Bad Dates Built a Brick Wall in This Family Tree

Rae's grandfather was a solid brick wall in my family tree. Until he wasn't.

A few years ago I realized I didn't know my godmother's given name. She and her husband, my mom's 1st cousin, are my godparents. She's always been in my life as simply Rae. But Rae isn't her given name. I finally asked her for some details so I could research her family tree.

A Jam-Packed Genealogy Document

Isn't it great when you find your immigrant ancestor's naturalization papers? There's so much specific information on a single page. Along with his photo, Rae's grandfather's U.S. naturalization papers gave me:

• His date of birth and place of birth
• His wife's date and place of birth (but not her last name)
• Their date and place of marriage
• The names of their 4 children
• All 4 of their dates and places of birth

Which genealogy data can you trust, and which can build a brick wall in your family tree?

Fantastic, right? Now I can go get these Italian birth and marriage records on the Antenati website. Their hometown in Italy has a tremendous number of vital records online. They include way more years than my ancestral hometowns do.

Secondary Sources? Not Good Enough

The reason I called Rae's grandfather a brick wall is this. EVERY date on his naturalization papers is WRONG. His date of birth? WRONG. His wife's date of birth? WRONG. Their date of marriage? WRONG. Their children's dates of birth? WRONG.

At some point I gave up on this branch because I couldn't find their Italian vital records. That meant I couldn't go back another generation. And I had two different possible last names for Rae's grandmother.

A secondary source in genealogy is any document written well after the fact.

A primary source is written for that specific event:

• A birth record is written shortly after the birth to document the birth.
• A marriage record is written shortly after the marriage to document the marriage.
• A death record is written shortly after the death to document the death.

Naturalization papers are a secondary source for names, dates, and places. They are written to document the naturalization process itself. That makes them a primary source for naturalization facts. The rest of the details about names and dates come from the testimony of the immigrant. That makes them secondary and unreliable.

Why was he wrong about 6 birth dates and his marriage date? I have no idea. This past weekend this family came to my attention. I decided to figure out what went wrong.

Tracking Down Primary Sources

I spent a full day on the Antenati website for their hometown. I searched countless years' worth of vital records until I demolished the brick wall. I needed to start with Rae's grandparents' marriage. That would give me her grandmother's maiden name and both their parents' names.

• Rae's grandparents did not marry on 2 Sep 1890 as the naturalization papers say. They married on 18 Sep 1887. This set of marriage records took Rae's family tree back to her great grandparents.
• Rae's grandfather was not born on 28 Feb 1864 as he said, but on 2 Mar 1864. I'll call that one "close enough", but still weird.
• Rae's grandmother (now that I discovered her full name) was not born on 2 Feb 1871 but on 6 Feb 1866.
• Rae's aunt was not named Gelorma (not a real name), but Girolama, after Rae's great grandmother. She was not born on 2 Apr 1891 but on 31 Mar 1889.
• Rae's aunt Antoniella (I expected that to be a nickname) was not born on 8 Jun 1895 but on 20 Apr 1894 and named Antonia.
• Rae's aunt Maria was not born on 2 Jul 1898 but on 17 Sep 1898 and named Maria Felicia.
• Rae's father Matteo was not born on 17 Jan 1899, but on 29 Jan 1897. His draft registration card and naturalization papers get this a little wrong. They use the date 23 Jan 1897.

Using the names of the 2 sets of newfound great grandparents, I began to expand further back in time. I found the following:

• The 1861 marriage record for Rae's grandfather's parents. This told me the names of two sets of Rae's 2nd great grandparents.
• That marriage packet led to a 2nd great grandmother's 1851 death record. That added one set of Rae's 3rd great grandparents.
• It led to the 1841 marriage of a pair of 2nd great grandparents. That added two more sets of Rae's 3rd great grandparents.
• Turning to Rae's grandmother, I found her parents' 1858 marriage record. That added two more sets of Rae's 2nd great grandparents.
• This led to the 1829 marriage record for a set Rae's 2nd great grandparents. That added two more sets of Rae's 3rd great grandparents.
• That led to a 3rd great grandmother's 1828 death record. That added one set of Rae's 4th great grandparents.

