Lineage and Lingerers: Why Our Ancestors Stayed Put

This class will suggest various avenues that can be explored by those who are in the process of giving their study a worldwide flavour.

Family historians know only too well the importance of researching the family/friends, neighbours and associates (the FAN club) of direct line ancestors. Any information we find does not become truly valuable until placed into a community or cluster or network context. Harvesting the clues in the FAN club gives us the potential to further advance our research as well as provide pointers to other records or fragments. So, what genealogical details would be found if the FAN principle was applied to one family in a locality? This presentation will show how one such network or cluster evolved in the Hunter Valley region; one which was to be hugely influential in the growth years of the New South Wales colony and in the development of Australia as a nation.

Can a mysterious family photo with a cryptic message on the back lead you to an amazing story of love and loss? Starting with a family photo, learn how you can plan your genealogy research to find out more information about the photo’s subject including vital record information, newspaper articles, and even circumstances that you might not expect! You’ll also learn how to track your research and use solid research methodology to evaluate records.

Our ancestors did not live in a vacuum. They lived, worked, socialized, and married in the midst of a larger group of people. Those people included not just family members but friends, neighbors, employers and fellow employees, fellow churchgoers, and business associates. Genealogists often refers to this group with the…

Many federal records pertain to the development and use of waterways in the United States. This lecture shows examples and explains the relevance of some of the applicable records found at the National Archives in Washington, DC, in its online holdings, and at its regional facilities like Chicago, Atlanta, Kansas…

Timelines are a great tool for gathering together your research on an ancestor and their family. Learn tips and tricks on creating these and using them in your research and when you publish your family story.

Sometimes the answers we seek will not be in the records of our ancestor. Turning to the records of their FAN Club - their Friends/Family, Associates and Neighbors - may have what we are looking for. Join Geoff Rasmussen as he walks you through a simple case study of using the FAN Club methods.

Roads and trails are the "go-to" places we look at first when determining how our ancestors moved throughout America. However, there were other means of transportation available to them. Could your ancestor have traveled other by-ways?

Tracking the woman who raised Jane’s youngest child leads from California through England to County Tyrone to identify parents. An Irish family case study. Brief Outline Jane Graham was born in Ireland in 1835. Unsourced family lore provided parents’ names. Twenty years of on-and-off research proved the lore was true. Jane and her husband and children were missed in the 1860 census. Her only census appearance was 1870, three years before her death in childbirth. Encountering Jane’s last child another family’s household led to extensive research on Ann Lockren and the discovery that Ann and Jane were sisters. Research on Irish-born Ann led to records of her marriage and children in County Durham, England. After Ann was widowed, she lived in the same household as another Graham family. Tracking those Grahams through clues in family trees to records in England and Ireland led to origins in County Tyrone. Catholic parish registers in Tyrone proved Jane and Ann were sisters, and who their parents were. Case involves multiple surname variants and use of cluster research.