There’s always value in reviewing court cases in which your ancestor was involved. That’s true even if the cases involve mundane, seemingly trivial matters, and contain no direct genealogical information. Remember that every court case can not involve an inheritance and contain significant documentation of family relationships. Those mundane cases can help as well and it’s worth remembering that the mundane must have been important to your ancestor (or someone else) for it to have gotten to court. Who provided testimony? Their relationships may not be stated, but those individuals could have been related by blood or marriage to your ancestor. The fact that your ancestor was involved in a lawsuit means that he was of legal age and (probably) a citizen at the time of the action. […]
For your “brick wall” ancestor, do you know (or have any idea) how far they lived from: The list here is not exclusive. If you’ve got no idea of the answers to these questions, determining those answers may help you solve your problem.
If your ancestor was not a cradle-to-grave member of the same church or denomination, have you created a chronology or time-line of when your ancestor was a member of what church/denomination? If your ancestor was a cradle-to-grave Methodist and moved frequently, do you know where she attended church in each of those locations? Have you found out where those records are? Have you accessed them? Even your ancestor was born, lived, and died in the same home and never changed denominations, they may have attended more than one church for a variety of reasons.
We all have those people we can’t find in certain records for one reason or another and there comes a time when it’s time to move on and search for another record or another person. But I’ve thought about creating a master list of those people and the records in which I can’t find them (along with where I’ve searched before and how). That “Can’t Find them List” is something that periodically I could refer to and try again. Not every week or every month, but maybe a few times a year when I’m in need of a break from whatever I’m working on. Databases do get updated. New records are discovered. Researchers realize they have made mistakes. Instead of scouring my files for things I’ve not found, […]
Years ago I was stuck on my Ira Sargent. I spent a fair amount of time locating men with this name in the 1860 and 1870 census in an attempt to show they were “my guy” who first appeared in the 1880 census. For one reason or another I was able to eliminate them as being mine. The one thing I did was keep a list of every one I found along with the reason why he was not mine. The reasons varied, but included: too old, too young, born in wrong place, wrong wife, etc. Keeping track of the reasons was important for two reasons. One was so that I didn’t redo the research. The second was that I could go back and revisit these “wrong” guys […]
I’m not exactly certain what happened to this photograph, but it’s now stored in a better place. My digital image of this really does help to preserve the image as the damage only continue to get worse over time and hasten the aging process. The nice thing about making digital images is that they can get an image of a picture that can be frozen in time. My grandmother wrote on the back of this photograph and her “1957 50 yr” makes me think this was taken for their 50th wedding anniversary. Never neglect a clue and never neglect to make digital images of pictures, especially ones that are in danger deteriorating.
I don’t have too many pictures of my great-grandma Neill. The last one I have of her was taken at my uncle’s wedding in 1960 about five years before her death. It wasn’t great-grandma by herself, it’s my uncle, his wife, and their three grandmothers. By the time my parents married, she was gone. I’m not even certain there was a grandparents picture taken when my parents were married several years later. For that person you don’t have a picture of, have you thought about events they may have attended where pictures might have been taken…and who might have those pictures?
Even if Aunt Martha does not have hollowed out book on her bookshelf, any book in her collection could have an obituary, photograph, letter, or other paper-based family history item tucked into it. Family Bibles are the first place to look–and to page through page by page. Clippings, funeral notices, and the like can also be used as bookmarks. Make certain you have flipped through all the pages of those books if you have the chance to go through them. You are looking for items of family history value–not just items with monetary value. When the book in the illustration was pulled off the shelf, it’s purpose was clear. Not all hollowed out books are as easy to spot.
In my mind, my parents are always in their early to mid-thirties. Why is elusive, but it seems to me that’s because that’s the age they were when my first real memories start. Anyway. It’s always worth remembering that our ancestors were not just stuck at one age. Different things happened to them at different ages. It’s not an advanced concept–or at least I hope it’s not–but one to keep in mind to help us keep perspective. How old was Mom when her baby brother died?How old was Dad when he bought his first piece of real estate?How old was great-grandma when her mother died?How old was great-grandpa when he finally bought his first farm?How old was great-grandma when she moved from the farm to town?They aren’t highly […]
Do you Google those sayings your parents and grandparents had? One popped in my head today from when I was a child Put your shoes on Lucy, we’re going to town. My Mother often said it when I was small and it was time to get ready to go somewhere. I had always assumed it was a phrase she had made up. It wasn’t. The first part was from a song originally recorded in 1949. My Mother would have been seven years old. It’s possible that my Grandmother was the one, at least in my family, added the “we’re going to town” part of the little phrase indicating it was time to get ready. Google searches for those phrases or sayings your relative liked to say may provide […]
A court case I located from Virginia in the 1820s contained numerous depositions and statements made by witnesses. This was common in some cases since it did not require witnesses to attend court on those few times a year when court was in session. The statements were taken at various locations–which was always stated in the initial portion of the document. Those locations are clues and are helpful clues in a time period and place where one does not always know where within a county an individual lived. Individuals who made out statements at the same time in the same place were probably relatively close neighbors to each other. Probably. One should always keep the likely method of transportation in mind as well. Check out our Genealogy Tip […]
Admittedly it can be difficult to find newspaper references to people when only their last name is mentioned. Chances are when that happens there are other identifying clues to help you find the person. Most commonly those are occupation or a geographic location. While the newspaper reference may appear vague, there were probably enough clues for contemporary readers to determine the identity of the individual. The problem is that one hundred and thirty years later those clues may not be known to the researcher.
I’ve been searching local newspapers in Hancock County, Illinois, where I grew up and where most of my family has lived for generations–using telephone numbers to find classified ads placed by my parents and grandparents. I found the typical fare: eggs for sale, straw for sale (on the rack and bale your own), bulls for sale, etc. But I found several references to my parents phone number that I knew were errors including one for a Kiwanis breakfast and for inquiries on a home for sale. The references to my parents’ phone numbers in these cases were simply errors where likely two digits were switched (a transposition error) or a digit was keyed incorrectly. Before I get suggestions that these were actually references to my parents and that […]
Always read those “aside” comments that occasionally get made in records. Clerks and records officials don’t add them because they are bored. There is usually a reason and working to determine that reason could lead to additional discoveries. The estate inventory as shows in the illustration included a statement that the administrator was uncertain of the exact type of title the deceased had to the real estate listed, but that he believed it was fee simple. Checking up on that ownership led to several genealogically relevant discoveries.
I realize county boundary changes can create genealogical research challenges, but there are times when it seems like some individuals think those changes are the solution to every research problem. It’s not. Just because an approach works sometimes or because you heard a professional use it a few times does not mean that the approach works all the time. An individual was having difficulty locating the birth certificate of their ancestor in a rural Illinois county in 1902. The first two responses to their question were: “did the county boundary change?” It is important to be aware of county boundary changes. There is no doubt about that, but context matters. By 1902 in most US states east of the Mississippi River (and quite a few others to be […]
Recent Comments