It can be easy to lose a female ancestor after her husband dies. Sometimes she’s right there where she always was and sometimes she’s not. Failing to research the widow after her husband’s death can cause the researcher to overlook additional information and possible clues about her origins and parents. Sometimes additional children are overlooked. If you’ve lost your widowed ancestress, consider: searching marriage records to see if she remarried; looking for deeds drawn up after the husband’s death or (more likely) settlement deeds drawn up after the widow died; whether she moved in with one of her children who had left the area; looking to see if she’s buried near any of her children in cemeteries other than where the husband is buried; seeing if she applied […]
I first worked on my children’s Belgian ancestors years ago. When using the vital records from the 19th century, I used them the way I had other European records from the same time span. I looked in the “book” for and read through the entries for the years I thought included the person’s birth date. Then, if I had the correct person and had the names of the parents, I scanned the years before and after the birth to locate siblings. Imagine my surprise when I found indexes interspersed in the records. I had never encountered those before. While indexes are not perfect, they would have saved me a great deal of time. Moral-the first time you use any “new” record, familiarize yourself with the whole thing first, don’t […]
Always go through your relative’s old books. You never know where something may have gotten tucked away for safekeeping.
Tax sales of real property get recorded with other land deeds in the appropriate local office (usually the county recorder, but not always). However using the grantor and grantee indexes to land records will not locate these deeds. That’s because the grantor on the tax deed usually is not the owner who failed to pay their taxes. It’s often the county sheriff or another county official. The person who did not pay taxes and had the property taken from him because of that is not the owner. That’s why they are not the grantor on the property–they don’t have the title to transfer. The deed will be in the grantee index under the name of the purchaser of the property. That’s another name the researcher probably does not […]
Foreign language records present difficulties for researchers. That difficulty is compounded when the records are written in ledger format and there are not columns to guide in the reading and interpretation of the record. This baptismal record from 1798 was different (at least to me) than others I had recently used in other locations. The name of the father was underlined and was the “focus” of the entry–not the name of the child. If I had not really read the entries and concluded that the underlined name was the name of the child, I might have missed this entry. Just because other entries in other records I used highlighted the name of the child does not mean every location does. It’s good not to make assumptions about records […]
It is great to make discoveries and locate new details about your relatives. But make notes as you go along. Transcribe as you go along. Record things as you go along. You won’t remember where you found what. You won’t remember what you found. You’ll do the same thing more than once and have duplicate copies of the exact same record. And you’ll waste time.
In some locations, when a child for whom a guardian had been appointed reached a certain age, they could choose their own guardian. That age was often fourteen. The guardianship papers don’t need to say the relationship, but they sometimes do. This fourteen year old, Abigail Daby chose her brother (Joseph Clark–with relationship stated) to be her guardian in 1746/1747 in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Laws regarding probate and inheritance generally are a state responsibility. Consequently what’s true about inheritance and the probate process can vary from one state to another and over time. Contemporary state statute may help in interpreting some probate records and documents.
I’m trying to find a man enumerated in an 1860 census as Philip Pipher. He may be the brother of Barbara Haase who is enumerated in Hancock County, Illinois, with her husband Conrad. Philip’s last name may actually be Siefert or some rendition of it as that was Barbara’s maiden name. The places of birth for these individuals in this 1860 enumeration are to be taken with a grain of salt. The children 12 and under all are known to have been born in Illinois, so it’s possible that other places of birth are incorrect as well. My attempts to find him needs to include an eliminated list of individuals who are named Philip Pipher/Siefert (or reasonable variants) and can’t be him. Creating this list requires me to […]
I spent some time looking for an immigrant relative who came to the United States in the 1880s after her husband died. Several things combined to make her difficult to find, including: She changed her first name. Many from her area of origin anglicized their name by directly translating it or by using a name with the same first letter. Not her. She picked something seemingly random and totally different. She married again in the new area where she settled. The problem was that I didn’t know where this was or that she changed her first name. She immigrated under her maiden name. Took me a while to find that. She really didn’t “break any rules.” She either did things in a slightly unusual fashion or acted in […]
It never hurts to go back and review those families that you have not worked on in some time. An ancestor was used as an example in a seminar I gave over the weekend and while reviewing my notes, I realized that it had been some time since I had made a serious attempt to document the children and grandchildren of her second oldest daughter. It’s time. In doing so, I may learn more about the ancestor we share, but there’s more than that. I might: discover relatives who have information or family ephemera that I do not; get names to help me sort my DNA matches that are “unknown.” connect to a new relative who is interested in genealogy. Time to get back to work on Aunt […]
Genealogists are often told to research the siblings of an ancestor and it was the topic of a presentation I recently gave. I used Riley the dog as a welcome illustration and realized that it was an appropriate picture because he reminded me that in genealogical research the “siblings” are not just individuals who share two sets of parents and that researching all those individuals can be just as helpful and important. Those siblings can include: half-siblings; step-siblings; adopted siblings; foster siblings; other raised in the household. Unlike the dog, the “siblings” are usually of the same species, but it’s important to think of those who might have been effective siblings of your ancestor. Records on any of those individuals could provide answers to questions on your direct […]
You are “stuck” on your ancestor in a certain time and a certain place? Do you have a good idea what: The most common occupations were at the time? How close were your ancestor’s neighbors? Where the nearest political lines were? Where was the nearest church? Where was the nearest cemetery? What was the most common denomination? Who the ruler of the area was? What sort of government was in place? Was there a war going on? What daily life was often like? etc.
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When reviewing a document, have you used every number in the document as a clue? Specific dates and ages can be used to help determine a chronology or calculate approximately when an event happened. Acreages can be helpful in using land records, house numbers can be useful in determining addresses. Make certain you’ve analyzed every number for any clue it may contain.
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