One can be tempted to avoid ancestral court cases that focus on an ancestor’s business dealings. They are less likely to give family relationships than other cases–that’s true. But they can help you place a person in a place and a time. They can help establish who some of his business associates were–who may be relatives. There may be testimony about how his business was operated–providing interesting social history information. There may be details on his business or personal finances–providing potential information on his lifestyle or even suggesting other records to search. And if the business was a family business, those records could be even more interesting.
This Friday (15 April–a good diversion from Tax Day here in the US) we’ll be doing a follow up to our 1950 Prepping for the Census webinar with one on using the websites, searching, analyzing, and more! Details here.
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