You often hear about peoples’ discoveries of important ancestors, tracing their families back 500 years, etc.

In my case, I am only confirming that I am descended from very poor people who do t have records past the early 1800s, and the ones from the early 1800s have very little info. I know one set it ancestors were first cousins, and some of the same names repeating make me think maybe they were weren’t the only couple like that

I can accept that I am from peasantry, but not being able to get much further than about 200 years also makes me feel like like something is missing from me, if that makes sense.

Is this relatable at all, or am I just crazy lol
Thanks

This has been a long debate on numerous genealogy websites. With patronymic naming (father's 1st name is the last name of the children, plus -son or -datter), there are many more duplicate names, leading to frequent issues with confusion of people. With 10 Nils Nilsen from the same village of similar age for example, far too often people would accidentally confuse 2 or more of them, and make a bad merge.

This issue is resolved by adding the farm surname as the final surname. So in the example above, there would be a Nils Nilsen Haugen (Nils, son of Nils, born at the Haugen farm), Nils Nilsen Strand, Nils Nilsen Berg, etc. Also, many church books and other documents often only list the farm surname (Nils Haugen, Nils Strand, etc.), ignoring the patronymic surname all together.

Until now, the rules on FamilySearch were confusing about this, with different articles suggesting different guidelines about naming practices. About 5 weeks ago, after careful review, they have changed their naming practices so all 3 names are now standard. Farm names are to be included after the patronym in the surname field, which hopefully will resolve this problem. If a person moved, additional alt-names should be added for farms they later lived at. Just an FYI going forward.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-to-enter-scandinavian-names-into-family-tree

Context: I'm from Essex, England and this story takes place over three years

I took a DNA Test on the off chance about 3 years ago as I wanted to see what I was. However, it turns out after my i got my results back it turns out my family tree was wrong as I was led to believe that the person who I thought was my great-grandfather wasn't my great-grandfather

My grandmother's father wasn't who she thought it was. It was common knowledge in my family however but nobody told me until just after I got my results back, the family story went that my great-grandmother slept with an American soldier during World War 2 whilst she was a newlywed, now me being a massive nerd about American history, I was stoked as I love America, and quite frankly wish I were born in America.

Cemantics aside, I did research and initially it turns out it was a New Zealander air force pilot was my great-grandfather. I left it be until recently as for whatever reason I decided to look into the case again, and it turns out that one message I sent in October 2023 was the answer I didn't take into account

The message mentioned a name that went over my head back then, but then I decided to work the case out of curiosity recently as it just didn't sit right with me. It turns out my REAL great-grandfather was indeed an American. Charles Francis Grove Jr. was born July 10, 1920, in Mobile, Alabama. He joined the US Army in June 1943 and trained in Fort McClellan in Alabama, after basic. He was assigned to the 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, which was stationed in England from December 1943. My nan was born in March 1945 and would've been conceived just before D-Day so the math adds up. Me and Grandpa Charles also have/had the same hair and eye colour, Brown Hair and Blue Eyes and are similar in height both being 5'10

The 28th took part in D-Day. He would be unfortunately killed in action on September 20th, 1944, during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. He had no other children besides my grandmother, and was also a newlywed himself to a woman back in Alabama. He is buried in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium and won a Purple Heart

Charles came from military pedigree, as his father Charles Francis Grove Sr. (born 1889 in Mobile, Alabama) served in the US Army in WW1 but I don't know what unit he served in. I know he trained at Camp Hancock in Georgia, but other than that I have no idea

Charles's Sr's father, Ernest Joseph Grove (born 1864 in Mobile, Alabama) served in the military as a 1st Lieutenant. It says he served in World War I according to his veteran gravestone application, but he would've been 53-54 at the time. So maybe he served in the Spanish-American War or the Philippine-American War and they got it wrong, I don't know what unit Ernest was in either

Fun Fact: My great-grandfather shares the same division (28th Infantry) as Art Carney, a famous actor and Eddie Slovik, the only American who was executed for desertion

So, Roll Tide?

