Is it possible that relative you can’t find “returned home” in their old age? A relative of mine left Illinois in the 1870s with his family in his thirties, living in Colorado and New Mexico. Sometime after the 1910 census, he returned to Illinois where he had some relatives still living (mostly cousins but no siblings or nieces or nephews) and eventually died. Why he returned I don’t know, but his children were scattered throughout New Mexico and the western United States.
I’m really excited to be offering a webinar on DeedMapper again. We’ll have examples from a variety of states and the software takes the pain out of platting properties that are described in metes and bounds. There’s more information in our announcement.
When making copies or digital images from a print book, make certain that you copy more than just the page that has your ancestor’s name on it. You also should copy: You’ll be glad you did later.
We’ve released my new Ostfriesen Genealogy webinar. Details are on our announcement page. If you purchased and did not receive the download, please email me at the address given in your receipt.
When records on an ancestor fail to provide information as to his origin, look closely at those records in which he appears shortly after his arrival in the area. Who else is mentioned in those records? When an ancestor is still “new to the area,” he’s the most likely to interact with people he might have known before he moved or with whom he had a connection before he settled in that new area. Research those people he interacted with during his early years in the location. The longer an ancestor lives in an area the more likely he is to know and interact with people he did not know “back home.” It’s those people from back home who could help you find your ancestor’s origins.
I’m not overly knowledgeable about cars and passed the mechanic’s detailed discussion of my vehicle issues to a friend with more smarts about vehicles than me. Did my friend get a complete and accurate description of the problem from me? Probably not. I wasn’t the best conduit for the information. The same applies to family stories that have been passed down. There could have been details that did not make complete sense to the hearer/reteller of the story and their retelling of that story may have been impacted by that lack of knowledge. Incorrect details can be unintentional on the part of the teller and may not change the essence of the story. But they can cause our research to go astray if we are unwilling to admit […]
We are offering another session of our US land records class this month! Additional details are on our announcement page.
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