I do find searching and learning about my ancestors fun. I spend most of my spare time each day working on my Tree. I was starting to question how much time I was spending on my Tree the last few days as it does not seem like anyone else in my family is interested in this hobby. After watching and listening to your presentation, it reminds me that I am spending the time on my Tree because I enjoy it. Maybe one day someone will be glad that I did.

This may sound a little out there, but I feel my ancestors are looking over my shoulder while I'm doing my research ... anyone else out there that feels this? Hahaha!

Your story reminds me of when I finally broke through a brick wall on my father's line. I had a census record, a name on a death certificate, and a marriage record for one of my female ancestors. I couldn't find anything else about her anywhere, and I still haven't. But through some creative sleuthing (I found another girl with my ancestor's maiden name who was married on the same day in the same county as my ancestor, and speculated that they might be sisters) I discovered a whole potential bloodline for her. When I did the DNA analysis, the results were unmistakeable. I had strong DNA evidence of connections to both parents of this other girl. I concluded that my ancestor had to be her sister. It was a very rewarding experience.

I was so proud of myself being able to find the parents of my great-great grandmother (mother's mother's mother's mother). I found her married in four different censuses but could never find her as a child. I made a table of where each census said her parents were from and two agreed on Louisiana and South Carolina, so I looked for the last name where the husband came from LA and wife from SC in one specific census when she would have been about 2. Found the couple I was looking for and their daughter with the name that I knew to be this girl's middle name, and a name used in more than one census as an adult. Kicker- that census had her born in Texas along with all of her siblings, which is where I needed her to be. I literally yelled "Eureka!"

Jayne, I definitely do feel my ancestors are with me as I search. Crista, I know exactly how you feel about being sad that your grandfather wasn't alive to learn about his mother. Same with my mother and her grandfather. I was finally able to break the wall and learn about him after her death. It is so much fun learning our ancestors' stories!

Using the combination of remembering a conversation I had with my grandmother about how a census enumerator mis-spelled their surname ( it still upset her ) and the 1920 census showing Gorminski instead of Poremski shows the importance of talking to your elders. I noted that conversation under "comments" on my tree as well.

My dear departed grandmother loved to write; poetry AND novels. After I got deeper into my genealogy, I realized the characters in her novels were family members another two or three generations back behind HER…people she actually knew. I’ve proved many points with public ‘legal’ records, so I learned to trust her writings. What a treasure…and yes, she has "lead" to different shelves in libraries too! I love the quest.

I'm so glad you posted this Crista! I'm one of the guilty ones who sometimes find myself clicking away. But I'm greatly satisfied when the puzzle pieces fit together. You've reminded me about how careful I have to be! Thank you for a lesson learned.

I so appreciate your excitement over the research process. Thought I was the only one strange enough to get excited about the detective work. Thank you for your informative videos to give us some new tools and refresh the ones we forgot!

Very helpful thank you Christa. The story about Carrie Inman, your ancestor, was inspiring. She was a wonderful, strong woman. Very devoted to her family.

I've been struggling so hard to find anything. My father and mother died when I was ten, needless to I have no information about them and as a result I grew up in a group home with no family. But I'm determined to figure it out. :) Thanks for the info!

I have my own Carrie Inman...I had a second one and it took me 18 years to solve the mystery. Never give up!

Krista, this was very helpful for me. Now I have other ideas to look into. I love how you explain things with your own experiences!Thank you.

Hey Crista, hope your voice has returned to normal; I like listening to your videos before sleep, as a way of relaxing... Thanks for the time and trouble you put into these... cheers, from Canada...

Haven't seen one of your video's in awhile. Always a pleasure to watch you.

Excellent presentation, even for one who has been doing trees for a long time. I always learn something that I can use to break through those brick walls. Thanks!!

Christa, i found this riveting, so much common sense, It is hard when you hit brick walls so you have given me hope!! Thank you xxx

Thank you! I heartily share your enthusiasm for all of the interesting people stories. It's also nice to know that my detective work is on the right track, even if I do currently have way too many unproven leaf people on my tree! LOL

Super helpful video, I’ve just started doing this after a DNA test but haven’t got the bug. By the sound of it people are doing this full time in their own time.

