Only children with no descendants can leave interesting estate settlements, especially if they die with enough property to require probate and neglect to leave a valid will. Their property typically will be distributed to their first cousins, or depending upon the family structure, even more distant relatives. The records of that estate settlement could be a gold mine. Do you have a cousin who died in this situation? It may be worth your time to search for their estate records
This newspaper clipping, from the Mendon [Illinois] Dispatch of December 1935, reminded me of some issues when searching newspapers–especially when they are in digital format. In this case, it was the typos and errors that made several key points. This clipping was located the old fashioned way though–a manual search based upon my grandparents date of marriage and where they were living at the time of their marriage. Trautretter Grandma’s maiden name was actually Trautvetter. For some reason it is spelled “Trautretter” throughout the announcement. Soundex searches will not catch the reference and other search formulations might not either, depending upon how they are constructed. The Headline The last name of the groom, Neill, is spelled correctly throughout the announcement. However, there is a blob over part of the name […]
Recent Comments