Leave Breadcrumbs for Future Genealogy Research

I have a handful of stock descriptions I routinely add to people in my family tree. Using the same language each time speeds up the process and adds consistency. As I type, Family Tree Maker suggests text based on other entries, and I choose the right comment. Easy.

Some of my stock descriptions include:

• "His brother [Her sister] of the same name was born on this date." Without a death record, this is my reason for saying this child died before this date.
• "His wife [Her husband] remarried on this date." Other variations are "died on this date" and "had a child on this date." Without a death record, these are my reasons for saying someone died before this date.
• "From his [her, both] birth record[s]." I add that as a marriage date description when the date is only available as a notation on a birth record.
• "His [Her] father was in America when he [she] was born." I add that as a birth date description when the birth record notes this fact.

I've always meant to follow up on that last description about being in America. And that's today's project. I'll search for immigration records for fathers who were in America when their child was born in Italy.

Without this description, I'd never remember to follow up on this immigration fact.

There's a reason they mention this fact on an Italian birth record. Fathers had a duty to report their child's birth to the mayor right away. If someone else reported the birth, like a midwife or grandparent, the mayor recorded a reason why. Sometimes the father is in another town working. Or he's ill. And sometimes they delay reporting the birth because of terrible weather. But many times, he's gone to America to earn money.

I've been exporting a new GEDCOM file from my family tree each day because my tree is growing so fast. I'm currently working through every available vital record for my maternal grandfather's hometown. Almost everyone fits into my tree. (See "The Method to My Genealogy Madness.")

Using a text editor, I can open my GEDCOM file and search for each instance of "in America when." There are 63 of these descriptions. The first one is for my 4th cousin 3 times removed, Domenico Saccone. I searched Ancestry for his father Giuseppe Antonio Saccone, entering his year and place of birth, his wife's name, and his parents' names.

With minimal effort, I found three different crossings for Giuseppe Antonio Saccone:

• 1893, going to New York
• 1900, along with his eldest son, going to join an uncle in the Bronx, NY
• 1906, going to join his son-in-law in Connellsville, PA

This adds 3 new and unexpected data points to this family, plus a lead on that son-in-law. I didn't expect a man born in 1852 to make all those crossings. For my Italian hometowns, the men who sailed to America were a lot younger than Giuseppe Antonio. One very notable exception is my 2nd great grandfather. Born in 1843, Antonio Saviano made 4 trips to America, finally bringing his whole family with him in 1898.

Make stock descriptions a habit, and you'll leave yourself breadcrumbs for future research.

As I work through the 63 descriptions of a father in America, I'll update these notes. I'm thinking, "His father was in America when he was born. Immigration facts documented."

Using a handful of standard phrases in your family tree eliminates confusion and doubt.

Another type of description I add saves me from a lot of confusion. Sometimes I'll note that a person died before a certain date, but it isn't obvious where that date came from. Note: It would be obvious if I had source citations for every fact in my family tree, but I've got more than 64,000 people in my tree. I'll get to it!

One example is Giorgio Pozzuto who was born in 1788. I've documented his marriage and the births of his 8 children. But there's no death record for him. (The town's available death records end in 1860.) Then I noticed his grandson's 28 Dec 1868 birth record says Grandpa Giorgio is dead, so I took note of it. I gave Giorgio a death date of "Bef. 28 Dec 1868," and a description of "From his grandson Francesco Saverio Giovanni Pozzuto's birth record."

That very specific description ends any confusion about the source of this fact. Plus, when I add his grandson's birth record and source citation to my family tree, I can copy the source and paste it on the grandfather's death date.

I know I have more examples of stock descriptions in my family tree. Looking through my GEDCOM I see:

• "From his [her] grave marker." (See "Inspiration Leads to a Family Tree Growth Spurt.")
• "From her [his] obituary." (See "How Much Can Your Learn from Your Relative's Obituary?.")
• "From her [his] funeral card." (See "This Memento Provides Key Facts for Your Family Tree.")
• "Date based on age at death."
  

As more vital records come online, I'll revisit many of these comments to see if I can add a more reliable source.

What other types of breadcrumbs would you leave in your family tree?

