Family Tree Research

What is a half-cousin? A half-first cousin? You've come to the right place to find all types of half-cousins explained, as well as a half-cousin chart.

Are you interested in learning how to use your DNA to find out the identity of your biological grandparents?  No matter how old you are, or whether or not you believe your grandparents to be living, it's possible to use your DNA results to determine who they were.  If you are interested in family tree …

If you've been into genealogy or genetic genealogy for a while, you've probably heard someone say that they have traced their ancestry back to William the Conqueror (d. 1087), Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC), or even Adam and Eve.  While most of us will be skeptical, it can lead us to wonder how far back …

You've heard all of the experts say that the best way to build a family tree is by using your DNA matches, but how, exactly, is it done?  In this post, I'll explain exactly how your DNA matches can help you build your family tree. While ethnicity estimates are fun and can occasionally reveal something …

What better what to feel a connection with your ancestors than through a beautiful homage to their culture in the form of food?  Plus, it's a great way to help family members, especially kids, become interested in their family tree and their heritage. If we are being honest, family tree research can be dry and …

There is so much written out there about how many times family stories aren't true.  Especially with the advent of DNA testing, it's easier than ever to prove or disprove long-held family beliefs.  I had an interesting experience recently, however, that I would like to share.  There is value to talking with older relatives and …

Do you want an easy way to find out if you look like your ancestors? Let Family Search's new tool do the work for you. In this post, I'll teach you how it works. I have spent way too much time lately uploading my family photographs to Family Search's new "Compare a Face" tool to …

Are you wondering how many ancestors you have?  In this post, I'll teach you how to figure out how many ancestors you have - with a slight catch. 

If many people have the same wrong person in your tree, and are DNA-matched, this could be confirmation bias in genetic genealogy. Learn how to avoid this!

Do you have Swedish ancestry?  If you do, you might be interested in learning more about your Swedish immigrant ancestors, why they came to America, how to research your Swedish ancestry, and whether or not a DNA test can help you.  If this sounds like you, this post will help you. Why did Swedish immigrants …

If you have been contacted by a DNA match who was adopted, or you've reached out to a match and discovered they are adopted, and you'd like to help them, this post is for you.  It's wonderful that you want to be a good DNA cousin and family member to your newly discovered relation! In …

Do you want to know how to learn about your German immigrant ancestors? In this post, you will learn about German immigration to America, how to find your German ancestor's immigration records, and more! Are you one of the more than 44 million Americans with German ancestry?  The number of German-Americans living in the United …

Do you want to learn more about your Dutch ancestors? In this post, I'll show you how to trace your dutch ancestors with DNA and genealogy.

If you have British or Irish roots, you will be excited to learn that there is a new DNA testing and family research partnership between Living DNA and Find My Past.  Living DNA, a UK-based company, has been involved in DNA testing and research for about fourteen years.  By partnering with Find My Past, they …

What are the most important things you can learn about your ancestor? How can this information help you build your family tree? In this post, I'll share with you the top five things that I recommend learning about each of your ancestors. When I first began working on my family tree, I found myself obsessed …

Did you know that baptismal records can be a great way to break down a brick wall, or tough mystery, in your family tree? Here, learn what you can find out from these religious records and how they can help you learn more about your ancestors. Piecing together our ancestor's lives can be a difficult, …

If you live in the United States, there is a good chance that you have ancestors who were born somewhere else.  Our country is made up of a glorious, complicated, beautiful mix of people from all over the world, and many of these folks have ancestors who passed through Ellis Island on their way towards …

Do you want to know whether Ancestry DNA can help someone find their birth parents? In this post, find out exactly how it could help, as well as some of the limitations of DNA testing that are relevant to people who were adopted.

What is a double-fourth cousin, and how are they related? Do double-fourth cousins share more DNA with each other than they would otherwise? In this post, I'll explain the meaning of a double-fourth cousin, show you an example of my own double-fourth cousin, and talk about how this "double" relationship affects the amount of DNA …

Are you wondering whether it is possible to use your DNA to prove that you are descended from someone? You have come to the right place - read this post!

