Cluster Genealogy

Cluster genealogy or ‘whole family’ or ‘extended family genealogy’ is the practice of extending our research on one individual to include the individuals and families to which he/she is connected – these range from the ancestor’s brother or spouse to the neighbor who appeared as a witness on a land deed.

Cluster genealogy involves expanding your search beyond your direct line ancestors to include their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends. Check for as many of these individuals as time and finances will allow – collect information on them just as you do for your direct ancestors and record it in your notes or software.

http://anaharcockermom.blogspot.com/2008/07/cluster-genealogy.html

Your Ancestor’s FAN Club

“F” Stands for Family

“A” Stands for Associates

“N” Stands for Neighbors

“Family, Associates and Neighbors”

List of FAN Club Sites on Cyndis List

https://www.cyndislist.com/research-methodology/fan-club/

FAN Club Research Blogs

https://www.beststepsgenealogy.com/single-post/2017/05/13/How-to-Do-FAN-Club-Research

Cluster Research at Genealogy Explained with Marc McDermott

https://www.genealogyexplained.com/research/cluster-fan-club/

Collateral Research: Research All Siblings

The Cousin Next Door: Using the FAN Club Principle

Tony Proctor, Parallax-Viewpoint

http://parallax-viewpoint.blogspot.com/2016/11/fan-principles-unfolded.html

How To Do FAN Club Research with Best Steps Genealogy

https://www.beststepsgenealogy.com/single-post/2017/05/13/How-to-Do-FAN-Club-Research

How to do FAN Club ResearchC

Often when researching ancestors in early time periods or in counties with record loss, we cannot find the records needed to document our ancestor or extend a line. We often refer to this as a brick wall.

​By researching the FAN Club, also called cluster research, we can often find the clues necessary to piece together evidence which can lead us around the brick wall.

Elizabeth Shown Mills created the acronym, FAN Club. See her QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle), (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.)

Who is in the FAN Club?

• FAMILY
• Immediate family: direct-line spouse, other spouses, children, parents, siblings
• Extended family: grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, step-parents, step-children, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren of siblings, etc.
• Others of the same surname who lived in the same or nearby town – Check census, probate, land, vital, etc.
• Associates:
• Witnesses or informants (such as for weddings, death certificates, deeds, etc.)
• Executors and others listed in probate records, such as who debts were paid to
• Signers of affidavits for military pensions and bounty land applications
• Business associates

Neighbors: begin with those who lived nearby

• Prior to the early-1900s, people often would migrate in groups. Sometimes they belonged to the same ethnic or religious group, other times they were extended family or close friends who moved together.
• On a census, begin by recording 12-15 families listed on either side of your ancestor.

Deciding When to Research the Fan Club

Fan Club research can be time consuming so before beginning, follow these steps to make sure you have exhausted all other research options:

• First look at all your previous research to find any missing details.
• Determine your current research question.
• Are there other possible records that might directly mention your ancestor?
• If not, then proceed to research the FAN club of your ancestor.

Applications for FAN Club research:

• In earlier time periods or locations where fewer records were available
• For burned counties or other areas with record loss
• Finding a female ancestor/maiden name
• Separating identities of people with the same name
• Identifying the earlier residence of an ancestor who migrated
• Other cases needing indirect evidence

The FAN Club Research Process

1 Review all your ancestor’s documents.

View the original record when possible. It can reveal other details to distinguish your ancestor, including signatures or the original order of a list.

When a list is alphabetized you lose the community context, for example:

tax lists or petitions which were done by neighborhoods

cemetery lists which can show family plots

ship lists which can reveal people traveling together

2Create a timeline for your ancestor and include all details: occupations, economic standing, military service, signature, physical features, known locations, etc.

3Understand the localities and jurisdictions where your ancestor lived.

Check Newberry Library’s “Atlas of Historical County Boundaries”

4 Create a list of all known family members (include extended family.)

List helpful details and which documents prove the family relationship.

5Create a list of other persons found in the documents of your ancestor, include their role in the document

For ease of sorting, make a separate entry for each person in each document.

Add any possible details regarding the associate such as occupation, literacy, economic indicators, etc.

When possible, include in the details a theory for each associate as to his/her relationship with your ancestor, i.e., brother-in-law, neighbor, church member, etc.

