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All Those Deeds
Marriages may not always get recorded as officiants do make mistakes. But if spouses are required to be on a land deed relinquishing their interest in the real estate being transferred, that reference usually is not overlooked. The reason is that a purchaser may have issues with their title if the wife of the grantor (seller) does not relinquish their dower interest in the property.
Such was the case with Gustaf Herbert of Hancock County, Illinois. A marriage record for him could not be located in the county where he lived or in the nearby counties. Assuming he was not married would have been a mistake.
There on a deed from 1880 when he sold forty acres was the name of his wife at the time of the sale, relinquishing her interest in his property. I still do not know where he married or when (other than before the date of the property sale). Her name is not on his deed of purchase for the property, but that’s not unusual for the place and time period.
Land records can contain clues about things other than property ownership–marital status is one of those things.
Job After Job
Your ancestor may have had a variety of jobs during his life. For some individuals their jobs all followed the same career path or involved the same type of work. For others, the type of work varied. Don’t assume that your relative had one job or type of job his entire life. The 1906 deposition shown in the illustration indicated that the deponent’s husband, Omaha, Nebraska, resident Frederick Fuller, drove a wagon for a brewer, worked as a policeman, ran a saloon, and then travelled selling groceries in the 1882-1895 time frame. After that he moved to North Dakota and worked as a farmer and rancher. Before living in Omaha, Fuller also worked as a farmer.
Documenting these occupational changes can be difficult. Census records provide periodic information. For city dwellers, city directories can help to fill in the gaps. Completely researching the ancestor and their family may also help to flesh out the details–as this court deposition did.
Did the Line Really Move?
There is no doubt that in the early days of settlement in a location, when that area was on the “frontier” with potentially rapid changes in population that county lines changed as new ones were formed out.
There is also no doubt that even after an area was settled, the occasional new county would be formed or a county line would be slightly modified for one reason or another. It is even possible that a line may be corrected when a new survey is conducted.
One set of my great-grandparents farmed in several different locations for the first twenty or so years of their marriage in the very early 20th century. These farms were on different sides of the county line. Some children were born in one county. Others were born in the other. When I mention this, I often get told that “county lines change.” Yes, but that’s not what happened here. The county line had been set years ago and was not changing between 1898 and 1918. Great-grandpa rented a different farm, got behind on the mortgage, perhaps irritated his landlord, etc. and moved the equipment and family.
Also remember that a “rule” that applies in one location and time period may not apply in another.
The Typicals?
Do you know what information is typically included in a marriage record when your ancestor married? Do you know what is usually found in a death record when your ancestor died? If you have family who lived in an area for some time, do you know what typically is included in a probate file? Do you know if the occupation of a grantor is typically included in a land deed?
Being familiar with the records in a place and time–including what information they usually provide–can help direct your research process. If you are working on a group of families in Amherst County, Virginia, in the early 19th and late 18th centuries, you should know that marriage bonds may provide parental information. If you are working on a group of families in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, during the same time period, you should know that no such thing exists.
These are just two quick examples. But an unfamiliarity with typical records and the information they typically contain can seriously hinder your research process.
A Cheat Sheet for Names You Mix Up
I’m working on a family where three fairly close relatives married men with the last names of Herold, Herbert, and Herzog. A cheat sheet (actually three different colored post-it notes) contained their name, year and place for their birth and death and the name of their wife. It was a low-tech approach, but helped me to keep them straight.
No Release of Dower?
A relative, John Herbert, purchased property in Illinois in the 1850s from his wife’s parents. He sold it on 4 March 1861 to his wife’s brother. There is no “release of dower” signed by the wife, which is typical for the time period and location. I do know that by 1870 he was married to another wife and family tradition is that he was a widower before he married again. There are no death records in Illinois for the time period in question.
Since normally a wife would have signed a release of dower on a deed in Illinois in the 1860, it seems reasonable that John’s wife was dead by the time the deed was executed on 4 March 1861.
If I had not known his first wife pre-deceased him, a search of divorce records would have been advised.
Grantor-Grantee Connections?
In 1879, my uncle George Adolph Trautvetter, purchased 40 acres from Julius and Mary Bierman in Hancock County, Illinois. I recognized the names of the grantees immediately: Mary (who signed as Marie) was a first cousin to George Trautvetter.
Always do at least a cursory search of the other individuals involved in your relative’s land transactions. It was not uncommon for people to interact with extended family members in real estate transactions. These documents won’t name any relationships on the deed–unless they all happen to be heirs or already have a joint interest in the property. Deeds are about transferring title to property–not documenting family relationships (unless for reasons already mentioned).
The Will Gave a Shilling
It can be tempting to think that giving a child a shilling or other token amount of money in a will indicates that the testator and the recipient were “on the outs” at the time the will was written. That’s not necessarily so.
It’s also very possible that the testator gave the child money well before the will was written–perhaps when they married or set out on their own. In this case, the token bequest shows that the testator remembered the child. Leaving them from the will totally opened the door to someone claiming that they were forgotten.
The shilling recipient may very well have been on the outs with the testator at the time the will was written. Family squabbles certainly happen and parents leave children out of their wills all the time. But it is not the only scenario and many times these wills will reference the estrangement in one way or another.
Some wills may mention amounts of money previously given to children, but not all do.
Don’t just assume a shilling means that the parent was giving the child the shaft. That’s not necessarily the case.
The Opinionated News
In many newspapers, opinion is not just on the editorial page.
A 1906 newspaper reference to a relative refers to her as a “mysterious woman” who is rumored to have been an “adventuress.” The reality is that she was the first wife of a bigamist living in North Dakota who died there while married to his second wife. Her life in Omaha, from the records that have been located, do not suggest her lifestyle was one that could be referred to as “mysterious.”
Newspapers have long used phrases in headlines to attract the attention of readers and some were inclined to be somewhat hasty in publishing information without gathering all the relevant facts. Always read newspaper items with the approach of looking for additional records suggested by statements or claims made. In this case, court records in Minot, North Dakota, would probably shed more light on the situation than contained in attention-grabbing newspaper article.
The Best Tree Checker Tool
The best tree checker tool: your own common sense.
Other things that significantly cut down on errors:
- Not relying on transcriptions of others.
- Reading the actual record.
- Using automatic import features.
- Remembering that before 1880, relationships are not given in census records.
- Remembering that census relationships are given in regard to head of household.
- Not indicating a record gives details that it does not.
- Assuming the compilations of others are correct.
- Periodically manually reviewing your data.
Tree checkers can get the obvious errors, but they rarely catch it if you merged two first cousins of the same name into one person. Don’t expect the computer to do all the thinking for you.