Most of us have asked someone a question or said something to someone only to have their response to us make it clear that they did not understand what we said. Is that why your relative gave “off-the-wall” answers to the census taker, records clerk, etc.? A person’s difficulty in understanding the question can be compounded by age, hearing difficulties, cognitive abilities, native language, etc. Do not assume that your relative really understood what they were being asked. Check out More Genealogy Tip of the Day.
If you have a male ancestor with a fair amount of land transactions, make certain you have noted the release of dower interest by the wife on them (if the time period is right). I was having difficulty narrowing down when a relative’s wife died in the 19th century and, upon reviewing the land records, noticed two in the early 1870s where he sold property and no wife is listed as having acknowledged her relinquishment of a dower interest. The chance the relinquishment was forgotten is very slim. The likely situation is that his wife was dead at the point in time when the deed was executed. Her omission would be indirect evidence she was dead at the date of the deed’s execution since it is not explicitly […]
Preservation suggestions for Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and Tintypes from the University of Illinois can be found at: https://psap.library.illinois.edu/collection-id-guide/directimage More Genealogy Tip of the Day book has been published. Check out our announcement.
An 1884 biography of Thomas Chaney of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, indicated that some of his children were dead. Thomas himself had been dead for thirty years when his biography was published. His children who are noted as deceased may have been dead for decades (perhaps even dying in childhood) or may have died just before the book was compiled. Just because children were not listed as deceased in the 1884 biography of Thomas does not mean they were not deceased in 1884. Daughter Elizabeth (Chaney) Rampley died in 1883. She is not indicated as dead in the 1884 reference. It could have been an oversight or the compiler may not have known. Children listed as being deceased in the 1884 biography, could be given a death date of […]
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