Court and probate papers often are not in chronological order when the genealogist gets them. Before analyzing the materials, put them in chronological order first. Use the dates the documents were executed for this sorting, not the dates they were filed or recorded. Sorting them will make it easier to see the flow of activity. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. They are offering our fans/followers/readers a subscription that is $4.67 a month (billed annually). Thanks for their support–and yours too!
Jim Beidler’s The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide: How to Find Your Ancestors in Archived Newspapers arrived in my mail yesterday. While I have not had time to completely read it yet, there’s a great deal of good advice in the book, including a quote from Genealogy Tip of the Day about “near” relatives. The book contains search techniques for several sites, including: GenealogyBank–fee-based Newspapers.com—fee-based Ancestry.com—fee based Library of Congress–free and other free sites. There are lots of great anecdotes and research stories in the book as well. Hopefully it will give me some motivation to revisit some incomplete newspaper work on some of my own families.
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