Inside the National Archives

Liz of My Tapley Tree...and its Branches wrote about her experience at the National Archives and I wanted to give readers my take on it as well. It was a week day, so the line getting into the Archives was not that long. We had to walk through security first and foremost: put our bags through the metal detector thingie, empty our pockets, remove our coats if we had one, and walk through the metal detector, just like you do at the airport. Then at the desk, we show our picture id and hand over our equipment – cameras, scanners, and laptops – to the security officers who then record the serial numbers of our equipment on our “equipment receipt.” This receipt is good for 90 days and is presented to the officers each time you enter the Archives. Once our IDs are confirmed and our equipment is logged, we are given a yellow badge and then we sign our names into the log.

**Note: I have heard that renovations are currently going on at the Archives, so what I’m about to describe may or may not be standard procedure at the Archives during non-renovation times.

Upon entry into the Archives, we are greeted by a main desk and archivist who directs us where to go. For land records, we are directed to the “Finding Aid Room” to the left; for microfilms (AKA military Records), we are directed straight ahead. But first, as first time visitors, we are directed to the microfilm room where we are required to obtain our “Researchers Card.” The archivist there tells us to sit at a computer, watch a powerpoint presentation, fill in the form at the end, and then we will have our picture taken and a card made up. It took us about 10 minutes to complete this process on a Thursday morning around 10 am, however a peek back at the orientation room a little later on showed a bit of a back log of persons waiting to receive their researchers card, so make sure you get there early.

Land Case Files

We decided to go ahead and tackle the Land Case Files first because they required records to actually be pulled (ie, they are NOT on microfilm). I do not remember if we knew this ahead of time, or if the lady at the desk told us this when we first walked in. The reason it is important to tackle the original documents first is that these documents are only pulled at certain times of the day – 10, 11, 1:30 and 2:30 (and 3:30  W-F). And then you have to wait at least an hour for the records to arrive. So you have to plan accordingly. We walked into the Finding Aids Room right before 11, so we had to fill out our request forms in a hurry. Luckily the archivist on staff at the time showed us exactly how to fill out the forms. The BLM records we had printed out ahead of time had all of the pertinent information we needed to fill out the forms and we got most of our requests in by the 11 o’clock pull time. The other requests were submitted for the 1:30 pull time. The archivist reviews the forms and hands them over to another archivist who keys the information into the computer. Read my previous blog post on Day 1 at NARA – Land Case Files – Part 1 if you would like more information on ordering Land Case Files.

Military Records and Microfilm

While we were waiting for the Land Case Files to be pulled, we visited the microfilm room. Another Archivist greeted us here and we swiped our researchers card when we walked in. This was when things got confusing. You really have to go on the NARA.gov website to understand exactly what they have for military records onsite at the Washington, D.C. Archives and what is on microfilm and what is original records. Here are some of the lessons I learned about military records and microfilms:

• Most of what NARA  has is already on fold3.com and Ancestry.com now, with the exception of the pension records
• Fold3.com has more information than I found on NARA microfilm
• The NARA microfilm is easier to use than Fold3.com
•  NARA has microfilm of the 1812 pension index
• The 1812 pension records are original records, not on microfilm
• NARA has Revolutionary War Records and Pensions on Microfilm
•  NARA has Compiled service records of Union and Civil War soldiers
• NARA has Civil War Pensions of Union soldiers only (Conf. Pensions in State Archives)

Archivists or Reference Librarians, whatever you call them!

Before I move on to the Research Room I want to say a few things about the Archivists. I’m not sure if they are Archivists or Reference Librarians because each person rotates through each post every two hours. One advantage of this is that each person gains experience in each aspect of the entire library. However, one disadvantage is that you run the risk that you end up with no one person who is especially skilled in one area over another. The first person we encountered in the microfilm room told us to look our stuff up on the internet. This kind of frustrated me at first. Why did I drive 5 hours to visit a place to learn about records I could have easily downloaded from the internet? Well I learned later that he also neglected to tell us that there actually WERE more to the 1812 records than what we saw in the microfilm – that is, you had to actually order the 1812 pension records because they were original records! By the time we were told this, it was too late to get our order placed before the last pull time, but they assured us the records would be waiting for us in the Research Room the following morning.  So the moral of this story is that be sure to ask the next librarian or archivist, whatever they call themselves, the same question you asked the last person on duty, especially if you did not get the answer you were looking for!

