4 Cornerstones for Building Your Family Tree

Having a purpose and a method to your madness makes genealogy more fun.

What's your genealogy philosophy? Three years ago I started this blog as a way to share my genealogy philosophy.

Your genealogy philosophy is the set of beliefs that guides your genealogy research. For example, you may believe you should research only your direct-line ancestors.

I found that my genealogy philosophy has 4 cornerstones. I hope this causes you to think about your own philosophy.

1. Our Place of Origin is a Part of Us

My parents were born in the U.S. to Italian immigrant fathers and daughters of Italian immigrants. So when I was a child, southern Italian customs and identity were in the very air I breathed.

All my known ancestors came from an area no more than 30 miles wide! Because my roots are so concentrated, I like to harvest every ancestor, cousin, and in-law from the towns' vital records.

The towns my direct ancestors came from are small. The windy roads and rolling hills make it difficult to get from town to town even today.

My ancestors are from neighboring small towns. Almost everyone there is related to me.

Each town was a world of its own, and its people had a profound influence on my family. That's why I review every vital record from each town. I check to see if and how each person fits into my family tree—and most of them do.

That's why my tree has nearly 23,000 people. Some relationships are way out there. But the peoples' identities matter to me.

It's also important to me to honor my ancestors' culture. I record each person's name as it's written on their birth record.

2. The Documents Drive the Story

You may know a lot about your grandparents and great grandparents. But time and time again I see people comment that their ancestors never spoke about the old country. If you're lucky, they may have answered your direct questions about names and places.

But documents can make the difference between family lore and true family history. My ex father-in-law's own mother said her father's brother was the captain of the Titanic. Documents prove that the captain had no brothers!

My grandfather only mentioned having one brother and one sister. It was a funny anecdote because their 3 names translated to Adam, Eve, and Noah. The documents showed me he had another brother and another sister. At least one lived long enough to marry and have children. Why did he leave them out? They actually make the anecdote even better. The 5 siblings' names translate to Adam, Eve, Noah, Mary, and Joseph!

No matter how much your ancestors or the family bible can tell you, the documents can tell you more. That's why I'm driven to gather as many documents as possible.

3. Ancestry Research Has Its Own Best Practices

I've been a corporate website producer for 22 years. Different companies ask for a certain amount of tracking and accountability. As a result, I use spreadsheets for all sorts of things both on the job and off.

So I developed a logical, organized computer filing system for my genealogy documents. And I use spreadsheets to keep track of:

• the documents I've collected (and those I'm missing)
• my direct ancestors' names and Ahnentafel numbers
• translations of Italian occupational words
• my ongoing transcription of my ancestral towns' vital records

Then it dawned on me. If we apply best practices to our research, we'll have fewer incorrect, undocumented family trees. That's why I want to inspire all genealogists to make their family tree their legacy.

4. Consistency Makes All Fact-keeping Better

I have certain routines I follow when I'm adding any document image to my family tree. There are a lot of steps, and I want to do it right. So I make sure I do things the same way each time.

For example, let's say I've discovered a census sheet image for a family in my tree. Here's the routine:

• Download the image to my computer and rename it in the style I've developed.
• Right-click the image and add a title and description in the properties fields. These will carry over when I drag the file into Family Tree Maker.
• I add the image to the head of household and copy it to each member of the household.
• For each person, I add their residence on the date of the census.
• For each person with a job, I add an occupation date, place, and description.
• I note this census for each household member in my document tracker.

It's a lot, but repetition leads to consistency. And when you take care to do it right, you'll have less clean-up to do in the future.

Making a habit of this is one of the best things I ever did for my family tree.

So there you have my genealogy philosophy. I document everyone with any relationship to me from my ancestral hometowns. I record their facts consistent with their vital records, and I collect as many records for each person as I can. I use some of the same tools I use in business to make my tree more professional. And I'm a stickler for consistency.

If you don't know what your philosophy should focus on, think about why you're doing it and how it makes you feel. What can you do to make yourself feel better about the research and more proud of the results?

4 Tips for Finding a Missing Census Record

These 4 tips will come in handy when you can't find that census.

Once in a while—but very rarely—I look at someone else's family tree research. My policy is to ignore hints and not look at other trees. Here's a situation where I will break my policy.

Today I wanted to write about 3 tips for finding a missing census for someone in your family tree. I had a case recently that seemed like a great example to share.

