Is it possible that the last name you think you have for a person is really a truncated version of the actual name? Could the last half of the name have been “cut off” to avoid sounding a little too ethnic? Could your VanDerWalle relative used the last name of Wall(e) instead?
Part of genealogical research is evaluating what you have and altering conclusions when new and more reliable information warrants. Early in our research when we are inexperienced, it can be tempting to rely too much on family information. It can also be easy to rely on incomplete information–especially before we learn that “official” records can be incorrect or inconsistent. And sometimes DNA and other information will cause us to re-evaluate what we thought was true even when we had a number of records and completely analyzed them. My children’s great-great-grandfather (father of their great-grandmother) has morphed through many iterations over the nearly thirty years that I have researched him–always because I have located new information: a Greek immigrant to Chicago, Illinois, born in the 1880s–turned out he was […]
We’ve still got room in our prepping for the 1950 census release webinar. Ordered recordings will be available after the session on 9 Sept 2021 and can be viewed at the purchaser’s convenience. Details on our post.
Some towns and counties kept records of chattel mortgages. These mortgages generally are for property other than real estate and can include: livestock, tools of a trade, merchandise in a store, household goods, and similar items. These records may or may not be available on microfilm or in digital format. Like other records, they can provide additional background on your relative’s life, social standing, and family relationships (sometimes). One advantage to these records is that your relative did not have to own real estate in order to appear in them. Some ways to determine if these records exist in the location of interest include: searching the FamilySearch catalog; asking local librarians; contacting local historical or genealogical societies; asking researchers familiar with the area
Always indicate when a date, name, or a relationship is conjecture. Make it crystal clear to anyone reading the information later that the information was a hunch. Be careful making hunches. Be careful sharing hunches. Have a reason for your hunch. Include that reason with your hunch. Cite your reason if you have a document. Think one more time about the reasonableness of your hunch. Once someone spreads them as fact it can be impossible to prevent the spread.
Are you ready for the 1950 US census to be released to the public on 1 April 2022? The index will take a while to be ready and won’t solve every research problem or find every ancestor. In this hour-long session, we will look at ways to get ready for the release of the 1950 census, including locating addresses, working with enumeration districts, analyzing probable family structure, creating an effective search strategy, determining which individuals to look for first, prioritizing manual search techniques when necessary, and more. Presentation made by Michael John Neill–there will be time for questions in the live session. Handout is included for live presentation and recorded version. Webinar will run live on 9 September 2021 at 11:30 a.m. central time. Registration is limited. Pre-order […]
Years ago, I had a quick translation done of this postcard. Over the years the translation became separated from the card. I should have appended the translation to the image, put them both in one PDF file, or stored them in a separate folder as two separate documents-the image and the translation. Make certain that documents that really need to be filed together are filed together in a way that they won’t get separated.
There was a lady my paternal grandmother would occasionally mention as someone she knew when she was growing up. I had forgotten about this woman until I did some census work on this grandmother’s brother-in-law. While looking into the siblings of my grandmother’s brother-in-law, I discovered he had a sister named Cozy. It’s not the most common first name in the world and I knew I had heard it somewhere before. In fact, I said her last name of “Witt” out loud as soon as “Cozy” flashed in front of my screen. I could even hear Grandma saying Cozy’s complete married name in my head. I had not thought of the name since my Grandmother died in 1994 and I’m pretty certain I never ever said it. Grandma […]
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