My parents' parents passed away when I was young, so a lot of our family history died with them. I don't know much beyond my grandparents' generation - no pictures or written document, no village records, nothing written down that I know of.

For those who've done this: where did you start? Has anyone had luck with DNA testing services for Nepali ancestry specifically?

I am a first generation Nepali living in California for context and in my late twenties and have been interested in doing family constellation therapy to learn more too.

My grandmother was born in 1915 in New Mexico. She never got a birth certificate there. She applied for a social security number in California in 1940. I have her social security number, but I'm not sure how or where to go about requesting a copy of the delayed birth certificate used to obtain it. I sent in a request some years ago to the county in NM where she was born and they said they had no records. Would the county where she applied for the delayed birth cert in CA be the place to go? TIA for any help.

1. Goal: Using the information, from my eight years of research on the Washington family, to find Eliza’s place of burial. And hopefully, if possible, a place of burial for both her parents.
2. Her maiden name: Eliza Williams.
3. Eliza‘s race: Black. (However, her 2 sons were listed as biracial & black in all their Census records. Some records falsely label them and Warner as white, and some even falsely label Sarah’s race as white (she was biracial, like Daniel, Warner & John, as well) and give her a false birthplace of South Carolina. She was from New Bern, NC). (About Sarah, see Question 21).
4. Her parents: Thomas Williams & Mary Calven.
5. Her birth year: 1806.
6. Place of birth: Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, USA.
7. When did she move out of state the first time?: I’m unsure. She was already living in Fayette County, Indiana in 1835, so I’m sure it was that year or before then.
8. Did she have children?: Yes. She had 2 sons, Daniel W. Washington (1836-1890) & John Alfred Washington (1842 - died after 1900), both born in Harrison Township, Fayette County, Indiana.
9. When did she leave Indiana?: Possibly 1847 or before then, when the Washingtons moved to Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They were already living in Pittsburgh in July 1847.
10. Did Eliza have a probate record?: Yes. Her will was probated on October 3, 1853.
11. When did she die?: In September 1853. I don’t know the exact day.
12. Where did she die?: Pittsburgh, PA.
13. Did she own land?: Yes. She inherited land from her father, Thomas; this land was passed down to one of her sons.
14. When she died, how old were her sons?: They were minors at that time. Daniel was 17, and John was 11. I do know there were guardianship records Warner filed in the Allegheny County Orphans’ Court, on Daniel & John‘s behalf.
15. When did her parents die?: Her mother died in 1815. I don’t know when her father died (he was born around 1767 in Virginia & died a free person of color/FPOC in Chillicothe, Ohio, after 1830). I found a land record, dated March 6, 1854, regarding Warner and Thomas possibly passing the land down to Daniel & John, due to Eliza‘s death (and in this case, for obvious reasons, it was Warner‘s, until the boys reached the age of majority).
16. Was she married?: Yes. To Warner Washington IV (1807-1874). I‘m very sure their physical marriage record no longer exists. I’ve done dozens of (online only) searches in Ohio, Pennsylvania & Indiana for it, but nothing resulted.
17. Where were her parents from?: Thomas was from Virginia & as a runaway slave, escaped to Ohio, where a judge declared him free, after his enslaver tried to petition the court to force him back into slavery (this was denied & Thomas was allowed to stay in Chillicothe, which he did, for the rest of his life). I don’t know where Mary was from. I also don’t know who Thomas’ enslaver was, or what VA county he was from. Like Eliza, her parents were mysterious people.
18. How many times was her father married?: 3 times. Thomas married 2 more times, after Eliza’s mother, Mary Calven (m. in 1807), died in 1815—to Henrietta Lord (m. 1828) and Sally Carter (m. 1815).
19. Is Eliza buried in Allegheny County, PA?: No. Someone native to the area did some burial record research for me, and they found nobody under her name, Eliza Washington or Eliza Williams, buried there between 1852 & 1854. (See Question 19).
20. Where else could Eliza be buried? I don’t know. Possibly Chillicothe, Ohio (her hometown) or Fayette County, Indiana (where they had their sons)? Those are my 2 educated guesses.
21. Have you found Eliza’s 1850 Census record?: No. She was living alone or possibly remarried. They were already in Pittsburgh, PA by then.
22. Sidebar: By 1850, Warner was already living with who would become (according to her 1909 obituary—I also haven't found evidence of this, yet) Warner‘s second wife & another FPOC, Sarah Taylor (1822-1909), a North Carolina native, who moved to Butler County, Ohio in 1828 with her family. They’d later have one son (Warner’s third and final son), George W. Washington (1856-1935). George would later have Warner & Sarah’s granddaughter (there’s a lot of misinformation, claiming George’s daughter was Warner and Sarah’s biological daughter—this is not true), aptly named Sarah “Sadie” Washington, later Sarah Washington-Black (1876-1962). Sadie never had children, and Sarah’s line, ended with Sadie‘s 1962 death.
23. What happened to Eliza’s 2 sons?: Daniel W. (1836-1890), had 7 children in Georgia. (See Question 24)
24. And John?: Eliza’s other son, John Alfred (1842-?)—to my knowledge—had 1 stillborn daughter, with Julia Cummings, in 1874 (she was buried in Philadelphia, PA). If John had additional children, that is new information to me. John later moved between Pittsburgh, PA & St. Louis, Missouri until the early 1900s, when he married a Tennessee native named Emmeline (maiden name unknown), in 1894. John’s death information is unclear; to this day, I put a range between 1903 and 1917 as a placeholder, because an archivist in St. Louis gave me a 1909 obituary and a 1917 obituary, both for John Washingtons, and I don’t know who could be a match for him. It’s confusing.
25. Do you know where her parents were buried?: No. That’s also a mystery to me.

