4 Rules for the Names in Your Family Tree

I've been on a rampage this year, adding thousands of people to my family tree. Once I discovered that everyone in my ancestral hometowns had a connection, I set out to prove it. Each town's vital records (1809–1942 with gaps) added at least 20,000 documented people to my family tree. (Discover the Lessons Learned from My One Place Study.)

The documents come from Italy's Antenati website. Thank you, Italy! Find out how to harvest the Antenati website for your Italian family tree.

During this journey I've learned a lot about the first and last names in my towns. I realized that I've developed 4 rules that make it easier to manage my 23,073 families. (That number comes from the powerful and free Family Tree Analyzer and my latest GEDCOM file.)

Here's a look at 4 naming rules to use in your own family tree.

Follow these simple naming rules to avoid errors and confusion.

1. Use Birth Names

The best way to record any person in your family tree is by their birth name. If you have their birth or baptism record, then you know what name their parents chose. We all knew my grandmother as Mary Leone, but Leone is her husband's name, not hers. And Mary is an Americanization of her given name—which is different than the name she claimed was hers! Her birth record calls her Maria Carmina Sarracino, so that is the name I recorded in my family tree.

Why record a woman in your family tree with her husband's last name when you know her father's last name? When you view her, it's plain to see who she married.

It's important to use original last names so all the siblings in a family unit show the same name. Anything else looks like a research blunder.

2. Use Original Spelling

I have examples from my ancestral hometowns where the spelling of a last name changed over time. The name:

• Esci became Iesce
• diRuccia became Ruccia
• Cifaldi became Gifaldi
• Italian names ending in an o later ended in an i.

Since my family tree covers many generations, I use the original last name for continuity. Then, since the name may change over time, I note this in an easy-to-find place. In Family Tree Maker, I use the description field for a person's birth fact to note alternative spellings. (Don't overlook this important feature to leave research breadcrumbs in your family tree.)

Many times a person will use a first name variation during their life. That causes problems when you're searching for the children of a particular couple. If the father was born Domenico but goes by Giandomenico as an adult, you may overlook his children.

In these cases I make 2 kinds of notes in that birth fact description field:

1. For the father, Domenico, I'll type "aka Giandomenico"
2. For their child, I'll type that their "father is called Giandomenico on their birth record"

These notes have bailed me out time and again when I find a vital record that doesn't seem to fit.

Because I researched all the town's records that I know people named Gifaldi were the descendants of people named Cifaldi. To make sure I found every family member, I changed my inventory to show only the original spelling.

3. Record But Don't Use Name Variations

On a similar note, if someone's vital record uses a different spelling of their name, I'll note that fact, too. I record the Esci children whose vital records say Esce, Iesce, or Iesci as Esci. But I add a note to the description field saying, "Her last name is Iesce on her birth record."

This happens with first names, too. A woman born as Concetta is Maria Concetta on her death record. During review, that may look like I made a mistake. So I put a note in the description field of the death fact saying, "She is called Maria Concetta on her death record." This assures me that I did my careful research, and there is a discrepancy in the documents.

I leave her name as Concetta, but understand that she may be Maria Concetta on the birth records of her children. And I'll note that for each child.

4. Expand Searches to Include Name Variations

You must take all the name variations into account when you're searching for records. I've created my own extraordinary database of the vital records of my ancestral hometowns. I've named each record image with the subject's name and their father's first name. That way, I can easily search for all the children of a particular man.

But what happens when that man's first name has variations? It's simple. You have to search for all the logical variations. A man named Giambattista at birth may be listed on his children's birth records as:

• Giambattista
• Gianbattista
• Giovambattista
• Giovanbattista
• Giovanni Battista
• Giovanni
• Battista

When a father has a compound name that has variations, I search for all possibilities. In this case, I can search for children with the right last name and a father whose first name begins with "Gi." (I'll search for Battista alone as a second search.) Then I can view the results, checking for Giambattista's wife's name, their ages, etc.

One huge benefit to my quest to get entire towns into my family tree is name familiarity. I can:

• spot a spelling variation
• decipher the worst handwriting, and
• identify an out-of-towner in an instant.

That's because I know all the names in my towns. I know their original spellings and their common variations.

How familiar are you with the names from your ancestral hometowns? Are your naming styles causing confusion?

4 Best Ways to Learn from Your DNA Matches

I've had tons of success identifying and learning important facts from my DNA matches. Here are 4 articles featuring the most successful methods to use.

