A witness to a document typically is only indicating that they know who signed the document in question. A witness has to be of legal age and sound mind, but does not have to have any relationship to the person actually making out the document. Don’t draw too many conclusions about a person who only witnesses one of your ancestor’s documents. The witness just might have been another warm body in the office the same time as your ancestor. If there’s someone who regularly appears as a witness on your ancestor’s documents, that’s more suggestive of a potential relationship and someone you should take a closer look at.
I recently discovered a cousin who has an interest in family history. As we shared images of photographs, I was reminded of a few things when making digital images of photographs: scan/photograph the front and back of each photograph–even if they are blank (be consistent in doing this so that you always know you did it) identify any individuals whose identity you personally know–as soon as possible (you may forget) start work on identifying unknown individuals as soon as you can organize photographs as soon as possible back up the images you made–and not just on a flash drive–remote storage is key The important thing is not to just digitize and quit.
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