“Stepping into someone else’s shoes” is an idiom encouraging empathy to gain perspective for someone else’s lived experiences. Inspired by it, I recently applied this perspective to Ancestry’s new Custom Clusters tool obtaining incredible insights into a brick wall ancestor. You’re going to want to try this for yourself, too. In a previous post, I … Read more
I know this runs counter to our internal motivation for genealogy, but sometimes we need to pause our genealogical research. Taking a break from cognitively challenging tasks like correlating DNA evidence and documentary research gives our subconscious time to process the vast amount of detailed information and complex relationships between data points. As a marketing … Read more
Imagine finding a DNA match who has the surname you’re researching within their family tree, and their ancestor is a known descendant of your 5x great grandfather, who you have yet to identify. If only you knew this was the match you’ve been waiting for to break down that stubborn brick wall. Well, this is … Read more
Finding the right group of autosomal DNA matches is critical in moving your genealogy forward and breaking through stubborn brick walls. However, sometimes these important matches are not found within your match list but in the lists of other cousins who share the same ancestor. Search as you might, you can’t find a match that … Read more