I left one article off this list: "Use Color-Coding to Solve Mystery DNA Matches." This otherwise powerful technique doesn't work with endogamous families like mine. But it's well worth a look if your tree is not endogamous.

Endogamy is the practice of marrying within your own culture, ethnic group, town, etc., for centuries. This "muddies" your results. Different branches of your family tree will have very similar DNA.

These 4 articles represent the best ways to work with your DNA matches to fortify your family tree.

Are you getting all you can from your DNA matches? These 4 methods can really help.

1. 3 Key Steps to Identify a DNA Match

This article explains how to figure out your mystery DNA match by:

• Looking at your shared DNA matches.
• Searching their trees for familiar last names. (Notice I said familiar names, not your name.)
• Doing their research for them (but it's actually for you).

It's a method you can repeat over and over with positive results.

2. Digging Into a DNA Match's Family Tree

This article is a practical case study that expands on the article above. Don't waste your time on matches with no family tree or a useless family tree. Find matches with at least a couple of generations to their trees and search for a solid entry point. Find out how you can do this with your DNA matches.

3. Why Care About Your DNA Matches?

Your very distant DNA matches can still add value to your family tree. You may not know what became of your 2nd great grandfather's brother, but your distant cousin may. Here's how you can use your DNA matches to find lost relatives and missing families.

4. How to Use DNA Matches to Go Beyond Vital Records

I have a completely insane family tree—and not for the reason you may be thinking. My ancestors came from isolated towns, intermarrying like crazy. That means I can find some connection to everyone from each town. I'm using the Antenati website to piece together my connection to everyone from my towns. I have 72,000 people right now, and I'm far from done.

The only problem is, lots of documents are not available. In my towns, there are no death or marriage records from 1861–1930, births end in 1915, and there's nothing after 1942. The great value of DNA matches is that their personal knowledge can bridge that document gap. I especially love it when their trees can prove that two people already in my tree married one another. I had no way to know that, but now I do!

Follow this simple method and harvest the relationships you never knew existed.

I've had so much success with the Antenati website that it'd take pre-1809 church records for me to go any further. Now and then I choose a few more DNA matches to explore. The hope is that someday I'll find a distant cousin who has already seen those old church records!

A 15% discount for readers of Fortify Your Family Tree!

Top 5 Favorite Genealogy Projects

The Fortify Your Family Tree blog focuses on constructive ways to improve your family tree. These 5 genealogy projects have gotten the most attention from you, the readers.

Take a fresh look at these 5 genealogy projects and see which ones are right for you at this point in your research.

Take another look at the 5 most popular genealogy projects from Fortify Your Family Tree.

1. 3 Things to Do with Ahnentafel Numbers

The Ahnentafel numbering system is an excellent way to see which ancestors you've found and which ones you're missing. This article contains a free downloadable chart that I use for tracking my ancestors. I can see, for instance, that I'm missing one of my 3rd great grandparents, and I've found 5 of my 9th great grandparents.

2. How to Create a 'Book of Life' for Your Relatives

I have a cousin who's very interested in our family history. So, for an milestone birthday, I made her a 'Book of Life' like the ones you see on the PBS program "Finding Your Roots." It's easy to do and gets a tremendous reaction. This article shows you exactly how you can create a book of life.

3. How to Share Your Family Tree Research with Relatives

I was reluctant to share my family tree with all the cousins because it wasn't fully researched yet. But one cousin convinced me to do so. I distributed 40 large posters to the heads of all the families, and everyone loved it. This article offers a few creative ways to share your research with your family.

4. 7 Days to a Better Family Tree

Here's an explanation of 7 different ways you can greatly improve your family tree. I suggest you spend a nice long session on each item. You may not complete them in 7 consecutive days, but that's fine. In the end, your research will be more complete and your family tree will have more consistency.

5. 5 Steps to Writing Your Ancestor's Life Story

Sometimes we don't try to tackle certain projects because we expect they'll be too tough. This article breaks down the process of writing your ancestor's life story into 5 steps. Taken one at a time, they're not the least bit overwhelming. Give it a try!

Thank you for visiting this blog and spending your valuable time. I reap the benefits of applying skills I learned at work to my family tree. And now that I'm retired, this weekly blog *is* my job.

How to Get Useful Answers to Your Genealogy Questions

I'm a long-time user of the Microsoft Bing search engine rather than Google. Bing is promoting its AI Chat feature to give you an easy-to-read summary of your search results.

I decided to enter some genealogy questions into the chatbot. It summarizes it answers from several sources, which it cites so you can dive deeper into the answers.