I was researching a family with a head of household named Costanzo delGrosso. I found him and his family living in Galeton, Pennsylvania, in 1930. His name was mistakenly written as Costanza DelGross, but it was him. Costanzo lived at 86 Germania Street. I noticed his neighbors' last names were Sollo, Greco, and Esgro.

Three families lived next to mine in 1930 and 1940. Finding them in 1920 led to my family.

Then I found Costanzo and his family in 1940. He still lived at 86 Germania Street. His neighbors were still named Sollo, Greco, and Esgro.

But I could not find Costanzo and family in the 1920 census. I had immigration records showing his family was in the U.S. since 1913.

Where were they hiding in the 1920 census?

Here are the tips I used to find that missing census.

Tip #1. Search for their address in the missing year.

The delGrosso family was at 86 Germania Street in 1930 and 1940. It's logical to search for them at the same address in 1920. But they weren't there. When this happens, be sure to check houses and streets that are close to the address you want.

Tip #2. Search for their neighbors in the missing year.

Costanzo's neighbors were the same in 1930 and 1940. Why not search for them in 1920 and look at the households nearby?

The right hint can set you in the right direction and open up the floodgates.

These tips led me to Costanzo and his family. They were a census sheet away from their future neighbors, and a block away from their future address. The problem was, Costanzo delGrosso's name in the 1920 census is written (and indexed) as Grosso Delroso. Grosso Delroso!

Most of his family's names are also recorded a bit differently in 1920 than they are in later years:

• Lucy becomes Lucia in 1930 and Lucie in 1940
• Libera becomes Labra in 1930 and Lea in 1940
• Mauro becomes Morris in 1930
• Deny becomes Daniel in 1930 and 1940

So keep your eyes and your mind open to different spellings.

While I found the missing census by searching for a neighbor, this brings me to another search tip.

Tip #3. Search for family members by their first names only.

How someone recorded Costanzo delGrosso as Grosso Delroso is beyond me. But did you know you can leave out the last name from a search and use first names to find the family?

Now I had 3 tips to share with you for finding a missing census. So I set out to apply these tips to Victor Abbate whose 1940 census is missing. And that led to…

Tip #4. Consult another family tree for leads.

As I said at the top, I usually ignore anyone else's family tree research. But today I got lucky.

I was trying to find Victor after he'd married and moved out of his father's home in Brooklyn, New York.

A family tree search result caught my eye. The owner of the tree knew Victor's exact birth date. All I knew was 1900. She had his parents' names as Frank and Mary. I had Francesco and Mary, so that's a match. And she had his proper name as William Vito Abbate. Did she see his birth certificate? I showed you how the delGrosso family's names changed from census to census. Is that how William Vito became Victor?

Besides the 1920 census, this family tree led me to the missing 1925 New York State census where "Victor" is "William". It led me to their 1915 New York State census where he's called "Willie"! And it led me to their 1905 New York State census where he's listed as "Victo". All the other facts fit. There's no doubt this is the right family.

I'm not taking any fact or document directly from this family tree. Instead, the tree pointed me to all the original documents I was missing. Now I know who "Victor" he married, who his children were, when he died, and where he's buried.

Will every hint from a family tree be this useful? No. But I want you to be open to using other trees as leads. Not as fact, but as leads for your research.

In 2018 I had a genealogy research goal of finding every missing census I'd listed in my document tracker. There were some I couldn't find—like Victor Abbate in 1940. With these 4 tips, I'm ready to take another look for them.

Which of your families have missing census sheets?

Let a DNA Match Guide Your Research for a While

Don't let family tree research plans overshadow a new DNA opportunity.

I recently heard from a DNA match I hadn't looked into before. And it's no wonder I hadn't gotten to her yet. We share only 10 centiMorgans. That makes us mostly likely 4th cousins once removed. (See "3 Steps to Identifying Certain DNA Matches".)

But she wrote to me and said we have a particular last name in common: Capozza. That's a great way to reach out to a DNA match. Tell them which name to focus on.

Luckily, that name rang a bell for me. I've researched that name because a man named Nicola Capozza was the witness to my great grandparents' marriage in upstate New York in 1906.

With a bit of digging, I found that my great grandmother's brother, Giuseppe Caruso, married Marianna Capozza. Her brother was Nicola Capozza, the witness to the marriage marriage. And the Capozza siblings' mother was a Caruso. So there's definitely a couple of tie-ins between the Capozza family and me. I even wrote about my tangled connection to this family.

I also knew immediately that this last name comes from my great grandmother's Italian hometown of Pescolamazza. Luckily, I have quite a decent collection of the town's vital records on my computer. The information is sitting there waiting for me to investigate.