My great great grandfather's address in the NYC 1905 census is listed as, best I can tell, "Waterlight," or something like that. It is listed along a bunch of other words in quotes, in an Election District along the water.

Is this really a houseboat community along the Hudson River? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

Line 10 - John Weekstrom & family
https://postimg.cc/pyFRzsqy

I just got my MyHeritage DNA results, and they don’t make any sense. It says I’m only 2% Lebanese, even though I know for a fact that multiple generations on both my mom’s and dad’s sides were 100% Lebanese and lived in Lebanon. Both of my parents are Lebanese immigrants. My results are 55% Egyptian and the rest is North African.

Am I misunderstanding how these ethnicity estimates work, or could there be an issue with my results? Has anyone else experienced something similar? What should I do to confirm?

Hopefully this makes sense! I took Ancestry's DNA test several years ago and used my work email address to set up the account. It's been awhile since I logged in and Ancestry wants to send a verification code to my email before I can access it. Unfortunately a year or so ago my school district (I work in a school) implemented a really aggressive cybersecurity system that blocks emails from almost all coming from outside our school district. There's no place I can go to look at the blocked emails. (And no, they're definitely not in spam or junk email folders.) I thought about changing my email address to my home one but my DNA results are linked to my work email login. I tried chatting with their AI "Leaf" but that was very unhelpful. Does anyone have a way around this problem? I would be eternally grateful!!

Hi, Everyone:

Can anyone help me please?

I'm very involved with searching my own family's genealogy. I have been given a task by my church. I need some help please.

The church wants to create religious records of birth for newly born children (not baptismal certificates). I have been asked to do it.

Does anyone come across religious records of birth in their own genealogy searches? My own family's records are limited to baptismal certificates. I have heard of different religious or cultures doing naming certificates or bris certificates.

I also hear that some states do "commemorative birth certificates," that are different from certificates of live birth. I did have a thought just to put the name of the church at the top and use the certificate to say that the child is now a part of the church.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or have any pictures they can share? If you have seen any pictures online of any religious records of birth so that I can get a few ideas from, it would be very helpful.

If you know of any more subs that I can crosspost this on, please let me know.

