Never assume that your ancestor wouldn’t have attended “that church” because it was the “wrong” denomination. It is possible that your knowledge of your ancestor’s religion is not as accurate as you think it is or that the lack of a preacher of the right denomination caused someone to be married by a preacher who was “close enough.” In frontier times, people sometimes had to attend services of whatever what close–as long as the beliefs were relatively similar.
Have you written about how genealogy has impacted you, what it has taught you, and perhaps even how it has changed you? I’m not talking about the few words you learned in a foreign language, how you learned to make research logs, or what you know about the FAN method. Those are helpful things in your genealogy research, but I’m thinking about more impactful things. I used to joke that what I learned about my ggg-grandfather dying in 1855 was not to load your shotgun while drunk and think it was smart to hit a cow with the butt of said shotgun. Then I got a little more sophisticated and thought about what it meant for his widow and two small girls (both 5 and under) to be […]
Have you written about how genealogy has impacted you, what it has taught you, and perhaps even how it has changed you? I’m not talking about the few words you learned in a foreign language, how you learned to make research logs, or what you know about the FAN method. Those are helpful things in your genealogy research, but I’m thinking about more impactful things. I used to joke that what I learned about my ggg-grandfather dying in 1855 was not to load your shotgun while drunk and think it was smart to hit a cow with the butt of said shotgun. Then I got a little more sophisticated and thought about what it meant for his widow and two small girls (both 5 and under) to be […]
I may never find the US passenger list entries for Wilhelmine (Trautvetter) Zenf and her children, but it will not be for lack of trying. It will also not be because I did not keep track of the entries that were eliminated from consideration. To keep myself from looking at the same entry over and over (easy to do if one is using several different websites to search passenger lists), I’ve made a chart that summarizes the entry and why I eliminated it as being Wilhelmine or her children. The reason is important. That way if I discover what I “know” about the family is wrong, I can easily review my previous conclusions and look again at those entries that may now match what I know. Additional columns […]
The 1895 will of Tamme Tammen in Pike County, Illinois, refers to his wife as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen.” Franklen (actually most likely Franken given where the Tammens were from) could have been Elka’s maiden name, middle name, or married name with a previous husband. I should include in my notes on Elka that she is referred to as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen” in her husband’s 1895 will. I should not enter that as her maiden name. Using it for a clue to other relatives when searching is advised. But there’s not really good evidence in this will that it’s her maiden name. There are other possibilities.
Upon occasion, one hears fellow genealogists being slightly judgmental about a specific ancestor. Instead of getting bogged down in that line of thinking (which doesn’t help your research any), think “why?” Putting yourself in your ancestor’s shoes gives you a different perspective. If you were twenty-six years old, widowed, the mother of two small children, unable to speak English and living where you had no relatives, what might you do? You might marry the first German speaking single male around–one who would not have been your choice if you were twenty years old and still living at home with no children to support. If your great-grandfather “disappeared” consider where he might have gone and what he might have done in an attempt to find him. Was there a […]
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 […]
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