It can be easy to waste “research” time by mindlessly looking at online sites for one thing or another. Some ways to avoid these time wasting activities are: Chasing some research leads down those “rabbit holes” can be a good thing–sometimes. But it can be easy to waste an inordinate amount of time chasing after half-baked, uncooked leads on your computer, when you’ve got three perfectly good cookies sitting on the counter. The only problem is that you have to get off your chair to get them.
Corrected Links Presentations on farming ancestors tend to focus on those who owned real estate. It can be a challenge to research those farmers who rented their ground, worked as sharecroppers, or those who worked in agriculture as farm laborers. In this presentation we focus on these types of individuals. Farm renters, sharecroppers, and farm laborers tend to leave fewer records–we’ll focus on research strategies directed towards them. They can be challenging to research in a way that landowners are not.
From a while back. I’ve been searching local newspapers in Hancock County, Illinois, where I grew up and where most of my family has lived for generations–using telephone numbers to find classified ads placed by my parents and grandparents. I found the typical fare: eggs for sale, straw for sale (on the rack and bale your own), bulls for sale, etc. But I found several references to my parents phone number that I knew were errors including one for a Kiwanis breakfast and for inquiries on a home for sale. The references to my parents’ phone numbers in these cases were simply errors where likely two digits were switched (a transposition error) or a digit was keyed incorrectly. Before I get suggestions that these were actually references to […]
Presentations on farming ancestors tend to focus on those who owned real estate. It can be a challenge to research those farmers who rented their ground or those who worked in agriculture as farm laborers. In this presentation we focus on those two types of individuals. Farm renters and farm laborers tend to leave fewer records–we’ll focus on research strategies directed towards them. They can be challenging to research in a way that landowners are not.
If the ancestor is not in a set of records and you expected them to be in that set of records, then ask yourself: Join me for three days of research at the MidWest Genealogy Center. Download our Charts Webinar or our Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar.
Normally an ancestor has to be dead to have an estate settlement, has to be born to have a birth certificate, etc. Think about what really HAS to be when you research your ancestor. He didn’t have to get married to reproduce. He didn’t have to name his oldest son after his father. He didn’t have to get married near where his first child was born. He didn’t have to have a relative witness every document wrote. There are few “have tos” in genealogy. Make certain you aren’t using “have tos” to make brick walls for yourself.
Overwhelmed by common names like Smith or Jones in your family tree? This presentation offers advanced strategies and techniques to help you effectively use FamilySearch’s full-text search and find those elusive ancestors. Download immediately for $40. Save 30% on Cyber Monday use code cyber2025. Full-Texting the Smiths and Jones: Strategies for Common Names Using FamilySearch’s Full-Text search is easier when the name is relatively uncommon. It’s more of a challenge when the last name is Smith, Jones, Brown, or something similarly common. In this presentation, we will look at approaches to maximize the chance you find that common-named person. No approach is full-proof and we will not be so brazen to guarantee success. No genealogist should ever do that. What we will do is help give you some […]
It can be tempting to think that if one keeps looking and tries hard enough, that there’s “got to be” a document somewhere that answers all your questions. Sometimes. But most of the time there’s not. To be certain, I’ve found a page of court testimony that outlined the family relationships and military pension affidavits that answered many of my questions. But in most situations, determining the relationships required looking over all the snippets of information I had from a variety of records, analyzing those snippets, and trying to determine what they said in the aggregate. No clue is too small. There might be that one piece of paper in a courthouse that will answer all your questions, but likely there’s not. Chances are it’s quite a few […]
When using a record or source that is new to you, here are some things to think about to make the best use of it: There are other questions to ask about the record as you analyze the information it contains, but the answers to these questions will hopefully make your search easier. Download our Charts Webinar or our Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar.
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