This brick wall came tumbling down in a landslide! There are a few more records I can look for. I'll try to identify the three missing sets of Rae's paternal 3rd great grandparents. And Rae's mother's roots are in the same town as her father's. I can try to identify the six missing sets of Rae's maternal 3rd great grandparents. I have no doubt I can fill in many of these blanks. Update: Yesterday I found more records and identified one of Rae's 5th great grandparents!

Revisit Your Brick Walls

The lesson here is simple. If the best you can find for your brick wall ancestor is a secondary source, don't assume it's correct. You need to do more research. You need to do more than put a name in a search box. Seek out primary sources you can examine with your own eyes.

Rae once told me (about my family—her husband's family), they married within their own tribe. This research shows her statement is true of her own family, too. Her parents married in New York City, but they came from the same beautiful town in the spur of the Italian boot.

Free Genealogy Resource Leads to Fun Research

I was looking into a free genealogy resource to share with you when I spotted one heck of a coincidence.

First the resource. The Library of Congress has a large collection of images you can use for free. While scrolling through the collection I noticed there is a genealogy category. It's a very eclectic group of items, including blank family tree charts, maps, photos, and more.

Now the coincidence. I noticed one photo labeled "Italian family living 428 E. 116th St." in New York City. My grandfather's cousins lived around 116th Street, so I took a look.

Searching this free genealogy photo collection, I discovered my great grandparents' neighbors depicted in 1912.

When I clicked this photo, I found a "More items like this" section at the bottom of the page. One of the images shown there has a label that includes the address 259 E. 151st Street. What? Hey! 259 E. 151st Street, Bronx, New York, was across the street from the building where my mother was born and raised.

The photo's full description: Cutting out embroidery on the dirty kitchen floor. Battista family, 259 E. 151 St. N.Y. On the right is the married daughter, who lives down stairs and usually works there. On her right next to the boy is Flora, said to be 9 years old and very much stunted in size. 'Been sick.' Next to her is the mother and next is Linda, 11 years old. The baby, dirty and covered with sores, was being handed about. Probably has impetigo."

Many of the women in my family did this type of "home work" in the early 1900s. Sewing, stitching, trimming. So it's especially interesting to see what that process might have looked like.

Start With the Census

The date on this image is January 1912. I'll bet I can find this family in the 1910 census.

I went to my family tree to get the URL for my great grandparents' 1910 census. They were living at 258 E. 151st Street. Then I went page by page through the census until I found the Battista family. Husband Paolo, wife Maria, and seven children were all born in Italy except for the 4-year-old boy Guido. The baby with impetigo must belong to the married daughter who lives downstairs.

I've found that people living in this Bronx neighborhood came from the same towns as my ancestors. It's worth some research time to try to find out where this Battista family lived in Italy. Finding this family's ship manifest will be the best way to learn the name of their hometown.

I searched on Ancestry for Paolo Battista, born about 1872, arriving in New York in 1903. A quick glance at the search results told me his birth date, and that he's buried in Old Saint Raymond's Cemetery. That's where you'll find my grandparents and all my Bronx relatives. His U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index record (an excellent resource) includes his parents' names.

Look for an Immigration Record

When I couldn't find Paolo's 1903 ship manifest, I searched for the rest of his family. The 1910 census says they arrived in New York in 1904. I found them! The maiden name of Maria Battista is Carfagna. (Italian women don't change their name when they marry, so a ship manifest is also a great place to find her last name.) And the family came from Casalciprano. I'd never heard of Casalciprano before, but I see on the map that it's a little north of some of my ancestral hometowns.

Scour the Vital Records

With the name of their hometown, I could search for their Italian birth records on Antenati. I found Paolo Antonio Battista's 1872 birth record with no trouble. The names of his parents and his date of birth match what I saw on U.S. documents.

