While attending the NGS conference in beautiful St. Charles recently–during a rare calm moment at the Genealogy Gems booth–I slipped over to the Family Tree DNA booth to talk to Taylor Trusty, the FTDNA product manager. There’s been a question on my mind about Family Tree DNA privacy since my last post about them: why are we seeing “private trees” when we use the new global GEDCOM search?
He explained that one of the main reasons is due to the fact that FTDNA has a game plan, and they want to make sure that their privacy settings are going to be able to accommodate these upcoming integrations. So, they have erred on the conservative side. Because the consent form that you signed when you were tested indicated that you would be showing your information to your “matches,” FTDNA is hesitant to show your information to your non-matches, like what happens in the global search. So your name will not show up attached to your pedigree chart in the global search (even to your matches!) unless you change your privacy settings.
If you want to change this, click your name in the upper right corner, then click Account Settings, Click on the Genealogy tab and change “Deceased people born in the last 100 years” to Public. Taylor is promising that an email will go out at the end of June encouraging everyone to do just this.
For more help using FTDNA, check out my quick guide, Understanding Family Tree DNA, available on its own or as part of my DNA super bundle (click on the image to the left to read about the bundle). This inexpensive laminated guide will help you save time and frustration while helping you get the most out of your investment in DNA for genealogy.
As always, if you’re ready for a personal consultation with me, you can reach me through my website, YourDNAGuide.com. I help people decide what testing is right for their family history questions–and I help them make the most of their results.
Finding marriage records doesn’t have to be difficult. Let us share with you some top tips for locating those hard-to-find marriage records using the FamilySearch marriage record collections this week. Other new and updated record collections include Leicestershire county family history records and Jersey Church of England parish records.
United States – Marriage Records
Harvey Hall and Edna Selby, 1886, Cameden County, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Sunny Morton.
The following states have had their marriage records updated at FamilySearch.org:
We know you know are familiar with how to use these marriage records, but maybe you have had trouble finding the marriage records you need. Here are 3 top tips you could try when searching for marriage records on FamilySearch.org:
1. Search first by the groom’s full name and then the bride’s full name, separately. In this way, if one of them is indexed incorrectly, you may be able to find their marriage record after all.
2. Search only by last name’s and location (county and/or state).
3. Search the states around your targeted state. Sometimes, it was easier to marry in a different state due to marriage laws. Like in the case of Ohio, it was common to go to Kentucky to marry because there was no time requirement between the time of the marriage license and the wedding.
Here is a quick video tutorial showing you exactly how to use these tips!
England – Jersey Church of England Marriage Records
Ancestry.com has also added records to their collection titled Jersey, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1940. The pre-civil registrations typically include the name of the bride and groom, the date of the marriage, and the parish of origin or residence of both parties. Sometimes the occupation of the groom is included or the parentage of the couple. After 1842, the registers of the parishes are all written in a standard format and record further details including the age, status, place of residence, place of birth, occupation, name of father, and father’s occupation.
United Kingdom – Leicestershire & Rutland County – Family History Records
Findmypast has just launched the first phase of a new landmark collection for five centuries of historic records for Leicestershire and Rutland counties. Over 3.5 million records dating back to the reign of Henry VII are now available online.
This new archive spans the years 1490 to 1991 and includes beautifully scanned images of original handwritten documents. When complete, the collection will be the largest online repository of Leicestershire family history records in the world.
There is a variety of documents, including parish records of baptisms, marriages, burials, wills, and probate records dating back to 1490. Also, millions of electoral registers spanning the years 1710 to 1974.
These records cover the ancient counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. However, as some of the collections are drawn from different jurisdictions or were subject to boundary changes, some areas now beyond today’s boundaries, such as Little Bowden and Over and Netherseal, are also included.
Some famous individuals appear in the records like:
The parents of the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick which can be found in an 1861 marriage register from the parish of Thurmaston.
More on Finding Marriage Records
To learn even more about researching marriage records for family history, listen to Lisa’s free podcast episode titled Using Marriage Records in Family History. This episode is part of a series called Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. This specific podcast is all about marriage records and how to find and utilize them for your research.
If you have not yet taken the opportunity to engage with Genealogy Gems through our free podcast, please join us. You can find the free episodes listed here.
For further in-depth tips and techniques, subscribe as a Premium Member and enjoy the Premium Podcasts just for members! There is always something more to learn in the world of genealogy and we want to share it with you.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!