Genealogy Skills Make You a Keen Detective

Sometimes my innocent genealogy detective work scares me. Using detective skills is an important part of genealogy research. We're always trying to find a family connection, or searching for important documents.

Many times we need to investigate living people. And that feels a lot like stalking. Our intentions are pure—we just want to figure out that connection! But it can get creepy when you realize how much you can learn.

This weekend I found myself looking once again at the DNA matches my parents have in common. One person in particular, let's call him JS, intrigued me. I always thought his face looked familiar. He looks like he could be my cousin.

When looking at my mom's DNA test, JS is her 4th–6th cousin on her paternal side. And I know her paternal side has its roots only in one town: Baselice, Italy. JS doesn't show up in my dad's DNA match list, but Mom and JS's shared matches are another story. They have 3 shared matches, not counting me:

1. WL is the descendant of my 3rd cousin 3 times removed, Donato Zerrillo. Donato came from my father's ancestral hometown of Colle Sannita. According to AncestryDNA, WL is my mom's 4th–6th cousin as well as my dad's, and mine, too!
2. MN has no family tree on Ancestry. AncestryDNA says he my mom's 4th–6th cousin, but he shows up as my dad's 2nd–3rd cousin and my 3rd–4th cousin.
3. PD is someone I've contacted before, but we can't figure out his connection to my mother. He has a possible Leone in his tree (my primary name from Baselice), but the connection isn't verified. The surprise is he has close ancestors from Dad's Colle Sannita. AncestryDNA says he is my mom's, my dad's, and my 4th–6th cousin, and I have the paper trail that says he's my dad's 4th cousin.

This brings me back to JS, the match who has a connection to all the people listed above. You can see the ethnicity estimates of your DNA matches. This tells me that JS has 23% Italian ethnicity and the rest is Germanic and Ireland. He should have an Italian grandparent or a couple of Italian great grandparents.

Since he has no tree on Ancestry, I began my detective work. I searched Ancestry for his name and found some public record indexes. These told me he had lived in 3 different U.S. states and that he's my age. I found his father's obituary easily. This told me JS's parents' names, his 2 uncles' names, and his 2 siblings' names as well as a sister-in-law. I found JS's father's family in several U.S. censuses and other documents. Then I found an Ancestry tree clearly owned by JS's sister-in-law.

If you know a lot about your DNA match, you just might be a detective.

I looked on Facebook and found JS using the same profile photo he uses on Ancestry (bless him for that!). I found his siblings, sister-in-law, and a cousin or two. But the main thing I noticed on Facebook and in the tree his sister-in-law built: ZERO Italian names. (And I'm only Italian.)

I now know which names provide JS's Germanic and Irish ancestry. But where is that 23% Italian hiding? The family tree of "S" ancestors goes back several generations, and all the names look German or Irish.

My only thought was Northern Italy. JS's ethnicity was 13% Southern Italian and 10% Northern Italian. What if one of his Germanic names was from the part of Italy that's so close to Switzerland that the lines blur? There are families in this part of Italy with Germanic names. I used to work for one; it was shocking to find out he was Italian.

I used an old favorite trick of mine to see which of JS's family names might be from Italy. I went to Ancestry and searched for passenger lists with only that last name. Then I looked at where people with the name came from.

I started with JS's own last name—a German-sounding name. I found a small number of people from Switzerland with that name. Ah, but a draft registration card told me JS's grandfather was born in New York City. I'd have to track down his ancestors. I discovered that even JS's "S" great grandfather was born in New York to parents who were born in New York. It's time to try another branch of JS's family tree. But his sister-in-law's family tree shows the mother's family was born in Germany. And his father's mother's family all came from Ireland!

While trying to figure out what to do next, I returned to the search results for JS's grandfather's name. I clicked a German birth and baptism record. It listed a birth place of Hirschthal and I thought, go ahead—see where that is. It turns out to be in Switzerland, but much further from Italy that I'd hoped.

Still, I may as well step out a bit further on this limb. I went to the Cognomix website where you can check for the location of family names throughout Italy. I put in JS's last name. The numbers are small, but that Germanic name does exist in Northern and Central Italy. But now I'm too far up in JS's family tree to account for his 23% Italian ancestry.

