Under a US Congressional act of 1796 (the Act For The Relief and Protection of American Seamen (1 Stat. 477) signed into law on May 28, 1796), American seamen were periodically issued certificates to hopefully prevent them from being illegally impressed by ships from other nations. . These documents can appear in one of three formats: registers–listing certificates that were issued–not all are extant, some are held by the National Archives and others by local historical societies applications–proof and evidence–generally held by the National Archives, available on microfilm or digitally and usually arranged by port certificates–usually kept by the sailor himself The Mystic Seaport Museum has a database of entries from the Custom Houses of Fall River, Gloucester, New Haven, New London, Newport, Marblehead, and Salem. FamilySearch includes these databases: […]
What genealogy clues are waiting for you in the advertisements? This one from Maryland in 1907 gives a college graduation date.
In locations that have birth certificates and birth registers, it is necessary to look at both. Determine what the “chain of creation” was. Usually the certificates were the “original document” and information in the register contains a transcription of what was on the original certificate. There’s always the possibility that the register contains a transcription error. But there’s also the possibility that the register’s entry is easier to read than the certificate or contains an additional comment made by the clerk and is not on the certificate. It’s important to read both and to know how they were created.
Witnesses to a will cannot be beneficiaries named in that will and are generally not heirs. Witnesses should be disinterested individuals. And, as a reminder, beneficiaries and heirs are not necessarily the same group of people. Heirs have legal rights of inheritance under statute. Beneficiaries are named as the recipient of real or personal estate, usually upon the death of the owner of that property.
Your relative died in 1850, but records indicate that his estate was not settled up and the farm sold or transferred to someone else until 1869. Don’t conclude that there had to be “drama” or some court action that you cannot find. It could be as simple as the family waiting until the widow had died or the youngest child reached the age of majority. Mother may have put her foot down and issued an edict that she was living on the farm until she died. The children could have decided to let mother have control and the money from the farm until she died. The heirs could have decided it was easier (and cheaper) to wait to “settle up” until all the heirs were of age and […]
There is no such thing as a mullable rose. And yet there is because that’s what Grandma called them and I had seen them. They had to exist. I really doubted Grandma had discovered a new plant. Years later I discovered a reference to something referred to as the multiflora rose. Based upon the discussion and the description, I thought it was odd that I had never heard of the plant before. And then I saw the picture. There was Grandma’s mullable rose. The word was not “mullable.” It was “multiflora. Maybe I heard Grandma wrong. Maybe Grandma said it wrong. Maybe Grandma heard it wrong. Maybe all three. When you can’t find that maiden name that Grandma insists is true consider how off the pronunciation may be. […]
Do not mindlessly type names in database searches without first learn what you are actually searching. Is it a website that contains voluntary submissions of data other researchers have compiled? If so, it may be incomplete. Is it an official archives site? Even those may have omissions because some records were not extant. Most sites will indicate where they obtained their information. Find out and find if all records were extracted. Gaps or omissions seem to always be for the time period one needs. Not knowing what you are searching may explain why you are not finding the information you seek.
Remember that the children may not know their mother’s maiden name and what they do know is not first-hand information. They may think their mother’s step-father was her actual father. They may never have met her father and may have a totally “mixed” up version of the name in their head as a result. Or they may be entirely correct about their mother’s maiden name. It depends upon a lot of factors, but keep in mind that information children provide about their mother’s maiden name is not first hand information.
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When transcribing any document, make no changes–even if something looks blatantly incorrect. Annotations or comments about the incorrect part of the document should be made in a way that clearly indicates they are not a part of the actual document itself. My own personal preference (which we utilize in Casefile Clues, is to start a transcription with [begin transcription] and to end it with [end transcription]. Between those markers only the transcription of the document is included. Comments about the accuracy are made outside those brackets. [sic] is used within the transcription for the occasional word spelled incorrectly or other blatant error. That notation is simply used to indicate that something was copied exactly as written and that it was not a transcription error introduced into the document when […]
Did you ancestor have two spouses instead of one? Did your ancestor have three children instead of two? Have you searched completely and thoroughly? Finding a civil record of an ancestor’s birth suggests that there might be some church record of the event as well (the same is true for a marriage). Finding one deed for an ancestor should make you wonder if there could be more. Always be asking yourself: what more could there be?
AncestryDNA‘s sale (through 20 August 2018) is a good time to remind about some things to be aware of when doing any DNA test: this is a autosomal test–to work all lines, not just the paternal or the maternal. Know what type of test you are taking. don’t just wait for the results to arrive thinking that they’ll solve all your genealogy problems–they won’t. Read our suggestions for what to do while waiting for your results to arrive. other submitters will have no trees tied to their DNA results some submitters will have no idea about their ancestry some submitters will never respond to your request for information some matches will be difficult or impossible to figure out DNA won’t solve all your problems DNA may alter your genealogical reality. […]
Records related to an ancestor’s involvement in the military may take the form of service records or benefit records. Service records were those records created during the person’s actual service and relate to their service, when they were mustered in, their physical description, when they were mustered out, where they were assigned, and other information from records created during their service. Benefit records are records typically created after service related to benefits that were given to or were dur to the serviceperson as the result of their service. Those records, in the United States at least, are typically pension records and sometimes records of bounty lands that were awarded to the serviceman.
If your ancestor had a first, middle, and last name, keep in mind that it is possible that those names could be in the wrong order in a record. If the names are in the wrong order on the record, then the ancestor will appear in the index under the wrong “last name.” If the index does not include the last name of interest, consider searching for that relative with their first or middle name as their last name. Learn more about genealogy research and methods in Casefile Clues.
Obituaries and family members can easily hide a key detail in a person’s life. According to family members, my great-grandfather died at home. His obituary in the paper indicated he died at home. He did not. After suffering from a series of strokes, the family could no longer take care of him and he was put in a state hospital several counties away where he died a few weeks later. They cared for him at home for years, but were no longer able to towards the end of his life. That’s why it took me forever to locate his death certificate–I was looking in the wrong place.
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