The Central Research Room

Finally, we ordered Land Case Files and 1812 Pension records which we learned at the end of our first day were actually original records that had to be ordered and viewed in the Central Research Room. This is a room located in #203 on the 2^nd floor accessible by the elevator or stairs. Access to this room and the rules around it were also confusing, but I will try to explain it the best I can.

First of all, you have to put your bags and coats and stuff in your locker before you go into the Central Research Room. You are only allowed to take in your electronics like the camera, tripod, laptop, scanners (flatbed only), pencil and looseleaf paper. Each piece of paper has to be stamped, so only bring in what you need.

You are greeted by a security officer who scans your researcher card and looks through your looseleaf papers and asks you to open your flatbed scanner. You then have to get your looseleaf papers stamped at the desk. If it is ok with you, they will staple them and then stamp just the back copy. **Note: I did notice that each archivist does things a little differently. Some will ask if it’s ok to staple your papers, others will not; some will staple them, others will not and just stamp every page. Just be aware of this. ** Once you get your papers stamped you find a researcher’s desk and wait for your name to be called. When your name is called, you go up to the desk and you sign one of the request forms you filled out (one form is usually good for the whole pack of them you filled out, if they are all for the same kind of record), date it and put the time on there. Then you sit back down and wait for the records to arrive. The archivists retrieves your records and brings the cart to your desk. You are allowed to place one box at a time on your desk and take out one record at a time. Use a place holder!

You can scan the document, photocopy it, or take pictures of it (without a flash). The photocopiers use your researchers card. So before you go up to the Central Research Room, stop at the cashier’s office on the first floor and put money on your researcher’s card. I added $10.00 to mine. Then when you want to photocopy, just swipe your card, make your copies and the money is automatically deducted. We could not figure out a way to tell how much money we had remaining on our cards, but if you go over, you simply pay the cashier the remainder of your balance.

Copies are made on the blue copy paper you may have heard about. Although it doesn’t really look blue and I’m guessing it won’t affect your ability to re-scan your copies once you are at home. (I have not tried this yet).

You are allowed to leave the Central Research Room at any time. They will keep your records for up to 3 days. You can keep your stuff at your desk for up to an hour’s time absent, so if you want to go get lunch and come back you can. You want to leave your looseleaf papers your desk so your don’t have to get them restamped.

Your copies are not allowed to leave the room unless they are put in a locked green bag! If you do have to leave for a few hours, then you can have them put in a locked bag and then have the archivists hold your bag for you until you can come back later. This is a nice convenience for its patrons. Once you are ready to leave the Research Room, your documents are locked in your green bag, your green bag is checked by the security officer, along with your looseleaf pages, and then you are allowed to leave. You can put your locked green bag in your locker if you have other research to do. When you are ready to leave the Archives, you collect all of your personal belongings from your locker and you go through security like you did when you came in. You give your locked green bag to the security officer and they open it and pull your items out, go through them one last time, then hand them over to you.

I think I’ve covered everything, but I’m sure there’s more that I’ve forgotten. I have included a couple of photos below from inside the Central Research Room #203. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions below. 

Liz looking for George Scwalls

Fellow genealogist Craig Scott at NARA

Day 2 at NARA - Land Case Files - Part 2 - Scrip Warrants

Box Label for Cash Entries, National Archives, Washington , D.C. October, 21, 2011

In yesterday's post, I discussed how to order the Land Case Files for my ancestors at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. The archivists pulled about 20 records for me yesterday, consisting of Cash Entries (pictured on the left), Military Script Warrants, and Homestead Acts. Today I had another 15 or so records to pull.

This time there was a different archivist showing me how to fill out the forms a little differently. I must have filled them out  incorrectly because I didn't receive 3 boxes and 2 boxes were not the correct ones.

Luckily the archivist who was pulling the records caught me as I was submitting the 2nd request and asked me some questions about my requests and we were able to get them sorted out and he got the records to me finally. I didn't bother with the 2 boxes that were pulled incorrectly because I was land-record'd out!

