I just completed one of the messiest same-name research projects I have ever worked on. Researching an individual who shares the name with others in the community is something I feel I’ve become a bit expert at doing. If you’ve done any measurable amount of research in Scandinavia, then you Read more…
We try to be good researchers and exercise good habits. But sometimes it feels too big and way too technical! One thing that can give us hang-ups is citing sources. There are giant books explaining how to cite sources. You can attend workshops to learn how to cite sources. All Read more…
This week I finished a really fun client project. Of course it was based in rural Denmark, about 50 miles outside of Copenhagen. I know this area very well in terms of genealogy research. I was searching for any information about a certain Christian Sorensen, born in 1850. (Many of Read more…
This week I completed a research project based in Kalmar County, Sweden. The family had their lineage traced to the time that church records began. The end-of-line ancestor, Ander Knutsson, lived while there were great records, but his birth pre-dated the church records. Our goal was to discover the birth Read more…
I just want to share the link with you all for the Legacy Family Tree Webinar that I presented this week. It will be available to view for free until Wednesday, 3 April. It was a great experience, and I hope to present with this group again. Which Hans Jensen Read more…
I have quite a few research goals for myself this year. One of them is very over-due. I’ve been wanting to be part of the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series. For those who don’t know much about this great offering, let me fill you in. Legacy Family Tree Webinars is Read more…
This week I’m going to discuss the idea of alternate surnames. This might sound confusing, but it actually works to prevent confusion. Our Scandinavian ancestors used a small number of given names in high repetition, and with patronymics, it gets even more confusing because first and last names are similar. Read more…
The final linking pattern for Scandinavian research is based on social class. I call it societal linking. The idea behind this rule is that our ancestors lived within the same social class their entire lives. “Rags to Riches” stories, or the reverse, are simply not true. If your family was Read more…
The next linking pattern is related to our previous one of geography. This time we will discuss property linkage. We talked about our ancestors living out their lives in a small geographic region. They also had ties to the farms and villages where they were born. Property claims were passed Read more…
The fourth linking pattern is based on geography. For this one it helps to remember the rule that “The past is a foreign country,” because our ancestors lived in the same basic area their entire lives. In fact, they often stayed in the same small area for generations. This is Read more…