Census records are the most used—and yet the most underused—of all genealogical resources. Every major provider offers them, along with an index so we can easily find our people. Aside from a year here or there, when a pesky ancestor seems to have eluded the census taker, the use of censuses seems fairly straightforward: We use a search engine to find our person and we copy down the data. There, done! No. Not at all! Censuses provide “facts,” but in between those “facts” there are a wealth of clues we can mine to solve our worst problems with identity, origin, and parentage. This session is for advanced researchers who think they “already know all about census records” and for newer researchers who want to avoid the mistakes most researchers make. ** This is a members-only webinar **

One of the toughest challenges faced by genealogists is the difficulty of identifying and tracking females. Wives and mothers traditionally have been “supporting characters” to the roles played by their husbands and sons—bearing no known name other than that of the males they married or bore. Historically, social mores and law codes made them second-class citizens, without a legal identity of their own and few rights or opportunities to create the range of records that genealogists customarily use to trace males. This session presents an array of resources—and, more importantly, techniques and strategies backed by case studies—we can use to establish the identities of elusive females.

The legendary Choctaw Chief Pushmataha swore that he sprang full grown from Mother Earth. As genealogists, we sometimes wonder whether our ancestors did the same. Most elusive men do have traceable origins, once we learn to deal with the issues that thwart us—migration, high mortality rates, and illegitimacy being not the least of them. This hour offers practical suggestions and strategies for extending paternal lines, focusing upon the pre-1850 period when censuses don’t identify children in parental households.

Elizabeth Shown Mills and Geoff Rasmussen preview the second year of “The Best of Elizabeth Shown Mills: Genealogy Problem Solving” webinar series. Elizabeth discusses what she hopes genealogists will gain from the series, what brings her back for another year, and what advice she has for genealogists of all expertise levels. She also reveals genealogy’s biggest challenge—identity—and how we will overcome it through this year’s classes.

Solutions to tough problems are not just “found.” They are analytically constructed. This session explains how to break down problems into their most-critical elements. It summarizes the types of questions and tests that should be applied to each. Then it demonstrates how to analyze, rank, and assemble the resulting answers into an effective research plan. In this process you’ll walk through ten steps, learning how to apply micro and macro analysis, evaluate prior conclusions, argue with their evidence, develop targeted worksheets, and complete a plan of action that can be pursued as time permits. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

Witnesses are not afterthoughts tacked onto the end of documents. Although they filled a routine role for our ancestors, they are significant informants for us—once we learn how to use those names to develop evidence. This session approaches the topic in two ways: theory and application. It explores record types that offer witnesses, ways in which witnesses were used, situations that affected the choice of witnesses, signals that indicate whether a witness would be important to our research, and methods to apply in our development of the clues they offer. A challenging case study presents an unmarried freedwoman, never named in any census, who died about 1817—and applies key strategies to determine her death and burial sites.

The Carolina backcountry is known for its genealogical roadblocks: from social and geographic challenges to record destruction, to the failure to create records in the first place. This session begins by examining the cultural influences that have created the problems—influences we need to understand if we are to develop alternative resources and approaches. Building on this foundation, Mills then explores thirty-two strategies for overcoming research obstacles, using a variety of short case studies and little-known materials to illustrate key points. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

Whatever our research dilemma, a correct solution depends upon a reliable evaluation of the evidence we are using. Evidence is not concrete. It is not definitive. It is not a source. It is not a fact. It is not “proof.” It is, instead, our interpretation of what a piece of information means. Evidence is both singular and collective. We analyze it piece by piece. We correlate each piece with everything else discoverable, and then we analyze the whole to reach conclusions that are reliable. This session walks us through the three levels at which each piece of information should be evaluated, in order to draw a reliable conclusion from it. The principles are then illustrated with a common but thorny problem: a Revolutionary War–era case study that might be called: How to Identify Someone Who’s Been Mangled by ‘Facts.’ *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

Online research today is immensely rewarding. Major genealogical data sites and software perform automatic searches for us and suggest documents bearing the names of people we are pursuing. However, every document we collect presents an identity issue we have to resolve before we can validly use it to build our family tree. This presentation demonstrates why, using three men named Samuel Witter whose descendants have all claimed for him the same War of 1812 service. As Mills separates the three Samuels, she explores the standards that govern our development of evidence, the Congressional laws that must guide our decisions, and the strategies needed to differentiate between men and correctly assign military service. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

We’ve all heard the mantra Get the Neighbors! But exactly how do we use “other people’s” information to solve problems of identity, kinship, and origin for our own ancestors? This session teaches critical skills for building networks around problem ancestors, methods for analyzing and prioritizing associations, and strategies for milking clues from the records those neighbors created. All can be developed into solutions for our toughest research problems.

Everyone has ancestors who seem to mysteriously appear and then dissolve into the ether, existing nowhere except a family story, a census, or a Bible entry. When deeds, wills, and other standard records fail to yield more information, “too poor to trace!” is a common conclusion—but a wrong one. Many neglected sources include propertyless men, women, and children. This class explores those sources and defines strategies we can use to develop clues, even from records that do not specifically name our ancestors.

Illegitimacy. Poverty. Footloose fathers. Record destruction. Name changes. Conflicting data. Forged Bibles. Careless research by predecessors. All these problems can be overcome even when all are combined into one perplexing person. This session presents eight basic principles on which sound research is grounded. For each, it demonstrates how to apply that principle, drawing upon the presenter’s famed case that proved James Ball of Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, to be the father of a child born to an unmarried mother in 1824 Louisiana. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

“Identity theft” happens easily with common-name families. This session uses two case studies from two different societies—a Jones family from the Northern U.S. and a Smith family from the South—to demonstrate how to work safely with common-name families. The first ten minutes ground the audience in four problem-solving models. On that foundation, Mills then walks her class through sources and strategies that are often overlooked amid today’s reliance upon database searches, provider hints, and crowd-sourcing. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

The records we use are filled with “trivia,” bits and pieces of information that seem to have no “genealogical” value—at least not until we become more innovative in our research and analysis. Each piece of trivia in every document is an opportunity waiting to be connected to something else. Our ability to resolve problems depends upon our ability to make those connections. This class explores eighteen types of records and the kind of hidden clues each offers to help us resolve problems of identity, kinship, and origin. *** This class requires an active webinar membership to attend. ***

As the genealogy world anxiously awaits the January 27, 2023 return of Elizabeth Shown Mills, Geoff Rasmussen had the pleasure to interview Elizabeth about her new webinar series. She talks about why she’s returning from retirement, what the webinar series is all about, and gives advice for both beginning and experienced genealogists. She also reveals her secret to success in genealogy.