Let's look at the Military Scrip Warrants. These are land patents that were granted to soldiers for their service in particular wars. The soldiers then had the option to keep or sell the land. My Ancestor, Agrippa Spinks Godwin received one such patent in 1853 from Reuben Clark.

Here is what I pulled up from the Bureau of Land Management website (Agrippa Godwin, Sharp County, Arkansas):

Here is what was in the Land Case Files for document number 27441:

This is document number 27441 and it is a patent for Bounty Land given by the United States of America Department of the Interior Office of the Commissioner of Pensions under the Act of September 28th 1850 entitled "An Act granting Bounty Land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States."

Patent was granted to Reuben Clark, Private in Capt Elmore's Company, Kentucky Militia, War 1812, Also Private in Capt. Bowyer's Company, Illinois, Volunteers, Black Hawk War, and Private in Capt. Carny's Company, Tennessee Volunteers, Florida War.

Patent was signed the 27th day of January 1852. No where on this patent does it mention my ancestor's name, however it is still pretty cool to look at and to run my fingers over the raised seals. The reverse side of the patent has information written by Reuben Clark in which he is transferring the patent over to my ancestor, Agrippa Godwin. It says the following:

"For value received I Reuben Clark, to whom the written warrant No. 27441 was issued do hereby sell and assign unto Agrippa S. Godwin of the County of Lawrence in the State of Arkansas and to his heirs and assigns forever this said Warrant and authorize him to prorate [?] the same and receive a patent therefore.
Witness my hand and seal this 3rd day of May A. D. 1852. Reuben Clark [with seal].
Attest: E. T Burr & C. B. Magruder"

The middle part of the page says the following:

"State of Arkansas, County of Independence:
On this 3rd day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight hundred and fifty two personally appeared Reuben Clark to me well known and acknowledge the above assignment to be his act and deed: and certify that the said Reuben Clark is the identical person to whom the within warrant issued and who executed the above assignment thereof.
Jesse Pearry Justice of the Peace"

Here is the Warrant that Agrippa had filed with the Batesville, Arkansas land office:

Land Warrant No. 27441
Register and Receiver's No. 238
Land Office, Batesville Arks May 3rd 1852.

"We hereby certify that the attached Military Bounty Land Warrant, No. 27441 was on this day received at this office, from Agrippa S. Godwin, of Lawrence county, state of Arkansas.
J. A. Patterson, Register
C. F. M. Nolond, Receiver.

I, Agrippa S. Godwin, of Lawrence county, State of Arkansas, hereby apply to locate and do locate the Southern half of the North West quarter of Section No. Eight /8/ in Township No. Eighteen (18) N of Range No. Six (6) W in the District of Lands subject to sale at the Land Office at Batesville Arks containing Eighty (80) acres, in satisfaction of the attached Warrant numbered 27441 issued under the act of 28 September, 1850.

Witness my hand this 3rd day of May A. D. 1852
Attest: J. W. Patterson, Register.
C. F. M. Nolond, Receiver

Signed Agripa S. Godwin

I request the patent to be sent to Batesville Arkansas Land Office, Batesville, Arks, May 3rd 1852.
We hereby certify, That the above location is correct, being in accordance with law and instructions.
C. F. M. Nolond, Receiver
J. A. Patterson, Register."

The Scrip Warrants are instances of where additional information will probably be included in the Land Case Files that are stored at the National Archives. The image that I downloaded from the BLM website is the final patent awarded to my ancestor, Agrippa S. Godwin, however the papers I pulled from the Land Case Files were all the documents relating to the land and the warrant/patent itself. In this case, the original patent which was distributed for the 80 acres to Reuben Clark for his military service was included; hand written on the back of that was Reuben's agreement to transfer the patent over to Agrippa Godwin and a Justice of the Peace verifying he did such and he was who he said he was; And then Agrippa's warrant that is transferred to the Batesville, Arkansas land office. You should also be able to see all the folds and creases in the papers. They really are kept and housed folded up in a "shuck" which is really just the outside page folded up around the inside pages and the whole thing is no bigger than about 8.5 x 2 inches. 


In my next posts I will describe the Homestead Acts and show some examples of Cash Entries. Tomorrow we are off to visit the Library of Congress, head back to the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence and maybe take a tour or two. 

