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The couple had the last of their dozen children in Massachusetts around the turn of the 19th century. That was approximately the same time their oldest child got married and shortly before the husband sold property he had owned for over twenty years. A genealogy of the husband’s family fails to mention anything about the couple after the real estate is transferred. Marriage and death information is included for some of their children and there is some information on what happened to the husband’s siblings. While it’s tempting to say that the couple went in the witness protection program or were abducted by aliens, the reality is likely somewhat different. My approach is to look for them in the areas where their children settled and lived. I need […]
Your relatives may have never gotten divorced, but may have agreed to live separately. That separate maintenance agreement may have been the result of a court action between two spouses who were not getting along, but did not want to get divorced either. These cases may provide just as much genealogical information as an actual divorce case–the date and place of marriage, areas where the family lived, etc. If a case for separate maintenance is filed, it would a local court record. Those records would be public records. Separate maintenance cases are like divorces in that families do not often pass those stories down to the present generation. Do not assume a couple was not divorced or filed a case for separate maintenance just because you have never […]
Get ready for research in 2021 with our “Brick Walls from A to Z” webinar on 15 December at 1:00 pm central time. More details are on our announcement page.
Reading a document or record more than once is crucial to actually getting the full value of what it contains. That’s true for reading genealogical reference materials as well. Court, probate, pension and other materials often contain phrases whose meanings may not be completely clear on the first read through. A thorough understanding may require using other reference materials, legal dictionaries, and similar items. I find it helpful to have a copy of the document that I use for making annotations and comments–including marking phrases or items that I do not understand. I also use pencil to mark up my own personal reference books with annotations as well. These reference books are to help me with my research and to help me learn. I’m not curating an archives […]
Many genealogists have ancestors who farmed. Some of us have only ancestors who were farmers. One of the difficulty in researching farming ancestors is learning more about their details of their life and their farm. For those in the United States, these are some ways to discover more about your agricultural ancestors: Fully look at all information provided on any US census record. Census records 1850 and after do sometimes provide information about the value of the real property owned (1850 and 1860). Do not neglect any census column and read the instructions for that question if you do not understand it. Census questions and enumerator instructions are on the Census.gov site. Determine if any agricultural censuses were taking during your ancestors lifetime. There were several US agricultural […]
My DNA analysis would be easier if: My grandfather’s first cousin was not also his second cousin and his third cousin. It can happen. When I was related to A and B and A and B are related to each other, it meant that A, B, and I shared a common ancestor. It does not. I had no duplicate ancestors closer than 5th great-grandparents. Multiple relationships can complicate DNA match analysis. Always ask yourself “are there additional biological relationships that I could be missing?” and ” is there another reasonable scenario that fits this information?” Those whose ancestors lived in urban settings are less likely to have this problem that those who lived in rural areas. Individuals whose ancestors married within their community–whether that was cultural, religious, economic, […]
John died in Illinois in 1869 with no descendants. When his estate was finally settled up a few years later, his brother Robert’s family split Robert’s share of John’s estate. Robert’s three heirs split Robert’s share equally. One might assume that those three heirs were Robert’s children. They were not. One of those heirs was Robert’s wife and the other two were Robert’s children. Robert was alive when John died, but died before John’s estate was finally settled. Had Robert been dead when John died, Robert’s two children would have split Robert’s share between just the two of them–even if Robert’s wife were alive at the time. All based on how intestate inheritance worked in Illinois in the 1870s.
This tip is not about how typewriters work or whether a correction tape was used. Instead it is about how something got in a typed record, certificate, etc. Did someone orally give the information directly as the form was typed? Was the information misheard? Did someone write down the information in an abbreviated manner only to complete the form on a typewriter later? Is it possible that their notes were difficult to read? A reader mentioned recently that “Oh” and “Ok” may look very similar depending on the handwriting. They are very different place and one could very easily be misinterpreted for the other. The typed out form could be hiding how the information came to be in that typed record. And the “how” matters and could explain […]
I’ve mentioned this tip before, but it’s one that is good to remember. What records or sources could directly state or indirectly suggest the event or relationship I would like to document? There may not be a birth record, but there may be other records that state the date and place of birth or that state the parent-child relationship. The same is true for a marriage. There may be records that document the marriage, but are not actually marriage records. A birth may be documented on a death certificate, a marriage record, an estate settlement or other documents. The same is true of a marriage. Of course those records may provide statements that are not primary information. That analysis is just a part of the research process. It […]
A relative was born in 1910 in Oklahoma. While she had no birth certificate, her parents are enumerated in the 1910 census as a young couple a few months before her birth. The family can be found in every decennial census record–where her place of birth is listed as Oklahoma. Everything is consistent, except for her 1980s death certificate in California which indicated she was born in Ohio. Of course the document is transcribed exactly as it is written and correcting it is out of the question–it is impractical, not material to her death, and likely to be met with derision from the records office. The bigger question for me is “how?” How did the place of birth get listed so incorrectly? Death certificates for individuals who died […]
Online “trees” can easily contain an error no matter how conscientious the compiler is. The number of errors can be significantly higher if the compiler is more interested in how many names they obtain or how fast they can compile information instead of how accurate it is. Those errors can be frustrating to someone who finds them–particularly if they involve individuals the finder of the error knew personally. It can be maddening to see that someone has your grandparent with an incorrect spouse, a wrong place of birth, or a parentage that is completely erroneous. These errors can proliferate wildly if other individuals simply copy them into their tree. The first thing a person should do is make certain that their information is correct. Sometimes this a quick […]
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