6 Establish criteria for sorting your list to determine an order to research

Strength of the connection – a potential family member might eventually provide more evidence. Example: a witness at a wedding is more likely to be related than the judge who married them.

Frequency of connections – Start with the people your ancestor would have spent the most time with (usually immediate family) or had frequent interactions with. Example: a neighbor who shows up in a census in both Virginia and then Kentucky is probably a relative, member of the same church, or close friend.

The quality of the source – how reliable is the information? Example: extended family listed on an unsourced family tree might not be accurate.

7 Begin researching at the top of your list and work your way down.

Assess the evidence as you research and adjust your order of research accordingly.

8Use DNA to provide additional evidence and identify more members of the extended family.

[1] Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle), (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.)

TIP: FAN Club research frequently requires indirect evidence.

Always look for both direct and indirect evidence. Direct evidence states the information outright, while indirect evidence is information combined together to support conclusions. Indirect evidence needs a proof argument to correlate evidence.

Example: Indirect evidence to prove that Dick was maiden name of Sarah who married Samuel Combest about 1799. Notice each of these records are in Pulaski County, Kentucky.

1. An 1844 will for Samuel Combest in Pulaski County, lists his wife as Sarah.
2. Samuel and Sarah Combest had ten children. Three of them were named as follows:
3. John Combest
4. Margaret Combest
5. Samuel Dick Combest
6. The 1803 tax list for Pulaski County shows that Samuel Combest and John Dick both lived on Fishing Creek.
7. An 1841 pension file from Pulaski County for Margaret Dick, widow of John Dick, included a page from the family bible showing Sarah’s birth in 1778.

Part I: Overcoming Roadblocks: Burned County Research

While researching family records, there is nothing more frustrating than coming to a roadblock in our work. We often can become stumped in our progress when records we need just can’t seem to be found. One tragic roadblock occurs when a county has suffered record loss due to fire or other natural disasters, careless record keepers, lack of space, or war. What can we do when a county suffered record loss? These record losses are a large hurdle for genealogists, but with an understanding of substitute records, alternative information can be found to document our families. Part I will focus on genealogy methods to use, and Part II will focus more on substitute records.

Here are a few ideas!

Learn About the Locality

What is the history of the area you’re researching? What happened that caused the loss? Here are some resources!

• Research online before you contact the courthouse to learn background information.· Check the County’s official website and look for historical background.
• Check Family Search Wiki for your county’s wiki page. Also check: https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Category:Places_with_Historic_Record_Loss

Read County Histories here:

• Check Google, the Family History Library Catalog and WorldCat (has digital versions.)
• Use William P. Filby’s A Bibliography of American County Histories, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985.) A comprehensive list of over 5,000 county histories published.
• These county histories usually discuss the churches in the area. This can help you find available church records for the time period.

Boundary lines change over time.

Understand the county boundaries at the time your ancestor lived there by using the Newberry Library’s “Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.”

Keep in mind:

• Did your ancestors live there before the boundary changed?
• The original county often has the originals, and sometimes duplicates were made.
• Not every clerk you speak to will know everything about the records. Always ask who else might know something. Local librarians or historical society members can be great resources.

Were all the records lost?

• Understand the specific years the records were lost.
• Someone at the courthouse might tell you there was a fire or other disaster in a particular year, but if you ask more questions to the right people, you might learn that the disaster didn’t ruin everything.
• If the courthouses run out of room, were some records stored elsewhere at that time?

Methods and Strategies to Use

Now that we’ve learned about our location, what more can we do to jump this hurdle? Here are a few steps to move your research forward!

1. Review Prior Research –

Re-analyze your existing records and research.

• New research may shed light on previous research and help you recognize new details.
• Create a timeline – this helps to visualize gaps and reveal other options for research.

2. Use both direct and indirect evidence –

Direct evidence states the information outright, while indirect evidence is information combined together to support conclusions. Indirect evidence needs to be written up into a proof argument.

3. Have a specific research question in mind.

Concentrate on documenting one event at a time in a person’s life. This helps you determine specific records to search for.

4. Check the “burned court house” records –

usually not all the records burned. Some records were recreated after a disaster, especially the land deeds; sometimes probate, taxes, or marriage records were also recreated.