In the 1873 birth records I found Anna Maria Carfagna. She was a foundling baby; parents unknown. Left in the "foundling wheel" a day after she was born, her birth record describes the items that were with her. Officials made note of a foundling's belongings in case the mother wanted to claim the baby later. Anna Maria Carfagna is the name a town official gave to her. Wrapped in linen cloth with a white stripe, she wore a cotton headband.

Then I found a surprise for the undersized Flora named in the Library of Congress photo. Her age is correct on the census. She was born in Casalciprano on 8 Apr 1902. Flora somehow wound up back in Italy, in Napoli, to marry Giuseppe Pisani on 28 Aug 1955. (These details are in the column of her birth record.) Yes, she was 53 years old when she married in Italy. It's nice to see that the stunted child who had "been sick" grew up and married.

The boy called Carlo on the 1910 census appears to be Arno on the 1904 ship manifest. I found his 1895 birth record, and his given name is Arno Filippo. I found birth records for the Battistas' children Virginia in 1897, Linda in 1899, and Entimio in 1903. I also found their son Guido's 1905 birth record on the New York Municipal Archives website.

I couldn't find a birth record for the oldest daughter from the 1910 census, Ida. Then I noticed she didn't come to New York in 1904, but in 1908. When I found her ship manifest, I saw that her mother went back to Italy to bring her to America. (Usually the father does this, not the mother.) Her parents left her behind in Italy for four years. Hospitalized on arrival, Ida and her mother stayed at Ellis Island for four days. (These details come from the ship manifest page for detained passengers. This tip came in very handy!) Still, I could not find a birth record for her—even checking under another first name.

I wanted to find the name of the Battistas' married daughter seen in the photograph. While searching for her and Ida, I worried I was going back too far. Their parents were born in 1872 and 1873. I found their marriage record in July 1892. The couple are only 20 and 21 years old. The two missing daughters should have a birth record in 1892, 1893, or 1894. I looked at the birth record of every Battista child in those years. I even looked at earlier years' birth records in case they had a child when they were teenagers.

I tried searching immigration records for anyone named Battista from Casalciprano. I found only Ida's 1908 arrival and a woman who had different parents.

Return to the Census

I found the Battista family in other censuses, hoping to find their eldest daughter. I noticed one woman on the 1915 census, Immacolata, who's also listed beside the family in the 1910 census. She's a possibility, but she's a bit too old, and I didn't see any Battistas named Immacolata in Casalciprano.

In the 1925 census, the Battista family lives around the corner in the same building as some of my cousins. They're also at that address in the 1920 census. But Immacolata is no longer near them.

Broaden the Search

Next I did a broad search for Immacolata Battista, the potential daughter. This led me to a family tree with documentation for Ida. It includes her 1893 date of birth (taken from U.S. documents), but there is no such record in her hometown. It is possible that Paolo and Maria didn't report the births of their first two children. This would result in a fine for the parents in Italy, and it can prevent the child from getting permission to marry. (My great grandfather's 1876 birth wasn't reported until 1898, the year he married.)

I found Ida's 1910 New York City marriage record on the NYC Municipal Archives website. It's possible her delayed birth record is in the 1909 or 1910 records in Casalciprano. Unfortunately, those years are not available online. It's too bad the family tree I found on Ancestry has no mention of another, older daughter.

What other search techniques would you have used?

Granted, these people are not related to me. But I'm quite sure my great grandparents and my grandmother knew them. Bringing this historic photo to life is one of many superpowers we have as genealogists. What discoveries does this photo collection hold for you?

What Can You Learn About Your Ancestors' Daily Lives?

Last week a man posted in the "My Italian Family Tree" Facebook group. It wasn't the typical post. He said he wants to know more about his Italian ancestors. He's seen their birth, marriage, and death records, but he wants to know more about their lives. I know my 19th century ancestors were illiterate peasants living in small towns. There was no local newspaper covering their exploits since they couldn't read.

Ancient Roots—Not Names

But we can learn something about our ancestors' lives if we look at the history of the place and the people. They call my ancestors' general area the Sannio or the Sannita region today. In Roman times they called it Samnium—named for the ancient Samnites. And when I say ancient, I mean ANCIENT. The Samnites were in my ancestors' area as early as the 8th century BC.

