Timelines—one of my favorite genealogy research tools! Just the process of building a timeline can help your research immensely, as you will typically start to see patterns, discrepancies, or missing information that need further investigation. And, if you're a visual person like me, timelines provide a visual tool for you to better analyze the data you’ve collected.

Let’s take a look at the three types of timelines and how they can help you in your research.

1. Basic

This...

Before we dive in, let's address the question: What is the FAN Club?

FAN Club is a phrase coined by Elizabeth Shown Mills. FAN represents family/friends, associates, and neighbors—the people that were part of your ancestor’s social network. By including these people in your research, you may uncover clues that can help answer questions of identity, relationship, origin, and more.

So, where do you look for these people? Here are six of my favorite records to get you started.

1....

Last week, we covered some of the items that are often overlooked in the 1940 US census. I hope you learned at least one new thing and took some time to go back and review at least one 1940 census to make sure you gleaned everything that this particular census has to offer.

This week I thought I’d keep it simple :)

But Julie, your title indicates that we’re diving in to citations…that’s not simple!

Don’t worry, I’ve got you!

Citations for censuses are...

Eight years ago, when the 1940 US census was released to the public, genealogists dove right in to find their relatives. For some, it was finding their parents enumerated for the first time! For others, it might have been finding themselves enumerated for the first time! Whatever the case, it was an exciting time.

But…in our haste, we may not have read all of the wonderful details or may have missed some of the data that was collected for the first time in this census. That said, the...