Question 1

First I asked a question that I know is a mystery to many researchers of Italian family history. I asked, "How long are bodies kept buried in an Italian cemetery?" Many people expect to go to Italy and find all their ancestors in the cemetery of their hometown. They're disappointed when they get there.

The chatbot answered:

In Italy, the length of time a body is kept buried in a cemetery depends on the type of burial. If the deceased is buried in an individual tomb, the plot can be leased for between 10 and 50 years, after which the lease can be renewed. If the deceased is buried in a communal burial ground, the remains are exhumed after only ten years. If the municipality needs space, after 20 years from the burial, the corpse can be exhumed, and the remains are put in a smaller box and then into a recess in the wall or in the family tomb, if some member of the family requests it; otherwise, the remains are put in the ossuary.

Follow-up question: "What is an ossuary?"

Answer: An ossuary is a container or room in which the bones of dead people are placed. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The word “ossuary” comes from the Latin word “ossuarium,” which means “a container for bones”.

I learned about this on my trips to my ancestral hometowns. The cemetery keeps a small footprint because they continually reduce each body's space. And the ossuary room in my maternal grandfather's hometown is quite a sight to see!

Ask detailed genealogy questions, and a chatbot gives you the results in a conversational style.

Question 2

Next I asked, "What are the child-naming customs in different countries?" The answer was long and didn't cover any countries I can use. It's better to make your question more specific. I'm curious, "What are the child-naming customs in Latin countries?"

The chatbot answered:

Naming a child is a special moment for parents, and it can be influenced by various factors such as religion, culture, and family traditions. Here are some examples of child-naming customs from Latin countries:

• Argentina: In Argentina, it is common for children to take their father’s surname as their last name. However, it is not uncommon for children to have both their mother’s and father’s surnames.
• Brazil: In Brazil, it is common for children to have two given names, with the first name being the most important. The second name is often the mother’s maiden name or the father’s surname.
• Chile: In Chile, children are given two surnames, the father’s surname followed by the mother’s surname. It is also common for children to have two given names.
• Colombia: In Colombia, children are given two surnames, the father’s surname followed by the mother’s surname. It is also common for children to have two given names.
• Mexico: In Mexico, children are given two surnames, the father’s surname followed by the mother’s surname. It is also common for children to have two given names.
• Peru: In Peru, children are given two surnames, the father’s surname followed by the mother’s surname. It is also common for children to have two given names.

The part I wanted to confirm, because I was never sure, is that double last names from these countries are typically the father's last name then the mother's last name.

Question 3

A friend mentioned that a woman in her family tree became a widow, and then married her father-in-law. I wondered if that made their child the man's daughter and granddaughter, but not by blood, of course.

So I asked the chatbot a related question, "Are first cousins allowed to marry?"

In the United States, 19 states say, "Sure! Go ahead," while a few make it a criminal offense. Since I deal in Italian research, I was more interested in the second part of the chatbot's answer:

In general, the Catholic Church does not allow first cousins to marry. According to canon 1091.2, marriages are invalid up to and including the fourth degree. First cousins, therefore, cannot marry in the Church.

Digging a little deeper, I found that "the fourth degree" refers to first cousins. Now I'm wondering if I have anyone in my tree who somehow got around that rule.

Then, for the sake of this article, I asked, "Is chat bot one word or two?" It's one: chatbot.

Your Turn

I intend to keep this method in mind for future genealogy questions. What questions would you like to ask the chatbot? Do you have cultural questions about your ancestors' countries? Do you suspect an illness swept through their town during certain years? Are you curious about their marriage customs?

Leave a comment with questions you found helpful to your understanding of the people in your family tree.

Tour Your Ancestral Hometowns with YouTube

I haven't visited my ancestral hometowns since 2018, and I'm really starting to miss them. I'd love to walk the streets again, linger longer, and talk to more of the villagers.

Then a great idea fell into my lap. I wanted to find some information about a town I haven't visited yet. My 3rd great grandmother Rufina's hometown is Apice, and it's now a ghost town. An earthquake in the 1980s made the whole town too dangerous to live in. They call the deserted part of town Apice Vecchio (vecchio means old). Today everyone lives nearby in the very modern-looking Apice Nuovo (nuovo means new).

Among my search results were articles and videos about the ghost town. I saw a suggested video posted by another of my ancestral hometowns: Pesco Sannita.

What's this? My great grandmother's town has a YouTube channel? I watched an English-subtitled video about agriculture in my great grandmother's hometown. I'll be sure to look for the vineyards and olive tree groves on my next visit.

