In reading through Civil War pension applications, the one thing that amazes me is the number of people who really didn’t know when they were born. Some people did know their date of birth and gave their age consistently. Others apparently only knew their approximate age. Is that why Grandpa’s age varies from one census […]
I don’t really have a new variant spelling of Trautvetter in this entry for Anna Catharina Trautvetter that appears in the records of Wohlmuthausen, Thuringen, Germany, in 1823. There’s not a “new name” of Trautvetterin. The “in” is an ending attached to the name because Anna Catharina was female. Her last name is Trautvetter. Issues […]
Families have disagreements sometimes for reasons that are known and sometimes for reasons that have been lost to history. Do you record that “non-speaking” information in your genealogical database or notes? Do you keep track of who didn’t really get along? When my great-aunt identified her father and his siblings in a 1940-era picture, she […]
I spent some time looking for an immigrant relative who came to the United States in the 1880s after her husband died. Several things combined to make her difficult to find, including: She changed her first name. Many from her area of origin anglicized their name by directly translating it or by using a name […]
I recently obtained digital images of a Union Civil War pension file of a relative by marriage. It took over 200 images to digitize all the records. My interest in the file was to see if there was information on the claim of the widow and what information she had provided on herself. Having seen […]
That one record you’ve found, a deed, a death certificate, a will, an estate settlement, probably was created because something else happened. For some documents it may be obvious what caused the document to have been created. But a deed? Why was the property being sold? Was the couple planning to move? Had they fallen […]
Variations in how your ancestor’s name was spelled can be endlessly frustrating. However, it’s worth remembering that a variation of how your ancestor’s name appears in an index can arise from a variety of situations: Your ancestor did not know how to spell his name Your ancestor could not read Your ancestor did not speak […]
Keep in mind that there’s not always a “need” for a record or a document. If a child has no “estate” or inheritance from a deceased parent, there will not be need to appoint a guardian. If an ancestor doesn’t belong to a church, his children probably won’t be christened there. If an ancestor does […]
In reading through Civil War pension applications, the one thing that amazes me is the number of people who really didn’t know when they were born. Some people did know their date of birth and gave their age consistently. Others apparently only knew their approximate age. Is that why Grandpa’s age varies from one census […]
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