Keep in mind the very real possibility that your ancestor had no tombstone. This reasonably fresh grave doesn’t even have a temporary marker as many do. The takeaway here is that your ancestor may have been buried sans tombstone. They may have been cremated and their remains scattered in an unknown location. Or if they had a stone, it may have deteriorated beyond repair–always search for a book of transcriptions done in the past in case the stone was extant when they were done. No stone decreases the chance they are located in FindAGrave. The cemetery may have records–if you know where they were buried. Death certificates, funeral notices, death notices, obituaries, church records, family knowledge, or other sources may also indicate where a person is buried.
My uncle has a guardianship file that runs from 1909 until he reached the age of majority a few years later. His middle initial, which was actually “A,” is listed as “O” throughout the set of documents. Consistently every reference to him has the same middle initial of “O.” This makes one wonder if the clerk wrote it down wrong once and simply copied the same error over and over. It might have been easier, if the error was actually noticed, to just stick with it going forward. Because after the guardianship was closed, the issue might have been moot.
A library you will be at has a copy of a family genealogy that you have already seen. Do you need to see another copy? The answer is “maybe.” A library’s copy of a family genealogy may have been donated by the original owner of the book and that owner may have added comments, corrections, or additions to their copy of the book. These writings won’t appear in other copies or even a copy you have found available online digitally. If you have easy access to another copy of the book, it may be worth your while to take a look. You never know what you may find written inside. The example image does not include anything earth shattering, but you never know until you look.
The 1940 US census indicates who in the household provided the information by placing an “x” within a circle next to that person’s name. If a household member did not provide the information, there was to be a notation in the left hand margin indicating who provided the information. This is the only US census that provided specific informant information.
Part of genealogical research is evaluating what you have and altering conclusions when new and more reliable information warrants. Early in our research when we are inexperienced, it can be tempting to rely too much on family information. It can also be easy to rely on incomplete information–especially before we learn that “official” records can be incorrect or inconsistent. And sometimes DNA and other information will cause us to re-evaluate what we thought was true even when we had a number of records and completely analyzed them. My children’s great-great-grandfather (father of their great-grandmother) has morphed through many iterations over the nearly thirty years that I have researched him–always because I have located new information: And so it goes. Don’t be afraid to admit you were wrong, but […]
An excellent way to learn about records, research, and methodology is to “rework” a family that you think you already know. Probably the best way to really understand court, probate, land, and other records is to completely research them on a family that’s “already been done.” Completely reading those records in families where you already know the family structure will allow you to focus on details (legal terms, especially) other than the family. It’s a great way to broaden your understanding of records for those times when you don’t have all the names and relationships at your disposal. And sometimes when you “redo” a “done family,” you realize that it wasn’t as done as you thought it was.
The 1928 death certificate for Belle M. Tinsley of Popular Bluff, Missouri, indicated she was fifty years of age at the time of her death. While there are blanks on the certificate to provide for more age precision (months and days), those details were not listed on the death certificate. Belle could very well have been fifty years of age when she died in March of 1928. It is remotely possible that she died on her birthday. The more likely scenario is that the listed age of fifty was an estimate. Ages ending in a “0” are more likely to have been a guess on the part of the informant. It’s very possible that the informant indicated the deceased was “around fifty” and that was entered solely as […]
Consider bringing something with a little bit of color on your next tombstone photographing trip. That flash of color (red in this case) can mark which stone was the one of interest when taking pictures from a distance to show perspective or the location of the stone. Sometimes stones all do look alike–much more than the ones in this cemetery in Tioga, Illinois.
Some researchers will “believe” something when they have three sources that provide the same piece of information. One has to be careful using this approach. Sources may all contain information from the same person or “original source,” which does not really mean that three “sources” agree. It could only mean that the same person gave the information three times. And there is always the chance that the second two “sources” got their information from the first. Think about who provided the information, why it is in the record, and how reasonably the informant would have known the information. That’s a good way to get started with information analysis.
Just because the spot for the months on his age is blank does not mean that Henry Dorges was 18 years and 0 months old when this declaration was signed. He could have not provided his age with more precision than 18. He might have simply guessed at his age. It’s hard to say, but saying that this declaration was made on his birthday is a bit of a stretch. What is safe to say is that Henry indicated he was 18 when he signed the declaration. Whether that age was correct, accidentally wrong, or an outright lie is another matter. The year of the declaration is not included in the portion of it used to illustrate this post. There’s the second tip–screenshots and clipped versions of record […]
Are you looking in other records besides census records and death certificates for occupational clues on your ancestor? Obituaries may provide information about your ancestor’s occupation or at least mention memberships that may provide some indirect insight. Estate inventories are good places to get an idea of what occupation your ancestor might have had. Those with city-dwellers in their family tree should use city directories for clues of this type. Land records in some locations may provide occupations as a way to clearly distinguish the individuals involved in the transaction. Court records may also provide some insight into your ancestor’s occupation. And don’t forget some European church records use occupations to distinguish men of the same names from each other. Any record could provide information about your ancestor’s occupation. Just […]
Do you have Grandma’s roses, Great Aunt Susan’s lilies, or other ancestral flowers or plants? Are you the only one who knows what plants originated where and what their history or provenance is? If you care about passing that information along or think that those who live past you will want to know, consider creating a map. Put that map with your other important papers. It’s not necessary for the map to be fancy or look like an engineer drew it. The important thing is that it preserves and passes along the information.
Did your pregnant relative travel back home as the expected date of birth for their baby approached? In some times and places, distances may have made this travel impossible. But if the time and place are right, it may have been easier to make the trip home than the researcher may expect. I’ve got a person I’m researching who was from Pittsburgh and lived in Washington, DC, with her husband after her marriage in 1905. But the last baby she had in 1909 was born in Pittsburgh in her childhood home where her brother and unmarried sisters still resided. While there may be a few details about the birth and her travel that remain a mystery, consider the possibility that someone may have returned “home” to give birth.
Whenever you are writing or talking about a person be specific. First names are rarely specific enough, particularly in some families. First and last names are best, perhaps combined with a date of birth or date of death. My mother has three Aunt Ruths. It usually took more than just “Aunt Ruth” to know to whom someone was referring. Sometimes it was clear from context, but not always. Don’t create additional confusion in the records you leave behind. Be specific.
If someone is your ancestor, they were born (hard to avoid that), they reproduced (married or not), and eventually died (hard to avoid that as well). Everything else is somewhat negotiable–within reason. Everything else you “think” that is true about them may not be true. This gets especially true as your research extends back in time and what a person “knows” often is based more on what we assume as opposed to things we have evidence for. They might not have attended the same church their children did. People change churches for a variety of reasons. They may have spelled their name differently than their descendants do or did. They might not have really cared how it was spelled. They might not have been a member of the […]
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