DESCENDANCY RESEARCH - FINDING YOUR COUSINS:
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
©2016 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
- Welcome and Introduction
- Descendants of Your Ancestors Are Your Cousins
- Examples
- Programs and Helps for Descendancy Research
- Finding Immigrants
- Finding Living People
- Conclusions
This page was last updated 2016-01-17.
Return to the Utah Valley
Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's
Class Listings Page .
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
- Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu
) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
- These Supplementary Notes and the Class
Handout Notes are posted on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
with all the links, so you don't have to type
them in yourself.
- Tips: (1) To put an icon on your
desktop for these notes, or any webpage, just
drag the icon from in front of the address in
your browser onto your desktop. (2)
To open a link, but keep your place in these
notes, hold down the Control key while clicking
the link.
- Definition of cousins: descendants of the same
person, so your cousins are descendants of any
of your ancestors (except your own parent, since
then you are siblings)
- Today's class will discuss finding
your cousins and why you would want
to
DESCENDANTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS ARE YOUR COUSINS
- Relationship between cousins -- go back to
their common ancestor and count down the number
of generations to each; the smaller number minus
one is the cousin level and the difference of
generations down is the removeds; that is, if
the smaller number is two (common ancestor is
the grandparent of one or both), they are first
cousins, if smaller number is three (common
ancestor is great-grandparent of one or both),
they are second cousins; if one line has an
extra generation down, so they are one
generation apart, they are once removed; if two
extra generations down on one line, they are
twice removed; Example: 3 generations back to
common ancestor on one line and 4 generations
back on the other means second cousins once
removed, sometimes abbreviated 2C1R.
.
/ \
S S
/ \
1C 1C
/
\
2C
2C
\
2C1R
- Several reasons for doing descendancy
research, e.g. helps you understand your
ancestry; helps make the FamilySearch Family
Tree database complete and accurate; may provide
clues to extend your pedigree; will probably
show people needing temple work
- Keep track of what you find WITH THE SOURCES
in your own genealogy records management program
(Ancestral Quest, PAF, RootsMagic, etc.) and in
FamilySearch Family Tree (FS FT)
EXAMPLES
- Lavina King (KLFW-T9P, 1838-1917), wife of
William Franklin Hunter, and sister to Elizabeth
Breedlove King, Diane's 2ggrandmother
- Alanson Jane (KVLK- KJ3, 1795-1869), husband
of Betsy Beman, Don's great aunt and who Erastus
Snow wrote that he visited
PROGRAMS AND HELPS FOR DESCENDANCY RESEARCH
- Helps on FamilySearch
- 5-min video on Temple Names Submission -- http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Local_Support/Consultant/Temple_Policy-Name_Submissions/player.html
- 4-min video on Descendancy View and
finding cousins in FS FT -- https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/finding-our-cousins-using-new-tools-on-familysearch-org/931
- Article -- https://familysearch.org/ask/salesforce/viewArticle?urlname=Finding-your-missing-cousins&lang=en
- Help Center -- https://familysearch.org/ask/#/
(scroll down to see the search box and enter
"find cousins" or something similar)
- Research
Wiki on FamilySearch -- type in things
like "descendancy research"
- The Family History Guide -- http://www.thefhguide.com/index.html --
Very helpful website for learning FH; completely
free; several articles on descendancy and temple
work -- http://www.thefhguide.com/project-3-descendants.html
- Descendants View on FamilySearch Family
Tree http://www.familysearch.org
- Click on Descendancy at top left corner;
default is 2 generations down, but can set
it for 3 or 4 down
- Can set it to show portraits and various
icons by clicking on Show (top right); you
see more info without the portraits
- Various ways to copy the entire
scrolling descendancy screen -- (1)
Right-click and Save As... (save complete
html webpage to get the portraits and all
the icons); (2) Use an inexpensive program
like FastStone Capture 8.3 ($20) -- see
Tutorial Manual at http://www.faststone.org/FSCTutorial.htm
; (3) Use a freeware scrolling window
capture program (but I haven't found a
free one that works well with all the
latest browsers - DRS)
- Programs to help with descendancy research
- Relative-Finder -- https://www.relativefinder.org/#/main
-- by BYU Computer Science Dept; uses your
FamilySearch information to show how you
are related to famous people including LDS
Church leaders, US presidents, kings and
queens, and others; can also set up a
group, e.g. your ward, for people to join
to show how they are related to each
other; very helpful to get people
interested in family history;
Relative-Finder now has a Virtual Pedigree
chart with descendants view and clues to
"Low Hanging Fruit" to work on
- Puzzilla -- https://puzzilla.org/
-- commercial program, but free at
FHCs, and has free parts available with
LDS accounts -- it starts with you and
shows a diagram of your ancestors with
colored and shape coded icons; clicking on
one allows generating a descendants chart
of that person with color and shape coded
icons so you can see where possible
further work, temple and research, need to
be done
- All My Cousins -- https://www.allmycousins.com
-- free program that uses your FS FT data
to find and download your cousins -- gives
lists of people in various relationships
