Not all of us with rural families in our background have ancestors who owned real property. Maps of property owners can still be helpful in our research–particularly if we don’t know where in the county or region our ancestor actually lived. See if you can locate neighbors of your non-land owning rural ancestor on a property-owner map. If you find them on a map, your relative is likely living nearby. This can give you an idea of where the county where the family lived and help you determine possible cemeteries and churches to check for additional records. Tenant farmers and farm laborers do not leave behind as many records as landowners do. But the neighboring landowners (in census and other records) can help you narrow down where in […]
Do you know what the approximate contemporary population was for the town, county, and state during the time period your ancestor lived there? How did the population change over his life time? Knowing the rough population helps to provide perspective. And if you don’t know the population, what other things about the area do you not know? County histories, state histories, newspapers, government websites, gazetteers, and other sources may contain this information. Your reference librarian at your local library may be able to help as well.
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