Webinar: Finding the Living (American Ancestors)

Title: “Finding the Living: Doing Descendancy Research”
Presenter: Hallie Borstel
Date viewed: December 10, 2020 (1h)
Permalink: https://www.americanancestors.org/education/learning-resources/watch (must have account)

Summary:

As family historians, we focus on tracing our ancestry further and further into the past, going back one generation at a time. There are, however, cases when we need to do the opposite and trace lines forward. In this webinar, Genealogist Hallie Borstel will discuss how descendancy research, i.e. tracing all descendants of an individual to the present, can help you further your research. Whether you are building out your ancestors’ network of extended family, hoping to understand DNA connections, working on a study project, creating a family association, or just want to connect with distant family, this webinar will give you the necessary tools and strategies for finding living relations.

Notes:
Goes over which documents to use to gather ancestor’s names, using FAN club (friends associates neighbors) to find more names, and how to use those names to trace down to living people. Includes info on using social media, white pages websites, and Google to find living people, plus tips on how to contact them.

Very basic webinar, good for people who are trying to find living relatives for family reunions but don’t normally do genealogy research. Also good for people who aren’t used to Googling everyone they meet to find their social media accounts!

A useful thing I learned is that American Ancestors has a questionnaire to use when interviewing family members. I’ve downloaded it and added it to my documents for later use.