Use abbreviations sparingly. Does “w/o James Rampley” mean “wife of James Rampley” or “without James Rampley?” Of course on a cemetery transcription site, what it means is obvious. But remember, what is one person’s “obvious” is someone else’s “huh?” Abbreviations can easily confuse–use them with care. Avoid them if at all possible. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If visiting a cemetery where your ancestor lived, consider leaving your name and address on an index card at the stone you’ve been to visit. Put the card in a plastic baggie and use something (such as a rock, etc.) to keep it from blowing away. Don’t harm the stone in the process, but perhaps someone visiting the cemetery another day will find your baggie and contact you. Not everyone with genealogy information goes trolling the internet, but they may go cemetery visiting. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Over the Memorial Day Holiday, you can take advantage of our Casefile Clues subscription offer–$25.50 for the first 35 issues of Year 2—plus another year of issues. A list of topics from year 2 can be viewed here. Orders can be processed here with a credit card (PayPal account not necessary although PayPal processes our payments). Subscribe now before you forget–this post will be pulled when the offer is over. You can request samples by emailing samples@casefileclues.com. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Think about who is listed on a document and who that document implies is alive at the time the document is written. A will mentioning children usually means that the children are alive at the time the will is written. There’s no guarantee the children are still alive when the will is admitted to probate. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Keep in mind some counties may have ledgers with birth records and separate birth certificates. I looked in the birth certificates for two of my grandparents and did not find them. But when I looked in the birth register–there they were. It pays to make certain you have searched everything. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
In locations and time periods where women had few property and legal rights, there are not often estate settlements if the wife dies first. However, if the wife dies last always look for an estate settlement, quit claim, or some type of settlement deed to tidy up the estate. People assume that because women who die first don’t often have estate or probate records that they won’t when they die last either. That’s not necessarily true. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I have a family that moved from Virginia into Kentucky around 1800. The interesting thing is that the names of neighboring families to my ancestors in 1750 Virginia are the same names I see as their 1850 Kentucky neighbors in 1850. I’ve got another set of German families that essentially “transplanted” a village from northern Germany to Illinois in the mid to late 1800s. Some people tend to stick together even when they move. Use this to your advantage in your research. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If the time period and locations are appropriate, have you looked for biographies of all the grandchildren of your “problem” ancestor? It is always possible one of them mentioned a detail about their grandfather in their own biography–and that could be a big clue. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
We’ve set the dates for my 2012 group trip to Salt Lake. Never too early to get started http://rootdig.blogspot.com/2011/05/2012-family-history-library-trip.html ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Remember that “late” does not necessarily mean dead. “Late of Harford County” can simply mean that the person used to live there. In some legal and other documents, “late” means formerly. Deceased usually means dead however! ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Some of my research was done back in the day when making a paper copy of every record was cost prohibitive. Some of those records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library. I’ve been going back and in some cases, scanning the entire record off the microfilm and getting lots of really interesting information. Is there something you only partially looked at before that perhaps now you could copy more extensively? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
A relative was great about sending me stuff while she was actively researching and I really appreciated it. She always indicated the volume number of the courthouse book and the page number of the information. The problem is that she sometimes made up book titles and occasionally they aren’t accurate. She extracted accurately but, sometimes left out key details. If you are using Family History microfilm of original records, look at the “title sheet” that starts each record and use that for your title if you don’t know what the book is. You never know, you might want to go back some day and review it yourself. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I was using a transcription of vital records that indicated a relative was named Jas. I assumed he was James and was searching for that name. Turns out the record that was transcribed had used “Jos.” for Joseph and the transcriber made the “o” an “a.” So copy down what the transcriber wrote, but keep in mind that they might have incorrectly copied the record–or that the record was difficult to read and that the transcriber did the best they could. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
To save money, libraries may bind more that one softcover book in a hardcover binding, particularly when the softcover books are part of a series. Make certain you aren’t just looking in the index of the “last book” in the bound book. It can be easy to overlook the index of the “first” book when two are bound together. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Site is a location. Cite means to indicate where a piece of information was obtained. You should cite the cemetery site when referencing a tombstone. The tombstone site is where the tombstone was located and your citation for the tombstone site should be specific enough that someone else could get to the site using your citation. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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