Have you ever heard of the “Irish Reproductive Relief Fund?” That name made me wonder what it was all about (and I was totally wrong). It was actually a program ahead of its time, and its records can help you trace your hard-working, poverty-stricken Irish ancestors. The records are now online for the first time at Findmypast, along with a new, easier-to-search version of the 1911 Ireland census.
“The Irish Reproductive Loan Fund was a privately funded micro credit scheme set up in 1824 to provide small loans to the ‘industrious poor’ – those most affected by poverty and famine,” says a press release from Findmypast.
“This collection of almost 700,000 records, which span the period of the Irish Potato Famine, provides unique insight into the lives of those living in Ireland during one of the darkest periods in its history. The handwritten ledgers and account books reveal the changing fortunes of Irish ancestors and their subsequent movements in Ireland and across the world. Now anyone can go online and research individuals and families to find out more about where they lived, their financial situation, their social status and more besides.”
Brian Donovan, Head of Irish Data and Business Development for Findmypast, said, “These incredibly important records provide an exceptional insight into the lives of the poor across the west of Ireland from Sligo down to Cork. The people recorded are precisely those who were most likely to suffer the worst of the Famine or be forced to emigrate. These remarkable records allow us to chart what happened to 690,000 people like this from the 1820s to the 1850s, giving a glimpse of their often heart breaking accounts of survival and destitution, misery and starvation. We are very lucky to be able to tell their stories.”
These new records complement an expansive collection of Irish records at Findmypast, including Irish Petty Sessions, Irish Prison Registers, Irish newspapers, Irish Births 1864-1958 and over 800,000 Irish marriages dating back to 1619.. Another new online Irish record collection is the Clare Electoral Registers, which include early female voters.
Here’s a tip for Irish genealogy researchers from Findmypast: “The Ireland Census 1911 is an excellent starting point for anyone researching their Irish ancestors. Findmypast’s powerful search will for the first time allow family historians to search for more than one family member at the same time, helping to narrow down results, and by birth year and by spelling variations of a name – all making it easier than ever to trace Irish ancestors.”
Map of New York City, 1857. Click for full citation information.
Thousands of historical maps of New York City, the mid-Atlantic states and even the Austro-Hungarian empire (yes, really!) are now online–and they’re free.
The New York Public Library has published more than 20,000 historical maps dating from 1660-1922. They are free for public use, downloading, manipulating and publishing! A lot of the maps are from New York City neighborhoods, like the one shown here.
The author of a news item about the collection said this: “We can’t imagine too many people wanting to remix Gangs of New York-era property charts, but it’s hard to object to getting more geographic knowledge at no charge.” Well, we genealogists may not “remix” these old property maps, but we can certainly see the value in them!
Does your online family tree suffer from duplicate leaves? If so, you’re not alone. Hundreds of people seem to have this problem, based on the popularity of a YouTube video tutorial by The Barefoot Genealogist. This tutorial teaches you how to trim extra foliage from your online Ancestry.com family tree or in Family Tree Maker.
First, presenter Christa Cowan describes how we often end up with duplicates on the family tree. Sometimes people attach records buy anti worm medication for humans incorrectly to individual profiles in Ancestry.com—she shows how to do it correctly, without accidentally creating someone new. And, bonus: she shows how to attach records to more than one person at a time (you want everyone in the household to have that 1920 census record attached to their profiles)!
Watch this video to learn how to look for unwanted duplicates and then use the “merge duplicates” feature to clean up any mess or confusion.
While attending the NGS conference in beautiful St. Charles recently–during a rare calm moment at the Genealogy Gems booth–I slipped over to the Family Tree DNA booth to talk to Taylor Trusty, the FTDNA product manager. There’s been a question on my mind about Family Tree DNA privacy since my last post about them: why are we seeing “private trees” when we use the new global GEDCOM search?
If you want to change this, click your name in the upper right corner, then click Account Settings, Click on the Genealogy tab and change “Deceased people born in the last 100 years” to Public. Taylor is promising that an email will go out at the end of June encouraging everyone to do just this.
For more help using FTDNA, check out my quick guide, Understanding Family Tree DNA, available on its own or as part of my DNA super bundle (click on the image to the left to read about the bundle). This inexpensive laminated guide will help you save time and frustration while helping you get the most out of your investment in DNA for genealogy.
To learn even more about researching marriage records for family history, listen to Lisa’s free podcast episode titled 