Day 1 at NARA - Land Case Files - Part 1

         Ginger R. Smith waiting for the train at Huntington Station in Alexandria, Virginia.  

Photo courtesy of Liz Tapley,  October 20, 2011. 

Photo of our destination train stop - Archives - Navy Memorial - Penn Quarter

 - from inside the Yellow line Metro Station. Photo by Ginger Smith, October 20, 2011. 

For this trip, we are staying in Alexandria, Virginia. Our hotel is about 1 mile from the Huntington Metro Station (Yellow line). It was a 22 minute train ride to the National Archives / Naval Memorial / Penn Quarters train stop. We got off the train, took the escalator up and crossed the street to get to NARA.

Photo of the National Archives (NARA) building at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue.  

This is the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance side where researchers enter. 

The "touristy" entrance is around to the left - 

that is where visitors go in to view the Constitution. 

Photo by Ginger R. Smith, October 20, 2011. 

Day 1 of the archives consisted of getting our researcher's card, learning our way around the finding aid room, the microfilm room, and the 203 reading room (and locating the cafe in the basement).

We started off in the finding aid room (First floor to your left) to submit forms for the Land Case Files we wanted to look at. These are original records that are pulled at certain times throughout the day. Since I had so many of these, I wanted to get as many ordered for the next pull time that I could - by 11 am.

Land Case Files


Before you arrive at NARA, you should have printouts of all of the land records your ancestors made transactions with. You can obtain this information by going to the Bureau of Land Management website and searching for your ancestor. You should print out the first page that contains pertinent information such as the Land Office, State, Document number, and Authority. You will need this information to fill out your order form. Here is one of my examples of what I printed off before I visited NARA:

We managed to snag a copy of the form you have to fill out so I can share with my readers what it looks like and what you should expect. But don't worry because there is always trained staff on hand to walk you through the process and of course they will check your forms to make sure they are filled out correctly. Here is what a completed form looks like (This is reconstructed to suite this example):

This form includes your name. Liz filled this one out for me. And then your researcher ID number. This is the number that is on your researcher ID card that you keep with you at all time. The date goes at the top. All land case files are in record group 49 which you can see on the left side of the form. The meat of the information goes in the big white space - this is the land office and the state. This is NOT the county, but the LAND OFFICE. This is very important. Below that goes the authority which is usually Cash, Homestead, or Military Script Warrant, and then the document number.

In my first pull, I had 12 files I wanted to see. I wrote one up incorrectly. It was for Cash and I wrote it up for Homestead by mistake, so I have to reorder this file tomorrow. I also tried to take a short cut and printed out the summary page which had a list of all the patents that one ancestor secured. I realized when I went to order them that I did not have all of the information required to order the records like the land office and the authority. So I will be looking them up tonight and placing another order tomorrow. I had an additional 8 records that I pulled for the 2nd pull time today. So in total about 20 files were reviewed and about 17 boxes were pulled for me. Tomorrow I will request an additional 15 land case files!!!

In my next post I will discuss what kinds of information I found in these land case files. Most of them contained only the original patent and a receipt which may or may not have been signed by my ancestor. A couple of documents contained affidavits about what they planned to do with the land and how long they had lived on it.

I will have to deal with the issue of getting the images out of the cameras that I used today. My kodak camera died right away which is pretty typical so I used my phone to upload most of the images. However, the land case files are housed in a box and they are folded, so I found it hard to get them to lie flat long enough for me to take a picture of them. I did not even think to bring my flat bed scanner. I tried Liz's flipPal scanner today but found it slow and the I kept hitting the button when I didn't want to. I did load my researcher's card up with money so I could use the photocopy machine, however, sometimes that did not work so well either, especially if there was any blue paper items in the shucks (which there were)! Oh and in case you are wondering, copies are $0.25 a page, they print out as 8x14, and they are $0.50 for microfilm copies (I will definitely discuss microfilm and military records in another post).

So more land records tomorrow and we will receive the 1812 service records we ordered tomorrow as well. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments below or on Google+ or Facebook. Part 2 is forthcoming...

First Ever Trip to the National Archives in Washington, D. C.

