Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2025 i Family Tree

The 25th anniversary of Family Tree that we celebrated this year has me thinking about legacy. What are we leaving behind for those who come after us? What traditions, beliefs and heirlooms do we define ourselves by? And which should we pass on to future generations? In a way, I’m a “descendant” of all Family Tree’s editors, writers and readers. Their legacy lives on in the work I do every day—the skills I’ve learned, the way I write and do research, and even the articles I read on our website. I hope that wisdom lives on in your genealogy work, too, and is helping you leave your own legacy. Throughout the year, we’ve tried to tap that well of knowledge in these pages. The new “From the Archive” column (page 70)…

Top Genealogy News Each year brings significant updates in the genealogy world. Stories we’ve covered in the magazine and our newsletter in 2025 include the bankruptcy of 23andMe, Family Tree Maker 2024’s long-anticipated release (see page 22), and significant revisions to AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA’s ethnicity estimates (with more anticipated soon; see page 8). We’ll share these and other highlights in a December episode of the Family Tree Magazine Podcast <www.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-podcast>. A New Family Tree Magazine Archive Each fall, we update our handy USB archive with that year’s batch of magazine issues <store.familytreemagazine.com/products/family-tree-magazine-archive-2000-2025>. Inside, you’ll find PDFs of every issue of Family Tree, plus an index to help you quickly find articles of interest. That index is curated by our editors to be of use to today’s readers—see 2025’s on…

The genealogy community mourns two prominent family historians, both of whom passed away in August 2025: Schelly Talalay Dardashti was a writer and speaker who founded the “Tracing the Tribe” blog and Facebook group and served as a genealogy advisor for MyHeritage. Her numerous bylines included Family Tree Magazine, with her most-recent article for us appearing in the May/June 2013 issue. Gary Mokotoff was head of the publishing company Avotaynu, which created a well-respected genealogical journal of the same name as well as dozens of books about Jewish genealogy. He was also a previous president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and co-creator of the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex system. May their memories be a blessing.…

It’s a genealogist’s dream: You’ve been invited to share some family history at your annual reunion. But when you finally get a chance to describe the Revolutionary War patriot you’ve been researching for years, all you get are polite smiles and an awkward silence. Finally your niece rallies in support. “That was on Grandpa’s side of the family, right?” You nod. “Weren’t they from the Shenandoah Valley? My dad took us there when we were kids. It was so beautiful. Why didn’t they stay on their farm?” You finally have everyone’s full attention. It should be a glorious feeling. But you panic. You know about the farm. But you have no idea when or why your dad’s parents relocated to … Richmond, was it? You stammer a few guesses about the…

Each state-by-state guide includes: • How- to tutorials for finding records Notes on how and when key documents were kept in the state, including vital records, state censuses and land records • Historical summaries and timelines Narrative history with special emphasis on events that affected your ancestors, including year of statehood, large migrations, and major border changes • Links to key resources Websites, books, and archives and organizations for further research 1 READ AS PART OF FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE Each issue contains two newly updated guides on a rolling basis. Subscribers collect all 52 guides. 2 VIEW ONLINE FOR FREE <www.familytreemagazine.com/explore-by-state> New states added each month. 3 PURCHASE & DOWNLOAD PDFS <store.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-research-state-guides> Purchase ($9.99 per guide; $49.95 for full collection) includes per-petual access to the most-recent version of the guide. RESEARCH…

Some of us inherit photographs; others don’t. Some of us have a bounty of family heirlooms; some of us don’t. Likewise, some of us have rich family food history, complete with recipe boxes handed down over the generations. But if you’re like me, you don’t. Can you create a family cookbook when you are essentially starting from scratch? Yes! There are numerous places to look for recipes that will remind you of Grandma and may be close to what she cooked. Look for recipes in: • Community cookbooks • Contemporary cookbooks • Newspaper food columns • Recipe websites and social media Depending on your theme, you may want a variety of recipes. Seek the above sources for supplements if you get too many recipes of a particular type. Alternatively, you…

Scotland’s People <www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk> is the official government records website of Scotland’s National Records office. There you can view record images, order original copies, and learn about the documents themselves. All that makes Scotland’s People—which got an upgrade in 2024—arguably the premier web destination for Scottish genealogists. Set up a free account to get started. 1 Scroll down on the home page to see Search the Records. The basic record search is very high-level, but gives you refinement options for name searches (exact names, “fuzzy matching,” wildcards, etc.). Alternatively, search just one type of record by clicking the Search the Records > People tab, or visit <www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/search-records>. You’ll see subpages for civil (statutory) birth, marriage and death registers; registers from the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church, and other denominations; censuses from…