Hello Everyone! My great-grandmother was a woman named Horsella Crawford. What I know was she was born in 1906 in Clarendon, Middlesex, Jamaica. I saw only a little indexed information on her record in FindMyPast, but I'm just wondering if anyone can actually find the image of the record. If so, I would be overjoyed!!!

I still can't find the death for Myrtle Irene (Russell) Smith. I posted about her previously. I will include info that I already know.

• She was born on March 20, 1907, in Dennison, Ohio.

• She was the youngest of three children born to Oscar Jared and Mary Jane (Robertson) Russell.

• Myrtle is included in the 1920 Census where she is living with her maternal aunt and uncle Charles William and Martha (Robertson) Jackson. They lived in Union Township, Ohio.

• I now know that Myrtle married a man named Richard Harold Graves Smith (1900-1978).

• They married on July 20, 1930, after Myrtle had relocated to California.

• They lived in various areas, but were living in Redwood, California by the 1950 Census.

• She’s not mentioned in any of her family’s obituaries, as they were estranged.

• I can’t locate an obituary for her husband to indicate if she was dead or alive.

• I did notice that in the burial records for her husband, her name is listed at the top, but no other information about her is given.

• She doesn't appear to be included in the burial records for Oak Hill Memorial Park Cemetery. At least under “Smith”.

She is like a ghost. I have scoured numerous obituaries, death certificates, and related records.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me find out what happened to her once and for all. I'm looking to know when she died, where, and if she remarried (depending on whether she survived her husband).

Can be accessed from Archives57.com.

The site is in French though most browser translates help navigation. They have a lot of records going back to the 1650s in some locales.

I aspire to make a binder (and maybe a bound book eventually) just for my family that has visual trees for how everyone is related but also a profile with document copies for each direct ancestor.

BUT I can't wrap my head around how geneaologists organize something like this. How do you list spouses together when each is a different branch of the family? Does that mean you don't organize by family branch, but rather sections of the tree?

Ex with made up names:

Joe Shmoe married Jane Doe

Their son was Joe Shmoe, Jr.

He married Sue Who, daughter of

Lou Who and Betsy Smith

Where I get confused -- I'd want Joe Jr. and Sue to be together (as in the section about Sue next to the section about Joe PLUS their shared residences and info). But then how do I proceed? Climb up the Shmoe tree? And then the Doe tree? And then Who, followed by Smith? And just one generation back presents even more branches to somehow organize.

I'm at a loss. What do subject experts do? Or someone who has a better brain for this...

[Apologies if I used the wrong flair for this inquiry...]

this is probably a dumb question, but.

I was doing research for a school project and located bits and pieces of my family tree via family search. is it worth the time and effort for me to go in and piece it all together?

I know probably no one in my family cares, I guess I’m mostly just thinking of in the future if someone needs to do what I did and trace their lineage back and they only know like one person in the family. I traced it from my grandfather but his line stops with him, there’s two more generations after him. it doesn’t even show that he ever married my grandmother.

but I know it’ll be meticulous and I don’t have too much infiltration myself, just immidiate aunts and uncles/my cousins. I guess on the note of cousins I’m a little hesitant to add the ones who are still kids. I mean I imagine they’re already in the database since like census information but 🤷‍♀️

Is this a place where we can ask questions about genealogy software?

Edit: Realized I left out the time period - the NPE or adoptee would likely be around the 1830s-1850s.

I had at least two Irish lines come through St. John. I suspect an NPE or an adoption took place with one of them as I have several DNA matches with entirely French-Canadian trees who match both of the lines because the paths of the confirmed common ancestors in the match all come after that marriage.

So far I haven’t found one French-Canadian surname that has really stood out, so I need to go through them more thoroughly and, I don’t know, make a word cloud of all the listed surnames in their trees to see what rises to the top if I want to really go down the rabbit hole of solving that mystery.

Am I overlooking any other possibilities? I have noticed that sometimes people will put different parts of their branches in their DNA Match tree to try and get better results or Thrulines, but I imagine that having seen maybe 50+ trees that match the same line that came through New Brunswick but don’t share a single surname with me while matching my line that came through St. John’s, it can’t be a coincidence?

