Does the answer to the past lie in the present?

My wife’s great-grandfather William Frame Apgar was born William Frame in Chicago around 1888. Around 1918, he disappears, estranged from his wife—my wife’s great-grandmother. Perhaps he enlisted in the war, perhaps not. None of my wife’s immediate family knows what happened to him.

It is possible that his siblings might have known what happened to him and passed that information down. My answer to where William Frame Apgar went might rest in the descendants of his siblings.

Learn about your ancestor’s occupation

What do you really know about your ancestor’s occupation and how he or she probably lived their life? Learning about the tools of their trade or what life was like for the typical cotton warper, mill worker, tailor, etc. may give you some additional insight into your ancestor’s life.

Even if you think you know, you might not.

I grew up on a farm, but farm life when I grew up was different from when my father did (we never had horses for one), and it was certainly different from when my great-great-grandparents were farming. The first time I read of a “stationary baler” in a pension file, I did not know what it was. Hay balers, as far as I were concerned, were never stationary. Then it dawned on me, in 1900, they would have taken the hay to the baler. Hence the term, stationary baler.

If you read the term “stationary baler” as an item in a 1900 era probate file would you even have known what it was? Sometimes google helps with these things and sometimes it doesn’t.

Help someone you aren’t related to

Has someone posted a question to an email list that you can answer? Has someone requested pictures at a cemetery near where you live?

Give back just a little and help someone else out. You never know when you may be in a position to need help.

And sometimes when thinking about someone else’s problem, you have an idea about your own. That may be a selfish reason to help, but sometimes it really happens.

Did Great Grandma Really Say That?

On my great-grandmother’s 1935 marriage application, her place of birth is given. The problem is that it is different from places listed on other records. Why did she list that location?

I’m not certain why and I’m not even certain she actually gave the information.

Remember, her husband was there too and it is possible that he gave information on his wife. I wasn’t there when great-grandma got married to witness the giving of the information. The form doesn’t really say WHO provided WHAT.

Keep that in mind.

Things Get Filed Incorrectly

Keep in mind that records do get misfiled. Packets of court papers do not get put back in the correct numerical order. Case numbers get written incorrectly in indexes. Page numbers get transcribed as they are typed or entered into an index.

It will happen. Think about how something could get misfiled when you cannot find it in the place where it is “supposed” to be.

Disbanded Churches?

If your ancestor’s church disbanded, there are several places the records might have gone:

  • the local dump
  • the family of the last minister
  • a local church of the same denomination
  • a regional or national church organization, synod, assembly, diocese, etc.

Contact local historical or genealogical societies, local churches of the same denomination, and regional and national archives (or governing bodies) of the denomination and see if they know what might have happened to the records.

Did they change churches?

My ancestors on my mother’s side of the family have been members of the same denomination since the Reformation. I was floored when I read the obituary for two of my great-great-grandparents and it said the funeral was at the local Presbyterian church.

The small town they were in only had two churches. Neither was of the desired denomination. The Presbyterian church was “closest,” so that was it.

It is possible that necessity caused your ancestor to attend (and leave records at) a church other than the one you think he always attended?