An 1874 newspaper reference from Quincy, Illinois, indicated that Henry Sartorius was a witness to the will of Nicholas Bartells and that he was also an appraiser to Nicholas’ estate as well. Newspapers in the United States during this time period occasionally mentioned individuals who were involved in the settlement of estates. While today such details would not be published, it is important to remember that court actions related to the settlement of estates are generally public records. This would be a good place to get Sartorius’ signature and perhaps to see if he was involved in the settlement of the estate in other ways. Heirs to an estate could not witness wills or appraise it, so the reference to Sartorius as a witness and an appraiser suggests […]
In looking for the birth certificate for a friend’s grandfather and having to browse through image after image to find it, I was reminded of the importance of making certain you’ve seen the entire record–even if most records are just one image or page. My friend’s grandfather’s record was one image, but in looking for it I noticed several records that had corrections recorded immediately after the original certificate. Sometimes the date of birth was incorrect. Other times a name was slightly incorrect or completely wrong. But you don’t know if you don’t to see if there is more than just one page. When looking at images of records, always browse until you get to the next actual record. Otherwise you will not know you have seen it […]
Years ago I was transcribing and translating a 1790 era baptismal entry from a Belgian church. The entry listed the parish of residence of the child’s baptismal sponsors–clearly not the same as that of the parents. The child was baptized when a few days old. That was when it dawned on me. The sponsors had to live nearby. While it was possible they had travelled from a distance to help with the birth, the more likely scenario was that they lived within a distance where the news could have easily gotten to them within a few days. Sure enough, when looking at a map, I was able to realize the name of the town the priest had messily scribbled in the church book. Of course, today a Google […]
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