Placing an ancient map over a current one puts my ancestors in a key place in history.

The Samnites were a league of several independent tribes. They banded together to fight against the Romans many times. They were farmers who raised crops and livestock. They also fished in their rivers and mined iron ore.

One characteristic of the Samnites that's interesting to me is their physical description. They didn't look like the typical dark Southern Italians. Many had blond hair and blue eyes, as do I, and as did some of my great grandparents. Historians say this coloring comes from the Ligurian people. They settled alongside the Italic people early on. Among these people were some Gauls. Gaul was a region that today is France, part of Belgium, Western Germany, and Northern Italy.

When I took a DNA test in 2012, my husband guessed I would find some German in my pie chart. It would explain my great grandfather Giovanni's looks. But there is no German in my DNA. These days my AncestryDNA test does show 2% France, which is new. My Ancient Origins on MyHeritage say I'm a solid Roman by the Roman Era and pure Italian by the Middle Ages. Still, I have blue-green eyes and my hair was blond in my youth.

The Life of a Peasant

I searched for details of Southern Italian peasant life in general. Their daily life was much like life in the Southern U.S., as described in William Faulkner's novels. (I've been reading his books in order of publication since November.) Faulkner's novels cover a lot of time, from pre-Civil War to the 1950s. In the rural Mississippi of his novels, there were a few rich landowners, and many workers. The workers never seemed to get ahead. They worked the fields, raised livestock, repaired their clothing, tools, cabins and barns. They grew the food they ate. The sharecroppers didn't get to keep all they grew.

The same is true of my Italian ancestors. Children began working very young, performing whatever tasks they could. Older boys and men did the more demanding labor. Older girls and women managed the household. The females would milk the cow, fetch water, take the clothes to the river for washing, and feed the family. They would also make and mend the family's clothing. The males would plow the fields, plant and harvest the crops, and maintain any structures.

In Southern Italy, the Church or members of the ruling class were the rich landowners. I have a copy of a book that is invaluable to my family tree research. It is "Colle Sannita nel 1742" by Dr. Fabio Paolucci. Dr. Paolucci has shown me documents from the town bearing my maiden name as early as the 1500s.

His book is a detailed 1742 census of the town's 600 or so households. Often the descriptions say that the head of household "has" a vineyard or land that's leased to him by the Church. Sometimes he takes care of livestock owned by the Church. The book also details the land owned by 35 priests and clerics. There's also an accounting of the land and livestock owned by more than a dozen churches and chapels.

Based on their vital records, I know my people were farmers or they practiced a trade needed by the town. They were shoemakers, barbers, tailors, midwives, and seamstresses.

Newspaper Coverage, or Lack Thereof

While I won't find my family members in old Italian newspapers, I can search for mentions of their towns. La Stampa is an Italian newspaper I can access online. The issues go back to its founding in 1867. I found only one thing, and it's about my maternal grandfather's town. On 8 Oct 1872 in Baselice, they opened a government telegraph for both government and private use.

I had better luck with La Stampa when I wanted to see coverage of Italian battles during the first World War. Based in Torino, I wouldn't expect La Stampa to cover my little Southern Italian towns.

I answered that Facebook post. I suggesting he look into the history of his ancestors' place and the people (in general) who lived there. I came away from my research with a better idea of my ancestors' lives. And a better idea why I don't look how you might expect an Italian to look.

Why I Prefer Researching Dead Ancestors

It started out so innocently. "Let me find one new DNA match to research." A few hours later, I have a 6th cousin who's a registered sex offender and had planned several murders. I'll take a pass on adding his name to my family tree.

Years ago I jumped on the chance to upload my AncestryDNA zip file to a site called FamilyTreeDNA for free. I hadn't checked that site for new DNA matches in a long time, so I logged in to see what's new.

Discovering this living 6th cousin is making me run back to my dead ancestors.