Can you prove that you are descended from someone who was on the Mayflower? Here, learn how genealogy and DNA can help prove you are a Mayflower descendant.

Are you wondering what you can see on Ancestry DNA without paying a monthly subscription?

If you have Slovak ancestry and are curious about what Slovakia was like before your ancestors came to the US, why they might have come, and how to trace your Slovak roots, you have come to the right place.  I became interested in Slovakia when learning about my own Slovak roots, and I wrote this …

What should you do when you find an error in an online family tree? Do you contact the owner? Do you ignore it? Find out what to do in this post!

If you know that you have half-siblings, or you think that you might, it's completely natural to be curious about them.  As DNA testing becomes more popular, it becomes easier to find living DNA relatives, including half-siblings, around the country - or even world.  In this post, I'll explain some strategies for finding your half-siblings …

I always recommend to my readers that they do a DNA test with Ancestry and build their tree there, too.  There is no better place to combine access to documents and records, public family trees, and more than six million (as of February 2018) DNA test takers.  One of the coolest features of Ancestry DNA …

In this post, we'll explore the Scotch-Irish and try to understand what brought them to America - and how they might have ended up in your family tree. When I was growing up, I knew very little about my mom's paternal side of the family.  Supposedly, my maternal grandfather's dad was Slovak, and his mother …

In this post, you will learn what is a 3/4 sibling, how much DNA 3/4 siblings typically share, and how to know if you have a three quarter sibling.

MRCA is of the most common notations used in genealogy. In this post, learn what these letters stand for in the definition of MRCA. If you've been doing this whole family tree research thing for a while, you might have seen the letters "MRCA".  It's especially common to see this in the genetic genealogy sphere …

Do you want to know how to download your DNA file from Ancestry? It's easy to do, and in this post, you'll find the steps for how to do it.

If you have downloaded the We're Related app from Ancestry to your phone, you've probably gotten some notifications about how you are possibly related to some famous individuals.  Is the We're Related App accurate?  How do they come up with these suggestions? In this post, you will learn: How to tell if the famous person …

Here, you will learn what a mirror tree is, the basics of how to make a mirror tree on Ancestry, and what it can do for you in your search for family.

If you share your tree with someone, will they be able to see everything that you have added to your tree, even if they don't have a subscription? Find out!

Want to know how to find relatives in another country? Many people have not-so-distant blood relatives living in other countries. Learn how to find them!

Genealogy and Thanksgiving are interconnected. Explore the tricky relationship between our country and family histories, and what we serve for Thanksgiving.

Do you have extensive Colonial America roots, yet show Iberian Peninsula DNA?  In this article, you will learn how it can be possible to have both Iberian and Colonial ancestry.  Here's a hint:  It doesn't mean that your tree is wrong! Before we get started, I should mention that Ancestry DNA no longer reports the …

Shared Ancestor Hints on Ancestry DNA are a great way to find out how you are related to your DNA matches, and can even help you continue to build your family tree.  In this article, I will help you understand what these hints mean and how you can use them to help you in your …

Do you want to know how to change your Ancestry DNA test settings? In this post, learn how to adjust settings for privacy, sharing, family tree - and more! If you've done your Ancestry DNA test, you might be interested in learning about the different options available to you on your test settings page.  Believe …

In order to get the best results from your Ancestry DNA results, you should consider attaching your DNA to your family tree on Ancestry.  In this post, I'll explain how to quickly attach DNA to an Ancestry tree. Even if your tree isn't completely finished, or even if you only have a few people in …

There are hundreds of websites that claim to be able to help you research your family tree.  If you are just getting started, how do you know where you should start?  Some are free, and some require a subscription - so how do you know which ones are worth the money? What can you expect …

I'm so glad that you have decided to get in touch with one (or more!) of your DNA matches!  I hope that with this post you learn how to craft your message, what information to include, and how to increase your chances of getting a positive response.  At the end of the post, there is …

It's always a good idea to build a basic family tree, and it's an especially good idea if you have already done a DNA test (like the one from Ancestry DNA).  You can get so much more from your DNA results if you have a family tree and you can get much more from your …