused
topic. The chat organizers create a hashtag that partici-
pants add to each tweet, so you’ll know it’s part of the chat.
Follow genealogy organizations of interest to you to learn
about chats they’re hosting.
Pinterest
Pinterest, a site that lets you create online bulletin boards,
has a reputation for being all cute crafts and wedding dresses.
It does have that stuff, but there’s also plenty of usefulness
for genealogy. A Pin is just an idea (a recipe, product, article,
project, etc.) displayed in the form of a photo with a short
caption. When you click a Pin, it’ll open a link to the article
or blog post where the picture appears. You can save Pins
to boards (kind of like categories). For example, Family
Tree Magazine has a Pinterest account <www.pinterest.com/
familytreemag> with boards for Genealogy Tips & Tricks,
Family Heirlooms, Irish Genealogy and more.
 SEARCH FOR TIPS: Pinterest is made to help you find
inspiration, and it’s great especially if you’re a visual person.
You can use the search box at the top of your Pinterest page
to search for topics such as genealogy organizing, old maps or
family photos. If you see a matching pin you like, mouse over
it and click the red Save button. You’ll be prompted to choose
or create a board to save it to.
Many genealogy companies, societies and people have Pin-
terest accounts. Search for them using the same search box,
except on your results page, click the down arrow next to All
Pins, then choose People. You can follow a pinner’s account as
a whole or just the boards that you like. New pins on boards
you follow will appear on your home feed. From there, choose
pins you’d like to collect and save to your own boards.
 ORGANIZE YOUR RESEARCH: You can use Pinterest to
organize information you find online, similar to bookmark-
ing web pages. The advantage to using Pinterest, though, is
that you can access your saved pages from anywhere—not
just the computer and web browser where you added the
bookmarks. If a website has old photos of your ancestor’s
birth place, a map showing the battle your Civil War relative
was in, or a relationship chart, copy the page URL. Then go
to Pinterest, click the plus in the lower right corner, choose
Save from a Website, and paste the URL. You’ll be prompted
to choose an image from the site, add a caption, and choose
a board to Pin it to. To streamline the process, Pinterest will
offer you a button you can install on your web browser and
click anytime to want to pin a page.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The thing to understand about
Twitter is that it moves fast.
Some might even call it chaotic.
You also can click the plus sign and Upload a Pin to cre-
ate pins from records and other images on your computer.
Don’t want anyone to see what you’re pinning? Designate
boards secret and they’ll be visible only to you and people
you invite.
With the right know-how, social media can be a powerful,
fun tool for doing genealogy. It gives you new ways to get
inspired, connect with others and document your research.
And—who knows?—your Facebook profile could one day be a
valuable record for future genealogists. ■
Rachel Fountain manages social media for Family Tree
Magazine and several of its sister publications. Out of all the
social media platforms, Twitter and Pinterest are her favorites.
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
 Find genealogists on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube
<familytreemagazine.com/articles/genealogy-fun/social-
networking/how-to-connect-with-genealogists-on-facebook-
twitter-pinterest-and-youtube>
 Finding family photos on Facebook <familytreemagazine.com/
articles/news-blogs/photo_detective/facebook-and-family-
photographs>
Premium Members
 Social media folks you should follow <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/40-social-media-mavericks>
 Genealogy social media websites <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/best-social-media-genealogy-websites-2015>
 Find genealogy help on social media <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/genealogy-help-on-social-media>
ShopFamilyTree.com
 Ultimate Genealogy Websites Guide e-book <familytreemagazine.
com/store/ultimate-genealogy-websites-ebook>
 Google Tools for Genealogists video download <familytreemagazine.
com/store/ftu-google-tools-for-genealogists>
 Tutorial: Optimize Your Privacy on Facebook <familytreemagazine.
com/store/tutorial-optimizing-your-facebook-privacy-settings>
<familytreemagazine.com> 47
 A n d r e a s H i n t n e r/ E y e E m /G e t t y I m a g e s
Hark! the
Heraldry
Should you hang up
your family coat of arms—
or zip it up and show it off?
We’ll untangle the myths
of family heraldry and help
you start discovering
your armigerous ancestry.

BY SHANNON COMBS BENNETT

 3 FOR MANY PEOPLE, the word heraldry evokes images
of knights, castles and colorful banners fluttering on a soft
breeze. Maybe you’ve seen elaborate family crests in books
or heard stories about a coat of arms. Maybe your supposed
emblem is hanging on your wall right now.
Heraldry is one of the most interesting—yet misunder-
stood—areas of family history. Pretty much anyone can buy
something with a family coat of arms on it, but only certain
people can actually call those arms their own. And they’ll
know who they are only through genealogical research. We’ll
explain what a coat of arms is and how to discover whether
you truly can claim one.
y
The right to bear arms
Think of heraldry as the way a person way back when would
label himself, his belongings, and his people. In the heraldic
world, a picture literally speaks a thousand words. An armi-
gerous person—meaning someone who is entitled to bear a
coat of arms—would be identified by his flag; and his goods,
his badge and his people, by their livery colors. Livery colors
were the principal colors of a person’s coat of arms. Accounts
from the reign of Henry VIII in the 1500s detail the livery
colors, badges and heraldry his servants were to wear. With
so many servants milling about, their colors would easily
identify for which royal household member they worked.
The exact origins of this system are a mystery. Some schol-
ars believe it evolved during the Crusades (1095 to 1291) to
identify which soldiers were on which side. Others think it
was created due to a surge in popularity of the grand tour-
naments during the middle ages, showcasing the talents of
knights. We do know the first documented coat of arms dates
to mid-1100s Europe. Heraldry spread quickly from Central
Europe throughout the continent and became a way of mark-
ing people and families. Many European, Middle Eastern
and Asian countries had heraldic systems, though we’ll focus
here on the United Kingdom and Western Europe.
Contrary to popular notion, coats of arms don’t go with
surnames. Think about how confusing it would be if everyone
in the same family had the exact same arms. Instead, a person
would be granted the right to bear a particular coat of arms, a
right that passed down to his male descendants. In England
and Scotland, an eldest daughter could inherit arms in the
absence of male heirs; and wives and daughters could bear
modified versions of the arms. A heraldic authority, such as
Britain’s College of Arms, regulates the granting of arms.
Coats of arms aren’t just pretty pictures. Their symbols can
indicate profession, order of birth, rank, ancestry and more.
Though the terms coat of arms and family crest are often used
interchangeably, the former is just the shield and the latter is
attached to the top of the shield (turn the page to see a break-
down of the parts in a heraldic achievement). When display-
ing the full arms isn’t practical, just the crest might be used.
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Visual clues on a coat of
arms can hint at when the
arms were created, where the
bearer was from, and how he
fits into the family tree.
But what about all those coat of arms tchotchkes? Buyer
beware if the seller of a heraldic trinket tells you it’s your
family’s. How does he know? Did he trace your lineage?
Because coats of arms are granted to individuals, not fami-
lies, this claim is probably false. Even if the arms were
granted to someone named Fred Smith, and you’re a Smith,
those aren’t your arms unless you can prove you’re a male-
line descendant of Fred. Dozens of arms might be registered
to people of the same surname, and your task is to dis-
cover which one—if any—is correct for your ancestral line.
y
Armigerous ancestry
Even if you didn’t inherit your ancestor’s coat of arms, her-
aldry still can come in handy for your genealogy. For it to
help you, though, it’s important to understand the basics of
how heraldry works. An excellent book to start with is An
Heraldic Alphabet by J.P. Brooke-Little, Clarenceux King of
Arms (Robson Books). This dictionary of heraldic terms can
help you decipher documents and understand the meaning
of heraldic imagery.
Americans whose US family trees go back to colonial days
are likeliest to have armigerous ancestry. That goes double if
your ancestors were large landowners in the South. William
Penn was armigerous, for example, as were most large planta-
tion owners in Virginia. Maryland’s state flag is the heraldic
banner of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. If you
haven’t been doing genealogy long or have no particular indi-
cation your tree holds an armigerous ancestor, your best bet is
to continue researching back in time as you would otherwise,
TIP: Colors used on coats of arms aren’t what you learned in
kindergarten. Red is gules; black, sable; blue, azure; green, vert;
purple, purpure; blood (dark red), sanguine; mulberry, murrey;
orange, tenny; gold/yellow, or; and white/silver, argent.
<familytreemagazine.com> 49
 CREST: This inherited symbol, situated on top of
Deconstructing Your Coat of Arms the helm, is used alone in some displays.
Many components make up a heraldic achievement—the full
display of a family’s heraldic elements—not all of which are
used for every family. We’ll use the heraldic achievement of the
Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Marshall to show you the most common
components (note that different countries’ systems might employ
different terms).