Scrolling down the list, I found someone with the same last name as my great grandmother, so I opened his tree. I also found a tree for the same family on Ancestry. I consulted the Ancestry tree because it has plenty of source citations.

I saw that my DNA match's grandmother also had a last name from my family: Ricciardelli. Researching the grandfather with the familiar last name did not lead back to my family. So I got to work on the Ricciardelli side.

That name comes from Santa Paolina, Avellino, Italy. My 2nd great grandmother Colomba Consolazio was born there. And she had a grandmother named Colomba Ricciardelli. I've added my closest relatives from this town to my family tree. But there are so many more relatives I can add.

This DNA match gave me that chance. I got to work adding birth, marriage, and death dates to the ancestors on this Ricciardelli branch. It was easy to see that the Ricciardelli line provides my connection to this DNA match.

After I went up my match's tree as far as I could, I came back down to add U.S. source citations. I added facts and citations for:

• censuses
• draft cards
• immigration records, and
• Social Security Death Index records.

When I came down to a generation that's about my age, I realized the family moved from the east coast to California. I love California's records! If you know their mother's maiden name, you can find birth records through 1995 and death records through 1997. These records show the person's:

• full name
• full date of birth or death
• mother's maiden name
• county of birth or death.

Need some DNA research tips?

• 4 Practical Methods for Identifying a DNA Match
• What Good Are Distant DNA Matches?
• How to Use Ancestry ThruLines for Research Leads

I got to the point where I knew my DNA match was the son of one of 4 brothers. But I couldn't tell which brother it was. I took another look at my match's tree on FamilyTreeDNA and realized I know his mother's maiden name! In the California Birth Index I found two people with the correct mother's maiden name. One of the two, a female, owns the Ancestry family tree I used for my research. The other person, a male, has a middle name that made him a good prospect for a regular internet search.

The results made me push myself away from my desk. The crime he attempted, and the criminal content in his possession, were the last thing I expected to discover. There are enough facts there for me to be sure this 6th cousin and the registered sex offender are the same person.

But things get more interesting. Remember I found California birth records for a brother and a sister. My FamilyTreeDNA match does not have the criminal's name. His test account has a description that is very helpful. It says that my DNA match is the uncle of the brother and sister from the California Birth Index. But the account is (was?) managed by the sex offender. He says he and his sister (whom he names) are trying to get past a brick wall on their paternal line. To do this, they convinced their uncle to take a DNA test.

The family tree connected to the DNA test doesn't have the uncle as the home person. That was throwing me off by a generation. The home person is the criminal, and IT SHOWS HIS NAME. This should be private since he's living. His sister's name is private. His parents and uncles' names are private. But his name is there despite having no death date.

I don't know if this peculiarity has any connection to legal proceedings, but it's all very creepy.

In the end, I marked the uncle as a DNA match in my family tree. Then I added a private note, one that will not appear in my online tree, explaining what I discovered.

This was not the playful genealogy romp I expected. I'll continue building out this Ricciardelli branch from Italian vital records. Then I'll find some more dead people to hang out with.

House Hunters: Genealogy Edition

I roll my eyes when I see posts detailing the history of homes in England. Oh, you can dig up details about your grandmother's house from the 1700s? Isn't that special. In the United States, the oldest building my ancestors ever lived in dates back to about 1900. And the city tore it down decades ago. Nothing lasts too long here.

Anything in this country built in the 1700s is a museum. I had the pleasure of volunteering in one such museum years ago. The Court Inn on Court Street in Newtown, Pennsylvania, dates back to 1733. It's surrounded by elegant old homes. Walking down the street, you feel as if you're back in the Colonial Era. Two doors down from the inn is a beautiful brick home built in 1836. Two blocks down is a house built in 1880, but the original part of the house dates back to 1811. Next door is a stone house built in 1870.

That's ancient for America!

Different websites may offer different details about the houses in your family tree.

If you want to research a house in the U.S., real estate websites are your best bet. I use 3 different websites because they can have different contents. It's a lot of fun when you can view interior photos. I particularly enjoyed looking at the old homes in Newtown, Pennsylvania. They're what I loved most about living there.