I watched another video about the Fiume Tammaro. I found this river (fiume) mentioned on 6 Pesco Sannita death records from the 1840s and 1850s. Young boys kept drowning there. Seeing the video, it seems too shallow and slow-moving to have taken the boys' lives. Even more surprising is that some women still wash their laundry in the river.

The town's YouTube videos include:

• beautiful fly-overs filmed by drones
• cultural events
• demonstrations by a local chef
• a look inside their restaurants, and more.

What else can I find from my ancestral hometowns? Searching for my grandfather's town of Baselice, I found:

• more drone fly-overs
• promotional videos for the town
• a description of a public works beautification project.

I'm a big fan of the drone fly-over videos (many created by Raffaele Pilla). I spotted my grandfather's house in one of them!

You can fly over, walk through, and learn the culture of your ancestral hometowns right on YouTube.

For my other grandfather's town, Colle Sannita, I found messages from the mayor and town council meetings. For my great grandparents hometown of Sant'Angelo a Cupolo, I found a fly-over video and a first-person view of a foot race through town. Even the real estate videos are great because they give me a view inside the homes. That's something I can't see while walking through my towns.

I also watched video tours of the city of Benevento. It's the center of all my ancestral hometowns, and I have 2 cousins who own restaurants there. I've been to Benevento 3 times and still haven't seen all the sights.

Search for videos from your ancestral hometowns by typing the name of the town in the YouTube search box. Be sure to use the correct in-country spelling of the town name. Pay attention to who is posting the videos you like. They may have more videos for you in their collections.

Be sure to hover over the video and click CC (closed captioning) to see subtitles. If they aren't in English, click the gear next to CC, click Subtitles, Auto-Generate, and choose your language. The translations may not have the best quality, so keep an open mind. If you can't click the CC, the video may have no spoken words.

While I was at it, I searched YouTube for my current hometown in New York. I found some interesting videos about the town's railroad history. Then I found videos about the little town of Hornellsville, NY, where my grandmother was born. If you haven't used YouTube to give your genealogy research some context, you should give it a try.

And speaking of your ancestral hometowns:

• Walking in Your Ancestors' Footsteps
• Prepare to Walk Along Your Ancestors' Streets
• Discover Your Ancestral Hometown's History

Make an Easy Ancestral Map for the Cousins

I love when I'm at a family gathering and I hear one of my cousins say, "Ask DiAnn. She knows all about our family history." At a recent get-together, 2 cousins approached me separately, asking for the same basic thing.

"We need a visual," my 1st cousin said. "Give us a map that shows which ancestors were born where."

That sent my mind racing. This sounds like a great gift idea for any genealogist to make. I'd already plotted my direct ancestors on a map. The result was a highly concentrated cluster of pinpoints in a very small section of Southern Italy. My homogeneity is like having all your ancestors come from one county in America…at least as far back as the 1600s.

It's easy to create this highly customized map to show all your cousins their ancestral roots.

While my ancestral map is exactly the same as my brother's, it's only partly the same as any of my cousins'. However, I do know that most of the aunts, uncles, and cousins who aren't my blood relatives came from the same general area. "They stayed within their tribe," as my godmother Rae put it.

Other than one town in Sicily and another up north, I can cover all my own and my cousins' ancestors in one thin horizontal slice of Italy. It begins south of Rome and ends south of Naples.

How to Create Your Family's Ancestral Map

Part One of Two: Create a list of immigrant ancestors and their hometowns. If you've already researched the immediate families of your closest cousins, you should have all these names and places handy in your family tree. Here's how to start:

• Make a list with yourself and your siblings on line 1.
• Add a line for each set of 1st cousin siblings.
• Add a line for each set of 2nd cousin siblings.

I could include some of my 3rd cousins, but the map would get very busy.

Let me explain that the people I call "the cousins" fall into 2 main groups, both somewhat small:

1. On Dad's side, I have only a brother-sister pair of 1st cousins. We've had a close relationship our whole lives. There are 2nd cousins, but since they're in Ohio, I've never known them.
2. On Mom's side, we all descend from 5 Bronx-born siblings whose parents came from Italy. It's this clan that has been a constant presence throughout my life. I have three 1st cousins and 14 2nd cousins in my generation. We're compact because no one had more than 4 kids and some had only one.

For my list, I started with myself, then listed the kids of each of Mom's 1st cousins as a group. (Trust me, this is an efficient way to do it.) I added a last line for my paternal 1st cousins. Then I spelled out the immigrant ancestors' names and towns.

