Fill out as much of your research log as you can while you are preparing to do you research. Doing this will help you to prepare and a partially completed research log (with titles, etc. already filled in) will increase the chance you work on your log as you research. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
As a special to the readers of Genealogy Tip of the Day (website and newsletter), I am offering a special discount on my May 2010 research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The trip runs 27 May-3 June 2010. We spend one week at the Family History Library, with morning presentations by me, research assistance in the library (both consultations and “drop by” help), and help with pre-trip planning via a password-protected website. For more information on the trip, visit http://www.rootdig.com/slctrip.htmlFor a limited time (until Sunday 1 November at 10:00 p.m. central), you can register for a total of $150 (this is a $50 discount from the regular price). You must use one of these links below in order to get the discount […]
One question: Is all your data backed up? or “Have you backed up all your data?” for those of you who don’t like to end things with a preposition. Either way, make sure you “git ‘er done,” if you haven’t. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is your ancestor listed in a record with his (or her) middle name listed as his last name? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
In an upcoming column for Casefile Clues, one of the key methods to locating certain people was to trace the stepchildren of their father. Finding them lead me to information on the people for whom I was actually looking. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is there anyway that information you are trying to analyze can be put into chart format? Think about how you could make headings and what items you should extract from each record or source to create a table. Sometimes just organizing things in a different way makes things stand out that you didn’t notice before. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I may be a little bit too picky, but when reviewing a GEDCOM file if I see names of places spelled incorrectly (especially names of counties in the United States when the database is compiled by an American researcher), I get a little skeptical of the rest of the file. Of course, the occasional typo is one thing (which can easily be avoided in most programs by the way), but if the database I find has some of these spellings: Hartford County, Maryland Amhurst County, Virginia Schuler County, Illinois then I am a little worried about the rest of the data. Call me persnickity, but genealogy is about details. If place names that are established and standard (as these are) are not spelled correctly, how certain can I […]
Occasionally when I search on Google for an ancestor’s name one of my hits is the search results page for that name on www.familysearch.org, the website of the LDS Family History Library. Very interesting. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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. There are few “have tos” in genealogy. Make certain you aren’t using “have tos” to make brick walls for yourself. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If the name as written on a document sounds like the name you are looking for, consider it the same name. Your real work is to make certain you have the same person. That’s the problem. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
For the longest time, there have been html tags surrounding posts made to Tip of the Day. Hopefully I have removed them. I guess I’ll know when this post runs live. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If there is a word in a document that you do not know the meaning of, look it up. And even if you think you know what the word means, you still might want to look it up. Just in case. Misinterpretations can create brick walls where none existed. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
The website with land patents from the Bureau of Land Management site is wonderful, but there are a few suggestions and warnings: the site is incomplete for several western states patents represent federal land records only–the local courthouse has subsequent transactions which likely contain more information cash file entries contain minimal information unless there is something unusual about the transaction–the claimant died during the process, was actually filing a pre-emption claim etc. And if you don’t know your township from your section, read their FAQ first. The website is at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
What you find in someone’s online genealogy compilation should be used as a clue. There’s one tree on Ancestry.com (with over 20,000 names) that shows my great-grandparents with a child they never had. Some days I even wonder if it’s worth my time to contact someone whose database contains more than several thousand names. I’ve gotten some clues from the online trees, but do not use what you see there as anything other than a hint of a suggestion. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Have you really learned about the records in that “new” area in which you are researching? Don’t assume that records in one location are the same as in another. When I started my late 1700 research in Virginia in never dawned on me to ask for a marriage bond. I had never used them in the upper Midwest, so I never thought to ask for them. Had I read a basic Virginia guidebook or research outline, I would have been aware of them. Now familiarizing myself with the basic sources in a new area is one of the first things that I do. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Recent Comments