Which homes do you want to research? Or do you want to snoop on the neighbors?

Note that I've used purple text in the lists below for features that are very much the same on each website.

1. Zillow.com

My favorite feature of Zillow.com is that it shows property boundaries. Enter an address (or a street and town), then scroll down past the regular map. Look for a satellite image of the neighborhood. If it isn't showing white boundary lines, click the Lot Lines button. Zillow places an estimated home value on each house in the satellite image. Based on my neighborhood, this seems to be the last sale price. Zillow:

• Shows property boundaries with estimated property values.
• Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
• Provides their own estimate of the property's value.
• Includes many details, including:
  • number of bedrooms and baths
  • square footage
  • lot size
  • type of heating
  • architectural style
  • year built
• Shows the property on a map with comparable homes for sale nearby.
• Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
• Shows the local tax and assessment history going back several years.

2. Realtor.com

This is my first stop when I know a house is for sale. Realtor:

• Shows property boundaries as you hover your mouse over the map. But it's ignoring my house. I wish the tax assessor would ignore my house.
• Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
• Provides an estimate of the property's value. They base it on tax records and recent sale prices of comparable properties.
• Includes many details, including:
  • number of bedrooms and baths
  • square footage
  • lot size
  • type of heating
  • architectural style
  • year built
• Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
• Shows the local tax and assessment history going back several years.

3. Trulia.com

Zillow owns Trulia, but Trulia doesn't have the property boundaries. Trulia:

• Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
• Provides their own estimate of the property's value.
• Includes many details, including:
  • number of bedrooms and baths
  • square footage
  • lot size
  • type of heating
  • architectural style
  • year built
• Shows the property on a map with comparable homes for sale nearby.
• Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
• May show recent local tax and assessment.

For me, it was fun looking up the house in California where I was a baby. When I was born, there was a farm in the backyard. Now a huge highway is right over the back fence! Our New Jersey house has interior photos from its last sale in 2020. The last owner upgraded so much, I don't recognize any rooms!

We are a weird place. This is why actual ancient architecture blows our minds.

Recent articles you may have missed:

• Get In-Depth Answers to Your Genealogy Questions
• Find the History of Any Date in Your Family Tree
• Get Familiar with Your Ancestral Homeland for Free
• Six 2025 Articles to Elevate Your Family Tree

Does Your DNA Control Your Traits?

Mom is a pessimist who gets mad when I share Dad's optimistic opinions. But is that my fault? Or did I inherit my optimism from Dad?

My 2012 AncestryDNA test gives me access to 93 genetic traits. These are physical, mental, and emotional tendencies built into our genes. And Ancestry can tell you which parent gave you each trait. Check your Ancestry account to see if Traits is available in your DNA menu. It seems new AncestryDNA tests do not include traits unless you pay an extra $20 for your kit. This is from the Ancestry website:

"Some DNA features require an Ancestry subscription. Traits inheritance is not yet available for some customers. Access to Traits is included with AncestryDNA+Traits and in any active subscription."

This month MyHeritage launched their own DNA Traits. Choose Traits from the site's DNA menu to generate your traits report. It works on your MyHeritage DNA test, no matter when you bought it. It also works on another company's DNA test that you uploaded to MyHeritage in the past. You do not need to buy a new test. Right now, MyHeritage DNA Traits are available as an add-on for $19.

What do your DNA traits say about you?

Let's take a look at some of my traits based on my 2012 AncestryDNA test. The categories are not identical on Ancestry and MyHeritage. But I'll choose traits that are similar. Note that MyHeritage gives me only 40 traits.

Sweet or Savory

I love sweets. I crave sweets. When I want a snack, I always go for the sweet snacks.

• AncestryDNA says I'm "somewhat more likely" to prefer sweet over savory. It says this trait comes from my maternal side. (Tell that to the chocolates Dad eats every night.)
• MyHeritage says that I'm only "slightly more likely" to crave sugar. MyHeritage also shows exactly which genes contribute to each trait.

