Extreme Genes

If you've ever dug into Swedish ancestry, you know the issue. Tons of people have the same name and live in the same places. Well, Swedish Church records can at least help a little in sorting out which Hans Olsen might be yours. Fisher explains.

Two key census record sets were destroyed in Ireland in 1922, but some of that information was preserved in another way. Fisher explains why your ancestors' data from those census records may still be available.

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org . The guys open Family Histoire News with word that the last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster (1937) has died. Hear the details. Then, it turns out that a world famous movie star is actually related to the person he's portraying! Find out who it...

Within the United States, it was not uncommon for churches to give a "letter of transfer" to a member of their congregation who is moving to a new location. But sometimes they came with immigrants from across the ocean. What can this mean to you? Fisher explains.

Obituaries often reveal connections to the Free Masons. If you have an ancestor that belonged to this organization, his membership application may provide great information on him. Fisher has more.

Host Scott Fisher opens up the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org . The guys first pay tribute to affiliate WRKO in Boston that recently raised some $230,000 for veterans on Veterans Day. David then tells of the recent passing of what may be the last Massachusetts vet of one particular major World War II engag...

Slave research is hard enough, and this little nugget, unfortunately, might make it harder. Not all slave names come from the most recent slaveholder. Fisher shares some other possibilities.

The settling of the west wasn't much unlike the settling of colonial America a century or two earlier. And as people came, more and more lines were drawn. Fisher shares just a few so you know what to look for as you consider your research strategy.

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org .  Fresh back from RootsTech London , David fills us in on the experience and fresh announcements from the Big Three at the conference.  In Family Histoire News, David talks about a recent article that expresses concerns about GEDMatch and how fore...

War, population growth and shifting can all contribute to boundary changes. And boundary changes mean that, even if your ancestors stayed in the same place, their records could be hiding in many places.

Fisher had given up on finding the parents of an elusive ancestor when he took one last step before closing the book on the case. And it made all the difference in the world!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show on his own this week as David Allen Lambert is in post- RootsTech London . He will return next week. In Family Histoire News, Fisher talks about the Million Letters Project. It's a project that began decades ago with a few letters home from various wars dating back to the Revolution and coming forward all the way to 9/11. Hear how many letters are in the collection...

Females ancestors are sometimes difficult to find.  Fisher shares a few thoughts on other ways to look for them.

Struggling to figure out where your ancestor's Social Security records went? They might not have been there at all because things were different before 1951!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org . Fisher and David begin the show talking about a pair of sisters that learned that they were only half sisters. And one of them has a half brother that the other doesn't have! Hear what that was all about. Then, a unique mapping project has found...

Ever notice familiar repeating family names in a single family group? It could be the parents were following a classic pattern. And that pattern can tell you some very important truths about the previous generation.

Back in 1752, England enacted a law that changed our calendars forever. But did that law ever make a genealogist's life complicated!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org . They begin their conversation with Fisher talking about his latest breakthrough after 35 years of searching. Hear what solved the long time mystery. In Family Histoire News, the guys first talk about how DNA from cord blood has shown up in a DNA...

Ancestors love to play tricks on us as we trace them down… sometimes by disappearing from where we think they should be. Fisher explains where you might want to look next.

Fisher worked to break open one ancestral line for fifteen years. It wasn't until he was closing the book on the case by creating a timeline that he saw the answer!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org . Fisher notes another family history "score" on eBay, and David begins Family Histoire News with the story of autumn… why American's call it "fall." Then, it's the remarkable tale of a hitchhiker who was carrying an ancient book that no one knew e...

Just the way not every record is digitized, many records are digitized but not indexed!  Can't find what you're looking for? It's time to check those massive unindexed records!

Immigration records really can be tricky, especially when you're looking for someone with a common name, or just trying to learn where they came from. Fisher has a simple technique that could really help you out!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys begin with a crazy tale Fisher unearthed in his recent research that forced a marriage date to be pushed up! David starts "Family Histoire News" with the story about a man whose DNA led him to discover he was, in fact, an African prince....

Fisher's long been an advocate of creating ancestral timelines. But if you really want to know more about your people you need to make more than one timeline.