Customer Reviews

Forensic Genealogy

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Forensic Genealogy Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick explains in an easy-to-read manner how to find clues you never dreamed existed in your photographs and in databases of many kinds of records. She first explains the concepts to help you think like a detective when using these sources. Then she uses case studies to illustrate real-life examples of how to put these concepts to use.

I learned many things in the photo and database detective sections. Like other reviewers I will never look at a photograph again in the same way I did before. I thought I was meticulous in pulling details from photos but Dr. Fitzpatrick shows how to go far beyond what I have done before including using weather history to help determine when a photo was taken.

But the DNA section has been most useful. After reading several other DNA books written for genealogists, as well as the popular books written in recent years by scientists, I still hadn't found explanations for some of the common notation I saw used on web sites and in mail-lists on DNA. I finally found these defined in Forensic Genealogy. The DNA section is written in such a way that you can get an overview and basic understanding or go much deeper. I would highly recommend this book to any one who wants to do professional-level genealogical research using digital tools and DNA.

I heard about Forensic Genealogy though Dick Eastman's excellent online genealogy newsletter. I immediately put it on my Amazon wish list and received a copy for Christmas. I was not disappointed. The book is divided into three basic parts: old photographs, available databases and using DNA in a family history search. Each section is well covered helping the reader get started unearthing clues that may have been overlooked. It helps you "see" clues that may have been staring you in the face unrecognized for years.

While I have been studying my family history for about 10 years, this book has given me a few new tools to aid my research. One example is that I never considered that the photo paper was used could help date a photo. I will be dragging out some of my old photos and giving them a second look.

There are numerous examples given in each section of this book. One of the funnier ones was a photo I had seen circulating on the Internet. It was a car on a highway with a severed gas station hose hanging out of the filler. Through a little effort, Dr. Fitzpatrick shows you how to identify exactly where this photo was taken.

I have been considering using DNA to identify early ancestors. The book has a comprehensive section on DNA. It does require a bit of study to fully understand but don't worry. Even a casual reading of this section will supply you with a basic understanding of this new tool.

This book is generally an easy read with lots of useful information. I highly recommend it.

This book is fantastic for dating photographs. I have bins of photos that I have no clue when they were taken. The tables in here help you to pen point the dates using things you'd never think of. Once Miss Fitzpatrick was able to use a cash registar and some old ads to determine the date of a picture! The more meaty sections are when she uses the light of day to name the exact location. Now that was amazing!
Last year I had the oppurturnity to meet Colleen. She is the nicest woman and ever so intelligent! Her passion flows throughout her work and makes the book enjoyable and fascinating to read. A genius in her field, Miss Fitzpatrick gives you the tools, the websites, and the frame of mind all in this book.
Inside are charts and tables giving you dating for when each type of photograph was made, describing to a tee how to distinguish your photo.
Also included, though I've not had much time to examine that section, are chapters on reading between the lines in directories and census images, ect.
Without this book I would still be clueless. It truly is a must have.

The only drawback to this book is that you don't want to put it down. The ideas presented by Ms.Fitzgerald present a new approach to looking at old photographs, thinking outside the box to solve some of those genealogy mysteries! Using DNA is probably the only way we will ever determine some of our ancestors. This book provides a clear understanding of this process. This book should be on the shelf of anyone who is researching family history,whether they do it as a hobby or profession. Ms. Fitzpatrick has given clear and concise information which will surely aid anyone who is currently "stuck" working through their genealogical research.

This is not your usual basic family history book. It effectively teaches one how to think and analyze way outside the box. Once you have gathered all your family's pertinent material, this book will take you way beyond birth, death, and marriage records. The author brilliantly demonstrates how to use city directories, weather data, photo intelligence mensuration techniques, sleuthing approaches, and even a chapter on DNA testing and tracking. This is a wonderful teaching vehicle and reference manual. We would recommend it to all serious genealogists.

The author takes a highly technical subject area and transforms it into understandable tools for one to use with excellent examples from her own family investigations. This book is a mind expanding read, and we rated it a high four hearts.

You will never look at a photo in quite the same way after reading this book. Many of us have so few photos from our families past that it makes every one of them important to telling our families history. The author helps us to be critical and wise examiners of the clues we have from our past. As one reviewer already said, the same pictures are examined as you progress through the book. There is just too much to learn to get it all in one place. Even if you didn't have any photos, there are excellent resources mentioned that could be used in any genealogy research. The book encourages the reader to extend family research beyond the usual sources like the census and city directories and dive into what the location was like where they lived, what was their occupation, what was the weather like and many other similar questions that can be pursued by extending our view of our family who lived in a location at a given time in history. I think the enthusiasm of the author is catching. It encourages that driving force to figure out and analyze the photos as evidence of our history. It is that push to go beyond the obvious for more clues.