HELMET (HELM): Situated above the shield,

this bears the crest. Some countries have rules
governing the type or color of helm.

MANTLING (LAMBREQUIN): The fabric coming off the shield,

usually in colors represented on the arms, may be a reference to
a cloth that covered the back of a knight’s helmet.

CORONET (CROWN): This sometimes appears on

top of the helmet to show the rank of the bearer.
Other types of coronets may appear on the shield
or below it; these aren’t associated with a royal title
but may refer to a city, territory or clergy.

SHIELD (ESCUTCHEON): where the heraldry is displayed.

This is technically the coat of arms, though that term
is often used to describe the full display. Shield shapes
vary, including the “heater style” (shown), cartouche
(oval), Tudor arch, lozenge (diamond), and others. Each
part of the shield also has a name; see A Complete Guide
to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies <archive.org/
details/completeguidetoh00foxdrich>.

CHARGE (ORDINARY): Item(s) depicted on

the shield might represent a family’s craft,
trade, geographic origins or noble deed. An
inherited shield might add a charge to show
the relationship to the original bearer. The
images are usually flora, fauna, mythical
creatures or simple geometric shapes. A sub-
ordinary, or diminutive, is the same shape as a
charge, but smaller and typically thinner.

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 Blazon
The official description of a heraldic display uses specific
terminology and formatting. See page 53 for more details.
 CREST: 1st: Issuant from a Ducal Coronet Or a pair
of Wings Gules each charged with a Bend between six
Cross-crosslets fitchy Argent (Howard); 2nd: On a Chapeau
Gules turned up Ermine a Lion statant gardant with tail
extended Or gorged with a Ducal Coronet Argent (Thomas
of Brotherton); 3rd: On a Mount Vert a Horse passant Argent
holding in the mouth a Slip of Oak Vert fructed proper
(Fitzalan).
 ARMS: Quarterly, 1st: Gules on a Bend between six
Cross-crosslets fitchy Argent an Escutcheon Or charged
with a Demi-lion rampant pierced through the mouth by
an arrow within a Double Tressure flory counterflory of the
first (Howard); 2nd: Gules three Lions passant gardant in
pale Or, Armed and Langued Azure, in chief a Label of three
points Argent (Plantagenet of Norfolk); 3rd: Checky Or and
Azure (Warenne); 4th: Gules a Lion rampant Or, Armed and
Langued Azure (Fitzalan).
 SUPPORTERS: Dexter a Lion, sinister a Horse both
Argent the latter holding in the mouth a Slip of Oak Vert
fructed proper.
 MOTTO: Sola Virtus Invicta (Latin for “Virtue alone is
unconquered”).

SUPPORTER: A figure or figures

appear to hold the shield. They could
be human, animals or something else,
but usually represent the family, a
place or awards given to the bearer.

Sodacan via Wikimedia Commons <creativecommons.org /licenses/

by-sa/3.0>, vector image was created with Inkscape (own work)
COMPARTMENT: The area at the base
of the achievement, often shown as
a grassy hill, is where the supporters
stand or the shield point sits.

MOTTO: A family saying may appear

on a scroll at the base of the shield.
Traditionally, only men had a motto,
typically written in Latin. In modern
times, though, women’s displays have
started to contain mottos as well.

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Motto Match
Match up these well-
known folks with the
mottos from the heraldic
achievements they’ve
used. See the answers
below.
1. Sir Francis Drake
2. George Washington
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. Andrew Carnegie
5. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower
7. Ronald Reagan
8. Gen. Colin Powell
Next, look up the name in a “peerage,” or a genealogical
reference to aristocracy and nobility. Burke’s Peerage is a
publisher founded in 1826 with the guide A Genealogical
and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the
a. Facta non verba
United Kingdom. The publication was updated sporadically
(Deeds, not words)
until 1847, then annually, and more titles were added for
countries around the world. Find Burke’s Peerage in large
b. Exitus acta probat
libraries and search for names on the publisher’s subscrip-
(The outcome is the test
tion website <www.burkespeerage.com>. Editions from 1865,
of the act)
1881 and 1884 are on Ancestry.com, as are other peerage
books (search the card catalog <search.ancestry.com/search/
c. Death to privilege
cardcatalog.aspx> for peerage). Also try Debrett’s Baronetage,
Knightage, & Companionage 1882 edited by Robert H. Mair
d. Peace through understanding
<archive.org/details/1893debrettspeerage00londuoft>.
A “roll of arms” is a wonderful resource with images of
e. Ab eo libertas a quo spiritus
arms. These rolls were sometimes a listing of all the knights,
(The one who gives life
and later armigerous persons, in a given area. Other times
gives liberty)
they were lists of the participants in a tournament. Amazing
heraldic rolls commemorate funerals or large state functions,
f. Devoted to public service
with heraldry as a way to show who was in attendance. One of
the most famous rolls is the Codex Manesse, created in the first
g. Qui plantavit curabit
half of the 1300s for the Manesse family. It’s a book of poetry
(He who planted will preserve)
and the images are of the poets, most of whom are shown with
coats of arms. Luckily for us, this book is free online and you
h. Sic Parvis Magna
can see its 137 magnificent images for yourself at <www.ub.
(Thus, greatness comes
u n i - h e i d e l b e r g . d e / E n g l i s c h /a l l g / b e n u t z u n g / b e re i c h e /
from small things)
handschriften/codexmanesse.html>. Search online for a family
name and “roll of arms” and look for the book A Roll of Arms
Registered by the Committee on Heraldry of the New England
1. h, 2. b, 3. e, 4. c, 5. g, 6. d, 7. a, 8. f

Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS).

keeping an eye out for clues that point to heraldic roots. This
might be a mention in an old family history or even a genea-
logical record. Remember, the United States began as the col-
onies of several European countries. The power and influence
associated with heraldry meant that early Americans were
proud to display their arms. Wills, deeds, bounties and other
documents may have a section listing the blazon of a person’s
arms (see below), or even a depiction of their arms. You can
research blazons and coats of arms to discover additional
information about the family and the person who held them.
If you’ve already found clues to a heraldic person in
your family tree or discovered the coat of arms an ancestor
claimed, you can start there. For arms without a name, look
up the coat of arms or its blazon in a book called an ordi-
nary of arms (essentially, a dictionary of blazons). Crozier’s
General Armory is on the free Internet Archive <archive.org/
details/croziersgenerala00croz>, and check large research and
university libraries. Older books, such as the 1901 Some Feu-
dal Coats of Arms from Heraldic Rolls, 1298-1418 by Joseph
Foster <archive.org/details/somefeudalcoatso00fostrich>, will
stretch further back in time
You’ll also find ornate heraldic pedigrees, mainly for roy-
alty. Relatives would commission these to show their impor-
tance and prestige. One word of caution: Don’t assume these
heraldic pedigrees (or any other pedigree, for that matter), is
100 percent accurate. A king would be motivated to prove his
descent from certain historical figures to assure the populace
he ruled by divine right.
The British College of Arms offers fee-based research
services to those wishing to learn about their heraldic con-
nections. Learn more at <www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/services/
proving-a-right-to-arms>.
y
Blazon of glory
If a relative did have a coat of arms, refer to the aforemen-
tioned An Heraldic Alphabet to learn the significance of all
those symbols (charges) and colors. These hint at when the
arms were created, where the bearer was from, and how he
fits into the family tree. Cadency marks, for example, are a
common type of charge that shows where the bearer appears
on the family tree. The marks differentiate siblings (usu-
ally male, but not always), by adding a specific charge to the

