Every family has old stories about their ancestors, even if it’s just their parents or grandparents. Some families, though, have family legends that go back generations and have been told time and time again through a century or more. These family history stories are often like a game of “telephone.” Each generation that hears the story gets a slightly different version of it as details are embellished or forgotten through the decades. By the time the story reaches you, it may be nothing like what really happened.
Even family legends that are vastly different from the real set of events that spawned them usually still have some tiny grain of truth in them, even if it is just the names of the people involved in the story. As a genealogist, those stories are naturally interesting to you. You also want to know the real truth behind them, because being a genealogist means telling the true stories of your family. Here’s how to use your family legends as jumping off points for real research that can lead you to the truth behind the tale.
What is a Haplogroup and What Can It Tell You About Your Family Tree?
If you get your DNA tested, chances are you will come across the term “haplogroup.” What is a haplogroup and how does it pertain to your family history? At its essence, a haplogroup is an ancestral clan. Some clans are the Vikings, Native Americans (all tribes), Celts, Aborignal Australians, and other such groups. Your haplogroup tells you where your ancestors came from deep back in time.
There are also male and female haplogroups, so you can see where your male and female sides of the family originated back in pre-historic times. As with Y-DNA (which traces the male line from father to son) and mtDNA (which traces the female line from mother to daughter), haplogroups also follow straight male and female descendancy lines.
Joining a Surname Study: Where to Find Them and What You Can Get Out of Them
Surname studies are some of the most basic of genealogical study groups. They have been around for at least a century, and maybe more. The purpose of a surname study group is to get people together who have the same surname (or have direct ancestors with the same surname) and allow them to share genealogical information on their families. The aim is for people involved in the study to gain more insights into their own family trees and connect with genetic cousins or long lost relatives through the information that is shared. You can find out a lot about your ancestors of a particular surname through a surname study.
How To Solve The Biggest Problems In Your Genealogy Research
Every genealogist will eventually encounter a particularly troublesome problem in their research. In genealogical circles, this is called the brick wall. It is when you reach a point in your research where you are out of available or known records to search, you’ve made all of the reasonable assumptions about your problem that you can with the information you have available, and you still can’t come up with even a theoretical solution that would pass the genealogical proof standard test. Brick walls are the nemeses of genealogists. However, they can be as challenging and exciting as they are frustrating, because one thing we genealogists love is solving a good mystery. Most genealogists can’t stand to just sit there staring at the brick wall. They’re determined to bring it down one way or the other, even if it takes decades (and sometimes it does!).