I know these people will eventually have a connection to me.

In the past I spent 5 years visiting a Family History Center to view the vital records from my maternal grandfather's Italian hometown of Baselice. I documented absolutely everything. (Those records and more are now on my computer.)

More recently I've spent tons of time on my paternal grandfather's Italian hometown of Colle Sannita. I'm making insane progress piecing together my Colle ancestors.

But my Pescolamazza research—the birthplace of my father's mother's mother—hasn't gotten very far. That's why I decided to let this distant DNA match guide my research for a while.

Nicola Capozza, the man who witnessed my great grandparents' marriage, fits into my tree. But I have a bunch of completely disconnected people in my family tree named Capozza. At first I thought they were connected, but it was a mistake. Instead of deleting them, I gave them each a profile image that says "No Relationship Established" and hoped I'd find their connection later.

It turns out, my DNA match is closely related to my disconnected Capozza branch. There has to be a connection to me somewhere, right? And it's probably hiding on my computer in those vital records.

So I changed my research plan to work with this new DNA connection. I've added dozens of people to my family tree as a result. I added people related to me and people related to my DNA match. I filled out my family so much that 2 nights ago I discovered the names of one set of my 6th great grandparents! Hello, Girolamo and Giovanna!

Researching my DNA match's relatives led me to discover the names of my 6th great grandparents!

Based on my findings so far, my connection to this DNA match may be in the Capozza family, the d'Amico family, the Martino family, or the Caruso family. They're all connected. I need to keep plucking people with these names out of the vital records and seeing where they fit.

It's a jigsaw puzzle, and I'm missing that one piece that's all blue sky. It's fun and it's expanding my family tree. And I know there will come a moment when one of the "No Relationship Established" people—and everyone attached to them—becomes my relative.

When a DNA match reaches out to you, do your homework. Even if you can't find the connection, you will be expanding your family tree and enjoying the whole process. Enjoying the research is what it's all about.

Last Chance for Your 2019 Genealogy Goals

I'm not nagging, but wouldn't you like to finish another genealogy goal?

There's no guilt in missing some of your 2019 genealogy goals. But there should be joy in completing a few.

I've written about making your annual genealogy goals achievable. Don't bother with pie-in-the-sky goals like "find my connection to Julius Caesar". Make your list of goals short and highly possible.

It's time to make a dash for the 2019 genealogy goals finish line.

Here's where my 2019 list of goals stands today, December 3, 2019:

• DONE: Log the first five years' worth of birth records from each of my ancestral towns into spreadsheet.
• DONE: Search for all missing census forms in my document tracker.
• NO LUCK: Find a resource for Erie Railroad documents during the years my great grandfather worked in New York state.
• NO LUCK: Gather every available document of my great uncle's time spent in the Bronx to figure out the year he moved to Illinois (bet. 1906-1910).
• NO LUCK: Search 1920–1925 New York City newspapers for any mention of the mutual aid society to which Antonio Saviano belonged.
• POSSIBLE TO FINISH: Enter every Pozzuto baby born in Colle Sannita (1809–1915) into my family tree.
• NOT BEGUN: Enter every Muollo baby born in Sant'Angelo a Cupolo into my family tree.

As you can see, I completed 2 of my goals, and tried but had no luck with 3 more. The one goal I haven't begun can get pushed to my 2020 genealogy goals list.

It's easy to see where I should focus during this last month of the year. The second-to-last goal: entering the Pozzuto babies into my family tree.

That name features strongly in my family tree and in my DNA match list. I decided that fitting as many as possible into my tree will help me connect to more of my DNA cousins.

To make progress on the Pozzuto babies, I first completed a huge goal that isn't on the list. It was wildly ambitious. But it went so much faster than expected. I have on my computer all the vital records from my grandfather's Italian hometown from 1809–1942. There are gaps. The birth records end at 1915, and the birth and marriage records are missing between 1860 and 1931.

But I renamed every image in the collection to include the name of the subject. Now the entire collection is searchable on my computer.

What can you do to make your research more productive?

This was such a valuable project! In fact, my priority in 2020 will be to do the same for my other ancestral Italian hometowns. I have all their available vital records, too.

Finding the Pozzuto babies is as simple as:

• Opening the birth records folder for a particular year.
• Searching the folder for the name Pozzuto.
• Working my way through that short list (an average of 5 to 10 names) to see if I can fit them into my tree.

