Genealogy Information Request
As part of updating our family genealogy, Kevin is contacting many relatives for more information about themselves and their families. Please feel free to take
the initiative to contact him with family stories, photos, or other information:
DNA Testing
The best way to help is to test the atDNA of someone in your family. Every generation only receives half of the atDNA from the preceding generation,
so it's a huge help to test members of the oldest living generation in your family.
Their results will provide the most matches possible to the earliest generations - and all of that information will be lost if they're not tested before their death.
For those who can afford it, test as many people in your family as you can.
Information Uses
Data about "living" relatives (with the exception of gender) will be made available only to other family members.
Family trees of deceased relatives will be posted publicly on genealogy sites for use by other researchers.
This allows our more distant relatives to learn about their ancestors and extended family tree.
Information Collected
Family Member
I'm asking for quite a bit of data from each family member. Please send whatever portions you can now, and we can fill in any additional gaps later.
When I contact you for information, I'll try to request just what I'm missing. However, it probably helps for you to know the complete list of data needed for each individual.
It includes:
- Full name at birth, including middle name
- Birthplace
- Preferred nickname, if any
- All name changes, and dates (or approximate dates) of changes
- Marriage date(s) and place(s)
- Full info on spouse(s) (see below)
- Divorce date(s) (or date estimate) and place(s), if applicable
- Date and place of death, if applicable
- Current full mailing address
- Optional: phone (land or cell), personal email address
- Optional: a few favorite photos of you and/or your family at key stages of your life.
Examples: graduation photo, wedding photo, favorite recent photo of yourself, family pictures with your parents, kids or siblings.
For group shots, be sure to include names of each individual. Estimate the date of each photo.
At some future date, I may contact you for a few paragraphs about your life or stories about your ancestors - but that's not in the works now.
Spouse or Parent's Spouse
Anytime a family member marries, they introduce a whole new set of relatives into the mix. While I won't be tracing their ancestry, it is very useful to provide data that
helps any of their relatives who are researching genealogy link their family trees to yours. (As explained above, they won't see any information about you while you're alive -
but they can learn that a distant cousin exists.)
In order to make a link that researchers can see, they need to have information about at least one of each spouse's deceased ancestors.
So for each spouse, please provide as much as is known:
- All information requested above
- Each parent's full name at birth, date of birth, birthplace, date and place of death (if applicable).
- If the parent is still living, provide as much as known about the parents' parents.
Example
Here's an example of what I might request of you if you're related to me through your mother:
- I should have most of the information about your mother; I may ask about a few details.
- I probably have part of your father's name and perhaps his date of birth. Please provide as much other info as possible about him.
- If you know information about your paternal grandparents, please provide it.
- Provide any information that is missing about your spouse, your kids, their spouses, and their kids.
- Any time there is a spouse (of yours or your kids), try to provide info about the spouse's parents and perhaps grandparents.
If I'm related to you through your father, I need the same info about your mother and her parents/grandparents.
Where to Send Information
Email Kevin at . Use Subject: Genealogy.