Today we left North Carolina and made the 5.5 hour trip up to Washington, D. C. to visit the National Archives at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue. It rained most of the trip (as usual), but we got here before dark and we even made a stop at IKEA in Woodbridge, VA on the way. I am travelling with Liz Tapley of My Tapley Tree...and its Branches. We planned this trip several months ago to coincide with my Fall Break and have been waiting patiently ever since for the time to arrive.

I am primarily interested in looking at Land Case Files for several of my mid-western ancestors of the surnames GODWIN, THOMAS, KING, HOUSE, and SMITH.

While I'm at it, I think I will try to venture into some military files. I have a George Brooks Revolutionary War file I need to review; I have a John Lasiter and Jesse Dunlap 1812 Service Records to review; Robert King and Agrippa Godwin Civil War files; and I'm sure I will think of more.

Between the two of us, I hope we can figure out and keep our fingers on what we are allowed to bring in what research rooms, which electronic devices to use on what documents, which films to order for which records, and which metro train to take, etc. We both did a lot a lot of pre-trip reading and researching which hopefully will be worth it. One post I found especially helpful was Myrt's Day at the Archives post.

We will keep you posted over the next couple of days as our research progresses.

Happy hunting!

SNGF - My Genealogy Database Statistics

It's that time again...for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Randy Seaver has posted this new fun task on his Genea-Musings Blog to list the statistics from your genealogy program: 


1)  If you have your family tree research in a Genealogy Management Program (GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure out how to find how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database (hint:  the Help button is your friend!).

2)  Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.


Here's mine:


I use RootsMagic 4 as well (so does Randy) for my main genealogy program. In order to see my statistics, I go to File > Properties and the following window pops up: 

According to this, I have the following:

People: 8561

Families: 2795

Events: 17603

Alternate Names:  61

Places:  1711

Sources:  1397

Citations:  22644

Repositories:  67

To do Tasks: 50

Multimedia Items: 2

Multimedia links: 1

Addresses: 11

Correspondence: 17

Obviously from these stats you can tell that I don't mess with multimedia items and from the few number of places I have, either I have done a good job consolidating them, or my people just didn't move around much; I have quite a few sources, but this number could probably be higher if it were easier to create them. However, I am using the citations I created because I have over 20k citations! I'm using the repository function of my software, although I haven't quite figured out its usefulness yet. I do like to have them linked to my to-do list which I have just recently started using. 

Tell us what your stats look like and leave a link to your blog as a comment on Randy's blog. 

Follow Friday - October 7, 2011

I've been very slack in participating in the Follow Friday meme, mostly because I really just don't get the chance to 1) read many genealogy blogs and 2) write on my own blog; but as I was driving in to work today I thought of some sites I had read and stuff I had read about in the past couple of weeks that had an impact on my research or piqued my general genealogy interest and I thought I would share with my readers.

Journey Through the Hallowed Ground

First of all, I followed along with blogger Liz Tapley of My Tapley Tree during her trip Through the Hallowed Ground, a 180-mile traverse of scenic highway through history and time from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Frederick County, Maryland. Liz is a big Civil War buff and this trip was an opportunity for her to see all the places where significant battles and events took place; there was also some Colonial period history mixed in there as well. I was totally jealous I did not get to go along, but felt like I was there through her words and pictures.

Indirect Evidence


If you want to know what all the hype is about Indirect Evidence, then check out some of the these blog posts: From Michael Hait's Planting the Seeds Blog, My First Encounter with Indirect Evidence; Claudia Breland's In Which I First Encounter Indirect Evidence; and Harold Henderson's post on Archives.com Indirect Evidence to the Rescue. My own take home from all of this is that a document should not be discounted or thrown out just because it does not explicitly state that someone was a direct relationship to someone else.

Family Tree Maker 2012 and TreeSync


Back in August I started reading Randy Seaver's posts here and here about Family Tree Maker 2012 and its new TreeSync feature (These were posts about his experience syncing with the Beta version). Click here to start reading about his experience with the released version). Tamura Jones also kept on top of the news with his posts on What's New in Family Tree Maker 2012? FTM's Beta Experience,  and TreeSync's Limitations, I learned that Russ Worthington was blogging on the Family Tree Maker User Blog and found some interesting posts there on how to use FTM 2012 and how to access new features.