His DNA connection to my mom and me, and his connection to my dad's connections, has me so curious. I'm going to write to him on both Ancestry and Facebook and hope for the clue I need. Of course I can't mention all I've learned about him. I made that mistake once and scared off an interesting DNA match forever! I'll lead with "Who are our shared Italian ancestors?" That sounds both specific and un-stalkerlike.

Have you discovered more than you ever imagined about a potential cousin? Does it worry you? Try searching for yourself in various places. I searched Bing.com for myself under my maiden name. I found tons of these blog articles, photos I uploaded to memorial pages, and my comments about genealogy. On Ancestry, nothing came up, even though I know there's an index for my first marriage on there—that came up when I searched on Google.com. My favorite discovery is seeing all the times someone mentioned this blog that I never knew about.

How has genealogy improved your detective skills? Remember to always be a benevolent detective with genealogy as your only goal.

And speaking of DNA matches:

• Using Shared Matches and Genealogy to Solve a Mystery
• Your DNA Matches Hold Hidden Clues
• 3 Key Steps to Identify a DNA Match

How to Share Documents and Citations Within Your Family Tree

A Facebook group for Family Tree Maker Users explains every aspect of the software. But people still have questions, of course. I saw one the other day that was, basically, how do you share facts and media among family members?

I'm focusing on Family Tree Maker in this discussion, but the logic applies to online family trees, too.

When I began collecting census records for my family years ago, I:

• Named the image file for the head of household. I still do. (Example: SarracinoGiovanni1915.jpg.)
• Attached it to the head of household.
• Entered the address and occupation for that person only.
• Added a source citation to these facts.
• Added a line to my document tracker spreadsheet to show that I have that image for the head of household. (See "Which Genealogy Documents Are You Missing?")

I soon realized I needed to assign the image, address, and occupation facts to the rest of the family, too. But I knew it was wasteful to have so many copies of the same census sheet in my family tree. Each family needed to share one image.

Adding Efficiency to Your Family Tree

Let's take my great grandfather, Giovanni Sarracino, as an example. He and his wife came to America in 1899, and by 1915 they had 5 children. They're all listed in the 1915 New York State census. Now, you could drag and drop that 1915 census image onto each of the 7 members of the family. But the image file size may be big, and 7 copies of it will weigh down your family tree file.

Your family tree software or website is built for sharing documents and source citations across a family unit.

Instead, attach the image to the head of household. Then add his or her census facts to their profile, and create one source citation. You can and should attach the existing image to the source citation.

Next, go one at a time to each person in your family tree who's listed on that census. For each person:

• Add their facts from the census. This can include an address, year and place of birth, occupation, immigration year, and more. (The person asking the question in the Family Tree Maker Users group wanted to know how to share facts. Facts are individual items and you can't share them.)
• Copy the source citation from the head of household to paste onto facts for each person in the household.
• Connect the head of household's existing census image to each person in the household.
• Add a census notation to your document tracker for each member of the household to show that you have this item.

You've added only one image and one citation to your family tree. But each family member's individual profile shows it.

Key Points to Remember

The Benefits of Sharing

If you download a census image from a website, the image file may be as large as 3 megabytes or more. Think about all the families in your family tree with census images. Do you really want to bloat your tree's file size by 3 Mb times all the spouses and kids, times all the census years? It's inefficient and wasteful.

But there's an even bigger benefit to sharing, not duplicating, images and citations. When you need to correct a citation, or update the annotation on an image, you can do it in one place rather than 5 or 10 or 15.

I know I've gotten more thorough with my record keeping over the years. I didn't know from day one that I could add a date, category, and description to each saved image in FTM. I've revisited images to improve the descriptions or add a forgotten category. And I was glad to be able to make each edit in only one place.

Earlier this year I reviewed every source citation in my tree, bringing them up to my high standards. (See "How to Weed Out Those Unreliable Sources.") It would have been awful to have to make the same edit to tons of duplicated citations.

It can be painstaking work, but I've made it part of my routine. (See "How to Fully Process Your Census Documents.") Each time I find a census for a family in my tree, I complete the entire process. I make sure each member of the household has all their sourced facts and a connection to the census image.

Are you handling all your genealogy facts, documents, and citations efficiently?