Here's my list of the whole family's immigrant ancestors and their hometowns. (I shrunk the text because it's a long list.)

• Me:
  • Adamo Leone from Baselice
  • Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Pietro Iamarino from Colle Sannita
  • Maria Rosa Caruso from Pesco Sannita
  • Pasquale Iamarino from Colle Sannita
• S's kids:
  • shared Adamo Leone from Baselice
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Nicola Petriella from Circello
  • Raffaele Cocca from Colle Sannita
  • Nicolina Barone from Circello
• E's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Arturo Vallone from Esperia
  • Salvatore Mollica from Floridia in Sicily
  • Domenico Velotto from Barra in Naples
  • Filomena Carmina Picciocchi from Baiano
• L's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • shared Arturo Vallone from Esperia
  • Lorenzo Avallone and Maria Cristina Romagnano from Postiglione
• A's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Egidio Eufemio and Antoinette Trevignia from Castelmezzano
• R's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Carmine Sarracino and Maria Rosa dell'Aquila from Pastene
  • father's side from Germany and Ireland. Not in scope for this project.
• J's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Matteo Rignanese and Angela Maria Frattaruolo from Monte Sant'Angelo
• B's kids:
  • shared Giovanni Sarracino and Maria Rosa Saviano from Pastene
  • Mario Maleri and Ida Mattioli from Pesaro
• My paternal 1st cousins:
  • shared Pietro Iamarino from Colle Sannita
  • shared Maria Rosa Caruso from Pesco Sannita
  • shared Pasquale Iamarino from Colle Sannita
  • Silvio Tagliamonte from Ponza

Whew! That's what years of research can do for you.

Part Two of Two. Begin plotting your map. You can use Google Maps for this project, but you'll probably need to have or create a free Google account to save it.

• Go to google.com/maps and clicked Saved in the left column. This should work even if you've never saved anything.
• Click Maps near the top-right, then click CREATE MAP at the bottom.
• To give your map a name, like Cousins' Roots Map, click the words Untitled Map. I also renamed the Untitled Layer to Ancestors. You could choose to create different layers for different sets of cousins.
• Consulting your list, search for an immigrant ancestor's hometown on the map.
• When you find a town, hover over its name in the left-side control panel and click the + sign that appears. This opens up a detail box. At the bottom of the box, look for and click the pencil so you can make an edit. I'm changing my saved places from just the place name to Ancestor's Name, Place Name. For instance, Pietro Iamarino, Colle Sannita. Click Save when you're done.

Go through these 4 steps to begin creating your unique ancestral family tree map.

Open up the Base map section at the bottom of the control panel. Try out different map styles to see which you like best. I chose the Light Landmass map to help my map pins and labels stand out. But I switched back to the first option when I needed to see street names or more detail.

Now click the words Uniform style in the control panel. Change Set labels from description to name. This puts your Ancestor Name, Place Name labels on the map.

When I clicked Uniform style again, I chose to Group place by name. Suddenly all my map pins had different colors, which is very nice.

Since I have multiple people from the same town, I couldn't see some of their names. Only the last one I entered in a town showed. To get around this problem, I chose different locations in town for my people who came from one town. I can click a different part of town for each person and add them there. It took me a couple of tries to make sure the names were far enough apart not to overlap one another. I also combined married couples from the same small town into one pin.

When you're happy with your map, click Share in the control panel. Be sure to click Anyone with this link can view. At the bottom you'll find a link you can copy and give to your cousins.

Click around to find different options to customize your ancestral family tree map.

See what your cousins think, but you can make the map labels simpler by using the person's name only—not their town. The map itself will tell you their town. Also, if it works for you, you could use only a last name as the label.

I like that this map is interactive. You can zoom in and out and get a good idea how close or far apart your ancestors lived. My cousins want us to take a group trip to the places where our map pins are so densely clustered.

Wouldn't it be nice to print this map to a PDF file and give it to your cousins? You can! Here's how:

• Zoom in or out on the map to make all your pins visible.
• Click the 3 vertical dots to the right of your map name in the control panel and choose Print map.
• Select PDF and click Print. Play around with how much of a zoom gives you the best results.

The resulting PDF includes all the map pins you created in a list on the left, and the map on the right. If you create a separate layer for each group of cousins, you can easily print a unique gift for each set of cousins. Have fun!

Bonus! At the last second, I discovered you're a click away from exploring your map in the intensity of Google Earth. Click the 3 vertical dots to the right of your map name in the control panel and choose View in Google Earth.