Hey everyone,

I need an expert set of eyes to help me with deciphering this old marriage record of my 6x Great-Grandparents, as it could contain some valuable information I'm looking for. Particularly, the information written in the groom and brides section. Hopefully the picture quality is good enough. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

https://imgur.com/a/R01Sbqj

I am trying to figure out this ancestors tribe before being assimilated. He is listed as Mestizo in all of his documents dating back to the 1700's. I cant find anything and have hit a wall. Any idea what records I could dive into? I've already used family search, geneanet, and ancestry. Also, some other wikipedia stuff. I will list his info below. Thanks.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DY4J-3NW2?lang=en

I am trying to determine my maternal great grandfather’s place of birth. Jacob Lutz was born either on March 23 or 25 in 1888. His parents were Heinrick and Christina. I believe he came to the USA between 1899-1901.

The 1920 census shows his birthplace as Austria Hungary.
The 1930 census shows his birthplace as Czechoslovakia.

My cousin thought he might be from Agram which is Zagreb, Croatia. I worked with a really helpful person in their archives, but we couldn’t find his birthplace record there nor in the four catholic parishes.

I tried looking up other documents, but it just still lists Austria Hungary without a town listed.

I recently came across another family tree on that lists his birthplace record place as Milevsko, Czechia. I am finding the online archives difficult to navigate.

If anyone is an internet sleuth or has access to databases and would like to try to help me out, I would appreciate it.

I am researching my maternal family tree and have hit a wall finding any documentation of my mother's maternal grandmother, Mary Euphemia MacKay (1881-1959), before her immigration to the United States from Canada in 1900.

I'm hoping folks might have some advice on where else to look.

Background: my mother's maternal grandparents, Malcolm John MacLeod (also spelled McLeod on some documents) and Mary Euphemia MacKay (also spelled McKay on some documents) both immigrated from Nova Scotia to Boston, Massachusetts, my great-grandfather in 1890 and my great-grandmother in 1900.

Using Ancestry and FamilySearch, I have found the following documents for Mary:

• a potential record of her arrival in Boston via the SS Halifax from Nova Scotia (as Miss M E McKay, age 19, on August 27, 1900)
• Mary and Malcolm's marriage certificate in the City of Boston archives (which lists Mary's age as 23 as of May 24, 1904 (putting her birth year as 1881), her birthplace as Lake Ainsley, Cape Breton, and her parents as Allen MacKay and Mary McPhail)
• The 1930 US Census, which lists Malcolm (recorded as John M.) and Mary as married and living in Boston. Mary's immigration date is listed as 1900 and her place of birth and both of her parents' place of birth as Canada. (I don't know why he was listed as John M. -- this is definitely them, as the children listed are my grandmother and her siblings, and John/Malcolm's occupation is recorded correctly.)
• Malcolm's 1935 petition for US naturalization, which states that his wife, Mary, was born in Lake Ainsley, Canada, on October 29, 1882, and entered the US in October 1899. I have to assume that he was off by a year for her birth date and flat-out wrong about her immigration date. (Mary never applied for US citizenship, so there is no similar documentation for her.)
• Mary's obituary from 1959

Here's my research conundrum: What I cannot find are any records of Mary back in Nova Scotia. No birth registration, and no record of her parents or her family in the Canadian census.

I understand that Nova Scotia didn't record births from 1877-1908, which includes the year she was born. So that is likely a dead end.

However, I have to assume that I should be able to find some record of her parents, but I have so far come up empty handed. Nothing in the Canadian census, nor any record of their marriage in Canada. I've tried searching on variants of their names (McKay/MacKay, Allen/Allan, McPhail/MacPhail). I've found several Allan MacKays/McKays, but always as single sons residing with their parents. No record of any Allan MacKay married to Mary.

Any suggestions of where else to look?

EDIT to add: I have searched the Nova Scotia Archives and Canadian census records in the Canadian archives online as well--nothing.

