Read through the list of receipts from your relative’s estate carefully. Are there any benefit amounts paid from a society of some sort? That membership could be a clue as sometimes membership was limited to a certain ethnic group or denomination.
think through a few things: Can I get it somewhere for free? Can I get it somewhere cheaper? Do I really need it? Do I already have it? You might also want to see if a relative or fellow researcher is willing to help you split the cost.
Does the county where your ancestor live have more than one courthouse? Some counties do. Is your ancestor living in an independent city that has its own set of records? Find out where the records are kept and if your research has moved into a new county, state/province, or country, make certain you’ve learned where records are kept.
Genealogists use digital scans of out of copyright books and records all the time. If the scan you have located online has pages or areas that are difficult to read, consider that another site may have scanned a different copy or the book or used a different scanning process. It may also be necessary to see if a library can make a photocopy of that “bad page” or if a better scan is available through the original holder of the record.
Indexes are generally only used to get the researcher to the record that was used to create the index. There is always the chance that the indexer made a mistake or that there is more on the record than is in the index. If the originals are gone as sometimes is the case, then the index is all we have. And occasionally an indexer will add information to the index that’s not in the original record. But no matter the situation, you should at least ask yourself: how do I find the record that this index indexes? Failing to ask that question could be your problem.
I’ll be giving an online presentation “Researching Female Ancestors” on 17 October 2019. More details are on our blog post.
What someone indicated was great-grandma’s “maiden” name may not have been the last name of her biological father. It could also have been the last name of her: step-father adopted father foster father first husband someone else that someone incorrectly thought was her father Sometimes what someone thinks is someone’s maiden name may not be, especially if the person in question (or her mother) was married more than once.
Church records are more than just baptisms, marriages, and funerals–often these records of these events document vital events in a person’s life-birth, marriage, and death. But there are more. Records of communion, membership, confirmation, etc. may also provide key information. Don’t only look “the big three.” You may miss quite a bit.
I am always a little hesitant to write about grammar, because it’s not really my thing. But we will give it a go here because these words are often used in genealogical materials and legal items. Their use is much less frequent today, especially in a non-academic setting. Old newspapers and obituaries often contain the abbreviation viz. Some genealogists wonder exactly what viz means, so in this tip we will look at three abbreviations that often are confused. Our discussion of them is not in regards to modern usage because we are generally talking about materials written or published before 1900. e.g. from exempli gratia – “for example” (common usage is that what follows e.g. is an example–or more–and not a complete list of items) i.e. from id est – “in other words” (common usage is […]
Thomas Rampley died in 1823 in Coshocton County, Ohio, where he had lived since 1817 and where he was purchasing a piece of federal land at the time of his death. There is an estate settlement for him in Coshocton County, Ohio. There is also an estate settlement for him in Harford County, Maryland, where he lived before he moved to Ohio. Before leaving Maryland, Thomas sold his real estate there. Sometime after he moved, the purchaser of that property sued him over a property line discrepancy. There was a judgement against Thomas that was outstanding at the time of his death and an estate settlement was filed for him in Harford County, Maryland as well. Any chance your moving ancestor had two estate settlements? One where he […]
Bubba is one of my DNA matches. Tommy is also one of my DNA matches. When I look at my shared matches, Tommy is a match that Bubba and I share. That does not necessarily mean that Bubba, Tommy, and I have the same family in common. It means that Bubba and Tommy share DNA, Tommy and I share DNA, and that Bubba and I share DNA. We may all come from the same family. Or we may not. Bubba and I could descend from our common ancestor, Samuel Neill. Bubba and Tommy could descend from a different ancestor–called Ancestor A in the illustration. Tommy and I could descend from yet a different ancestor–called ancestor B in the illustration. Shared DNA matches are a clue. Remember what they […]
Deeds can have several dates on them. The date the document was signed, the date it was acknowledged, and the date the record was recorded. If there is a significant gap in the dates, try and determine why if possible. Acknowledgements were usually made before a notary or in open court–was it difficult for the signer of the deed to do this? If court was only held a few times a year, it might have taken a while before the signer was able to attend court. If the date of recording is significantly after the other dates, did someone forget to record it? Did they wait until someone died to record the deed? It is possible that the grantor and grantee were deceased at the time the deed […]
A messuage generally refers to a dwelling house or residence and the outbuildings and enclosed space surrounding those buildings.
When searching for an obituary, read the rest of the paper for the time period that ancestor died. Is there mention of any illness going around the local area? Some epidemics are regional or nationwide, but others are more localized. The newspaper may give some addition clues about the death, particularly if the relative died of something contagious.
We’ve set the dates for my annual trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana: 3-6 August 2020. There is more information on our announcement page.
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