Years ago, I discovered that my grandmother had a step-grandmother who had never been mentioned. For a long list of reasons, I never mentioned the step-grandmother to my own grandmother. However, I did learn where the step-grandmother was buried. A few months later, my Dad and I had cause to go close to the cemetery on a trip somewhere else and I asked if we could stop for a few minutes to see if I could find the stone. There was no stone. Dad mentioned to Grandma the next morning that we had stopped at said cemetery. Grandma later very directly asked me WHO I was looking for in THAT cemetery. Grandma probably knew who I was looking for as there are NO other family members buried there. […]
I’m in the final throes of editing and proofing the second (and last) Genealogy Tip of the Day book. It’s been a fun project and we’ll continue the blog here, but there won’t be any more tip books as I want to work on other writing projects. You can add yourself to the mailing list for announcements about the book when it’s available–including a pre-publication order and price option!
Normally an ancestor has to be dead to have an estate settlement, has to be born to have a birth certificate, etc. Think about what really HAS to be when you research your ancestor. He didn’t have to get married to reproduce. He didn’t have to name his oldest son after his father. He didn’t have to get married near where his first child was born. He didn’t have to have a relative witness every document wrote. He didn’t have to be buried in the same cemetery as his wife. She didn’t have to live with her parents as a child. There are few “have tos” in genealogy. Make certain you aren’t using “have tos” to make brick walls for yourself.
Don’t expect greater accuracy from records than you are capable of yourself. Your ancestors were just as human as you are and the information they gave is subject to the same memory challenges that you may have.
This publication by John J. Newman was published in 1985 by the Indiana Historical Society and has been published on the Society’s website. Please observe the usage limitations noted on the Society’s website under the “use statement.”
I’m in the final stages of editing the second Genealogical Tip of the Day book. In some ways it is a journal of various individuals and families I have worked on while writing Genealogy Tip of the Day. While editing, I find myself making notes to follow up on leads and discoveries that I used for a tip of the day and then promptly forgot about. Have you thought about keeping a brief journal or diary of your genealogical discoveries? Might be interesting to review a few years down the road.
Stuck? Put aside everything you have on an ancestor and “recollect” your information on him. It’s not necessary or practical to throw out what you have found and “start over.” It’s just helpful to review each document you have and contemplate what that document really says (and does not say). It may be helpful to create a whole new database entry for this ancestor and re-enter the paper material you hae and then try and relocate the data you found in online digitized records. Think carefully about every assumption you have made and every step in your logic and reasoning. Perhaps starting over (or pretending to) is what you need to do to get over that brick wall.
We still have room in my August 2024 trip to the FamilySearch library in Salt Lake City. Details are on our announcement page.
When you cannot find a record in the expected location, ask yourself if you are really certain the event took place in that spot. Do you have good information to cause you to believe that or are you operating under a hunch? That hunch could be wrong. Did a couple go a distance from home to elope? Did your great-grandparents live in another state for a year and that’s where one child was born? Was great-grandma living with a daughter out of state when she died? The event may not have taken place where you think it did–especially if if happened one hundred years before you were born.
Reminded a fellow genealogist recently of the importance of making certain they’ve completely researched the spouse of their “brick wall” ancestor as well as that spouse’s new spouse after the “brick wall” ancestor died. The “brick wall” guy died in Virginia in 1830 leaving a young widow and two children. She married a few years later. It’s possible that there’s a clue to the first husband in one of the names on a document involving the widow (or her second husband) after the “brick wall” ancestor died. But you have to research the widow (and her new husband) just as much as the “brick wall” guy. Something on them may lead you to him.
If there is a court case that “can’t be found” or a record that is “closed,” remember that there might be some account of it in a local newspaper. I’ve got one 1870 era case where the packet of court papers is “gone.” One option for me is to search the newspapers of when the case was heard and when judgement/sentence was issued in hopes that the newspaper mentioned something. Always keep in mind that there might be a newspaper account of an event as well. And while court records can sometimes be sealed, newspapers are a little more difficult to control in that fashion.
This digital collection at the Library of Congress website contains over 1400 maps of the American Revolutionary era. View them at https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-revolutionary-war-maps/
Never be so stuck on an initial conclusion that you avoid other reasonable scenarios or avoid looking for records because the person you need to find “simply cannot be in that location.” A relative concluded a family member returned to Germany for a visit and returned to the United States simply because the ancestor could not be located in the 1870 census. The story of the trip was repeated enough that it became an accepted fact. It’s easy to jump to conclusions when we are first starting out. We can sometimes “break brick walls” by going back and reviewing those initial conclusions.
Obituaries and estate notices usually appear in newspapers shortly after someone dies. There are other times a person may be mentioned years or decades after their death or departure from the area. Some small-town newspapers published snippets of items from the past as a way to engage readers and generate subscriptions. These items from ten, twenty, twenty-five, or fifty years ago were usually abbreviated versions of the original article. Given that earlier newspapers are sometimes harder for computerized algorithms to read, a digital search may find the more recent reference easier. Don’t always set your years of search to the person’s lifespan. The most interesting references may have been published some time after they were dead. And always go back and read the original reference for additional information.
Before going to the library, courthouse, or other research facility, considering creating a short “cheat sheet” of key terms you will use while there that confuse you. It may not be practical to constantly “google on the go,” and sometimes time can be saved by making a quick referral to doublecheck the meaning of a word or term. Grantor and grantee are two terms that people often get confused–and that confusion can easily cause the researcher to waste valuable time.
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