to you, e.g. 1C3R -- see more info
at http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2015/11/exploring-allmycousins-app.html
by James Tanner
- Find-A-Record -- https://www.findarecord.com/en/
--has a descendants mode and gives
clues of data needed
- Hope Chest (used to be called
Pandora's Hope Chest) -- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hope-chest/gjneklbanpnnjdeddbnkkgeljkhpblhp?hl=en
-- Chrome browser add-on to look
for "green temples or arrows" --
FamilySearch says it's not for novices,
since it leads to lots of temple
duplication -- https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Pandora's_Hope_Chest
- Record searches that may help with
descendancy research
- Many good records are available in the
U.S. during the 1800-1900s to help with
descendancy research; hints on
FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and
other places are very helpful
- GenSmarts -- http://www.gensmarts.com/
-- helpful to analyze your genealogy data
offline, e.g. through a database or
GEDCOM, and finds "holes" where data is
missing and gives ideas of databases to
check based on localities and dates; does
not edit your data; commercial,
but inexpensive with free
trial period giving slightly limited
results, so you can see how it works
- Census records help put families
together: available on FamilySearch
, on Ancestry, and on Heritage Quest
Online at home with your public library
card
- Death and cemetery records: Social
Security Death Index -- http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/
; FindAGrave -- http://www.findagrave.com
; BillionGraves -- http://www.billiongraves.com
; obituaries on FamilySearch and
elsewhere
- Surname search on FamilySearch Catalog
on https://familysearch.org
- RootsSearch -- extension in the Chrome
browser that searches many websites -- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rootssearch/aolcffalbhpnojekmimmelebjchjmmgn?hl=en-US
- City directories: see Don's
notes on Using
City and Other Directories
- Genealogy search engines such as
http://www.mocavo.com
-- searches many free genealogy websites
all at once; http://www.rootsweb.com
-- lots of free websites; http://ancestry.com
-- go to a FHC to use this free or sign
up with your LDS account; http://www.google.com
-- for name searches use quotation marks
around the name to get only results for
that person and can put years you want
by adding things like "1900..1920"
(without the quotes)
- Any genealogy records such as church
records, including parish registers;
vital records and indexes; military and
pension records; county histories --
many online for free at HeritageQuest
Online with your public library card;
probate and other court records
- Can print temple ordinance cards at home
now in some temple districts (includes St.
George now)
FINDING IMMIGRANTS
- To find where immigrants entered the U.S.
first check http://ellisisland.org/
and http://castlegarden.org/
, since 90% of U.S. immigrants came through
New York City -- Steve Morse -- http://www.stevemorse.org/
has "One-Step" entry forms for both of
these
- To find where immigrants went in the
U.S. check the ship manifest since that
sometimes listed their destination in the
U.S.
- US 1900 through 1930 censuses have year
of immigration, native language, and
source country
- Ancestry has an immigration index --
use it free at a FHC or with your LDS
account
- Naturalization records are helpful
since they tell where the person was
living and application may give previous
addresses and names used, but there is
no central index of naturalization
records in the U.S. and person could
have been naturalized in many different
courts
- For more information and references
see Don's notes on Tracing
Your U.S. Immigrant Relative
FINDING LIVING PEOPLE
- You may want to contact your living
cousins for family information, reunions,
and artifacts
- To see who is interested in particular
genealogical records in FS FT click the
"Watch" button to be notified of people
making changes
- Online family trees usually require the
name and email address of the submitter,
e.g. RootsWeb, Ancestry, My Heritage, etc.
- Ancestral
File Submission sheets -- 606
microfilms of the hardcopy submissions of
notes and sources to the old Ancestral
File when the submission was sent in
on hardcopy -- films are available at FHL,
BYU, and elsewhere -- little known, but
has lots of FH data sources and
documentation and who sent it in
- Outdated information may be helpful
since you can type all or part of it into
a search engine to see where it occurs and
find a more recent email or snail-mail
address or phone
- Internet Archive's The
Wayback Machine may be helpful since
it has "snapshots" of entire Internet at
times past
- Some helpful websites for finding living
people -- may be able to find enough
information for free without having to pay
for full results on the commercial
sites
- 1940 census is a big help in finding
living descendants -- check indexes and,
if you can't find them, check
Enumeration Districts for where they
lived; Steve Morse has one-step search
forms -- http://www.stevemorse.org/
- Steve Morse also has "One-Step" entry
forms for several vital record indexes
and directories -- can find the birthday
of most people in a few minutes
- http://www.anywho.com/whitepages
- http://www.veromi.com/
- http://www.whitepages.com/
- http://genealogy.about.com/cs/findpeople/a/people_search.htm
CONCLUSIONS
- Descendancy research helps fill in
FamilySearch Family Tree and may provide
clues for extending your pedigree and for
temple work.
- Many programs and resources are now
available to help you find your cousins,
descendants of your ancestors.
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and
Genealogy Users Group Home Page or Don's Class Listings Page
.