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father’s heraldry. The arms of William, Duke of Cambridge
are those of the English Royal family with an added white
label (bar across the top with rectangle “fingers” hanging
from it); the label’s second “finger” having a red seashell <en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadency_labels_of_the_British_royal_family>.
Prince Harry has a white label with a red seashell on each
finger. The seashells are an homage to their mother, Diana,
whose coat of arms has the escallop seashell.
Refer to the blazon, which describes the heraldic achieve-
ment in a formulaic way (see the example on page 51). If
your arms are quartered (or marshalled), you’ll want to
identify each of the families whose arms are represented on
that shield. The following blazon is from Debrett’s Baron-
etage, Knightage, & Companionage 1882: “Arms—Gules, three
swords erect in pale argent, hilts or. Crest—A hand couped at
the wrist proper holding a sword, as in the arms.” The lay-
man’s translation is actually pretty simple: The shield has a
red background. It has three swords on it with the points to
the top of the shield. The swords are white with gold hilts.
On top of the shield is an arm with a hand tilted back, grasp-
ing a sword as if to swing it.
Even if your family isn’t armigerous, you can design your
own coat of arms and even join the American Heraldry Society
<www.americanheraldry.org>. Just know that the United States
has no legal heraldic system, so there’s nothing official about
assuming arms. See <www.americanheraldry.org/education-
resources/an-american-heraldic-primer> for information. ■
S h a n n o n C o m b s B e n n e t t is a staff genealogist for
the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century <www.
colonialdames17c.org>. She studies heraldry with the Univer-
sity of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
Resources
 The American Heraldry Society
<www.americanheraldry.org>
 Annotated Heraldry Bibliography
<www.heraldica.org/biblio/annotate.htm>
 College of Arms <www.college-of-arms.gov.uk>
 The Complete Book of Heraldry: An International
History of Heraldry and its Contemporary Uses by
Stephen Slater (Hermes House)
 A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles
Fox-Davies (T.C. and E.C. Jack), available at <www.
gutenberg.org/files/41617/41617-h/41617-h.htm>
 Crozier’s General Armory, 2nd ed. by William
Armstrong Crozier (Genealogical Publishing Co.)
 FamilySearch Wiki: English Heraldry
<www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/England_Heraldry>
 Famous Coats of Arms
<www.internationalheraldry.com/famous.htm>
 A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the
Colonial Gentry (2 vols) by Sir Bernard Burke and
Ashworth P. Burke (Harrison & Sons), available at
<archive.org/details/genealogicalhera01burk>
 Handbook of Heraldry: With Instructions for
Tracing Pedigrees and Deciphering Ancient MSS
by John Cussans (Chatto & Windus), available at
<archive.org/details/handbookofherald00cussrich>
 An Heraldic Alphabet by J.P. Brooke-Little (Robson Books)
 The Heraldry Society
<www.theheraldrysociety.com/home.htm>
 International Association of Amateur Heralds
<amateurheralds.com>
 International Heraldry & Heralds
<www.internationalheraldry.com>
 Rootsweb Guide to Heraldry
<rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/lesson19.htm>

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Treasure-Hunting
in the Archives
Learn how to dig up the genealogical treasures
awaiting you in your ancestors’ state archives.
BY SHELLEY K. BISHOP
3 IMAGINE A BUILDING brimming with records and
resources to help you with your family history research. A
place dedicated to the collection of historical documents,
journals, registers, maps and photographs from the state
where your ancestors lived. Now imagine a comprehensive
catalog of all those materials, helpful finding aids and a
knowledgeable staff to assist your search.
It may sound like genealogical nirvana, but it exists:
Archives like these can be found in the capital city of every
US state.
State archives collect and preserve public records and
other materials of historical significance from each state.
Many of those are records genealogists can use to recon-
struct their family lines. They include records created at the
54 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Nor th America
state, county and local level, such as birth, death and mar-
riage records; censuses; court records; institutional records;
land grants; deeds; family papers; maps; surveys; military
records; photos and more.
Just as each state has its own history and character, each
state archive varies in its structure, collections and opera-
tions. Some are part of state historical societies. Some states
combine the functions of an archive (which collects unpub-
lished records) with a library (which collects published
materials such as books, newspapers and city directories).
Other states have separate archive and library facilities.
The genealogical payoff of researching at state archives can
be huge. By their very definition, these archives collect valu-
able documents of the past, some of which are found nowhere
 else. They’re often in files or bound volumes that haven’t been
microfilmed or digitized, and they could hold important pieces
of your family puzzle. You might find your ancestor’s original
marriage bond from 1797, or a deed that identifies where he
lived before he migrated in 1830. Of course, state archives also
maintain large collections of microfilmed records, making
them a one-stop research destination.
To help you determine what family treasures an archive
has to offer and how exactly you can dig them up, I’ve put
together eight tips for state archives research. Armed with
these strategies, you’ll be ready to make exciting discoveries
about your ancestors in records of the state where they lived.
1
Explore virtually.
An easy way to find the location of a state archives is to
do a Google search on the name of the state followed
by the words state archives. The National Archives
2
also maintains a list of all 50 state archives with links,
addresses and contact information at <archives.gov/
research/alic/reference/state-archives.html>.
Once you’ve located the archives for a particular state,
spend some time exploring its website. Most are quite infor-
mative, detailing policies and the types of items in their
collections. For instance, under the Researchers tab at the
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives website,
<kdla.ky.gov>, you’ll find information about visiting, county
formation dates and record-destroying courthouse disasters,
as well as how to request records by mail.
Many archives have created helpful online guides with
genealogists in mind. The Connecticut State Library offers
a History & Genealogy Subject Guide with information on
colonial records, genealogy indexes, newspaper research,
military records and other topics <libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/
hg/home> . Look for links to the archives’ online catalogs,
finding aids and digital collections, which we’ll discuss in
more detail below.
Learning what the archives doesn’t hold is just as crucial as
what it does hold. No state archives has enough room to store
every record ever created in the state. Some archives don’t
collect personal items such as diaries and letters, for example,
while others do. Archives in larger states may have a network
of affiliated repositories in multiple cities. Some states still
keep local records in county courthouses or town halls.
TIP: Visit the state archives website for each state where
you’ve discovered family living or migrating through.
Remember that some archives also collect materials related
to “feeder” states (where settlers originated) or “destination”
states (where settlers traveled to).
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Learning what the archive
doesn’t hold is just as crucial
as what it does hold.
Use the archives website to learn all you can about the
facility, its policies, and its holdings before you leave home.
The time you spend familiarizing yourself with it before your
visit can save you hours and frustration later. You might dis-
cover you can request the records you need by mail or online,
potentially saving the trip. Microfilmed or published records
could be available at a library closer to you.
Adjust your focus.
The sheer number and variety of collections
make a trip to the state archives a researcher’s
dream. In addition to the convenience of having so
many records under one roof, there’s the chance
to explore rare and unique items. It’s incredibly
thrilling to see your ancestor’s signature on his
original land grant, or hold the old register listing her birth in
your hands. Also, now that the Family History Library <www.
familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library> is no longer
lending copies of its microfilms, the state archives may be
one of the few places outside of Salt Lake City where you can
view a particular film.
Before you fasten your seat belt, though, take some time
to plan what you want to accomplish. A focused trip is much
more likely to be successful. Answer these questions:
 Who am I concentrating on?
 Where and when did the person live?
 What do I know about the family?
 What do I hope to learn from this research trip?
 What types of records could provide clues or answers?
Some research goals and objectives should emerge from
this process. A broad goal might be to find who your great-
grandmother’s parents were, or identify the place your
great-grandfather came from. Objectives are the smaller,
more specific steps that help you accomplish the goal. To
find those elusive parents, objectives could be to search for
a marriage record, determine what families lived in the area
when your great-grandmother was born, and look at wills
and estate records for those families.
Once you have a clear idea of your objectives, you’ll be
ready to come up with a research plan for your visit. Think
of the plan as your to-do list. It need not be elaborate; a few
short sentences and bullet points will do. At the top of the
page, identify who you’re researching and state your goal.
Then list your objectives. Under each objective, list the
<familytreemagazine.com> 55
sources you’ll need to look at, along with the information you
need to find these sources at the archives. We’ll cover how to
do that below.
If you’re researching multiple families in the state, do this
kind of evaluation for each one, as the resources you’ll need
to look at will vary. Having your plans in place will keep you
from feeling overwhelmed when you walk through the doors
of the archives. Preparation is the key to a productive and
successful research trip.
3
Search the catalog.
All 50 state archives feature online catalogs that
contain the details you need to find materials in
their collections. These catalogs vary in how they’re
arranged and how user-friendly they feel to search.
It’s important to note that a library catalog is differ-
ent from a search engine like the one at Ancestry.
com <ancestry.com>. Just entering your ancestor’s name in the
search box isn’t likely to be successful. Generally, you’ll get
better results searching by place or subject in an archives’ cat-
alog. To find out what resources are available for a particular
place or county, search on the county or city name. Similarly,
if you’re looking for records of an ancestor who served in the
War of 1812, use War of 1812 as a search term.
If there’s a guide to searching the catalog, read it first. Oth-
erwise, try to think like an archivist. Consider questions like:
 WHERE: In what place were the records created?
 WHAT: What type of records are you looking for?
 WHO: What office or authority created the records?
 WHEN: What time period are you dealing with?
Getting to know the online catalog system your repository
uses may take some trial and error, but it’s essential to finding
the resources you need. Thinking in terms of collections, and
how those collections might be described, should help. For
example, the California State Archives online catalog (called
Minerva) <www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/minerva>
offers the ability to search by keyword, date item was created,
type of material, and/or creator or author.
Some facilities have more than one catalog. The Ohio
History Connection Archives/Library <www.ohiohistory.
org /learn/archives-library> has three online catalogs: one
for Library and Newspapers; one for Manuscripts, Audio/
Visual, and State Archives; and one for Museum Collections.
In searching for a naturalization record for my ancestor who
lived in Franklin County, Ohio, I’d first need to choose the
catalog for manuscripts and state archives, because natural-
izations are government records the state archives collects.
Then I’d enter Franklin County naturalization in the search
box. This displays results for all the collections that contain
those records, so I can select the ones I’m interested in.
Once you’ve found a collection you’d like to check out,
enter it into your research plan under one of the objectives.
Note all pertinent details such as title, author, series, volume,
56 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
and file or microfilm number. Those elements are necessary
for finding or requesting records at the archives. Another
option is to print out catalog entries for collections you want
to examine, so you can show them to an archivist if need be.
You can even jot a note on the printed copy to remind your-
self what you’re looking for.
Continue to search for materials in the online catalog.
What sources could potentially hold answers to your ques-
tions? In addition to government records, does the archives
hold old newspapers, city directories or other resources for
your time period?
4
Find a finding aid.
Catalog descriptions tend to be short, and can
leave you wishing for more details about the
records. If that’s the case, look for a finding aid
or guide to the collection. This type of guide
explains how the records were created, what
information they include, and how they’re orga-
nized at the repository. They usually list the precise localities
and time ranges covered, so you can better pinpoint the par-
ticular volume, file or microfilm you need to view.
Look for an expandable listing or link in the catalog
description, with a prompt such as “Learn more about this
collection.” The Library of Virginia’s website, for example,
has a convenient landing page titled Using the Collections
<www.lva.virginia.gov/public/using_collections.asp>. This page
offers a Guides and Indexes link for easy access to its many
excellent research guides, arranged by topic. Some of these
guides lead to databases you can search with your ances-
tors’ names. Clicking on Births, Deaths, Marriages (Vital
Records), for instance, expands the menu to show “Mar-
riage Records, Index to.” This link takes you to a detailed
explanation of the records and their sources, as well as a
database searchable by the bride’s or groom’s name.
Alternately, the catalog description could note that a find-
ing aid is available at the archives. Many states have compiled
helpful files in their reading rooms that serve as guides to
unique archival collections. Be sure to make a note of this,
and ask about it when you arrive on site. In some cases, you
may be able to obtain a copy of the finding aid ahead of time
by emailing the archives and asking if one is available.
5
Check digital collections.
An increasing number of state archives have digi-
tal collections you can access online. Digital col-
lections vary from one state to another, but may
include vital, land, military or court records. In
addition, online collections often contain things
that can add historical, social, and cultural context
to your family history. From photographs and postcards to
maps and memorabilia, digital collections can enhance your
understanding of your ancestors’ lives.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Texas Treasures
Use state archives websites to access online collections and learn about records you’ll want Click here and look
to view during your visit. Of course, each archives’ website is different, so browse the site under Descriptive
for your ancestral state archives to get the lay of the land. Here’s what we discovered on the Guides for finding aids
Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) website <www.tsl.texas.gov>. Clicking to maps, state and local
Archives & Reference on the home page provides access to all these genealogical goodies: records, and others.
You’ll also find links
to the same microfilm
Click here for answers to common inventories as under
Click to search the archives’ holdings.
questions, details on borrowing materials Genealogy.
On the search form’s Library dropdown
menu, select the option for TX State through interlibrary loan, visitor information,
Library & Archives Comm. and contact info for the reference desk.

