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The following is a chapter from:
Trace Your Roots with DNA
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ann Turner
(reprinted with permission)
WHEN NECESSARY, GO BACKWARD TO COME FORWARD
Most of us today are trained to think in a linear fashion. When we're researching our family trees, we start with ourselves and methodically work our way back through the generations, so when we're doing reverse genealogy, we expect to start at a given point in the past and steadily march our way forward in time. In principle, this makes a lot of sense, but based on our experience with hundreds of reverse genealogy scenarios, we've found that a zigzag pattern - going back and forth through time - is often more efficient. Partly, this is because taking a step back in time often allows you to gather the names of relatives and associates - yes, surround and conquer yet again!
For instance, we had one case where we found a particular family in the 1930 census, but couldn't find traces in more recent documents. So we backed up to the 1900 census to find the father of the 1930 family as a child with his parents and siblings. Fortunately, one of his brothers had an unusual name, and we were able to leap forward to 1969, the year this brother died and was listed in the Social Security Death Index. We went into reverse once again, locating this brother in the 1930 census with his wife and children. Finally we combined information from the SSDI (where he died) with the data from the 1930 census (the names of his children) and searched current phone directories for his now-grown offspring in that town. Bingo! It was a simple matter of asking the gentleman we located about his first cousins to find the family we initially sought. We were blocked when we tried to go straight from 1930 to today, but a zigzag 1930-1900-1969-1930-2003 pattern did the job.
In the course of research done to locate DNA candidates, you may also occasionally find it necessary to shift into reverse because the lines you're pursuing have died out in terms of the type of DNA you're seeking. (This is sometimes referred to as daughtering out if you're seeking a Y-DNA line and a few have suggested petering out as the mtDNA equivalent.) Perhaps you're trying to follow a Y-chromosome line, for instance, and the last known individual in the family had died childless. In this case, you would need to back up a generation to look for other lines to potentially follow into the present. Perhaps his father had brothers whose descendants could be traced, but if not, maybe his grandfather did. You may well discover that sometimes the only way to move your research forward is to go back in time first!
FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF THE DECEASED TO FIND THE LIVING
Those who have already tried their hand at locating DNA testing candidates often discover that the last step is the hardest. Many a researcher has found someone listed as a youngster in the 1930 census, but not been able to find that person today. One reason is our geographic mobility, and we don't mean just recent decades. When trying to locate families of soldiers who served in WWII and Korea, for example, we find a disproportionate number of relatives in California and Northwestern states due at least partly to the lingering effects of Depression-era migration.
Again, thanks to privacy laws and the proliferation of unlisted and cellular phone numbers, it can be very challenging to make the leap from 1930 to the present. Over the past few years, many states have enacted stricter laws pertaining to records of the deceased, but even so, it's usually easier to obtain data about those who have passed away than the living. For that reason, we suggest making heavy use of resources such as the Social Security Death Index, online state death indexes, and obituaries.
The SSDI is one of the most helpful resources for discovering where a family you're seeking may have resided within the past few decades, and if a state index exists, you may be able to secure a few extra details. Obituaries are even better because they frequently list survivors and where they reside. So if you can't find a particular person, it's smart strategy to look for the paper trail generated by the deaths of their parents, spouses, and siblings.
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North American office: P.O. Box 160, Carmine, TX 78932-0160 USA tel/fax: Toll free 866-7-DNA-DNA |
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