Whenever I locate a record, I look at adjacent records to see if there are other records that may be on the same family or may mention ancestral associates. It’s not just one type of record where this may help as: families may record several deeds at the courthouse on the same day causing the records to appear page after page; the census may include other relatives on the same pages or on pages in close proximity to the desired entry; tax records may include other family members living nearby on an adjacent page; siblings may marry on the same day and appear consecutively in the marriage records; family members may die a few days apart (either due to illness or a mother and child who do not […]
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If a man dies leaving behind a wife and children, don’t assume that there won’t be a guardianship because one parent is still living. While a mother typically has physical custody of the children if the father dies, for much of US history someone would have been appointed guardian to oversee their interest in their father’s estate. That guardian may not have been the mother. This “financial” guardian would not typically have gotten custody of the child–that would remain with the mother. These guardianship records can provide more details about the father and the children, depending upon the time period. In the United States guardianship records are typically local court records.
Today (20 January 2015) is the last day of our old webinar prices. Prices are now hover around $8 a presentation, but will be raised to $20 each after the 20th. Visit our webinar page to order your download or for more information. Downloads don’t expire–there is no expiration. Orders must be placed by the end of 20 January. Thanks!
Some genealogical software packages and some online tree sites encourage users to enter relationships between individuals as soon as possible. That can be a mistake. Unless you’ve got a fairly good idea that the relationship is solid, refrain from immediately entering it in your database. Not every child in the census is the child of both parents. The widow listed in the will may not be the mother of all the children Ask yourself how certain you are of each relationship before you put it in your database. You can “always change it later,” but many times later never comes.
When you find a probate case file for a relative, look closely at the people to whom he owed money and the people who owed him money. There’s a reasonable chance that some of them are relatives. The relationships won’t be stated in the record (as that’s not their purpose). But those names could be clues as to potential relatives. You may even find that the court determined if was doubtful your ancestor’s brother-in-law would pay him the $25 he owed him in 1889, like I discovered.
I’ve kept my webinar prices low since their inception several years ago, but various fees associated with hosting and distributing the presentations have forced me to raise the prices. Effective 20 January 2016 at noon central, the price of individual webinars will be $20 each at a minimum. Prices for most presentations now are mostly in the $8 range. Orders are processed immediately–downloads are immediate. Once downloaded, you “have” the presentation to view whenever it is convenient. It’s just the order that has to take place before 8 am. on 20 January 2016. There are more details on our webinar page.
Never be satisfied with just one or two obituaries for a person of interest. Obtain as many as you can. There’s always a chance that that “extra” one you find contains a detail not given in the others. This 1912 obituary for Samuel Neill of West Point, Hancock County, Illinois, provided a county of birth for his wife. It may not be correct, but at least it is a clue.
If a will lists a wife and children of the testator (one who wrote the will), it is possible that the wife is the mother of: none of the children some of the children all of the children With out other information don’t immediately jump to any of these conclusions. What’s probably safe to say is that the testator is the parent of the children because that’s what is stated in the will. ————————- Don’t forget our webinar prices will go up on 20 January. Details on our page.
For years, I just assumed that a set of immigrant ancestors who married in Illinois in 1874 met in the United States–because it made sense. He immigrated in 1869 and she immigrated in 1873. They were born in villages 25 miles apart. Seemed logical that they met in the United States. Later research revealed they had known each other in Germany. When she was a young girl her father had moved from the village where she was born to the village where her future husband was born. He worked on the windmills in northern Germany and was more mobile than I had originally thought. Good to remember that people in Europe also move around as well. ————————- Don’t forget our webinar prices will go up on 20 January. […]
I’ve kept my webinar prices low since their inception several years ago, but various fees associated with hosting and distributing the presentations have forced me to raise the prices. Effective 20 January 2016, the price of individual webinars will be $20 each at a minimum. Prices for most presentations now are mostly in the $8 range. Orders are processed immediately–downloads are immediate. Once downloaded, you “have” the presentation to view whenever it is convenient. It’s just the order that has to take place before 8 am. on 20 January 2016. There are more details on our webinar page.
Always check and make certain that the date of birth, date of death, and age agree on a death certificate. There’s always a possibility that they don’t. The date of death is most likely correct as it is usually contemporary to the death certificate being recorded. Usually the age is calculated from the date of birth, but not always.
Roughly every week I send out a blog “update” summarizing postings to my blogs since the last issue went out. This option works for readers who may find the daily update more than they need. The latest issue of the blog update is posted on our site. The weekly blog update is available for a nominal subscription which helps us cover distribution costs. Subscribers to “genealogy transcriber” who like to play along may wish to keep their daily subscription to that site. The daily subscriptions are free and can be managed on any of the specific blogs: Genealogy Tip of the Day Genealogy Search Tip Rootdig Thanks!
There are a variety of places one can obtain evidence of variant names for an ancestor. Court documents are one excellent place as a judge will want to know why a person’s name appears differently on different records. This relative’s names were similar: John M. Habben and John M. Hobben, but the judge still wanted it addressed. Sometimes name variants are not so close. It pays to read all that text in those legal documents.
One problem-solving approach when analyzing a document or a record is to ask yourself, “how did this record and the information it contains get to me?” Sometimes the answer is not as simple as you think. That age for Grandma on the US census you’ve obtained on FamilySearch, probably went through a process very similar to this one: Someone provided that age for Grandma to the census taker–it may or may not have been Grandma. The census taker thought about what he heard. It may not have been what was actually said. The census taker wrote it down in their notes. Their handwriting might have been sloppy. The census taker later wrote up their notes for the actual census. They may not have been able to read them. That census record sat […]
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