Earlier this week I set out to better understand why the common ancestors of so many of my DNA matches on Ancestry.com are still complete mysteries to me. So I created a scorecard so I could keep track of the ancestral “holes” in my family tree. I’ve now completed my father’s side (scorecard below) which obviously represents 50% of the overall task. I suspect my… More →

Disputing my theory that Werner Heisenberg, my 4th cousin, 3x removed, had anything but a big brain would be futile. In 1932, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the creation of quantum mechanics”. He was 31 years old. When I was 31 years old, I won $3 because I correctly matched the Powerball. In 1928, Werner and two of his colleagues were nominated… More →

This last weekend I had very sobering genealogical experience followed by an uplifting genealogical experience. The reality check came when I started looking more closely at my father’s DNA matches and realized about halfway down the 2nd page of results (out of 129 pages) that I had no clue how the DNA match and my father were related. Keep in mind… More →

Many years ago I came to the realization that I have (self-diagnosed) ADHD-like tendencies. I am easily distracted and often start things that I never finish. The fact that I’ve managed to keep this blog up for ten months is not like me at all. Thusly, I realized recently that while I had introduced John Harding Peach a long time ago in another… More →

As far as finding distant and not-so-distant cousins is concerned, it’s been an eventful week. Two new DNA matches popped up on Ancestry.com – both from the Boren branch of my family tree and both 3rd cousins. “Darlene” is the great granddaughter of Christine Boren, one of my great grandmother Lula Betty Boren’s sisters. “Christine” is a name I have… More →

Back in December I wrote about wanting to find the descendants of “Betsy’s other children”. Betsy, is of course, Elizabeth (Martinleer Eppinger) Trantham, my 6th great grandmother and wife of Martin Trantham, Jr, my 6th great grandfather. The “other children” are the siblings of my 5th great grandfather, Martin Trantham (III). I’ve decided that having these descendants find me is a… More →

Identifying an elusive ancestor’s FAN club is a genealogical research technique I’ve recently discovered. FAN stands for Friends, Associates and Neighbors. It is used to help break through brick walls. The theory behind the technique is that our ancestor’s friends, associates and neighbors were often family members. Okay, that makes a lot of sense but will it work? My (least)… More →

In my quest to find my long lost cousins, I read a lot of obituaries. And by “a lot”, I mean beaucoup. Every once in a while I’ll come across one with an interesting tidbit that makes it a tad bit more memorable. Such is the case of the obituary of Harriette Hillyer, my 4th cousin, 1x removed, who died… More →