And speaking of DNA tests:

• 4-Tool Combo Solves a DNA Problem
• What Do You Think You Are?
• Do Your DNA Ethnicity Results Make No Sense?

Morning Person or Night Person

Over the years I've evolved into a morning person. I slept very little in high school. I would go to bed, then sneak out to the family room to watch a movie at 2 a.m. In college I hated early classes, but I had no choice. And I got my best creative ideas as I drifted off to sleep.

By age 40 I realized I was no good mentally after 9 p.m. If I did any work after that I was going to make mistakes. By age 50 I started getting up by 6 a.m. and working for a couple of hours before getting dressed. That's still my routine, and I love it.

So if I am an early bird, was I fighting it from age 14 to 40?

• AncestryDNA says I'm "more likely" to be a morning person, and it comes from my paternal side. It's interesting that they say I'm more creative during my non-peak hours. If my genes make me a morning person, it makes sense that my creative inspirations happen at bedtime
• MyHeritage says I'm quite a bit "more likely" to be an early bird.
• AncestryDNA says this trait is about 17% genetic and 83% environmental.
• MyHeritage says it's about 50/50. Either way, this seems to justify how my sleep habits changed over time.

Physical Traits

AncestryDNA shows your likelihood to have a host of physical traits. I like that it shows which parent passed which traits down to you. Some traits are intriguing.

• My lighter eye color comes from Mom's side, which I could have told you.
• The thinness of my hair strands comes from Dad, which I would have guessed.
• My curly hair comes from Mom (I knew that), but it's much curlier than my DNA suggests.
• My light complexion comes from Mom's side, which is also pretty obvious.

I don't have these types of physical traits on MyHeritage. The closest they have if the Fitness category. This covers traits such as:

• endurance
• muscle mass
• power
• strength

I score well only on endurance. I am, to quote Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator", a puny human.

Personality Traits

AncestryDNA says I'm more confident (inherited from Dad). But I'm unlikely to be optimistic (inherited from both parents). I have to disagree, as would my parents. And it says Mom's side makes me more likely to take risks. Oh no it doesn't.

It also says Mom made me an introvert. That's for sure. And MyHeritage DNA Traits agree that I'm quite the introvert.

My DNA seems to want me to play a musical instrument and be quite good at it. I can think of three times in my life when I tried to learn a musical instrument. It did not go well.

One very helpful feature of the MyHeritage DNA Traits is their advice on how to improve in certain areas. Since our traits come from genetics and our environment, we can work to change them. For example, they say my memory is very good. MyHeritage says we can improve our memory performance by:

• being active
• getting enough sleep
• eating well
• exercising our minds through reading, puzzles, and active learning.

I don't have an infallible memory for little details like Dad. Or a word-for-word memory of conversations like Mom. But I read and do puzzles like crazy. And doing genealogy research requires active learning all the time, doesn't it?

MyHeritage DNA Traits and AncestryDNA Traits results provide links to scientific references. This makes it easy for you to learn more.

Can DNA Traits Help Your Research?

Here's what MyHeritage says about these tests: "Trait reports reveal how your genetics influence your personality and characteristics, from taste preferences and sleep patterns to exercise response and more. They don't provide medical or diagnostic information. They offer a fascinating glimpse into many characteristics that make you unique."

Here's what AncestryDNA says about these tests: "These tests have no medical purpose. Nothing in these trait reports are a diagnosis of a health condition or medical disorder. These reports are not a substitute for medical advice. Before making any lifestyle or dietary changes, or if you have any questions about how your genetic profile might relate to your health or wellness, please contact your healthcare provider."

For the most part, DNA Trait results are more entertaining than anything else. But, if you never knew one or both of your parents, your AncestryDNA Traits may be more useful for you. If you wonder where some of your traits came from, AncestryDNA can tell you which parent passed them down to you. (Note the parental side works only if you can separate your closest DNA matches by parent.)

Check your DNA accounts to see if DNA Traits are available to you. You're more than your ethnic pie chart.