There are a variety of reminders from the initial error I made with this map showing Helmershausen, Germany. Initially I thought the wrong “dot” marked Helmershausen. The town was close enough to the border between two duchys that using the incorrect dot incorrectly put the village in the wrong one. And while saying “don’t be hasty,” “take a second look,” and “don’t be afraid to ask someone else” are suggestions we here often–it doesn’t hurt to have the occasional reminder. And make certain you have the right dot. Sometimes a few miles really does make a difference. This image comes from Family Tree Historical Atlas of Germany, by James Beidler. It includes maps for all of Germany.
Remember that the month of Xber is actually not October. Tip of the day readers familiar with their calendar history will know that X is the Roman number for ten and that the prefix “oct” means 8. That’s because before the calendar change of 1752, March was the first month of the year, making October the eighth month and not the tenth month. Chances are after the calendar change of 1752, Xber refers to December and that before the calendar change of 1752 it referred to October. Best advice: Record the month EXACTLY as written. If your software program doesn’t “like “Xber” then personally, I would leave the date blank and record an EXACT transcription in my notes as to the date, but that’s just my preference. And […]
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Some people seem to always live near the border. My Trautvetter family lived near political borders in Germany, Kentucky, and Illinois. Knowing that helps my research and having printed maps is often easier than constantly using images on my computer. This map shows Helmershausen, Germany, clearly indicating it’s position relative to what were several Thuringian states at the time. Borders in Germany (like much of Europe) were in flux for some time. The small village was located in what was the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach but bordered several other Thuringen states. The town was abbreviated on the map–written as “Helmersh’sn.” I was fortunate it was not abbreviated in some other way that made it more difficult to locate. Some printed maps do not show every town. The very […]
Generally speaking at the very basic level, genealogists should cite: conclusions that were not their own (who said it, when and where it was published) ; statements made in documents (the document and how you got it); images they didn’t make (where it came from, who made it, etc.); conclusions they reached (how you reached it and what was used to reach it). Of course permissions to use materials may be required in some cases and one should never indicate that they said or wrote something when it was actually someone else who said or wrote it. The details of citing are more specific than this, but this is a good place to start and a good set of generalities to keep in mind. And remember…the genealogy world […]
Typed up copies of records are easier to use for a variety of reasons. It’s just important to transcribe exactly as the document is written and separate off the transcription from your commentary and analysis. My personal preference is to indicate the beginning and the end of the transcription in the following manner: [begin transcription] This is the document text that is being transcribed and only the document text. This is what the document said word 4[sic] word. [end transcription] Discussion of the text of the document should be outside of the transcription and done in such a way that it clearly does not suggest that the discussion is a part of the document. Obvious errors in the document can be noted using a sic as was done after […]
If a probate record contains an appraisal of property and a list of what the property sold for, compare them. Are they close? Usually the values are reasonably close–unless there’s an item or two someone is “fighting over.” What can be more interesting is to see if there’s any pattern in the sale prices. In one probate from Missouri from the 1860s, the price the widow paid for items at the same was approximately 10% of the appraised value. The items that neighbors bought sold for amounts that were reasonably close the the appraised value. It didn’t take long to figure out that neighbors were probably letting her purchase items she needed. State law dictated that after certain items were given to the widow, the rest had to […]
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