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A brick wall ancestor is one whose parentage is partially or completely unknown. My paternal grandmother’s mother was one such ancestor for me. On my father’s side I’d otherwise had plenty of success finding ancestors; it’s my mother’s side where I keep hitting brick walls only a few generations removed from me.… Read more “Breaking through a brick wall”
Every generation has popular names and some names like John remain popular across generations. It can be difficult to know if this particular John Smith is the one you’re searching for. Here is a list of tips I hope can help you find the correct person.… Read more “Differentiating between people with identical names in records”
Unlike the meme, it’s going pretty well. I’ve added at least 200 genetically-related family members to my tree so far. I’ve also been able to go back a lot farther than I’d previously expected; my earliest known direct ancestor, Jane (Unknown) McGhee, was born about 1820.… Read more “How it’s going”
