We are hosting three webinars next week (19 and 20 February). Details are on our announcement page.
When was the last time you searched Google Books for an ancestor or relative? The material indexed in this collection is not fixed and there may easily be something new for you in it if the last time you searched was several years ago. The collection not only includes books, but also a wide variety of magazines and journals. You might be surprised at what you find.
City directories, draft registration cards, obituaries, home sources, death certificates and other sources may mention the name of an ancestral employer. Don’t stop there. To learn more about your ancestor’s employer as given in a city directory, search the rest of the city directory as it may include advertisements or list the employer in a list of area businesses. Consider performing a Google search for the name of the business and search local and regional histories as well, many of which have been digitized at Google Books (http://books.google.com) or Archive.org (http://www.archive.org). Local libraries and historical societies may also be able to help you in your search to learn more about your ancestral employer–including if there is any chance the company’s employee records are still extant.
In the 1920 census, a relative had an eighteen-year-old daughter and a five-year-old daughter. There were no other children and the presumed parents were in their early-to-mid forties. The wife in the household could easily have been the mother of both of the children. It was not unusual for a couple to have a gap in the ages of their children, but the thirteen-year gap did make me wonder if both children were actually theirs. After quite a bit of research, it was discovered that the younger child in the 1920 census enumeration was actually the child of a deceased female cousin of the husband. That deceased cousin’s surviving husband was unable to care for the children after his wife died and her cousin (the husband in the […]
When using a record or source that is new to you, here are some things to think about to make the best use of it: There are other questions to ask about the record as you analyze the information it contains, but the answers to these questions will hopefully make your search easier.
Due to the passage of time, some original records are difficult to read. Writing fades, pages get torn, mice chew on paper, etc. There may have been entries that the indexer or transcriber could only partially read. How are those entries put in the database? Where are they put in a published book? You need to know–because there’s always a chance that partial entry is for your person.
I’ll be at the following seminars and trips this spring: We’ll have Genealogy Tip of the Day and More Genealogy Tip of the Day books for sale at the Ohio and Kansas presentations. Email me if you’d like to pre-order a copy for distribution the at the conference/seminar.
Just because seemingly different sources agree does not mean that they have to be correct–it just means that they agree. Consider whether or not the sources are truly independent. Sometimes different “sources” have the same actual person directly or indirectly providing the information. My grandmother’s 1935 marriage record, 1994 death certificate, and 1994 obituary all provide the same place of birth for her. Grandma was essentially the informant on all three because her children provided what they were told for the death certificate and the obituary. And all three gave places different from Grandma was actually born. Just because Grandma was consistent does not necessarily mean that she was correct.
The 1900 census entry for Gardner and Mary Ramsey finds the couple living in Santa Monica, California. Their entry is at the very bottom of the census page and it would seem reasonable that after being married fifty years, the seventy-five year old Gardner and seventy year old Mary would find themselves without children in the household. But a quick look at the following page indicated that there were two grandchildren living with them. Something that could have been missed had I neglected to see what was on the top of the next page. When viewing any record, always make certain you’ve looked at the whole thing. With census records, it means viewing the entries until you have seen the start of the next household. With deeds books […]
Issue 5-13 of Casefile Clues has been sent to subscribers. As a reminder, it’s more detailed and more in-depth than Genealogy Tip of the Day. Learn more about Casefile Clues on our website.
The local radio station’s website referred to the Hollywood actor as a “native” (their exact word) of a town near where I live. His biography on another website (supposedly vetted by the actor himself) indicated he was born in a different town forty miles away. Of course it’s possible the actor doesn’t know where he was born, but in this day and age with a birth certificate required for many things it would seem that he would know where he was born. I’m suspecting (sans evidence) that the actor was born in the more distant town and grew up in the nearer one. That’s a rabbit hole that I do not need to go down as he’s not even a distant relative. But it reminded me that people […]
We can’t really cover analyzing “old published genealogies” in one tip, but there are some suggested ways for using information printed in genealogies published in the early twentieth century and earlier. There’s more to the analysis than this, but keeping these points in mind is an excellent start. Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here. Learn more about it.
When reviewing records on an ancestor it’s an integral part of the genealogical analysis to consider how old the ancestor was when they are appearing in various records, going through personal life events, experiencing national events, and the like. It’s important because age is one way we can determine whether or not we are likely to have the right person in a genealogical record. Whenever you find an ancestor named in a document, do you ask yourself how old they were at that point in time? Is their age atypical for someone who usually appears on that type of document (a sixty year old woman having a child, an eight year old getting married, a ninety year old signing a mortgage, a sixty year old man enlisting in […]
A relative is married in 1843 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is married again in Illinois in 1848. The most likely scenario is that she died. It is possible that the couple actually divorced or separated and never bothered to divorce. The divorce would have generated a court record. A separation that never resulted in divorce may not have generated any records at all. But I should not assume the first wife died unless there is some additional evidence other than simply the subsequent marriage.
Sometimes we have to conjecture about a relative in order to move our research forward or at least get ideas of what other records could help us. Be careful with whom you share that conjecture as sometimes speculation suddenly becomes a “fact” for which you become the source. Sometimes it just becomes a fact with nary an indication of the origins of said fact. If you include speculation in your research notes, clearly label that speculation as speculation. Otherwise you may inadvertently convert your own speculation to fact.
Recent Comments