Do you use maps in your genealogy research? They can either be real maps such as drawing lines between towns, cities or states or maps using words with lines connecting them. I used a real map to see how ancestors came from Germany, settled in New York temporarily and then spread all over the United States. Recently I was trying to find relationships between ancestors and had to make a name map, that is drawing lines between names to figure out how close a relationship was.

It's very tempting to add an ancestor to your family tree when you find him/her in someone else's tree. You get so excited that you are very likely to just start adding. But wait! Do they have a citation that you can verify? I have seen trees in Ancestry with possible ancestors and after I study them I have realized that they have added my ancestor but went up the wrong line. In other words, they barked up the wrong tree. Do not ever add someone to your tree without veri

I was asked to do a presentation on "Finding your Elusive Ancestor" or in my case "Finding Grandma Grace". I am telling you I am most proud of finding my husband's grandmother whom he didn't know. Her name was not even Grace which was what his mother told him was her name. It turned out to be Gertrude Margareth Wenzig. The funny thing that happened during this presentation was that as I looked out at the audience, I saw three people sleeping. Or maybe they were thinking