Wm. Smith, Jas. Rampley, Saml. Neill, Geo. Trautvetter, and Edw. Tinsley attended the annual meeting of the “They Abbreviated My Name Society.” Meeting in a nearby venue were B. Dirks, T. Rampley, H. Sartorius, and F. Goldenstein attending the annual meeting of “Initials are Better.” Your ancestor may never have used an abbreviation for his name or just his initial, but a newspaper reference to him may have. When searching digital newspapers for your ancestor, think of how their name may have been abbreviated and search for that as well. Typesetters, editors, or writers, in an attempt to squeeze the most information in the least amount of space, may have abbreviated your ancestor’s name or just used an initial figuring that most people reading the newspaper would know […]
Funeral home records can be hit and miss in terms of availability. Also, as private business records, they do not have to be shared with the public. However, it does not hurt to ask. One thing to inquire about if asking about what information the funeral home has is if they can tell you who paid the funeral bill for that ancestor. You certainly want to ask if they have information that was used to compile the obituary and death certificate, but who paid can be a big clue as well.
If you have a relative who is not buried in the same cemetery as their spouse, have you made some note about it in your genealogy files? Having the cemetery location in your database correctly is a great first step, but in your notes acknowledge the difference. Do you know why they are buried in separate cemeteries? Was it because the spouses died in significantly different locations and burial in the same cemetery was simply impractical at the time or beyond the family’s financial means? Was it because after the first spouse died, the surviving spouse married again and is married with that spouse? Was the couple still married and simply chose to be buried in separate locations due to marital discord? Was the couple actually divorced and […]
When you have unusual names in your background (Rampley is unusual and it’s my great-grandma’s maiden name), it can be tempting to think that when someone with that last name is a DNA match to you that the connection has to be through that family. That may not necessarily be true. It probably is, but it’s not a 100% guarantee. I haven’t figured out the connection with this person (they don’t have a tree). We have approximately 50 shared matches and the 6 that I have figured out are connected to me through my Rampley line or the DeMoss family (the wife of one of my Rampley ancestors). Based on those DNA connections, this DNA match and I likely share ancestry in Harford County, Maryland (where my 3rd […]
In reviewing research on my Irish immigrants, I realized that somewhere along the line, I made an incorrect conclusion. I “got it in my head” that the bondsman on the 1865 marriage of my ancestors appeared as the bondsman on numerous bonds and probably was not a relative for that reason. When I went back and reviewed the records, the bondsman was a bondsman on only one bond: the one for my ancestors. All of which means that I need to research the bondsman more fully to determine if he had any relationship to my ancestors. Lessons:
We’ve released the recording of my DeedMapper 2025 webinar. Details are on our announcement page. If you pre-ordered and did not get your download link, email me at the address listed on your receipt to have a replacement link sent.
One of the reasons newspapers are valuable resources for genealogists is because they are hard to “close” once they have been published. Court cases may be sealed, but a newspaper reference to that court case is “out” forever. A birth certificate may be sealed if there is an adoption, but if the baby’s birth was in the local newspaper–it is still there. If there’s a record you cannot access, ask yourself what you are trying to find out or discover and are there other records that may provide that same information?
A relative died in rural Kansas in 1945. The obituary mentioned the funeral home. I didn’t think the home would still be in existence today under the same name and it wasn’t. However a web search for the name indicated the 1945-era home was mentioned in the history of a home currently in operation today. I reached out to them to see what records they have. Funeral home records are private records, so I may not get a reply and the home today is under no obligation to give me any information from the records. However, it is worth a try. Politely asking about the records is the way to approach this–that and keeping my genealogy fingers crossed.
An 1874 plat book shows where the J. M. Trautvetter farm was located in section 31 of Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois. I need to remember when looking at any land ownership maps that they may not be entirely and completely accurate. These maps were compiled from local tax and land records and there is always the chance for an error to occasionally creep in. These books are not legal records, would not be considered proof of ownership, and (from the genealogist’s standpoint) should be used as a springboard to other records–particularly tax and property records to validate ownership. These maps can help in locating nearby schools, churches, cemeteries, and towns, but they are not perfect. A parcel my father owned was shown incorrectly in the plat book […]
It can be tempting to avoid reading the fine print. That can be a mistake in genealogy research as well as in real life. This 1882 deed from Adams County, Illinois, was recorded in a deed book where the form indicated that the document was a release deed. An awareness of that phrase can be helpful in determining just what was going on in the legal document. The grantor on this deed was releasing the grantee from a legal contract that involved the grantee’s title to the real property described on the deed. Many times that contract is a mortgage. It was not in this instance. In this case it was an agreement the grantee had to pay his siblings for property which their parents had transferred to […]
You are researching your ancestor in a new location. Unless your ancestor moved from the upstairs bedroom to the downstairs bedroom, there’s the chance she crossed a political boundary. Crossing that boundary means: Learning about these things in the new location will help your research. Don’t assume that the address was the only thing that changed when your ancestor moved.
For twenty years, it seemed as if my ancestor Ira Sargent was dropped off by a UFO in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1880. Turns out he wasn’t. He was in the 1850 and 1860 United States Census listed under the last name of his step-father–whom his mother had married in 1849. Until I discovered the last name of the step-father, I was unable to find Ira. Is it possible that your UFO ancestor wasn’t dropped off by aliens but was instead listed in records as a child under his (or her) stepfather’s last name? And that the first time they used their “birth name” in a record was when they married?
Part of genealogical research is evaluating what you have and altering conclusions when new and more reliable information warrants. Early in our research when we are inexperienced, it can be tempting to rely too much on family information. It can also be easy to rely on incomplete information–especially before we learn that “official” records can be incorrect or inconsistent. And sometimes DNA and other information will cause us to re-evaluate what we thought was true even when we had a number of records and completely analyzed them. My children’s great-great-grandfather (father of their great-grandmother) has morphed through many iterations over the nearly thirty years that I have researched him–always because I have located new information: And so it goes. Don’t be afraid to admit you were wrong, but […]
Plenty of original records are in bound volumes without page numbers. Frustrating as it is, researchers whose work extends before 1900 will encounter volumes with pages that have no numbering to them at all. The citation to this record needs to include enough detail so that you or someone else can easily find the record again. Don’t just make a copy without thinking about how you located the record. How did you find the record in the first place–were you in the births for 1850, the deaths from 1823, etc.? Were the entries within a specific year numbered? If you were using microfilm or digital images, were the images numbered? Your citation does not have to be in “perfect” form, but include enough detail so the record can […]
If there are two witnesses to a marriage and you can “figure out” who one of the witnesses is, consider the possibility that the other witness was the significant other of the first witness. Or the other witness could just be a friend of the couple of which you are unaware.
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