I bit the bullet and switched from Legacy to FTM just because of your awesome videos...I'm merging duplicates between work/life! The struggle is real!

Your video was very interesting and helpful as always.❤️ I learn something new every time I watch one of your videos. Oh the days I have laughed and cried over new breakthroughs in a particular family person. Ancestry is exciting and fun. It is also very emotional. Thank you thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. ❤️🙏

Loved hearing all about Carrie and this episode was very helpful.

Thank you so much for all you do. I find your videos so interesting and helpful. I am very grateful.☺. You are an awesome teacher with great passion for what you do.

This step-by-step example was wonderful. I learned so much from it. Thank you, Crista. ❤

This was a helpful addition to what I’ve learned by trial and error. I have a gap, or lack of death information I should say of gg’grandparents, Henry L Myers and Sophia P Kelley. They were married 1871 in Know county Ohio by Benjamin Bell whom Sophia later turns up working for. Oral history has it that they both died of Typhus, but he went to Illinois and died in Illinois selling White sewing machines. My grandfather James and his sister Orpha were split up with James going to the Kelleys and Orpha to the Myers. She always promised to help him and his children which she did after she married a Stonehocker. My gap is the couple, especially Henry L after 1870 and finding more info on the Kelleys past Amanda and James and why the children were split, how the parents died. I believe Sophie ended up in the local poorhouse. I contacted the library and found the wedding register which helped a little. My other gap is another orphan, Mary Murtick, the mother of Henry L Myers mother Elizabeth Taylor... I know she was raised by a Benjamin Franklin but cant find her parents. You think the names are not common but everyone was James, Elizabeth, John, Sarah!

Fascinating research. Thanks for sharing.

Because Ancestors had large families sometimes I have found the ages are slightly wrong differ slightly and also there are John's, marys and Thomas as siblings then they have families and use all the names again. Also for example in 1851 John is 51 and ten years later 62

The story you shared about your 2nd Great Grandmother is nearly identical to mine even down to living with her grandparents. Hopefully I have some new tools now to help me dig a little deeper. Anyway, I'm inspired to do so.

Love your information. So easy to follow what your saying.

I have also found some on records people just plain lie or don't give the correct information because they don't know or just make mistakes on birth certificates,census and death certificates.

Haha, it's so interesting you compared genealogy research to putting together a puzzle. I really like jigsaw puzzles, especially the Wasgij brand ones, where you don't know what the finished picture will look like. When I got hooked on genealogy it was obvious to me - the ability to put the picture together is what drew me in so deeply. I even said this to my daughter!

Thank ya for you family story and Thank ya for what your doing helping many families ✌❤

I really like your personality and educatiin style. Thank you for your help♡

There is something that I found useful and that is other sites also the search function that connects you to relatives that have submitted a DNA test is very nice. So one thing I do to try and confirm a connection to an ancestor is to see if other relatives have the same ancestor. sometimes you are able to take their relative and trace them back to your common ancestor. So different lines by different relatives that submitted a DNA test is a sure way to get accurate results.

I have A LOT of French quebec in my tree and they never moved, lol. A lot of my tree has been easy to find. Plus having the Tanguay dictionary has been a wonderful tool in finding documents.

You have the same name in your family as mine, Cram. They came to America from Germany. Coincidence? Maybe not. Love the tutorials ❤️

STRANGE COINCIDENCE: I was doing some digging on a branch and found the family name of "Hickey". This was the first mention of that surname in my tree. At the same time I was watching this program and you put a tree up that also had the "Hickey" surname. It did not connect any further but that was quite a coincidence. Great video!

Really interesting and helpful. Thanks!

Omg watching 😢 first god bless Carrie Inman. I haven’t related to a video more. Often when I find new pieces or break through a brick wall, I wish I could tell my grandfather.

Excellent video and what a treasure you are to your family history.

One of my ancestors married a female Earp in North Carolina. Some Earpes served in the same North Carolina Revolutionary War unit with a couple of my family, I found a "muster roll" list with their names on it. Johnston county, N.C. The Earpes dropped the "e" before the mid 1800s. I found N.C. census records for the families. I know I may be related as a distant cousin to Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, but can't trace them back directly to N.C. by ancestors. Just can find books or articles saying their family lived in Illinois and later Iowa.

