In 1850 and after census records, have you compared your ancestor to his neighbors? Were they from the same place, about the same age, similar occupations, etc.? Or was your ancestor significantly different from his or her neighbors? It might be a clue. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Adoption records are usually closed. Is there a chance there was a guardianship instead? Records of guardianships are open and may answer your question. The difficulty is that guardianships are usually for children who have inherited some type of estate. If your “adopted” ancestor was poor, there’s less chance of a guardianship. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
In going back through material for a Casefile Clues article, I looked again at some pension papers on a relative. Her children were listed, including my great-grandmother. There great-grandma was listed with a middle name I had never seen anywhere else. For some reason, it had never “clicked” before that the name was different. Great-grandma was always “Fannie” on every document, except for Francis on her birth record. And the only middle name ever used was Iona. And there on the pension application for her mother was “Fannie May” Or so I thought. It actually said “Fannie May 16 1880” and was referring to her DATE of birth. Be careful before jumping to a conclusion and getting a little too excited about locating something “new.” ———————————— Check out […]
Recent Comments