New in GenTales on Medium: The Life and Death of Orilla Lincoln Ellis
She was a pioneer girl, married off at 14 to suffer through the ill fates of her children and poverty, only to spend her final days asking her neighbors to put her out of her misery. The puzzle pieces of her story don’t make the way things were seem like the Good Ol’ Days
New in GenTales on Medium – Surnames Vary by Region
There are many factors to consider when attempting to follow a lineage via surname. There are also many types of surnames depending on which region you’re working in.
When tracing surnames, it may be a simple process of following the name through the generations. But if you hit a wall, consider where and who you’re investigating, as it may require a bit of detective work to uncover a name change either between generations or for the person of interest themself.
I’ve written before about lowering expectations for genetic genealogy, particularly in the context of ethnicity estimates. In the Lineage Research space at Quora, a lot of questions are asked about why certain ‘known’ ancestries don’t show up in DNA test results. Amidst this confusion, I feel that this topic certainly hasn’t yet been exhausted and compelled to address it once again.
Read about the limitations of genetic genealogy on Substack.
I was asked an interesting question on the Gen Tales Quora Space about whether Jim Bowie (of Alamo fame) has any living descendants. He doesn’t, as far as anyone knows, but I do share ancestors with him. Read more about it in the Substack newsletter
