Do you have any heirloom plants and have you documented their story along with your other genealogical information? This tiger lily originally belonged to my great-grandmother, Tjode (Goldenstein) Habben (1882-1954) who gave bulbs to her daughter, Dorothy (Habben) Ufkes (1924-2008), my maternal grandmother. Take pictures of your plant and write down as much of the story as you know, including various locations where the plant grew and who owned it.
Pre-1850 United States census records, which frequently only list a county of residence, can be a challenge when the names are spelled wrong and the writing is difficult to read. If you can’t find you person in 1830, try searching for his 1820 and 1830 neighbors in 1840 and then looking closely in the vicinity of that name (at least a few pages befor and after). You may find the person of interest.
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The biggest mistakes are when you “think you know everything” or when you’ve researched a family for so long that you forget things you located years ago. This overlooked 1860 census entry raised more questions than it answered–was there a relationship with either of the two farmers the young couple was living with? Was the teenager related to young husband? Always check and review–especially when you’ve been researching a family for a while.
Make certain you have looked at every side of a stone for additional inscriptions, significant markings, etc. There could be something of value on the reverse side of stone and some families did the best they could to get the most possible out of the stone.
In addition to the regular blog content on my blogs, I put out a weekly summary of blog content–this is perfect for those who may overlook the daily emails or who do not want to receive the daily emails–the weekly update is weekly, not daily (grin!). My weekly blog update is separate from daily emails received from the individual blogs. The weekly update includes a summary of postings to: Genealogy Tip of the Day Genealogy Search Tip of the Day Rootdig In addition, the weekly blog update includes the following premium content not published on my blogs: Tombstone of the week Citation of the week Letter of the week Picture of the week and the occasional extra item of interest There are no press releases, memes, or similar material in […]
Your ancestor’s final neighbors may hold the key to more information on her. Determine who is buried near to your ancestor. Those adjacent burials could be other relatives, by birth or by marriage, or they could be totally unrelated. But you will never know unless you locate more about them than a name on a stone.
A “friendly suit” is a lawsuit where the parties are not at each other’s throats, but need a legal remedy to a problem they can’t solve themselves. In the 1924 partition suit mentioned in the illustration several of the heirs were minors and unable to legally act on their own and the farm could not equitably be divided amongst the heirs. A “friendly partition” suit was the result. Not all partitions are friendly, but both types should generate court records. A big thanks to GenealogyBank for being our sponsor!
At a recent family reunion, a relative (technically a second cousin of my father) told me how in the 1930s her mother had lived with my great-grandparents when she attended high school because my great-grandparents lived in town. It never hurts to talk to the more distant relatives. Sometimes chatting will bring up more stories than specific questions. This was also a reminder that times and transportation were different. The cousin lived several miles from “town,” a village of maybe two hundred people, and could not afford a car. Even though town was more of a tiny village and the distance was small by modern standards, it would have been difficult to walk daily in the Depression era–especially in winter.
In reviewing the 1940 census enumerations for my Ufkes cousins in Hancock County, Illinois, I found an entry for a Henry Ufkes, married and just starting his family. The age was inconsistent with the known Henrys in the family at that time and there was no child in the family with the name of Henry’s child. Further research revealed that the census taker simply wrote down the wrong last name and substituted the last name of Fecht with Ufkes. There were many families with both last names in the township. Is it possible the census taker got mixed up when writing your family’s census entry?
Think of all those questions you wished you had asked a certain relative before they died and that now you are unable to ask. Remind yourself how frustrated you feel. Now take that frustration and think of a living relative who could answer some of those questions, similar questions, or different questions. Ask that relative those questions before they pass. Take your regret about the answers you didn’t get and use it to motivate you to get the answers you still can.
Do you always read and understand what is crowded into the edge or bottom of a document? If something is squeezed into a small space, there is probably a reason. Sometimes that reason is a legal banality and other times it is a genealogical gem. You won’t know if you don’t read it and determine what it means.
No matter how many obituaries you have for an ancestor, that one you have not located may have a clue. The obituaries for this 1913 death contain essentially the same information–except for one that stated a daughter was living in Oklahoma. She only lived there a short time around her father’s death and the obituary was the only connecting piece of information. Small towns near where your ancestor lived, county seat towns, and the nearest “big town” may all run an obituary on your ancestor. And any one of them may contain a clue the others do not.
The 1880 United States census mortality schedule asks for the family number of the deceased individual. Make certain not to overlook this number in order to determine the household in which they would have been enumerated had they been living.
Soundex searches usually do not find spelling variants that begin with a different letter than the name for which you are searching. A soundex search for Cain will normally bring up Cane, Caine, Cone, etc. but will not locate Kain, Kane, Kaine, etc. When working on a new name list all the variants of that name and remember that Soundex searches only bring up results with the same initial letter of the name entered. A Soundex search for Night won’t usually locate Knight either.
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