This was very helpful thank you Crista!

I have a Ancestry account, but I still can't find much out about my 2nd Great Grandpa John Russell born in KY. about 1835 and died around 1880 don't know State. Wish I knew more about him!

Great information. I made a mistake when going through potential great- grandparents and clicked no without doing a thorough research. How can I retrieve that information?

My grandfather typed out pages of family tree. When I see hints on ancestry, I say “Yes”, I recognize that name !

Always love your videos. Are you planning on releasing the talk about Endogamy? I was really looking forward to it. I think it would really help with my rural and African American ancestry. Thank you.

Appreciate you ...thank you !

If I mark a hint as a “maybe” will it change the future hint results or does it have any weight at all?

Thank you very useful. Bless you

This was very helpful and incouraging.

Bless your heart ❤ Crista no worries they found each on the other side . I am confident that is what happens once we all cross over.

thank you for this video. I am interested in putting my tree together with photos by family. is there a software for maybe a collage or an ebook that is printable? I am looking forward hearing from you in reference to this topic. Your information has certainly helped me many time during my research of my family history. Thank you for your passion.

You're fabulous Crista I really enjoy watching your video's I learn't so much from you Thank you so much for that. Your story about Carrie was very sad, I been doing Ancestry for about 3 years I'm trying to find my husbands Father. My husband has a first cousin match on My Heritage and a few matches on Ancestry but without records I can't prove anything. One day dna will show me the way.

I always make sure the hints align before accepting them.

Question: I've been finding more often than not, that when I click on "hints" and usually the first "hint" listed are the trees of others who have used "this person" in their own trees. These people have, for example, my 2x great grandfather listed in their tree. But when I click on the person who created that tree, I'm not a DNA match with them!!! How can that be if they're using and listing my ancestors in their tree??!! They just haven't taken the test yet? Is it as simple as that? Thank you Crista!

I've just re-watched this video because I today added Carrie Inman to _my_ tree (and obviously also added Crista!). Crista and I don't share DNA, but armed with the intervening surnames, I've now found a DNA match descended from Carrie's great-grandparents. Yay for DNA and Ancestry search.

Thank You So Much !

I wonder if any of my great grandparents met thier great grandparents. Would have been pretty interesting knowing someone who knew my 4th great grandparents.

I had a story close to yours. I had my 2nd grandfather and I could never prove if he had a brother. non of the census I could find had them listed together. I could never show a link between 2nd and 3rd grandfather but figure it was true by DNA match to 3rd grand mother. I found recently that 2 men with the same name born 3 years apart moved to US. Both married women with the same first name and there mothers had the same first name just different birthname. The DNA match from 3rd grand mother looks like it comes from a different relative. finally found a birth record for both men.

This was great. Thanks

Very interesting thank you from a MacDonald descendant in New Zealand 🇳🇿

As we mentioned earlier, the vast majority of your matches are related to you. Some of your very distant matches may end up not having a connection to a shared family line. Start with your closest matches and work out from there. This will help you to find connections to your matches and determine how you are related.

The potential father/mother feature and the thru lines are awesome but double check them. There was a thru line potential great grandmother listed for my daughter but I had already found her great grandmothers name from her son, my daughters great uncle. I had already seen her photo which literally matched my daughter. She looked exactly like her great grandmother and had her listed on the family tree and I had mapped it further. But the potential great grandmother mother they placed for her that was not her so I dismissed it.

Great video, thank you 🙏

Look forward to your videos. One question though - while watching this and other videos I have noticed under the people’s names in Profile you have their relationship to you eg father. Where is this option? Thanks.

What happens if a couple on my tree (in the 1700's) don't come up with any hints, so I did a search on them, some parents came up as options, I chose the most likely option, and the parents come up with hints, but the couple still don't? Idk, it seems a bit fishy to me. Every other person has had at least 1 hint at some point, but this couple don't. I'm guessing I've got something wrong; what do you think?

and sometimes the dates are correct and the grandparents are recorded as parents to protect the illegitimacy of the child. Dates, names, and records are a great start, but they have to make sense. Thanks Crista for sharing your knowledge.