5. Check thoroughly in the counties where your ancestor lived before and after the “burned county.”

6. Use DNA to provide further evidence.

7. Study migration patterns to identify possible prior residences to search for records.

8. Create a theory and try to prove or then try to disprove it.

9. Here’s some additional information on FAN Clubs:

Follow these steps:

• Review all your ancestor’s documents – view the original record when possible.
• Create a timeline for your ancestor and include all details.
• Create a list of all known family members (include extended family.)
• Create a list of other persons found in the documents of your ancestor, include their role in the document. Add every detail from each document.
• Establish criteria for sorting your list for an order to research – (See Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle)

1. Strength of the connection – potential family members can provide more evidence.

 2. Frequency of connections – Start with the people your ancestor would have spent the most time with (usually immediate family) or had frequent interactions with.

3. The quality of the source – how reliable is the information?

• Begin researching at the top of your list and work your way down, reevaluating as you research.

Part II: Overcoming Roadblocks: Burned County Records

While researching family records, there is nothing more frustrating than coming to a roadblock in our work. We often can become stumped in our progress when records we need just can’t seem to be found. One tragic roadblock occurs when a county has suffered record loss due to fire or other natural disasters, careless record keepers, lack of space, or war. What can we do when a county suffered record loss? These record losses are a large hurdle for genealogists, but with an understanding of substitute records, alternative information can be found to document our families. Part I will focus on alternative information, and Part II will focus more on substitute records.

Here are a few ideas!

“Plan to research substitutes for the missing records – research:

• substitute record types
• substitute jurisdictions
• and substitute repositories.”

-FamilySearch Wiki “Burned Counties Research”

Substitute Records to Use

Vital records

Town or state vital records, church records, newspaper announcements, Bible records, tombstone inscriptions and other cemetery records can give birth and death information and can say “wife of” or “daughter of.”

Census records – Check both federal and state censuses.

Use special census schedules: mortality, slave, veterans, non-population schedules, etc.

Tax records often were recorded by the county, but the state may have a duplicate copy.

They can show residence for a specific year and indicate land ownership and when it was acquired. Indirectly it can show age, relationship, move to a new location, or death. Widows are often listed on tax rolls.

Land Records – Federal or state land records for original grants and patents

Remember that land records were often recreated in the county after record loss.

Probate Records – Check legal notices in newspapers.

Court Records – Check chancery, district, superior, or appeals court records.

WPA inventories for ideas of other records available in a county.

Use the United States Record Selection Table on the FamilySearch Wiki to identify what other records can be used to find specific information.

Substitute Jurisdictions to Consider

What happens when county records we need are simply not available? We can shift our focus on records that were created by other jurisdictions such as federal and state agencies or private records. Understand the court jurisdictions for your location and time period. Who handled divorces, guardianship, etc.?

Federal

• Federal census
• Military records – pension records, bounty land, etc.
• Land records – original land patents and grants for federal land states
• Records in the National Archives – What’s digitized on Ancestry, FamilySearch and Fold3
• Immigration and naturalizations
• Southern Claims Commission records

State

• State census
• Land records – original land patents and grants for state land states
• Military records – pension records, bounty land, etc.
• Tax or other financial records could have been duplicated and sent to the state
• Legislative Papers – can include divorce records
• Petitions
• Colonial Papers – earlier records often mention regular citizens

Town

• School records
• Militia records
• Marriage returns or banns
• Cemetery records
• Road taxes or assignments
• Town histories
• Poor records

Private Records

• Home sources and records from other living family members
• Church records
• Newspapers – for birth, marriage, death, legal notices, local articles, ads
• Cemetery records and tombstone inscriptions
• Local and county histories
• Business records, professional directories, volunteer organizations, merchant accounts, etc.
• Societies, schools, and other groups
• Manuscript collections, especially at major libraries or universities
• Use the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), ArchiveGrid, and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
• Manuscripts can be located in states other than where your ancestor lived.

• Substitute Repositories to Check
• A second courthouse (or other storage location)
• Neighboring court houses, especially if your ancestor lived near the county boundary
• Parent county courthouse if the county boundaries changed during your ancestor’s lifetime
• County and local libraries
• can have manuscripts, family records or Bibles, cemetery records, unpublished histories
• Sometimes local librarians know where records in the county are located
• State or county historical society or genealogical society
• The state archives or library
• Regional Libraries: Allen County Public Library, Mid-Continent, DAR, Newberry Library
• See collections: https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Archives_and_Libraries
• University libraries