If you are having difficulty jumpstarting your relative’s memory, try using the names of neighbors from a census or city directory. The 1940 census is recent enough that names of neighbors may be familiar to someone even if they were not alive in 1940. Memories about a neighbor may help fill in a few blanks or it may even cause your relative to remember more about their relative.
A reader on our Facebook page had an excellent idea for helping to jog the memories of older family members. She made a scrapbook of old pictures with room for the person to write down what they remembered about the people in the picture, the location, etc. Generally the pictures were used as memory prompts. The relative could then write in the book at their leisure as things came to mind. Sometimes an interview simply isn’t long enough or memories come flooding back after it’s over.
Google won’t read sloppy cursive script (at least not yet), but searching for other key words near the mystery word can assist in transcribing that word. Use Google to give you suggestions, but don’t forget to use your common sense and contextual clues.
Every event in your ancestor’s life takes place in context. If your ancestor does something on a specific date, there may be other people doing that same thing on that same date: other couples marrying on the same date as your ancestor may be relatives or close friends other individuals naturalizing on the same day as your ancestor may be relatives, friends, or associates men who deserted the army on the same date as your ancestor may have had a connection to him people who died on the same date as your ancestor may have had the same contagious illness and so on. The commonality of the date may mean nothing. It may also be significant. Just don’t ignore it. Looking for “same day people” is an excellent way to […]
Statements and affidavits are not in a military pension for arbitrary reasons. Typically the veteran may have to show or document: his service his injury received or illness contracted during the war how he qualifies for a pension under a specific act need that he was the same guy who enlisted Widows need to provide additional documentation. There may be papers that appear extraneous, but there usually was a reason. A big thanks to GenealogyBank for being our sponsor! Please check out their August offer for Tip of the Day readers, fans, and followers.
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A colleague asked me about something that happened at work nearly twenty-five years ago. It was something that at the time would have personally impacted me. My answer to him: I can’t remember. Take the time to write your own personal stories before you forget.
One never knows what a file will contain until one looks at it. The Civil War pension file for William Lake of Chariton County, Missouri, contains the names and dates of birth for all his children. Many files either don’t contain this list or the pensioner said “don’t know” or “records burned.” Lake’s file also contains the names of his parents and siblings–and a transcription of their 1860 census enumeration. Those items are not typical You never know until you look. The reason behind this paperwork is discussed in a recent Rootdig post.
Variant spellings where one letter has been changed or added are easy to understand, recognize, and locate. Other variants are a little more difficult to see immediately. One way to discover more creative variants is to say the name or location to someone unfamiliar with the area and the family. Try saying in with an accent as well. That’s probably how in one record Mercer County, Kentucky, became Marshall County, Kentucky.
When I learned that my uncle’s great-grandfather was in the Battle of Waterloo, I assumed it was his great-grandfather Trautvetter and began searching for men with that last name. The problem is that my uncle had four great-grandfathers –I only know the name of one. I can’t assume it was his great-grandfather Trautvetter who was in the battle. And the information in the county history could be incorrect as well.
There’s been some additions to the search interface at GenealogyBank. GenealogyBank, our sponsor, has added some search functionality to their site. Now users can save specific articles and specific searches. The site also automatically tracks recent searches. These added features make the site easier to use. Before these added features users simply had to remember where they were searching if they were interrupted. Articles can be saved by clicking on a save button when viewing the actual document image. Searches can be saved in the same way while browsing through the results list. There’s still no way to mark something as having been seen before, but this is a significant improvement in the usability of the site. Visit GenealogyBank to search and see these new features.
In trying to determine where my aunt taught school in the 1930s and 1940s, I’m relying on digital versions of newspapers and yearbooks as I have no record of where she taught. Her name, Margaret Habben, is relatively uncommon which makes it easier. However, if the name had been more common, adding what she taught as a search term would have helped to narrow the results. Yearbooks were an obvious item to search and newspapers were used as her employment by the local school board was often mentioned as was the occasional field trip with students.
Never consider a biography in a county history complete. A variety of details can be left out for a variety of reasons. The 1907 biography shown here omits the first marriage of the subject’s mother, his two half-sisters, and his parents’ divorce and remarriage, and second divorce. And there’s always the potential that some of the published details could be slightly incorrect. Use these as clues to further your research, not as established facts. A big thanks to GenealogyBank for being our sponsor! Please check out their August offer for Tip of the Day readers, fans, and followers.
Definitions matter. When reading a document, make certain you know the definition of the word for the setting in which the document was created–a legal document, a letter written by a relative, etc. When using words yourself in your own writing, make certain you are aware of the word’s meaning and are using it in the right context and not implying something that you do not mean to. After all, genealogists don’t want to create more confusion than there sometimes already is. ———————- A big thanks to GenealogyBank for being our sponsor! Please check out their August offer for Tip of the Day readers, fans, and followers.
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