Hi everyone,
I recently received my Big Y-700 results from FamilyTreeDNA. My confirmed terminal haplogroup is R-FT225315, a downstream branch of R-V88. FamilyTreeDNA estimates that R-FT225315 formed around 3100 BCE.
My paternal family is from western Anatolia, and our family tradition identifies us as Yörük/Turkmen, with a historically pastoral or nomadic background. My autosomal GEDmatch results also appear broadly consistent with western Anatolian Turkish populations, with groups such as Aydın Turks appearing among my closest population references.
However, the current Y-DNA distribution around my branch looks quite different. The known modern samples on R-FT225315 and its nearby parent and sister branches appear mainly connected to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria and other parts of North Africa or the Middle East. I have not yet seen any Turkish, Iranian or Central Asian samples among the most relevant nearby branches.
FamilyTreeDNA’s migration map also places the estimated R-FT225315 ancestor somewhere around the Hejaz or western Arabian Peninsula, near the Medina region, around 3000 BCE. I understand that this is a reconstruction rather than proof that a specific FT225315 individual was excavated there.
I currently have no Big Y matches and approximately 40 private variants below R-FT225315. I have also uploaded my Big Y VCF file to YFull and am waiting for its independent analysis.

I would appreciate informed opinions on the following points:

What historical conclusions can realistically be drawn from the current FTDNA and YFull trees for R-FT225315?

How reliable is the estimated formation date of approximately 3100 BCE, and how large is the likely uncertainty range?

What information does FTDNA use when placing a prehistoric branch geographically? Is the location mainly based on the reported paternal origins of modern testers, the geography of sister branches, ancient DNA, or a combination of these?

How meaningful is the repeated Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Palestinian and North African distribution around the relevant branches when Turkey, Iran and Central Asia are absent?

Could this reflect the actual historical geography of the lineage, or might it largely result from sampling bias, such as higher participation in expensive Y-DNA testing among some Gulf families and very low Big Y participation in Turkey, Iran and Central Asia?

What does a block of roughly 40 private or novel SNPs suggest about the unsampled paternal branches between the R-FT225315 ancestor and me?

Can their approximate order or dates be estimated from a single modern sample, or must intermediate relatives first be discovered?

Is a Big Y VCF generally sufficient for reliable YFull placement, age estimation and evaluation of novel SNPs? What specific additional information could a BAM file provide in this situation?

Are there any currently published modern or ancient DNA samples carrying R-FT225315, R-FT162017, or another branch unusually close to this lineage?

I am not expecting a Y-DNA haplogroup to prove a modern ethnicity. I am mainly trying to understand how much can genuinely be inferred about the historical geography and movement of this single direct paternal line, especially given the very limited and unevenly distributed testing data.

GEDmatch Dodecad K12b results:
Caucasus: 31.93%
Atlantic_Med: 16.30%
Gedrosia: 12.88%
North_European: 12.38%
Southwest_Asian: 10.34%
East_Asian: 8.06%
Siberian: 6.34%

Southeast_Asian: 0.69%
Sub_Saharan: 0.57%
Northwest_African: 0.50%

Based on a comparison with my mother’s DNA results, the Southeast Asian, Sub-Saharan African, and Northwest African components appear to come from my maternal side.

another specific familysearch question...

I emailed familysearch asking about something, and 1 thing led to another, and I ended up sending them some documents over email (that they asked for and very kindly volunteered to look at without me even asking)

They then sent me a link to log in and give them "helper" access to my account. The name associated with this request is a total stranger.

They emailed me and informed me they added a lot of information to the family tree based on the documents I had.

However, looking at my family tree after their email, the User ID associated with the recent batch of edits across several people in my tree does not appear to be my User ID, familysearch, or the stranger's name who appeared when I logged in to give them permission to be a "helper" on the tree.

Instead, it is the same User ID that had uploaded some information on these people several years ago. I enabled "relationship viewing", and this individual is apparently my 1st cousin 3x removed.

Is it possible that edits made by FamilySearch staff would show up under their name instead? Why would this specific name show up? Or is it just a coincidence somehow?

I sent a short message to them out of curiosity but they have not replied.