When making copies of pages of books in libraries, always make certain you get the context for what was on the page. The index may indicate that there is a reference to John Schnuderman on page 101 and so you copy that page. Make certain that you don’t need page 100 (or 99) to understand the reference on page 101. There may be valuable clues in the pages leading up to page 100 that will help to fully explain the reference. It might even be a good idea to copy the table of contents page as well. One page with no context may leave you wanting more later.
A 1907 era court case involves the children of my ancestor as defendants. They are all listed correctly with the right first names in virtually every court document. Except one. On the deed where the judge is selling the estate, William Rampley is listed as Wilbur Rampley. William’s middle name was not Wilbur and he never used that name as a nickname. What happened? Most likely a simple transcription error. When every other reference to him in the records is William and one out of thirty lists him as Wilbur, it’s easy to realize that sometimes an error is just that, an error. The problem is that when we have just one reference to an individual it can be difficult to know if a name is simply an […]
An obituary indicated that a pallbearer for a relative was Earl Trautvetter. The other pallbearers were individuals whose names I recognized as being nephews or nephews-in-law of the deceased. Then it dawned on me–the obituary was likely referring to my uncle that I always knew as “Babe.” His real name, which I knew but occasionally put in the back of my mind, was actually Carl. Earl was likely the result of someone misreading the initial “C” in his first name as an “E” or some other sort of typographical error. An additional difficulty with this error was that the incorrect name was one that I heard differently. It didn’t sound like Carl and so it took me a little bit longer to realize what had likely happened. Sometimes […]
If you use the full-text search at FamilySearch, have you considered searching for street addresses? There are many records in urban areas, particularly those the late 19th century and later, that may mention addresses. Naturalizations and passenger lists are other records that may contain an address. Read more about our full-text search webinar updated for 2026 here.
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