Building a Genealogical Case with DNA: Samuel Tanner of Texas

Recently, an eye-opening DNA cousin appeared among my mother’s matches on Ancestry.com. She shares 23 cM with my mother and shares even more DNA with my mother’s sister and brother – 36 cM and 43 cM, respectively. These are not insignificant amounts of shared DNA, giving me confidence that I could potentially determine how she …

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Slave Ancestral Research: Unearthing Your Family’s Past Before the 1870 Census

The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) published this in their newsletter, BCALA News, Summer 2015, Volume 42 Issue 3, pp 41-46. I am reposting it here on my blog with some modifications. You have thoroughly researched your African American roots all the way back to the 1870 U.S. census. You have even …

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