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. ***
Very good webinar. It answered a question on my own great-grandfather who was born ISETT and then changed his last name to his biological father’s name Crawford prior to his marriage in 1893. I haven’t yet located a legal name change record, but there may not be one. He did change his last name prior to the death of his father, but after the death of his grandmother Isett who didn’t allow/want her daughter to marry Mr. Crawford.
More research to be done.
Thank you so much for giving us this wonderful webinar Elizabeth ❤️😊
It’s not just how Elizabeth teaches us how to do thorough exhaustive research, it’s the way she weaves the information into a rich, colorful, and humorous research story.
Thank you ESM for extending your career just a little bit longer so that those of us who were not involved in genealogy and family search at an earlier date have the opportunity to experience your lessons directly.
ESM’s webinars are the most fun way to learn. Thank you so much for having this series! I am so grateful to ESM for continuing to share her hard-won lessons. She is an inspiration.
I always love seeing how Elizabeth Shown Mills solves “unsolvable” problems!
ESM shows how important it is to research every FAN member. They may help with fragments of information or establishing locations or timelines to problem solve. Interesting to learn the depth of research that is sometimes needed. There is no quick fix for some genealogical research.
Ms. Mills is a true artisan! Ms. Mills describing how she used documents, along with her analytical wits, intuition, and experience to provide answers to her client, is a master class in historical biography!