What I do is look to see if I already have their parents. If I don't, or I'm not sure they're the right people, I can search for the parents' marriage record. But those end in 1860 and don't pick up again until 1931.

If I don't have enough information to be sure who the baby's parents are, I do one of two things. I either:

• Put the family unit in my family tree with a profile picture that says "No Relationship Established", or
• Mark the image file with xxxxx at the beginning of the file name. That way I know that baby is not in the tree because I need more clues.

I'm up to 1877 which means I have 33 years' worth of babies to place in my tree. To finish this goal, I'll need to complete more than one year each day. I'd better shoot for 2 years per day because the holidays and other things will be nipping away at my time.

The important thing is that the end of the goal is in sight. And so is the end of the year. I want to make a run for it!

What about you? Take a careful look at your 2019 genealogy goals. If you didn't make a list, think about what you've been working on. Or come up with a way to make future project easier—like renaming your files or creating a new spreadsheet.

What's possible to attack and complete this month? Do what you can to set yourself up for greater things in 2020.

Using Documents to Imagine Your Ancestor's Job

Next time you complain about work, think about your hard-working ancestor.

Do you know where your ancestor worked? You may know their occupation. You can find that on a census sheet or ship manifest.

But do you know exactly where they worked? What was the name of the company? What did the company do? What did your ancestor do for them?

A search for the place where Grandpa worked delivered photos of the factory floor.

Start by taking another look at their draft registration card. In the USA, men were registered during World War I and World War II even if they were to old to fight "over there". These draft registration cards can be a treasure trove. You will learn:

• their exact birth date
• their home address on the registration date
• the name of their nearest relative (often a wife or mother)
• their physical description
• what their signature looked like

You may learn:

• The town where they were born
• The name of their occupation
• The name and address of the place where they worked

If your ancestor was a farmer, you may find the address of the farm. If they worked in a factory, you may find the name and address of the company. You can Google the company and try to learn something about your ancestor's workplace.

I was looking at my grandfather's cousin Giovanni's draft registration card. I discovered he worked at the same company as my Grandpa.

Grandpa's cousin was always a step or two ahead. His draft card gave me an important clue.

Giovanni was 9 years older than Grandpa. He came to America twice before Grandpa made his one and only trip to America in 1920. Like Grandpa, Giovanni traveled from southern Italy to Cherbourg, France, to get on a ship. Giovanni's 2nd trip to the U.S. was only one month before Grandpa's voyage.

Giovanni went straight to Pennsylvania where he worked for the National Tube Company.

Grandpa came to America a single man. His first stop was in the Bronx, New York, where his Uncle Giuseppe lived. He went north almost immediately to Newton, Massachusetts, where his Uncle Antonio lived. He worked at a bakery shop.

I'll never know why he didn't stay in the Boston area. Maybe the money wasn't very good. Whatever the reason, Grandpa followed Giovanni to work for the National Tube Company.

On 28 Jan 1924, Giovanni filed his petition for naturalization. Grandpa did the same 12 days later. Giovanni became a citizen on 19 Oct 1926. Grandpa's citizenship came through 4 months later.

Grandpa's year of birth dropped him into a sweet spot. He wasn't in America (or old enough) for the World War I draft. And he was too young to be included in the World War II "old man's registration". So there is no draft registration card for him.

Cousin Giovanni's card tells me that National Tube Company was on First Street in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. So I Googled it to learn about the place where my relatives worked.

I had no clear idea what a tube was. But a photo taken shortly before Grandpa worked at the factory makes it clear. A steel tube is a pipe (duh). A long, seamless pipe. They used pipes in the oil industry or waterworks.

The company where Grandpa worked is gone, but the factory still stands.

After working in this factory, Grandpa went to Youngstown, Ohio. He moved into the home of his father's 2nd cousin and soon married his landlord's daughter Lucy. She was his 3rd cousin, and my grandmother.

In Ohio Grandpa worked for the Carnegie Steel Company and then the railroad. He became sick and tired of the filthy work. The story in the family is that Grandpa said his job "stinks on the ice."

A few years later he moved his young family to the Bronx. They stayed with his Uncle Giuseppe until Grandpa got a job and an apartment. For the rest of his working life, Grandpa was a stone setter for a jewelry manufacturer.

Imagine how much easier it was! Setting stones at a workbench instead of whatever he was doing in the steel mills and railroad.

And that's the point. Thanks to a little research, I can imagine what his days were like in the National Tube Company. It sure adds a new dimension to the "stinks on the ice" story.