Click here to get

started. You’ll find a
collection overview;
links to inventories
of microfilmed
newspapers, county This section of
tax rolls and other the site gives
records; guides to you access to
specific types of the archives’
records, such as electronic records,
convict records and including indexes
voter registrations; and digitized
and information on records.
other genealogical
resources.

Search digitized records Browse

including maps and Texas themed
TRAIL searches web pages of Adjutant General service collections
more than 180 state agencies, records. Some of these of digitized
including TSLAC. Most, records overlap with documents
though, aren’t related to what’s available through and photos.
history or genealogy. the Texas Digital Archive.
 Typically, you’ll find a link to digital collections on the
state archives’ home page. Look for keywords such as online
collections, memory or history. Virginia Memory, <www.
virginiamemory.com>, and Wisconsin History, <www.wiscon-
sinhistory.org>, both have impressive digital collections. At
Seeking Michigan, <seekingmichigan.org>, you’ll find death
records, state censuses and Civil War service records, as well
as letters, diaries, postcards and oral histories. The North
Carolina Digital Collections <digital.ncdcr.gov> offers 50 well-
organized subjects, ranging from Family Records to Travel
and Tourism Photos.
Many states also offer online databases that make it pos-
sible to order copies of certain records, such as birth or death
records, for a small fee. Some archives will even do limited
research for you in specified collections. You can request
copies either by using an online form or mailing in a form
with payment.
The New Jersey State Archives has a Searchable Databases
and Records Request Forms page at <wwwnet-dos.state.nj.us/
DOS_ArchivesDBPortal/index.aspx> . The site allows you to
search a number of databases by ancestor’s name, includ-
ing vital records, land records, court and probate records,
military records and photographs. If you find a result for
your ancestor in these databases, just order it. Alternatively,
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
 How to access FamilySearch microfilm <familytreemagazine.com/
articles/genealogy-websites/familysearch/why-familysearch-is-
ending-microfilm-rental-how-to-get-genealogy-records-now>
 Genealogy resources at state archives <familytreemagazine.com/
articles/genealogy_research_strategies/libraries-archives/using-
genealogy-resources-at-state-libraries-and-archives>
Premium Members
 Five library research tips <familytreemagazine.com/premium/5-
library-tips>
 Requesting records from libraries <familytreemagazine.com/
premium/library-request-letters>
 Two things you must do when researching at the library
<familytreemagazine.com/premium/genealogy-library-musts>
ShopFamilyTree.com
 Search guide to library catalogs <familytreemagazine.com/store/
step-by-step-guide-library-catalogs>
 Video: Find Free Photos and Maps on the Library of Congress
Website <familytreemagazine.com/store/find-free-photos-and-
maps-on-the-library-of-congress-website-download>
 Genealogy Research to Go Kit <familytreemagazine.com/store/
genealogy-research-to-go-kit>
58 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018
you can submit a records request form to have the archivists
do a search (for a fee) in assorted other collections of vital,
probate, naturalization and military records.
6
Get ready.
Now that you’ve gotten all you can from the
archives’ catalog and databases, it’s time to make
practical preparations for your trip. Begin by
looking for a link such as Visit the Archives or
Plan Your Visit on the website. Read the informa-
tion carefully, and then plan accordingly. Things
you need to know include:
 OPERATING HOURS: At many state archives, budget
constraints have cut into the days and hours available for
research. Be sure you have the latest information regarding
operating hours, and avoid state holidays. To be on the safe
side, call to confirm that the archives will be open with full
service on the day you plan to visit. Be aware that archives
stop pulling records well before closing time, so try to get
there early in the day.
 DIRECTIONS AND PARKING: Get clear directions and
parking information in advance so you don’t waste time look-
ing for your destination. Onsite parking may be paid or free.
In some cities, you might need to park at a commercial lot or
garage.
 FEES: There’s no charge to do research at most state
archives. Fees for photocopies of records and microfilm
range from 10 to 50 cents per page. Some repositories accept
only cash, and others only credit cards, so bring both.
 ID CARDS: Bring your driver’s license or photo ID. Most
state archives require you to register for an identification
card or researcher’s pass when you arrive for the first time.
Other repositories ask you to sign in with an entrance guard.
 RESTRICTED ITEMS: Certain items aren’t permitted in
rooms where archival materials are handled. Count on tote
bags, computer bags, backpacks, purses, fanny packs, coats,
portable scanners and pens being prohibited in these areas.
Folders, envelopes, and binders might be off-limits, too, and
policies on USB drives vary. Check the archives’ website for
specific restrictions. All archives offer lockers where you can
store personal items. No food or beverages are allowed in
research rooms.
 WHAT TO BRING: Remember to bring a copy of your
research plan, either digitally or printed out. Laptops, tab-
lets, digital cameras and cell phones are generally allowed,
although you may need to get a permit to take photographs
(without flash). You’ll also want paper or blank research logs
to record your results and make notes. Bring sharpened pen-
cils and a pocket wallet or coin pouch with your ID, money
and credit card. If permitted, bring a USB drive.
 INTERNET CONNECTION: Archives usually have WiFi-
enabled computers for public use. In addition, many offer
free WiFi for patrons who bring their own laptops.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The staff is among the best genealogy resources you’ll find at a state archives.
 OTHER CONCERNS: The facility may have a gift shop with
books, maps and other items. This is a good opportunity to
pick up references on various aspects of the state’s history.
Food may or may not be available on site. When in doubt,
pack water and a snack to keep in your locker. Even archives
without cafes usually have a sitting area where you can take
a break.
7
Consult the archivists.
One of the greatest resources you’ll find at a state
archives is its staff. Archivists are knowledgeable
about the records entrusted to their care, and
trained to help patrons find and use materials.
They can be a wonderful source of information
both before and during your visit.
If you have questions about a set of records, by all means
email the archivists ahead of time and ask. They’ll be glad
to field inquiries about which county court records include
divorce cases, for example, or whether the records of a state
asylum are restricted. Contact information should be read-
ily available on the website. While you can telephone the
archives with quick questions regarding hours and practical
matters, I recommend email as the best way to inquire about
record sets and collections. Your email will likely be routed
to the archivist with the most experience in that area. Be
patient in awaiting an answer, as budget cuts have impacted
staffing at a number of state archives.
Once you arrive onsite, ask for a quick orientation to the
facility and how to use equipment such as microfilm readers
and printers. State archives have huge microfilm collections,
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hill Street Studios/Getty Images
so it’s helpful to have someone explain how the films are
organized. Some archives/libraries have a good selection
of books available on open stacks for self-service browsing.
Learn how those are arranged, too, as you could make some
unexpected discoveries.
If you need records pulled from the closed stacks (archival
storage), find out how to fill out and submit a request slip.
Most archives pull records continuously throughout the day,
although a few have set pull times when they take up all the
slips submitted since the last pull time. This is when having
your research plan with all the information needed to fill
out the slips comes in so handy. An archivist will bring the
requested materials for you to view (often one at a time) at
a table in a designated area. If gloves are required to handle
photographs or fragile documents, they’ll be provided.
Don’t hesitate to ask the archivists if you run into trouble
understanding the records you’re using, or if you aren’t find-
ing what you expected and need help identifying alternative
sources. That’s what they excel at. Think of the archivists as
experienced partners in your research, and you’ll increase
your chances of success.
Following this and our other seven strategies will ensure
your research trip is efficient and productive. With the right
preparation and a little luck, you’ll be on your way to solv-
ing some of the mysteries of your family history in the state
archives. ■
Shelley K. Bishop is a professional genealogist in Ohio.
Learn more about her research firm, Buckeye Family Trees, at
<www.buckeyefamilytrees.com>.
<familytreemagazine.com> 59
 family tree university

