A call name is a name that a person normally uses. The name in his baptismal record and other church records may be Johann Erasmus Trautvetter. The rest of the time (the vast majority of the time) he went by Erasmus. Erasmus was his call name. He never used the name Johann.
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 […]
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. […]
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. […]
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 […]
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.
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.
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).
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 […]
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 […]
The best tree checker tool: your own common sense. Other things that significantly cut down on errors: 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.
“Late” can mean formerly. A person referred to as being “late” does not have to be dead. This reference to Antje J. Fecht (late Habben) simply means that she had previously used the last name of Habben although she was using the last name of Fecht at the time the document was written. It does not indicate how her name changed, but that it had changed.
A relative died in rural New Mexico in 1925 after a fall from a horse. A neighbor who had probably known him for a short time was the informant. Based on the information on the death certificate, the informant likely knew the relative’s approximate age, that he was divorced, and that he had lived in Oklahoma before moving to New Mexico. That was it. And it makes perfect sense if someone moves somewhere to “start over.” The relative was not hiding who he was, but his new neighbor had no need to know the names of my relative’s parents or the name of his ex-wife. The place of birth given for my relative was Oklahoma–where he had lived before coming to New Mexico. The age on the death […]
Always think about the family that was left behind when someone died? Were there children who would have needed looked after? Was there a spouse who would have needed some assistance? Was there an adult child who would have been unable to look after themselves? Who would have been nearby to help these individuals? Were there court records, guardianships, or other records resulting from issues when the person died?
Every document in the United States indicates that my third great-grandmother was born in 1808. I’ve seen the year so many times in United States records that I have it memorized. I “know” my third great-grandmother was born in 1808. It’s even in the church record of her death. The problem: it is wrong. Her christening record in Germany when she was a few weeks old indicates she was born and baptized in 1807. That’s a record that provides primary information about her date and place of birth. It was created close to the time of her birth with information likely provided by her parents. The difference is only a year off from what records in the United States indicated. All those records in the United States are […]
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