DIY Genealogy: A Major Milestone Achieved

10,000 individuals in my Ancestry tree. 

When I first began the Links Family History blog two years ago, on 25 December 2023, my public tree at Ancestry.ca contained 4,200 individuals. A couple of days ago, my Ancestry tree crossed a major milestone: It now contains over 10,000 individuals.

Reaching a major milestone in my public tree at Ancestry.ca

Over 15 years to get here.

However, it's not just about the number of individuals in my tree; I have done my best to add only those individuals verified through my own legwork, using best practices I have learned over the years, and backed up by credible sources. 

The number of individuals in my tree reflects over 15 years of sometimes painstaking research to "collect ancestors" and trace their movements, as well as recent work done on two private family pedigrees (focused on two Canadian descendants of my Irish Palatine COLE family founder Henry COLE and his English-Irish spouse Elizabeth CHURCHILL - part of a larger research project I wrote about in earlier COLE FANs posts). And some family lines have been traced to present day, leading to some encouraging developments and intriguing breakthroughs with AncestryDNA matches, which now total over 43,000 tested individuals. 

I continue to work on improving the quality of the data in my tree, citing my sources, and correcting errors. (Side note: I am pleased by how much Ancestry ProTools has helped me in this regard, and they keep adding useful functionality to the delight of this genealogy enthusiast). And being retired, I feel lucky to be able to work full-time on any of a number of research projects I have "in the hopper."

Collaboration on projects is welcome.

Despite the solo nature of my research, I appreciate being able to share my discoveries, insights, and methods with like-minded individuals. I am always interested in fresh insights or collaborating on new projects, or sharing new information, records, photos, methods, or online sources. If you have in your family's history any of the family names mentioned in the pages of this blog, or if you are a DNA match to my AncestryDNA test kit, I encourage you to check out my public tree at Ancestry.ca: Brant-LeComte Family Tree and to reach out to me there, or by commenting here on this post or with the blog Contact Form. 

I remain grateful for all of the help and advice I have received along the way, and I look forward to what new insights and (hopefully) breakthroughs might be revealed in the New Year.