Spring 2018
REGISTE! R
NOW .ly/ Virtual
Conference
t
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Spring18

APRIL 6 - 8

3 days s 15 classes
UN L I M I T E D R E S E A R C H B E N E F I T S
E 30-minute recorded video classes to watch & download
E Live keynote presentation, Q&As and discussions
with genealogy experts
E New tips on DNA testing, family history research
methods and technology

RAVE REVIEWS
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was far better than I could have imagined! I have so many more ‘tools in with code FTMSPRING
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presentation could be downloaded as an mp4 and pdf.”

“I learned something from all the talks and videos. Even if the subject
didn’t directly apply to my research, they were all interesting and
educational. The speakers were all very good.”
 researchroadma Maps to point your research in the right direction {BY ANDREW KOCH}

Wild, Wild West

D a v i d R u m s e y H i s t o r i c a l M a p C o l l e c t i o n , < w w w . d a v i d r u m s e y . c o m / l u n a /s e r v l e t /s / 0 s 4 4 p a >
N e w M a p O f T h e U n i o n b y D . G r i f f i n g J o h n s o n a n d A . J . J o h n s o n , 1 8 5 7,

3 FOR MORE THAN a century,
Americans ventured westward to seek
wealth, find land and start their lives
anew. If you have ancestors in the West
before statehood, boundary changes
can make it difficult to trace them.
This “New Map of the Union,” pub-
lished in 1857, can help you sort out
the changing boundaries of the west-
ern states and territories. You’ll notice
some major differences from maps
today: Washington and Oregon extend
all the way east to the Rocky Moun-
tains, and Kansas stretches farther
west. The monstrous “Nebraska Ter-
ritory” contains land that today is in
five other states: North Dakota, South
Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colo-
rado. When searching for ancestors in
these shifting territories, use our list
of western states with the territories
each was part of <familytreemagazine.
com/premium/historical-research-maps-
western-states>. 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 61
dnasolutions Solving genealogy problems with DNA {BY DIAHAN SOUTHARD}

Using Y-DNA for Genealogy

Q I had my nephew do the Y-DNA111 test to trace our paternal line

and try to break through a brick wall. How can I understand and
use the test results?
have a common ancestor at or before
eight generations into the past.
But don’t take my word for it. You
actually can see for yourself the time

A First of all, great job pulling that

YDNA test out of your genealogi-
cal tool box. Working on a paternal-line
brick wall is a great way to use this test-
ing technology.
To start making use of your test,
first evaluate the match page at Fam-
ily Tree DNA <www.familytreedna.com>,
which is the only major testing com-
pany currently offering Y-DNA tests.
The most important column in this
table is the first column, called Genetic
Distance. If your nephew had taken
the 37- or 67-marker test, you’d want
this number to be three or fewer in
order for him and his match to pos-
sibly share a recent common ancestor.
At the 111-marker level, though, you
can allow for up a genetic difference
of up to five. Within these recom-
mended genetic distances, you can
usually assume that you and a match
frame in which you should be look-
ing for a common ancestor with your
match. To see these statistical calcula-
tions, click on the orange Tip button
under your match’s name on Family
Tree DNA’s main match page. This will
show you a statistical calculation with
the likelihood that you and your match
share a common ancestor within a given
number of generations. For example,
you’ll see that it’s 70.93 percent likely

If your Y-DNA test was for a high number of markers (such as 111), you can view matches at lower marker levels using
Family Tree DNA’s Filter Matches function. But when you do this, look only at matches who tested at the marker level you
selected. Here, we’re viewing matches at the 67-marker level, and only Bartholomew and Samuel tested at this level.