Family researchers like myself spend a great deal of time searching for clues to our ancestry. But "Forensic Genealogy" illustrates that we often ignore clues available from common sources, if we only knew how to extract them. Dr. Fitzpatrick is adept at wringing the last drop of information from sources that we may have already reviewed - confident that we have gleaned as much as possible from them. Often, we overlook crucial clues that are right in front of us.

Too often we relegate the totality of information from family photos to merely who's in the photograph. Her photo analysis is a fine reference for determining not only when a photo was taken but also perhaps where it was taken. These clues can often open doors that have long since been shut due to to conventional thinking about the photographs. Her case studies and conclusions from her photo examples are clearly described and fully sourced.

The section on using the information from City Directories to construct likely family members and events provides creative insight into the amount of information that can be extracted by just looking at available information differently. Other types of periodic databases as well as event type databases are also examined. These may provide additional insight into a specific person or the way of life during the time and location of our
ancestors and give us a better understanding of their lifestyle at the time.

Although the latter parts of the DNA section may be too technical for the average genealogist, the introduction provides a good basic understanding of its expanding application to genealogical research.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of the author is her use of multiple sources to provide synergistic clues that would remain hidden when viewed alone. How often have you used the packaging of consumer products, timelines, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and City Directories to determine information about a single photo? It is the use of these multi-faceted thought processes that could be her greatest contribution to researchers everywhere. "Forensic Genealogy" should be required reading for any genealogical researcher.

Forensic Genealogy is a unique contribution to genealogical studies that will enable the novice genealogist (and even the experience genealogical researcher) to utilize diverse resources and methods for developing their genealogical family histories that combines established and conventional genealogical research techniques with cutting edge advances in forensic investigation techniques to identify, understand, correlate, and detail their ancestry. Enhanced throughout will illustrations, this 182 page instructional reference shows how to create a "database" to construct a family story (including cultural profiling). An avid genealogist, Colleen Fitzpatrick offers a thoroughly "reader friendly" introduction to the subject of identification and analysis using everything from surname studies to non-paternity events, to cladograms and pairwise mismatches. Readers will learn how to become a kind of "digital detective" in analyzing documents, photographs, and records of all kinds. Concluding with a chapter on "There Will Always Be Mysteries Left", Forensic Genealogy is a welcome and seminal addition to personal and professional genealogical reference library collections. Also very highly recommended is Colleen Fitzpatrick's related instructional reference DNA & Genealogy (0976716011) with its focus on the genetic trail an ancestor leaves behind which can be traced through Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA testing, offering heretofore unavailable genetics-based expertise to genealogical inquiry for non-specialist general readers with an interest in developing their own genealogical inquiries.

This book can provide you with tools to ferret out more information than you ever thought possible from your old family pictures (The Digital Detective), from database information (The Database Detective), and get you started on your genetic genealogy quest (The DNA Detective).

The examples given by the author of exploring old photos are amazing. The techniques used are fully explained and you can use them on your own collection. Maybe you need to date an old photo or identify where it was taken. These are covered, plus more. Each of three sections has a Case Study. For the one on photos she examines an old and damaged photo to determine "Where, Who, When and Why."

For The Database Detective case study she uses "The History Of the Ulmer Family." The Ulmers were related to the author and her interests started with the "... discovery of an iron box that had remained unopened in my maternal grandmother's closet for over forty years."

For the DNA section, the author uses her own family (Fitzpatrick) for examples. Instead of a separate section at the end, this case study is scattered through the other text with stars to mark the examples. This turns out to be a very effective way of dealing with the complex subject of DNA in genealogy. Genealogists must realize that the Pandora's box of DNA testing is wide open and they are going to need to be familiar with the basics.

"Forensic Genealogy" is now a mainstay of my genealogy library. I also have Colleen Fitzpatrick's second book 'DNA and Genealogy', by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Andrew Yeiser, also on Amazon, and find it to be excellent also.

Don't put away those old photographs and documents. You are not through with your families history until you have read Dr. Fitzpatrick's book "Forensic Genealology". There may be many hidden secrets in all those old items. This book will teach you to look at them like a "crime scene" and discover their meaning for your ancestor.