I agree with being interested in the families because I plan on going to Rochdale (in England) because my grandmother was a Butterworth and they had their own township up there and there were so many Johns and Sarahs and Elizabeths so I'm still not sure if my 2nd great grandfather and 2nd great grandmother are correct... there are people who have the same great uncles and aunts as me on their family trees but have different John Butterworths and Ann Horners and also it didn't help that the death certificate of Ann Butterworth was incorrect because the daughter filled out the name of her parents and not the name of Ann's parents...

My grandma, Lola Madolene Young, Shoulders on one of her census said she was widowed, but that was bc there was no place to put divorce, so when divorce, they put she was widowed and I know for a fact she was divorced. But some people when say they were Widowed, they really were. I guess you just have to researched. I knew my gma and gpa and she told me what happened.

I am finding a few references to my ancestors through regimental records, SAR and DAR, and the wonderful History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania book. Are these considered sources or are they just a good place to jump off from? I've read both pro and con as to using these as sources and yet as I come forward in time from the 1700's I find these "sources" have been correct. Thank you for all you do Crista! P.S. I found Inman's, Amos and Mary with 2 sons, William and Robert in the 1880 census for Harrison Township, Clay County, Indiana. No I was not looking for you, they were neighbors to Jacob Dickey my husbands 2x great grandfather! Small world.

how do you correct information? I have my grandfather listed in my tree, but in hints he comes up as husband to step 1st cousin same with my grandmother

you are awesome!!!

There are lots of Inman's in Jackson County, Missouri.

My married name is Mary Beeman. So glad you found your link. I have a similar situation, with my gggrandfather. Sarah Lasswell married him (when and where unknown) about 1848, because they had a child James M. wyatt in 1849, and in 1855 had my ggreandfather Jackson Layfette Wyatt. Without birth, marriage or death records I have no clue how to find him. I have been looking for 40 years. I believe he was born in Kentucky. By 1860 Sarah is head of house hold, with the 2 boys in Tennessee. Do you have any tips on how to find him? Thank you !

I'm new and having a hard time finding my information of my Grandfather grandfather. I'm also having a problem with finding the page your showing when giving us the information to find. Please help me find the page I'm a paying Ancestry but can't get my circle match to show up. Please help

My concern is how overwhelming it seems to go back and re-work each generation in a 10+ generation tree that I have worked on since I was 14. I have more than once found evidence that I had been following a misstatement in a secondary source or a conclusion I had made a decade ago now have new evidence. DNA is helping. I have unique DNA matches with other descendants of each of my 3x great-grandparents and most of my 4x great-grandparents. But, even starting to revisit just the 100 or so 5x great-grandparents I have identified seems an overwhelming task. How do you prioritize?

Is there any WW1 German soldier records? I have a ancestor who fought in the German military during WW1 in the Alsace-Lorraine region, but I can’t find any records relating to him. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Another tip, don't just copy families trees, I found that more than 20 people on Ancestry have my grandmother married to her husband's uncle and not to my grandfather. many families have the same name used over and over. Be careful and don't assume that people got all the answers right.

Very mixed feelings about hints, they distract me from the area I'm currently working on, they constantly provide me with information i already have. When i already have the information i have to ignore the hint and then get asked why and get the option to say i already have the information. I'd rather have that option upfront and also to say i ignore it because there is just not enough information to know either way. I sometimes feel inappropriate information is also being forced on me.

How to get rid of repeated hint that i know is wrong. Just keep on seeing it.

My parental grandma's last name is/was Barefoot!!

the tree has placed my Grandfather as my Step--grandfather when we know for sure that my grandfather is my whole grandfather. This occurred after I confirmed a few hints that are in-fact correct. I believe that the census in 1920 does not include the younger children when the 1930 census does include the younger children. Help needed before I delete the line and restart.