62 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 that you and your match on 65 out of 67
markers share an ancestor at or before
six generations. I like to start check-
ing the matches’ trees for the common
ancestor at the generation that boasts a
likelihood of at least 75 percent.
Your choice of the 111-marker test
was ambitious, as you could’ve selected
the lower 67- or even 37-marker test-
ing option, and probably still found
out what you wanted to know. But in
the end, you can’t ever have too much
information, and you might be glad
you opted for 111 markers. Remember
that these numbers of marker repre-
sent locations that are evaluated on
the Y chromosome. The more markers
you test, the more locations you evalu-
ate—and the better the estimate you
can receive about when you share an
ancestor with a match. For example, if
you match someone at exactly at the
37-marker level, you should look for
your common ancestor somewhere
between four and eight generations
back. But if you match exactly at the
111-marker level, it is much more likely
that your common ancestor will be
found within four generations.
Because you’ve had this high level
of testing completed, you’ll want to
be sure to also look for matches at the
lower levels of testing. To do that, use
the dropdown menu in the Filters sec-
tion of your match page. Whenever you
use this dropdown menu, make sure
you only look at the matches who’ve
had this level of testing completed, not
anything higher. In the table on the
opposite page, where we’re viewing
matches at the 67-marker level, you’d
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
LIKELIHOOD OF SHARING AN
ANCESTOR WITH A 65/67 MATCH
GENERATIONS PERCENTAGE
2 16.70%
4 48.60%
6 ts (sometimes it seems these
8 85.73%
10 93.46%
The likelihood you share an ancestor with
your Y-DNA match changes depending on the
number of matching markers. Two people who
match on 65 out of 67 markers, for example,
have a 70.93 percent chance of sharing an
ancestor within the past six generations.
The more markers you
test, the better you can
estimate how long ago
you share an ancestor
with a match.
pay attention only to Bartholomew
and Samuel, and not Inglebert and
Roger. This is because the numbers
in the Genetic Distance column refer
only to how well they match you at
the 67-marker level, and not at the
111-marker level. Inglebert might
match you exactly at the 67-marker
level, but have four differences from
you at the 111-marker level. Always
evaluate your match at the highest
level of testing available.
The best thing to do next with your
results is to join a surname project.
<familytreemagazine.com>
These projects gather individuals with
the same or similar surnames to col-
laborate on paternal line research. To
find one, go up to the top menu bar,
and choose Projects, then Join a Proj-
ect. You’ll see a list of some suggested
are blindly chosen without rhyme or
reason) but if you don’t see your sur-
name on the list, scroll down and type
it in the search box. One of the biggest
benefits of joining a surname project
is the assistance of an administrator.
Often your project administrator will
be able to help with understanding
your Y-DNA results and how they fit in
with the rest of the group.
If you’ve tried all of these ideas and
come up empty-handed, try getting
another descendant of your Y-DNA line
tested. You want to test the most-distant
relative possible. Testing second cous-
ins or closer will usually not be as help-
ful as testing a third or fourth cousin.
To find one, go back to your brick wall
ancestor, and follow a different son’s
male line down to the present until you
come to a living male with the ances-
tor’s surname to be tested. This newly
tested Y-DNA can help you verify your
connection to this ancestor, reveal more
matches, and give you a good Y-DNA
baseline to move forward with. ■
ASK OUR EXPERT!
Have a question about your DNA or
genetic genealogy research? Email
ftmedit@fwmedia.com with DNA Solutions
in the subject line.
63
photodetective
Tuning in to Photo Clues
2
3 GENEALOGISTS ARE TRAINED
to sort family myths from facts. You
probably think about records as genea-
logical evidence, but images also have
the power to help you prove or disprove
ancestral tales.
Mikael Hammerman of Sweden
owns this family photo, taken in Amer-
ica, of a woman sleeping as a girl plays
the piano. He’s hoping the picture can
verify a whopper of an immigration
story, one full of love and intrigue.
Mathilda Ericson, the sister of Ham-
merman’s great-grandmother, suppos-
edly ran away to the United States with
64 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y
Uncovering clues in historical photos
her married employer, Anders Carlson,
after becoming pregnant. Family lore
says that Anders abandoned his wife
and five children, and sold his horses
and other goods to finance the trip.
His parents were already in the United
States, and Mathilda had cousins on
the way.
According to Hammerman, the two
arrived in New York Jan. 31, 1879, as
Auguste J. and Mathilda Carlson, a
married couple. She would’ve been
about 20 years old.
When faced with this type of picture
puzzle, step back and examine what
2018 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
{ B Y M A U R E E N A . TAY L O R }
the photo says. Avoid jumping to con-
clusions about how the photograph
and a handed-down family story might
be connected.
This photo is full of details, some
of which help establish a time frame.
Then we’d compare the image to fam-
ily records. Could this picture show
Mathilda and her child? The evidence
doesn’t suggest it, as you’ll see in the
clues below. There’s a story in this
image, but it’s probably not the one that
would satisfy the Hammermans’ pent-
up curiosity. What could help solve
their mystery is a timeline of the lives
 TRACE YOUR Find your
ANCESTORS TO THE
OLD COUNTRY German
Revised and updated second edition!
This handy reference has research Ancestors!
tips, records access and resources
covering the entire continent. Professional German
<familytreemagazine.com/store> Genealogist with many years
of experience provides a
The Family Tree reliable and cost-effective
service in the search of your
of Mathilda and Anders, which could
Guidebook German Ancestry.
verify their whereabouts and how their to EUROPE
lives overlapped (or didn’t). Your Essential Guide to Trace Your Genealogy in Europe
A L L I S O N D O L A N A N D T H E E D I T O R S O F FA M I LY T R E E M A G A Z I N E
To request additional
information please contact
1 Closely examine any photos displayed Dr. Volker Jarren
in the background of your picture. You can
get a closer look by scanning the photo at a D 79106 Freiburg,
high resolution, then zooming in. Maybe your Ferdinand-Weiss-Strasse 59
family still has theses same images. Here,
the cabinet cards on the piano date from the or
1880s and 1890s.
mail@volkerjarren.de
2 This paper reads “Bon-Ton.” A Gazette du www.volkerjarren.de
Bon-Ton was published in France from 1912
to 1925, but those dates are too late for this ƙƗƘƏƓƓƎƑƑƑƓƗƗɥƭɥǬƐƖƥƙƙ
image. This could be an advertisement for
Bon-Ton, a department store that opened
in 1898 in York, Pa. The hat and the dress
style in the fashion plate date from 1897 to
about 1900. Get genealogy
3 The full sleeves on the dresses also date
to the 1890s.
advice from the
4 Mathilda would be 40 years old in 1899.
experts in the
It’s possible this woman is Mathilda, but
the girl is too young to be the child she
free Family Tree
was pregnant with in 1879. Census records
could confirm how many children Mathilda Magazine Podcast,
had and whether any were living with her
around 1900. hosted by
5 This little chair, decorated with ribbons, Lisa Louise Cooke
occupies a space between the mother
and daughter. The ribbons could be black
(signifying mourning) or another color
that appears dark in black-and-white
photography. 

Have you found an old mystery photo?

