Are you a hint chaser? Let me explain. If your tree is on ancestry, do you only do the leaf icon (hints) that are at the top of the page? I was curious as I don’t look very often and never solely work on hints, but according to Ancestry, I have 84,670 hints. That is a lot of hints!
My problem with hints is that Ancestry gives you too many and I dislike jumping from branch to branch in my tree. My approach is to work steadily on one line and systematically work an entire branch. When working on each person, I only look at the hints that show when I open their page.
Towards the end of this past December, I was at a stopping point when I received one hint notification by email from FamilySearch. I like the one email per week notification approach and usually their hint for the week is nothing new to me, as my FamilySearch tree was a GEDCOM tree and not my main tree.
But this hint really, really intrigued me because it was the first time it was on a line that was a brick wall, meaning that I couldn’t go further back than my 2nd great-grandmother on my maternal line. This one hint was serendipitous for my breakthrough.
Let me tell you the whole story.
FamilySearch Notification
When I clicked the link in the email and logged into FamilySearch, it took me to the notification link and that link brought me directly to my great-great-grandmother’s Baptism record.
I first looked at the index to find the actual record, but it was locked; they displayed a message that, in order to view the record, I needed to be at either a FamilySearch Center or FamilySearch affiliate library. (If you don’t know how to locate your FamilySearch Center or affiliate library, read my article about it, here.)
So far, I was pumped as everything in the hint matched previous information (A lot of times, the hints don’t). Anna Carolina Steiner’s marriage record already listed her parents, which gave the wonderful feeling of the nice feeling of the pieces of the puzzle start fitting together. Why didn’t I break through this brick wall earlier? I think it was a couple of things: The records were not indexed and maybe the other reason was I didn’t learn about searching on my own with the catalog till later. All good things come to those that wait.
Records
Looking at the original digital record at my local FamilySearch Center of Anna Carolina Steiner’s Baptism gave me some additional information. The new key information was:
- Her birth date
- Location of Residence
- Location of Baptism
- Her paternal grandfather
A couple of other things to point out:
- If you click on any of the hyperlink names on the indexed record, it sometimes gives you other similar records that contain the same name on the right side of the screen. This saves time from having to start a new search and you can quickly copy the image to your thumb drive.
- Also, look to the right side of the record and it will tell you if the person is connected to the One World Tree. If they are, then you want to explore further, as their page might have more sources listed.
- If not and your tree is on FamilySearch, then connect it to your ancestor.
In the example below, I clicked on the hyperlink: Gottfried Steiner. In the box, you can see all the other suggested records that are listed and any possible family tree match.
Sleuthing
Because I looked at the suggested records, I found Gottfried and Elisabeth’s marriage record. You can say I hit the jackpot again! This time I learned:
- Birthdate
- Birth place
- Fathers
- Current residence
The other suggested records filled out my family, as there were three more children.
Sometimes Ancestry® just doesn’t have the records for a country, and this is true with my Swiss ancestors. While I was helping my friend Leonard on Ancestry, he was getting hints for his tree from a website called Geneanet. When looking at the hint, you can click the link and it will take you directly to the hinted Ancestor on Geneanet. They let you view a few times for free, and then after that you will need to create a free account, which I eventually did.
The tree might not have the sources listed, but it is a nice way to see if anyone else is working on the same ancestors. So I did a search, and found my ancestors in two trees. I contacted each tree, and I was surprised to receive responses from both.
You have to understand that, on Ancestry, sometimes it takes a while for someone to respond. One Ancestry response took over 10 years and, by that time, I solved that puzzle and moved on. I responded back, thanking them, and filled them in with what I found.
The Geneanet contacts have helped further these lines with either records or continuing help like transcriptions or other questions. I highly recommend that you take some time to check out Geneanet and contact any trees that match your ancestors.
On The Right Track
After I received my hint around Christmas, it kept snowballing, meaning one hint led to another record and another. I have to say that if it wasn’t for my cousin helping me, I would have had the wrong 4th great parents. Would I have figured this out or would it have been years later after I added a ton of wrong records? I don’t know.
With all the records available on FamilySearch, I have been able to flesh out the entire branch as far as I can go. With more details and branching out your tree, you can more easily see where a DNA cousin connects based on their tree. By the beginning of January, I had enough of the line completed to I think my 5th great-grandparents on the Steiner and the 6th great-grandparents on the Kreienbühl lines when a cousin contacted me. In another post, I go into detail about all that happened and how it ended up being random acts of kindness, as you can read here.
In that article, I thought it was the lines based on where his grandparents were born. On AncestryDNA, you can make people into guests, collaborators or managers, just like on the tree building. Brett made me a collaborator, and that let me see all his DNA cousins. While looking at his DNA, I noticed he had a DNA cousin that is a known Steiner/Kreienbühl cousin of mine. We still don’t know exactly where in the tree our connection is located, but because we share a common DNA cousin, I know I am on the right track, even if I can’t pinpoint the exact ancestors.
You will be glad to know that a few weeks ago, I confirmed this line with MyHeritage DNA. Back in September, I uploaded my DNA from AncestryDNA as an experiment to see if I can help Leonard with his DNA, but with having only the free portion I could not do very much. MyHeritage, from what I know of, does not have the easy sharing capabilities like with AncestryDNA. Anyway, I was looking at my DNA and filtered my DNA down by location and used Switzerland. After really looking at the DNA, I found a DNA cousin that listed my 3rd great-grandparents Steiner/Kreienbühl.
This is great as the more confirmations, the better it helps to confirm my findings/records are accurate and that is a good feeling.
One Little Hint
This one little hint was my chance to have a breakthrough on a line that has been a dead end since I started my tree in 2009. So, maybe, the next time you receive a hint, you will recognize it as your serendipitous breakthrough!
