Before the end of February, a news article came across my feed. The article's title stated that there is now a Human Family Tree with over 231 million lineages. The statement reminded me of a quote I had read some time ago in college by Pope John XXIII, "The family is the first essential cell of human society." In fact, it our cells that are the basis of human society according to all the years and time science has devoted to studying where we come from and how we connect.

Hi!  My name is Audrey Stetson.  I started doing genealogy almost 45 years ago. I have always had an interest in my whole family, but, when my first son was born, I had trouble completing the family member names in his baby book.  That’s when I started researching, and, finding out as much about my family history as possible. At that time, there were no reference books, or how to books, to tell you where and how to look.

Happy New Year everyone! 2021 is in the rearview but a lot of our family genealogy research goals and plans lay ahead of us. Normally, on New Year's Day, I try to formulate how and when I plan to tackle certain portions of a family tree. 

Patriot Ancestor - Paternal G4 Grandfather Lieutenant Colonel John Branch,  Halifax County, North Carolina

As we go back in time searching for our ancestors, records become scarcer. The previous methodology that we would use for research doesn’t work anymore. We have to additional records in addition to the census records. What records could be of value in addition to records that only give us tick marks? In Pennsylvania, early censuses and tax records will be discussed specifically. With my own ancestor Daniel Drinkle, I had a difficult time finding who his parents were. Daniel was born 19 July 1788 in Reading (Redding), Pennsylvania.In censuses 1790-1840 they don’t give head of household. They gave tick marks of who lived in that place. Since, Daniel would have been between the ages of 9-10 there may have been a Drinkle that was living in that place.