Submit the image and your story following
the instructions at <familytreemagazine.
com/submit-a-mystery-photo>. It may Get live customer support in
Listen in iTunes or at seconds, your price in minutes and
be analyzed on the Photo Detective Blog your books printed in 48 hours.
<blog.familytreemagazine.com/photo <familytreemagazine.com/
Go to 48hourbooks.com ...
detectiveblog>. podcasts> we print books unnaturally fast.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 65
thetoolkit
Six Must-Read Subreddits
for Genealogists
3 YOU’VE HEARD OF Google <google.
com> and Facebook <www.facebook.com>,
YouTube <www.youtube.com> and Twit-
ter <www.twitter.com>. But do you recall
the eighth-most famous website of all?
Reddit <reddit.com>, the self-desig-
nated “front page of the internet,” is a
not-so-well-hidden gem for genealo-
gists. This social platform hosts thou-
sands of forums (called “subreddits”
and referred to starting with r/) about
specific topics or interests. Registered
users can share text, images, memes,
videos and GIFs with others. Subred-
dit topics range from hyperlocal (such
as r/Cincinnati, which discusses local
issues, politics and sports teams) to
super generic (such as r/Pics, a dump-
ing ground for the internet’s cute,
strange, funny and silly images).
66 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y
Tech tutorials, reviews and roundups
ROUNDUP
Nonregistered visitors can see posts
in subreddits and “upvote” content to
make it more visible—similar to a like
on Facebook—or “downvote” it to make
it less visible.
You can create your own Reddit feed
by signing up for a free account and then
subscribing to individual subreddits.
You can visit a subreddit directly (akin
to visiting a Facebook profile page) by
visiting reddit.com/[subreddit name],
as in <reddit.com/r/Genealogy> . The
default Reddit homepage will display
the “default” subreddits, which are typ-
ically the most popular. Critically for
genealogy researchers, registered users
can also comment on posts, allowing
for dialogue.
With more than 11,000 active sub-
reddits, Reddit can quickly become
2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
{EDITED BY DIANE HADDAD}
Ke y s t o n e / S t r i n g e r/G e t t y I m a g e s
overwhelming—and even a bit scary,
if you stumble upon the wrong sub-
reddit. That’s why we’ve curated this
quick list of our six favorite subreddits
for genealogists.
r/Genealogy
This subreddit should be any gene-
alogist’s first stop on Reddit. Here,
users share their family history ques-
tions and brick walls, with queries
on topics such as interpreting DNA
test results, reading old documents,
and breaking scandalous research
finds to family members. And with
15,000 like-minded subscribers, the
Genealogy subreddit gives you a pretty
good chance of having your questions
answered. You’ll also find discussions
of news developments at genealogy
 companies, Reddit users’ best geneal-
ogy finds of the week and more.
r/OldSchoolCool
Interesting retro pictures abound in
this photo-driven subreddit. With a
whopping 12 million subscribers, r/
OldSchoolCool strives to show “His-
tory’s cool kids, looking fantastic.” It
features images that capture the iconic
fashions and attitudes of particular
time periods—the debonair man with
a 1950s pompadour; a young woman
sporting 1940s pincurls. Most posts
are photos of users’ parents, grandpar-
ents and even great-grandparents, but
they occasionally depict well-known
places and objects.
r/HistoryPorn
It might have a naughty name, but r/
HistoryPorn is a wholesome place
where history buffs share interesting
pictures and fascinating facts. While
the other history subreddits in this
list focus on posters’ personal histo-
ries, this one is more concerned with
major historical events. The subred-
dit’s strengths include wartime photos
and pictures of historical people or
events, such as Finnish soldiers with
antiaircraft guns in 1939, and San Fran-
cisco’s Sutro baths.
TIP: Reddit, which is mostly
uncensored, hosts a ton of
content—some you want to see,
and some you don’t. We didn’t
come across anything flagged as
NSFW (Not Safe for Work) in the
subreddits here, but do be cautious
if you wander across posts or
subreddits marked with NSFW.
r/ColorizedHistory
The historical photo colorization trend
has a dwelling place in this subreddit.
Here, folks who’ve used photo-edit-
ing software to add color to previously
black-and-white images share their
work—helping you picture yesteryear’s
people and places in realistic color rather
than shades of gray. Like r/HistoryPorn,
this subreddit focuses mostly on well-
known events and people, so you won’t
find many images of everyday life.
Country-specific subreddits
Remember those local subreddits we
mentioned? If you want a more-immer-
sive experience in their ancestors’
homeland, explore subreddits dedi-
cated to that country. These subreddits
typically serve current residents of
these countries, but they can connect
you with valuable resources for history,
travel and language.
For example, r/Ireland features
links to r/IrishTourism, r/PicturesO-
fIreland and r/IrishHistory, all of
which US-based genealogists with
Irish roots might find useful. Reddit
also has active subreddits for Germany
(r/de), France (r/France), the Neth-
erlands (r/Netherlands), Denmark (r/
Denmark), Poland (r/Polska), Italy
(r/Italy) and others. Note that these
subreddits are usually written in the
country’s native tongue, so you may
need to know some of the language (or
use Google Translate <translate.google.
com>) to navigate them.
» Andrew Koch

r/TheWayWeWere
r/TheWayWeWere is a social historian’s
dream. This subreddit hosts images and
anecdotes of everyday life from decades
F i n c h e r/ Ke y s t o n e /G e t t y I m a g e s

past, allowing users to share family

pictures and stories, and wax nostal-
gic about the Good Old Days. One user
posted his great-grandmother’s 1907
class photo in Germany; another person
posted a photo of a candy store at the
end of WWII sweet rationing in Britain.
Scroll down and look to the right to filter
posts by decade, making the subreddit a
great place to learn what your ancestor’s
life might have looked like and been like The subreddit r/TheWayWeWere features nostalgic photos like this one. Your British ancestors
in the 1920s or 1970s. who lived through World War II may vividly remember the end of sweets rationing.

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thetoolkit
TUTORIAL

Search for UK Records in the Discovery Online Catalog

Discovery <discovery.nationalarchives.
gov.uk>, the catalog of the United King-
dom’s National Archives, has more
than 32 million descriptions of records
held at the National Archives and 2,500
other archives across the kingdom. For
a small fee, you can download more
than 9 million of these records, includ-
ing wills, and you can order copies of
other documents. The records pertain
to England, Scotland, Wales and Ire-
land—remember that all of Ireland was
part of the United Kingdom until 1922.
Follow these five steps to find family
history records in Discovery.
on an estate, these registers contain
66,000-plus names and serve as a par-
tial nationwide index to wills for this
period. A search for my ancestor Sam-
uel Jones, who died in 1806, turns up
an “Abstract of Will of Samuel Jones
of Llanigon, Brecknockshire.” A down-
load costs 3.50 pounds, but you can get
Welsh wills before 1858 for free from
the National Library of Wales <www.
llgc.org.uk>.
2 To search the entire catalog, start
with the simple search box on
the Discovery home page. Keep in mind
that it finds matches in record descrip-
parish, city, county or other place. A
search on the last name Toppin and the
parish Upwell produces a match on the
1742 will of John Toppin, held by the
Norfolk Record Office.
You can search with wildcards. An
asterisk matches zero or more charac-
ters, so Rob*son finds Robson, Robison,
Robinson and Robertson. A question
mark replaces a single character, so
Rob?son finds Robison and Robeson.
Some catalog entries have sparse
descriptions, while others have a lot of
detail and people’s names. Since many
records are not indexed by name, it’s

1 Start on the Discovery home

page by clicking on the family
history research guide. Follow the links
tions in the catalog, not the full text
of all the documents at the National
Archives. Try different searches com-
worth searching on just a place to see
what records are available. A search on
the parish and county of Upwell Norfolk
to learn how to find and use more than bining a last name or full name and a turns up 824 matches, while a search
200 types of records, such as military
records, wills and censuses.
Until 1858, wills were proved in more 1
than 200 church courts. The Preroga-
tive Court of Canterbury (PCC) was the
highest church court in England and
Wales. It dealt with relatively wealthy
people, mainly in southern England and
Wales. The National Archives has digi-
tized over a million PCC wills proved
between 1384 and Jan. 12, 1858. You can
download a will for 3.50 pounds (about
$4.61). But before you pay for one, click
on “More ways to view this record” and
you’ll learn that the subscription sites
Ancestry.com <ancestry.com> and The 2
Genealogist <www.thegenealogist.co.uk>
also have PCC wills.
From 1796 to 1811, personal estates
worth more than 20 pounds were
subject to a death duty, like an inheri-
tance tax. Discovery has digitized
these death duty registers for country
courts (church courts other than the
PCC) from 1796 to 1811. Created to
show whether a death duty was paid

68 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 3

on just the parish, Upwell, produces 4

1,310 matches. You can filter the results
by century.

3 The advanced search form makes

it easy to form a more complex
query. To find references to the Toppin
family in County Norfolk, enter Norfolk
in the box for All of These Words and
Toppin, Toppen and Topping in the boxes
for Any of These Words, to cover alter-
nate name spellings. Limiting the results
to a range of years from 1700 to 1775 pro-
duces 23 matches, including a 1727 court 5
case, Robert North of Upwell, Norfolk vs.
John Topping and Mary his wife.

4 If the records you want aren’t

online and you can’t visit the
National Archives in person, you can
request a page check for 8.40 pounds
(about $11). The reply will note the cost
to make copies if they can be made.

5 Be sure to explore other Brit-

ish archives’ websites and cata-
logs, too. On the Discovery Catalogue
homepage, click on the link to Find an
Archive for details on more than 2,500
UK archives. For example, use the map
or options on the right to select East of
England, County Norfolk, and then the
Norfolk Record Office. On its profile
page, you can browse its holdings and
follow a link to its online catalog. 
» Rick Crume

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <familytreemagazine.com> 69
thetoolkit
QUICK GUIDE
Audio captions are the new way to share the stories behind your family photos.
How? With apps like the ones here. Most require photos to be in your device’s
camera roll, so you’ll need to “scan” old pictures with an app that saves images
Add Voice to your camera roll. Some of these apps let you add audio only to individual

to Your Photos photos. Others (like Shutterfly Photo Story and SpeakingPhoto) let you tell the
stories of individual photos and then combine them into a bigger project, such
as a slideshow or photo book. Sharing is a key aspect of these apps, with most
making it easy to show off your story-enhanced pictures via social media, text
messaging or email.
» Dana McCullough

Program/App/Tool
Cost Features Tips for using
(with URL and OS)

ReminX Family/ free  Use a digital assistant to upload App developer EveryStory has undergone
EveryStory (iOS) photos and record answers to several iterations. The app is now touted
<everystory.us> questions. for use in memory therapy to help patients
 Invite family and friends to with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
participate.

