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Showing posts with the label methodology

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Intentions & Reflections

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash I haven’t blogged in a while. For two years, I put this blog on private as I’d no longer had the willpower to push out blog posts the way that I did six years ago. I write a little more about this in my blog post Why Do You Do… ?  Recently, I have revamped my blog. I have unpublished posts that didn’t reflect who I was then or who I am now, or those that felt too personal to share ‘out there’. I also removed posts I wrote  just for the sake of posting content and main taining an audience,   even when  inauthentic to me. It means more to me that others feel the value and quality of what I share rather than the quantity. I am not sure how often I will post, all I know is when the inspiration and curiosity strike, that’s when it will occur. My intention for this blog is to lead with more spontaneity than usual, structured content, along with transparency, authenticity, and vulnerability to whatever degree feels right. My inte...

Mapping Out a Family

Recently, I began plotting my great-grandfather's movements in Brooklyn as well as his siblings. I wanted to see how closely each of them lived from one another. If you recall this topic, you might remember the 52 Ancestors post  that I did. To create your own map, go to Google MyMaps . Make sure to login to your Google account. Start by adding a layer (s) and icons. You can even add a description to the icons too. For example, if you want to create a family trip, you want to add lines to include one place to another. Color-coding the residences helps me distinguish which sibling I am looking at and to calculate the proximity of a location if one or more of them move to a different home or apartment. Using Brooklyn City Directories and census records , I was able to find residences for 2 out of the 5 siblings. Color-coding the residences helps me distinguish, which  There is still a lot of work to be done, but so far, it's a good start. What other u...

Applying the DNA Plan- Worked Example

This is a continuation of my post  Having a DNA Plan in Place  with a worked example. The 1st step is to formulate a research question or goal.  My goal is to identify who is the mother of my great-grandmother. You can view my posts about this challenge here . Next is to  choose a DNA test.   Since I am trying to identify a mother, I need to use mtDNA testing at FamilyTreeDNA. The 3rd step is to find a candidate. In the chart below, I created to illustrate the possible candidates to take a test.  Brother 1, 3, and 4 are now deceased. Brother #2 is the best candidate. Remember, mothers pass mtDNA to all their children. There are no links that break this maternal line.   If Brother #2 wouldn't be willing to submit a sample,  I would need to  trace down  a descendant of the probable mothers' sibling(s), then hope that the person(s) would take a test. Hopefully, this post will help illustrate what a testing ...

A DNA Match with No Tree? No Problem Case Study

(Updated 27 August July 2019) Thank you, everyone, for viewing this post. Everyone has a DNA match that doesn't have a tree. Don't get discouraged by this. There are many other ways to find that relationship to identify the common ancestor. A method I found very useful in my own res earch. T his method might not work all the time , but 95% it will. This was a session from Rootstech 2018. This method was created was by Lisa Louise Cooke and Diahan Southard. I tweaked the method a little bit, so all the steps won't be shown.  Choosing Your Match It's best to choose a male match because males don't usually change their last name. The trees can be either private or no tree at all. Clues To Names in Usernames This DNA Match shown below has a tree, but when I first did this method (Mar 2018) the match didn't have it at the time. One of the things to look at is the username.  Think about "Is the username a name or contain a name?" ...