MAN OF MYSTERY In the latest issue of Family Tree Magazine, the “Giving Away the Store” article [September/October 2025 “Photo Detective,” page 69] states there are seven men pictured. Could you help me find the seventh man? I can only find six and the two boys. Rob T. via email Editors: The seventh man stands on the far right of the uncropped photo; the “zoom in” that ran in the September/October issue crops him out. We apologize for the confusion—the text is mum on his identity. A DIFFERENT FAMILY ‘TREE’ Imagine my surprise when I received the September/October 2025 edition of Family Tree Magazine [which included a guide to tombstone icons, page 14] yesterday. I just found my great-great-grandfather’s tombstone within the last two weeks. When I saw the marker…

FALL OFTEN BRINGS UPGRADES to AncestryDNA results. But a September 2025 blog post announced that this year’s revisions represented “a monumental leap forward” in genetic heritage tools <www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/2025-ancestral-origins-coming-soon>. AncestryDNA’s updates hadn’t rolled out as of this writing. But the above blog post promised moreprecise ethnic regions in Origins results (especially for European ancestry). New “Macro-Regions”—ancestral locations presented at the regional level, rather than the country level—are designed to provide more-stable results year over year. Other 2025 enhancements include a new clustering tool for Pro Tools subscribers <www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/dna-matches-by-cluster> and a “face search” on the main website <www.ancestry.com/search/search-by-face>. And in July, Ancestry.com acquired iMemories <www.ancestry.com/corporate/blog/ancestry-acquires-imemories> a media-digitization and -preservation company.…

HEIRLOOM DIY: Holiday Recipes While you’re pulling out your favorite family recipes this holiday season, why not get a jump-start on gift-giving with custom cookbooks? Heritage Cookbook <www.heritagecookbook.com> is an easy-to-use platform that lets you compile recipes, photos and stories (like the one behind your grandmother’s pecan pie). MyHeritage shares tips for saving and sharing recipes at <blog.myheritage.com/2022/12/preserving-and-sharing-family-recipes-recipe-contest>, and read Family Tree’s guide to cookbooks beginning on page 54. Lisa Louise Cooke is the founder of the Genealogy Gems website and podcast <www.lisalouisecooke.com>, and host of the Family Tree Podcast <www.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-podcast>. Podcast Hear more great genealogy finds from Lisa and other experts in our free monthly podcast <www.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-podcast>. BLAST FROM THE PAST: The Great Thanksgiving Listen Family historians can capture family stories at holiday gatherings with “The Great Thanksgiving Listen”…

• Birth (or delayed birth) records • Business records and memorabilia • Burial permits • Cemetery records • Civic and fraternal organization records • Coroner’s records • Death records • Deeds • Directories • Divorce records • Draft registrations • Family Bibles • Funeral home records or funeral programs • Immigrant, alien and visa files • Marriage records • Military enlistment and service records • Naturalization records • Newspapers • Oral histories • Passenger arrival lists • Photographs and film/video footage • Public record indexes (residency databases) • Religious records (membership lists, rites, donations) • School records • Social Security records • Tombstones and other memorials • Yearbooks…

1 This photo from the Cano family collection is mostly unidentified. The only known subject is Sabina Gonzales Cano (smiling in the center-back). She and her husband Manuel Cano lived with Sabina’s parents after they married. It’s possible these are the Gonzaleses. 2 Dating this image is the first step to unraveling who’s in it. The youngsters wear short dresses and big bows in their hair; both date to about 1915 to 1920. 3 In group portraits, people often posed near their immediate family members. With that in mind: Sabina has strong facial features that she shares with the woman on her right. She could be Sabina’s mother. 4 The man on the far left looks roughly Sabina’s age and could be her husband. Fortunately, there are photos of him…

9 Tips for Researching Immigrant Ancestors 1 SEARCH NON-IMMIGRATION RECORDS. Look for information about the immigrant such as place of origin, birth year, year of arrival (or length of residence in America), port of arrival and whether naturalized. These details will help you search for and identify the person on passenger lists. Records holding these clues include censuses, burial records, obituaries, military records, citizenship records and passports. 2 LOOK FOR THE IMMIGRANT BY BIRTH NAME IN PASSENGER LISTS. This pre-immigration name may not be the name he or she used after arriving in America. 3 SEARCH FOR WOMEN BY MARRIED AND MAIDEN NAMES. If you still can’t find a female ancestor, try searching for her children. 4 SEARCH WITHOUT A LAST NAME. Instead, enter other terms, such as birth year, arrival port and…