PhotoVoice (iOS)
<itunes.apple.com/
us/app/photovoice/
id492150568?mt=8>
99 cents  Select an existing or new photo and
add a voice recording.
 Preview it and re-record if needed.
 Save or share via email, text or social
media.
A free PhotoVoice Lite version also is
available, but limits audio messages to 10
seconds and includes ads (the paid version
is ad-free).

Shutterfly Photo free  Create a photo book with photos The app and a digital photo book to share
Story (iOS) from your Shutterfly, Facebook on Facebook or via email are free; printed
<shutterfly.com/photo- or Instagram account, and add a books start at $19.99. Printed books have a
book-ipad-app> 30-second audio message per page. QR code that links to the audio.
 Add notes with the Doodle feature.

SpeakingPhoto free  Add audio to new photos or those in The pro (business) version is $4.99 and
(iOS, Android) (personal your camera roll. offers additional collaboration features.
<speakingphoto.com> version)  Combine up to eight photos with
audio into a slideshow.
 Share via social media, email or text,
or embed on a blog.

StoryGlory (iOS) free Starter  Add voice to images from your photo Starter users must share the creation
<storyglory.me> Account; gallery, then share them with selected before moving forward. The Storyteller
$3.99 per contacts in your phone. Account lets you download and save your
month  Make stories private (the default audio-enhanced photos, get live phone
Storyteller option) or share them. support, and get discounts on photo
Account services.
 Redo a recording if needed.

VoxPixl (iOS, free  Add 30 seconds of audio to a photo. Enter keywords to organize and search for
Windows Phone)  Do basic photo-editing. the photos later.
<voxpixl.com>  Share via social media, email or
online.

70 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••


Drug Companies
Fear Release of the
New AloeCure
Big Pharma stands to lose billions as doctors’ recommend
drug-free “health cocktail” that adjusts and corrects
your body’s health conditions.
by David Waxman
Seattle Washington:
Drug company execs are nervous. That’s
because the greatest health advance in
decades has hit the streets. And analysts
expect it to put a huge crimp in “Big Pharma”
profits.
So what’s all the fuss about? It’s about a
new ingredient that’s changing the lives of
people who use it. Some call it “the greatest
discovery since penicillin”!
The name of the product is the AloeCure.
It’s not a drug. It’s something completely
different. And the product is available to
anyone who wants it, at a reasonable price.
But demands may force future prices to rise.
TOP DOC WARNS: DIGESTION DRUGS
CAN CRIPPLE YOU!
Company spokesperson, Dr. Liza Leal;
a leading integrative health specialist
recommends AloeCure before she decides to
prescribe any digestion drug. Especially after
the FDA’s stern warning about long-term use
of drugs classified as proton pump inhibitors
like Prilosec®, Nexium®, and Prevacid®.
In a nutshell, the FDA statement warned
people should avoid taking these digestion
drugs for longer than three 14-day treatment
periods because there is an increased risk of
bone fractures. Many people take them daily
and for decades.
Dr. Leal should know. Many patients come
to her with bone and joint complaints and
she does everything she can to help them.
One way for digestion sufferers to help
avoid possible risk of tragic joint and bone
problems caused by overuse of digestion
drugs is to take the AloeCure.
Analysts expect the AloeCure to put a
huge crimp in “Big Pharma” profits.
The secret to AloeCure’s “health adjusting”
formula is scientifically tested Acemannan, a
polysaccharide extracted from Aloe Vera. But
not the same aloe vera that mom used to apply
to your cuts, scrapes and burns. This is a perfect
strain of aloe that is organically grown under
very strict conditions. AloeCure is so powerful
it begins to benefit your health the instant you
take it. It soothes intestinal discomfort and you
can avoid the possibility of bone and health
damage caused by overuse of digestion drugs.
We all know how well aloe works externally
on cuts, scrapes and burns. But did you know
Acemannan has many of other health benefits?...
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
ADVERTISEMENT
HELPS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO CALM
INFLAMMATION
According to a leading aloe research,
when correctly processed for digesting,
the Aloe plant has a powerful component
for regulating your immune system called
Acemannan. So whether it’s damage that is
physical, bacterial, chemical or autoimmune;
the natural plant helps the body stay healthy.
RAPID ACID AND HEARTBURN
NEUTRALIZER
Aloe has proved to have an astonishing
effect on users who suffer with digestion
problems like bouts of acid reflux, heartburn,
cramping, gas and constipation because it
acts as a natural acid buffer and soothes the
digestive system. But new studies prove it
does a whole lot more.
SIDE-STEP HEART CONCERNS
So you’ve been taking proton pump
inhibitors (PPI’s) for years and you feel just
fine. In June of 2015 a major study shows
that chronic PPI use increases the risk of
heart attack in general population.
UNLEASH YOUR MEMORY
Studies show that your brain needs the
healthy bacteria from your gut in order
function at its best. Both low and high
dosages of digestion drugs are proven to
destroy that healthy bacteria and get in the
way of brain function. So you’re left with a
sluggish, slow-to-react brain without a lot of
room to store information. The acemannan
used in AloeCure actually makes your gut
healthier, so healthy bacteria flows freely to
your brain so you think better, faster and
with a larger capacity for memory.
Doctors call it “The greatest health
discovery in decades!”
SLEEP LIKE A BABY
A night without sleep really damages
your body. And continued lost sleep can lead
to all sorts of health problems. But what you
may not realize is the reason why you’re not
sleeping. Some call it “Ghost Reflux”. A low-
intensity form of acid reflux discomfort that
quietly keeps you awake in the background.
AloeCure helps digestion so you may find
yourself sleeping through the night.
CELEBRITY HAIR, SKIN & NAILS
Certain antacids may greatly reduce your
body’s ability to break down and absorb
calcium. Aloe delivers calcium as it aids in
balancing your stomach acidity. The result?
Thicker, healthier looking hair…more
youthful looking skin… And nails so strong
they may never break again.
SAVE YOUR KIDNEY
National and local news outlets are
reporting Kidney Failure linked to PPI’s. Your
Kidney extracts waste from blood, balance
body fluids, form urine, and aid in other
important functions of the body. Without
it your body would be overrun by deadly
toxins. Aloe helps your kidney function
properly. Studies suggest, if you started
taking aloe today; you’d see a big difference
in the way you feel.
GUARANTEED RESULTS OR DOUBLE
YOUR MONEY BACK
Due to the incredible results people are
reporting, AloeCure is being sold with an
equally incredible guarantee.
“We can only offer this incredible
guarantee because we are 100% certain this
product will work for those who use it,” Says
Dr. Leal.
Here’s how it works: Take the pill exactly
as directed. You must see and feel remarkable
improvements in your digestive health, your
mental health, in your physical appearance,
the amount inflammation you have
throughout your body – even in your ability
to fall asleep at night!
Otherwise, simply return the empty
bottles with a short note about how you took
the pills and followed the simple instructions
and the company will send you...Double
your money back!
HOW TO GET ALOECURE
This is the official nationwide release of
the new AloeCure pill in the United States.
And so, the company is offering our readers
up to 3 FREE bottles with their order.
This special give-away is available for
readers of this publication only. All you have
to do is call TOLL-FREE 1-800-746-2951 and
provide the operator with the Free Bottle
Approval Code: JC025. The company will do
the rest.
Important: Due to AloeCure’s recent
media exposure, phone lines are often
busy. If you call and do not immediately get
through, please be patient and call back.
photofinish Reader pictures from the past {EDITED BY DIANE HADDAD}

All in the Family

In some families, it seems, ancestors pass down genetic heirlooms in the form of eyes,
noses and chins. We enjoyed these readers’ photos of their uncanny family lookalikes.

“I went to
Denmark to meet my
third cousin and see where
my ancestors lived,“ writes
Deb Carlson Faison. She’s
holding a picture of their great-
great-grandfather
Jens Jensen Morten.

This little
girl is the spitting
image of her great-
great-grandmother
(the grandmother of
reader Tracy Lund
Howard).

“On the left

are my sister and me
(the younger one); on
the right, my daughters,”
writes Melissa Frank
on Twitter. 

72 Family Tree Magazine 3 J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2018 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Read Your Wayy to
Research Success
SAVE 10%! Enter code NewspapersFTM
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OW-TO GUIDE
ONTAINS:
tips for finding rich
details about your
ancestors in newspapers

steps for searching online

papers at websites such
as Newspapers.com,
GenealogyBank and the
free Chronicling America

real-life success stories

from historical newspaper
researchers like you

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<bit.ly/historical-
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call (855) 278-0408