Brick Wall Busting Strategies: Episode 90

In this month’s episode, learn how to break down those brick walls in your family tree with fantastic tips and tools from Lisa Louise Cooke and her guests.



Ep. 90: November 2015







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In this episode:







News from the Blogosphere with Diane Haddad



Editor Diane Haddad provides a buffet of brick wall strategies from some of her recent Genealogy Insider blog articles.



* The 1939 register from FindMyPast can help you with brick walls caused by modern record gaps due to privacy restrictions, or in this case, the absence of a census in England.* Newspapers can be helpful in opening up new research avenues and filling in details.* Under-recorded populations such as American Indians can be difficult to research. This post explains six clues to prompt your research into American Indian ancestry.







Top Tips: 10 Ways to Tell if You’ve Really Hit a Brick Wall



If you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall in your genealogy research, it may actually just be a detour—not the end of your research road. In his article Long Way Around (Dec. 2015 issue) author David Fryxell discusses 10 ways to tell if we are really at the end of the records road, or just at a detour.







101 Best Websites for Genealogy



Lisa’s guest Taneya Koonce shares her favorite websites:



* Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1719-1820* Digital Library on American Slavery* Taneya’s Genealogy Blog







Family Tree University: Cluster and Collateral Research



Contributing Editor Sunny Morton joins Lisa to share tips from Family Tree University’s course, Cluster and Collateral Research 101.



Cluster and Collateral Research 101 covers:



* How to get started with cluster and collateral research: who to look for, what constitutes a cluster or collateral relation* When to use cluster and collateral approaches* Which records are best for cluster and collateral research, including census, vital, church, newspapers, land transfers, wills. etc.* How to determine the names and relationships between relatives* How to organize and employ the information you extract from cluster and collateral research* How to find clusters beyond neighbors and coworkers that hold info about your ancestor * Research problems needed to extend the tree* Explain a mystery or apparent contradiction in the record* Identify how someone fits into the family* Separate people of the same name* Find a family that disappears* Research before 1850 and immig...