I am in the middle of this myself and I am sitting on edge to find out if I have broken through a brick wall or if I am still at the starting line. It all started back when I was fourteen and my grandmother could tell me only that her grandfather's father's name was William. Que the passing of ten years and I have found my 2G grandfather in the 1880 census with his mother and four siblings (so I have approximate birth years for all). I find birth records for my grandfather and one sister. Last year I found a birth index record for another sister. I found his mother after her remarriage and many, many records for her. I have almost nothing on William. I found a notice of a marriage record between the parents in a newspaper. But not the marriage record because the records burned the following summer after the marriage. I have nothing with even an approximate age for William. Then I get a DNA match and he has a family for our William. I go through his tree and a lot of information he has for William is for a younger first cousin who cannot be our William because he would have been eight when he married his 24 year old wife in the mid 1860's. Then I found a find a grave memorial for someone with the same name as my sometimes great aunt, who would be about the right age and they had a death date even though there is nothing but years on the headstone. There was a note that they thought she was the help of this family that had several members die of thyoid. The mother of that family could be a potential aunt, found her marriage and death records. No death record for my possible great aunt. Then just three days ago I found another abstract from newspapers. And it lists my potential aunt with information that could be her (correct configuration of siblings) and then it lists the members of this family after her. So now I am trying to track down the original newspaper issue. I think that it will at least prove that this is my sometime great aunt and if it also states a relationship with the other family I may be able to go back another generation. Unfortunately that newspaper is not online for that year and I don't live close enough to any place that would have them at this time. While it is only two hours away my family situation is not conductive to an out of town research trip at this moment. So I am just hoping to find someone who is in that area who can go look for me. And the wait is driving me crazy!

Hi! I'm wondering how to add notes to my family tree. I saw an old video of yours and it was terrific that you had a place to "write as you go" but I don't see anything like that on my site.

What’s the next step if you can’t find a birth, marriage or death certificate for a relative? Looking for my great grandfather. Supposedly died when my grandfather was 8. He doesn’t exist on paper. Except in ONE 1910 federal census. Other than that, no beginning or end.

I have to give the info. I thought they did most of it once we gave info. It’s confusing.

Just a funny story. Had an ancestor Theodore Smith that I didnt think I'd ever discover his parents. Born in OH he married in Alabama and my last record of him was the 1860 census in Jefferson City MO. It was early in my researching years and thought that Theodore had been very creative naming his eldest son William Almarion Smith because he was born in Marion County AL...get it...AL-MARION. Spent a couple years patting myself on the back until I found Theodore living with his father Almarion Smith on the 1880 census...Marion County AL was just a coincidence.

my family gave me loads of information i opened up so much but im waiting for dna

Sometimes the hints are really wacky. I have a Libor Weymola in my tree born in the 18th century, and the only person Ancestry could find was born 100+ years later, and offered him as a match.

Does it work for people who are out of the USA

As I've heard numerous stories from various family members of mine that there's Scandinavian, Hispanic, American Australian African French Italian and a bit of Scottish heritage further down the line (though I'm definitely certain there's Welsh and Irish ancestry as I have and had relatives of those nationalities), I really want to explore my family tree and heritage asap. Thing is, and yes I'm probably going to sound as thick as two planks, how do I get started?

SO if you had a lock of the passed on ancestor's hair, could the DNA be extracted to give some proof that they are linked to you?

You are the complete picture!

I have a great grandfather whose name I have as Ralph Harrison born in New Jersey (1850 census) plus family members jive. Many other trees with him in have what I feel are erronous family links. How do I nicely tell I think they are wrong? Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of proof other than that one census.

How common is that, that someone is enumerated twice in the same census? I have a case like that in my tree, and I don't know what to make of it. I had thought that was "impossible", but obviously not!

I would not consider "the family tree my third cousin twice removed has online" to be evidence, so much as a guideline pointing me in the direction. I _do_ put more faith in another's tree where we share DNA _and_ we've both traced back to the same pair of n-great grandparents. On a completely different subject, your story of the search for Carrie Inman shows [to me] the value of DNA testing. Coupled with the marriage record between Joseph Inman and Mary Beeman _and_ the shared DNA relationship to the Beeman family, you can be fairly certain the Beeman branch is correct.

This is a huge fear of mine cause I’ve put so much time and effort into my tree

Should you check and change your tree if someone finds an error in your tree or should you just forget it and say that my tree is right. What would you do if someone notified you or a possible mistake or would you just ignore them?

I’m worried I won’t find anything... My great-grandma is died in a Siberian Labor Camp. There is no record of her death. How will I go farther back than her if her records quite literally don’t exist?

I’ve discovered the more I research, the more I find other people researching and posting erroneous information. Your great grandparents may have had only one child and someone may have added others having the same last name.