Direct Lineage Reports


In her post No Lineage Charts on Family Tree Maker 2012? Heather Wilkinson Rojo presented a direct lineage report that she used to be able to create in FTM 2006, but has been unable to create in later versions of FTM. She stressed the importance of this report when filing applications to lineage societies like Mayflower, DAR, or Colonial Dames which require a report of each generation, BMD data and spouse data (along with spouse BMD data). The closest available reports in both FTM and similar genealogy software are outline reports, however they include sibling data which is not required for lineage societies. Russ Worthington offered a way to do this with FTM which entails creating a new database, deleting the siblings, then creating the Outline Descendant Report. Midge Frazel offered a similar suggestion for using Rootsmagic and their Direct Descendant Report.

This was enough to keep me busy and entertained. I will look forward to reading all the posts about how people will find their way around FTM 2012 and the new TreeSync feature. There is also a lot of discussion about how to manage trees online, but that's in Google+ and can't exactly be shared here. You have to be in certain "circles" to be privy to that information!

Photo Credits:
1. Photo of ff from ibevymay
2. Photo of Liz Tapley from her blog, My Tapley Tree

North Carolina Probate Records on FamilySearch.org

I have been looking for the parents of Jesse Dunlap, my fifth great-grandfather. I found an article written about Jesse Dunlap in the book A History of Boone County Arkansas (p. 217) in which it is said that Jesse Dunlap was born in Stokes County, North Carolina in 1783. The only problem is that Stokes County wasn’t formed until 1789.

But all information is good information in my opinion, so I decided to use that as a starting point. Whenever I am looking for someone’s parents and I don’t have anything to go on except a location, I usually start by looking through the wills for that surname in that location.

The North Carolina State Archives has access to the Mitchell’s Will Index through their online catalog called MARS. Sometimes a person didn’t write a will, but there are items relating to their estate recorded in the county in which they died. Items relating to a person’s estate have been scanned and digitized by FamilySearch.org. Although the digital items have not been indexed, they are browsable online for FREE on their website and many of the county records have indexes contained within the bound books.

Some genealogists might wonder what the benefit of such documents are if you can’t do a collection-wide textual search for your ancestors’ names. I still find the images useful. I loaded the images for the North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970 and then selected Stokes County. Under Stokes County, there are 5 sets of wills – volumes 1-5. 

Volumes 1, 3, and 5 have an index at the beginning; volumes 2 and 4 do not. I do not want to miss any Dunlaps who might have recorded a will in either of these two volumes, so I look through both volumes, one image at a time. Volume 2 has 184 images which is roughly about 90 pages total because each image is a scan of two pages of the book. As I “browse” through each image, I look for the signature or name of the person who wrote the will. I don’t actually have to read each wills, but merely scan through the images for the short block of text that looks like a signature to see if it is a Dunlap. Here is an example of a will written by Fredric Hausen.

I don’t have the best attention span, but browsing through 182 images is not that bad. It took me about 40 minutes to look through this volume containing 182 images. Unfortunately I did not find any Dunlaps in this volume. Volume 4 will probably take me another 40 minutes as it is 197 images.

Have you checked out FamilySearch’s latest browsable images? North Carolina and South Carolina Probate Records have been very valuable to me these days!

SNGF - Matrilinial Madness

Randy Seaver has given us another Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission and it goes like so:

1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!
2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.
3) Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines?

Here is mine:

1) My Matrilinial Line - I can only go back 6 generations including myself. The oldest direct female ancestor is Lucendy "Cindy" Gentry who was born April 12, 1868 in Tennessee and died February 19, 1905 in Lamar County, Texas.

1. Ginger R. Smith
2. Marilyn Godwin Smith
3. Sue C. Lasiter
4. Thelma Louise Benson
5. Eva Mae Dennis
6. Lucendy Gentry

2) I have had my mitochondrial DNA tested and I am in haplogroup H

3) Although I seem to have a good handle on what to do with my Family Finder autosomal DNA results, I have no clue what to do with my mtDNA results. Most of my autosomal matches have been for my Father's side of the family. I haven't been able to find any connections to my Mother's side of the family as of yet. I don't think this is very uncommon however because researching the females lines can oftentimes be very difficult.