This tip was originally published in 2010. It is still good advice. I have been reading First Generations: Women in Colonial America for the past several days. It has given me some insight into the Colonial experience of women and cause to think about a few things in ways I never have. Is there a history text or sociological study that might expand your knowledge even if it doesn’t directly expand your family tree? Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors.
Reading newspapers to get historical background is an excellent idea. However, it is important to remember that media in the 19th century was subject to the same dilemmas that media sometimes is today. As a result, some newspapers were biased in one way or another or reported things before they had been adequately fact checked. Also remember that newspapers may have published follow-up articles or corrections days or weeks after an original story saw the printed page. Some newspapers tried to be as independent and unbiased as they could be, but things still could slip in. If reading for historical background of the area, read more than just one newspaper to get a broader view–and to potentially catch additional ancestral references.
There are things that researchers will not be able to pinpoint precisely. No record might exist that provides great-grandfather’s exact date of birth–and March of 1874 may be as specific as you are going to get. In some locations and time periods, the best you may be able to do is approximate a year of birth. Other researchers may wonder where you got that precise birth date when there are not many records…so be prepared to have a source. It may also not be possible to know where an ancestral event took place. Again, if there are no records determining locations may require the researcher to admit that only a general area of where the event took place may ever be known. My ancestor who was born in […]
When you see a newspaper reference to a family social event where relatives are named (bridal shower, baby shower, wedding, etc.) do you think of who you would expect to be there that is not listed? People don’t attend for a variety of reasons, but if a certain relative is never in attendance it might be something worth looking into. Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors.
Every census has an official census “date.” This is the date as of which all questions are to be answered. The problem is that sometimes the census is not taken on that date and people confuse the “real” date with the “census” date. And some genealogists forget that the date the census information was gathered, which is sometimes listed on the page, is not necessarily the census date.
The employe’s[sic] record card was from the early 20th century. The spelling of employee was not one I was used to. Before I assumed it was wrong, I did some looking because the longer I research, the more I realize that I was not alive 100 years ago and there are many things that happened before my lifetime of which I am unaware. The use of “employe” is one of them. For spellings, a dictionary should be my first stop. It was not. In this case, I looked at digital images of contemporary newspapers and published books for references to employee spelled with only one “e” at the end. There were many and more than enough to indicate the usage was not unusual during the very early 20th […]
We have 100 free Genealogy Tip of the Day magnets to give away. Send your mailing address to us at genealogytiportwooftheday@gmail.com 1 magnet per address. I’ve exhausted my international budget, so for now we’re limiting these to US addresses only.
Per stirpes means “per branch.” The phrase is often used in wills and other estate records to indicate how property is to be divided if some beneficiaries pre-decease the original writer of the will or owner of the property. A relative has three children and in their will gives their estate to their children or to their children’s descendants per stirpes. Let’s say the relative, named A has three children, B, C, and D. B has two children, C has three children, and D has four children. A dies and B, C, and D have already passed. All the grandchildren of A are living when they die. B, C, and D, had they been living, would have each received 1/3 of A’s estate. That’s how much each group […]
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