While analyzing a document to determine if I had the right person, the comparison of signatures became a crucial part of my analysis. I had several copies of the person’s signature from other documents I had located on him. As I worked on my analysis, I remembered that I had seen his signature somewhere else. Fortunately I also remembered where that signature was at: as a witness on an affidavit his cousin made in her 1880-era homestead application. Now to decide if it’s worth the time to include signature references in “file” on an ancestor so I can find them easily if needed. Signatures on their own records are easy to find. It’s when they appear in the records of others that they can be overlooked.
Your ancestor’s residence may not be stated on an affidavit, but if the document is notarized there may be a residential clue there. Notaries usually had jurisdictions in which they were authorized to operate. This one from 1886 was authorized to work in Dawson County, Nebraska. This does not mean that the affiant (Goldenstein in the illustration) lived in Dawson County–only that he was there on that date. But it is still a clue.
If your ancestor was a landowner, do you know exactly where their property was located? Do you know the acreage and the dimensions? Do you know what geographic features were nearby? Part of the difficulty I had with this property was that I had not looked to see where it was. The property was oddly shaped and that was partly due to the Platte River and the railroad. The local land records office may be able to help you locate the property’s precise location. Local libraries, historical societies, or genealogical societies may have copies of county-wide plat books that show the landowners for specific pieces of property. There may be survey maps in the local recorder’s office that show how parcels were drawn out as well. For individuals […]
We all have ancestral mysteries that we want to figure out. Sometimes the best way to get insight into our “confusing people” is to go back and work on the ones that are already done or that we think are already done. That review may cause us to learn about new approaches or sources or remind us of things that we’ve forgotten. Many of my maternal families are well-documented in the United States. Double checking that information in vital records, land records, probate records, court records, etc. has confirmed most of what I was told. I learned a few new facts about them and corrected some errors. That’s good. But it did more than that. Those searches taught me more about all those records. It helped me to […]
If your ancestor naturalized in his own right (as opposed to becoming a citizen when his parent naturalized), have you thought about how old he was at the time and how long he had lived in the new country when he naturalized? I recently remembered that an ancestor of mine was twenty-one when he naturalized in 1879, but I never gave much thought to how old the others were when they naturalized. Of course to naturalize in their own right an alien had to be of the age of majority at the time of naturalization. This might be something for me to think about.
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