1607 Settlers found Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. 1619 Roughly 20 enslaved Africans are brought to Hampton, Va., beginning the nearly 200-year slave trade in the Americas. 1620 The “Great Migration” begins with the arrival of the Mayflower; more than 20,000 immigrants arriving in New England in the next 20 years. 1790 Free white persons can become citizens after two years’ residence in the United States. 1795 Congress increases citizenship applicants’ residency requirement to five years, with three years’ notice of intent to file for citizenship. 1808 Congress bans the importation of slaves, curbing the forced immigration of Africans. (Illegal importation of slaves continued.) 1820 Laws requiring ships’ captains to submit passenger lists go into effect. 1845 Ireland’s Great Potato Famine begins, prompting a million…

<www.familytreemagazine.com/anniversary> This year was a special one for Family Tree Magazine as we celebrated our 25th anniversary. To commemorate that milestone, each issue in 2025 contained at least one article that revisited a topic we covered in our first year. (This issue has two: Family Tree Maker tips on page 22 and making family cookbooks on page 54.) We also introduced a new “From the Archive” column (page 70) that updates a well-loved article that previously appeared in Family Tree. You can see a collection of these and the anniversary articles from throughout the year at the link above. Follow Andrew on Substack The new blog shares Andrew’s genealogy musings and advice. Subscribe for free at <www.substack.com/@andrewkochftm>. JOIN OUR COMMUNITY! family tree SHOP Genealogy how- to downloads and videos, plus…

DNA testing arguably reached its high point of popularity in 2018, when the MIT Technology Review reported that 1 million kits were sold per month. Though interest from new test takers has cooled somewhat since then, the testing companies have continued to update and enhance their test results. Today, users are greeted with more-precise ethnicity estimates, detailed “migration groups” that crack communities, and more analysis and organization tools. Here’s how today’s results stack up against 2018’s:…

Cookbooks—especially family and community cookbooks—can be rich sources of genealogical information. But more than that, they share your family’s story in a way other documents can’t. By preserving and re-creating your family’s food traditions, you evoke not just a sense of sight but also that of taste and smell. As with other family history projects, you’ll need to make several decisions as you try to create a family cookbook: what to include, how to publish, and if it will have a theme, for starters. Fortunately, you have a wide range of options. This article covers the six steps to family culinary success—publishing a heritage recipe cookbook that will grace the kitchens of generations to come. 1 Pick a Theme INGREDIENTS: Purpose, creativity (to taste) All good books—about cooking or otherwise—have a concrete purpose.…

Q Where would I find records from the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia? Have a question you’d like David to answer? Email FamilyTree@Yankeepub.com with question may be selected for a future issue. A The best source for colonial-era arrivals is Filby’s Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s, available in many major libraries or online at Ancestry.com <www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7486>. The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild <www.immigrantships.net> has many volunteer-transcribed colonial passenger lists. If you think an ancestor came as an indentured servant, check out our research guide at <www.familytreemagazine.com/records/occupational/indentured-servant-research-tips>. Other available records vary based on colony. Most colonies created some sort of census or tax list that can serve as substitutes for passenger lists (which weren’t mandated until 1820). Ancestry.com has a collection of these “reconstructed records” from 1660 to 1820…

INTRODUCING THE FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE USB ARCHIVE This comprehensive digital archive of America’s no. 1 genealogy magazine contains over 25 years of guidance on how to trace your roots. Navigation is easy with the included app. Search articles by keyword to get the information you need fast! Features include: • PDFs of every issue of Family Tree Magazine from 2000 to 2025—more than 150 issues in total • An easy-to-install app for browsing issues on your computer • Clickable index (curated by the Family Tree editors) to help you find articles important to your research ORDER TODAY <store.familytreemagazine.com/family-tree-magazine-archive-2000-2025>…

1922 PASSENGER ARRIVAL LIST, PORT OF NEW YORK Immigration officials made notations during immigrant processing; other notations were made later, when court clerks researched arrival claims of those seeking citizenship. Find a key to these notations at <www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Manifests>. These numbers indicate the person later applied for naturalization. Details on these later lists include the name and location of a relative back home, the name of the person the immigrant is joining in the United States, and the immigrant’s city or town of birth. The ship’s name, arrival date and port, and port of departure are on the top of each page of the passenger list. Citation for this record: “New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com: accessed 14 August 2013), manifest, S.S. Orduna, Hamburg, Germany, to New York,…