Got cousins?

Quite often, I get genealogy questions from distant cousins and online friends. While I'm not a genealogist, I have been researching my family tree for 20+ years and am happy to share information. But if you wish to compare ancestors, my best advice is to upload your tree to a website like Ancestry. Even knowing an ancestor's name, birth date and other info, it still means searching our family tree software for the names and visually comparing each individual to make certain they are a correct match. For example: I have 5000+ names in my tree and those are just my direct lines, so you can imagine the time it takes to make connections without online algorithms helping us out.

And if you can afford it, also do a DNA kit because that will help confirm your research and any family tree connections. Believe me when I tell you it's so much easier now than it was back in the day. I remember having to send a snail mail letter to each city for each ancestor just to get birth, marriage, and death information. And you had to pay for each certificate, whether or not they could locate it. Either that, or you had to get on a plane and do the footwork yourself. So get those trees online if you want family connections! Good luck and enjoy the journey, wherever it may lead!