What documents have you found with the name and address of your ancestor's job? Have you researched the company yet?

And speaking of draft registration cards:

• Why You Need Your Ancestor's Draft Registration Cards
• Was Your Ancestor in the Military? It May Not Matter

5 Steps to Take When Your Ancestor's Name is Unreadable

Can't read your ancestor's name? Look around. You'll find it somewhere else.

Imagine finding the clue that will lead you to the maiden name of your 4th great grandmother. You're so excited! You can finally break through to another generation!

You found the name of your 3rd great grandfather in a death index. At least, you think it's him. You'll know for sure when you see the death record itself.

The death record should have the name of his wife—your 3rd great grandmother. Seeing her name will confirm that you've got the right death record. You know his father's name already. The only thing you don't know is his mother's full name.

What happens when you can't read the name?!

You've found the document number and date of death in the index. Now you have to page through and find the document.

And there it is! You know this is your 3rd great grandfather because his wife's and father's names are what you expected.

Holding your breath, you rest your eyes on the prize: your 4th great grandmother's full maiden name.

WHAT DOES IT SAY? Oh no, you can't read the handwriting at all!

Don't panic. All is not lost. There are a few things you can do to figure out her name. Follow these 5 steps to make sense of that precious name:

1. Make an Educated Guess or Two

Take your best guesses. Write down a few options. You're bound to be pretty sure of some letters and completely unsure of others. What variations of a name can you make using the letters you know and changing the letters you don't know?

2. See What Looks the Same

With these variations in mind, review the entire index. Look at all the entries for any name that looks like the one you need. Go to those documents for another view of the name. Do you think you can rule out or rule in some variations?

3. Expand Your Search

If you don't find any good names, check the index for a few others years. Take a look at all types of documents for the town around this time.

4. Collect More Evidence

Go to Ancestry or FamilySearch and enter your variations of the name, one at a time. Do any variations give good results? If you get results that come from the same town, that's now your #1 guess.

5. Put it to the Test

Search for your top-performing guess in and around your ancestor's town. This may help you find possible relatives. It may even lead to document with a clearly written version of your 4th great grandmother's name.

My 3rd great grandmother's same didn't make sense…until I found her death record.

I've had several cases where I finally found a name I needed for so long, only to be unable to read it. There was my 3rd great grandmother, Rufina Zullo. The first time I saw it, I thought it said Cenzullo. In the small town where she lived, there were many people named Cenzullo or Censullo. So I thought Rufina's last name was one of these.

Sound far-fetched? Well, there was another woman in town named Rubina Cenzullo. I was mixing them up without realizing it.

But I kept digging, looking for other mentions of my Rufina. Her 1898 death record finally solved the problem. She came from another town! That's why no one else in this town had her name. When I found her birth record in the other town, I knew once and for all that her name was Rufina Zullo.

I couldn't break through until I figured out her Anglicized, badly misspelled name.

My 2nd great grandmother, Maria Luigia Girardi, was another problem. I hadn't been able to find my great grandmother's birth record, so I didn't know her mother Maria Luigia's last name. I kept searching.

It was a death record and an indexed record for my great grandmother's brother that gave me some clues. A transcription of his mother's name was absolutely not Italian. It seemed French: Gerordiu. Then I found my great uncle's death certificate. It Americanized his mother's name to Marie Gerard.

I thought about those 2 variations for a moment. Gerordiu and Gerard. I was thinking, "How can I make that name Italian?" Then it hit me. Girardi!

So I did an Ancestry search for immigration records with the last name Girardi. I tightened up the search by adding in the hometown I needed: Pescolamazza, Italy. I got quite a few results.

Shortly after I decided Girardi was most likely the name, I gained access to vital records from the town. That's when I found out for sure that:

• My great grandmother's mother was Maria Luigia Girardi.
• Maria Luigia was born in Pescolamazza on 10 Nov 1840.
• The Girardi name was in the town at least as far back was the 1760s. That's when my 5th great grandfather Giuseppe Girardi was born.
• I'm not related to baseball manager Joe Girardi. (His family is from northern Italy.)

See "This Expanded Resource Provided an Elusive Maiden Name."

Get as familiar as possible with the names from your ancestral hometowns. Familiarity is a tremendous help. I spend so much time poring over old vital records from my grandfathers' towns that bad handwriting does not slow me down anymore.

I hope the next time you're totally stuck on a name you'll try these 5 steps to help figure out your ancestor's name. Be sure to see "How to Read Names on Badly Written Vital Records."