Posts in September 2, 2020

Guidebooks and how-to materials have to make generalizations when discussing records. Otherwise print books become too large to practically print, much of the material does not apply to many people, and the text becomes too tedious to wade through. But it is important to remember that there can be exceptions. I was reading a guidebook that indicated that in churches that practiced confirmation of young adult members that these records often just listed names and the date of the act. That is true, but there are exceptions. Like a lovely Lutheran church in Nebraska where, for about ten years, the pastor included the date and place of the confirmand’s baptism and the names of their parents. Those were wonderful migratory clues and helped me locate many additional records. […]