A relative immigrated to the US in the 1860s while married to her first husband. She’s named in her father’s will in the US (he immigrated as well) and was buried in Nebraska under the last name of that husband. She seemed to disappear sometime after the 1870 census only to reappear in the 1890s when she died in Nebraska. She really didn’t disappear at all. She was married for about ten years from 1870 (after the census) through at least the 1880 census. The relative and her second husband apparently separated as there’s no mention of him in a family history written several years later and she appears in the funeral records of her local church without a married last name at all–only a reference to her […]
When was the last time you reached out to a relative outside of your immediate family to see if they had family pictures, family information, or other information or items that could be helpful to your genealogy research? Sometimes we need to get outside of our own immediate circle and contact others who may be able to help. There’s no guarantee your inquiries will be successful, but you won’t know until you try.
Keep a list of all the spelling, transcription, and other variant renderings of your ancestral names in one place. Sort them alphabetically. Keep the list handy. It can be easy to overlook the occasional variant, particularly when querying a database. And if you think there are no variant spellings for a last name, think again. Lee has Leigh and Smith has Smythe.
Sometimes after records have been destroyed by fire, natural disaster, or other event, local records officials will ask for people to being their copies of actual records back in to be recorded. That’s especially true with land deeds, which people tend to keep. This book from Boone County, Indiana, indicated that the deeds in this book (and several others) had been “heretofore recorded.” Obviously not all deeds whose record copy had been destroyed could be re-recorded, but some where. So when you discover that there was actual records loss in a county or location, see if there was an attempt after that loss to recoup what was possible. Even if an attempt was made, remember that such attempts are imperfect. But if you are aware of subsequent property […]
Issue 5-3 of Casefile Clues is out. If you’re a subscriber to our bi-weekly genealogy newsletter (more in-depth than our Tip of the Day), you should have it in your inbox. I’m pleased with the positive feedback I’ve gotten to Casefile Clues since we brought it back. Learn more on our recent announcement page.
When a relative signs or witnesses a legal document, remember that it means they were supposed to be of legal as of the date the document was signed. In some cases, that can help distinguish between individuals with the same (or similar) names. In some cases, just that piece of knowledge can help to narrow down a year of birth as well–depending upon what else you know.
Many of a county courthouse’s records books (especially before the late 19th century) contain handwritten transcriptions of actual records. Clerks were charged with transcribing the text of the document as faithfully as they could, but errors happen. Humans get distracted. Humans make mistakes and clerks are human. That’s likely what happened with this 1841 document where four witnesses are named. The second witness is only styled as “Wm Mc.” It’s probable that there’s more to his last name than “Mc.” The location of the document where his name appears is the section where the witnesses have signed. It seems unlikely that William (the likely full name for “Wm.”) had a last name of “Mc” or signed part of his name. My transcription of the document includes a [sic] […]
Genealogists try to be specific when stating relationships between individuals. Your relative from Omaha might not be as specific when discussing family members. Grandma may have written “Cousin Myrtle” on the back of a photograph. If the person referring to their cousin is still alive, try and get them to be more specific about the relationship, if possible. Don’t suggest what the relationship is. Sometimes “cousins” were were actually cousins (just further down the line than you thought), were related by marriage, or were just neighbors with whom the family was close.
When one encounters the phrase “late of Tuckertown” in a legal document, it typically means that the person used to live in Tuckertown. The same thing is true of “formerly of Tuckertown.” Sometimes the phrase “late widow of John Jones” may be used to refer to a woman. Usually in those cases it means that the female to whom it is referring has married again after the death of John Jones. Deceased—that usually means dead.
A genealogist needs to act like they are three years old sometimes. That does not mean having a tantrum at the vital records clerk when you are denied access to your third cousin’s birth certificate. That means asking “why?” when you read something in a record, you learn that your ancestor did something, or you find a new spelling of an ancestral name? Why did they put that down as a wrong place of birth? Why did my ancestor move to Ohio in 1817? Why did the name get spelled that unusual way? Questioning gets you thinking and thinking usually is good for your research.
Years ago, I was using 19th century congregational records of a Lutheran church in Illinois. Most members of the church were natives of Germany as was the pastor who wrote the records I was using. I was having difficulty reading the records until I realized that he was writing in English script for most of the record, but that he was slipping in a Germanic script for names, places of birth, and the occasional random word. The records were in English, but the non-English script made transcription an occasional problem.
Transcribing records in a foreign language and an unfamiliar script can be a challenge. Both differences work together to make interpreting the records correctly more difficult. There are some things you can do to improve your transcription of older records in a foreign language and an unfamiliar script: And…be patient with yourself. Check out Michael’s books!
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.
There are a variety of ways one can organize and track their research while they are working. I find it particularly helpful to have an open word document where I can paste screen shots of record images, paste copies of index entries, and type in my own notes. I put a footer on these documents and page numbers. I should have put a date and time stamp on them as well as I occasionally print them out and take notes on them as well and knowing which one is the most recent one is a good thing. There are programs one can use to manage your research, but this works for me–and can easily be saved as a PDF file to be placed in the same digital folder […]
Transcribing foreign language records can be difficult. Comparing a record to others in the same series to see which text is repeated is one helpful approach. Using words common to a record is another way to work out how a writer usually wrote certain letters or words. Determining place names mentioned in records is sometimes difficult. But it pays to think about the logistics, especially with christening records. If a child is born on one date and baptised a day or two after and the location of a sponsor is difficult to read, remember how news would have travelled at the time. A sponsor from a different town is not traveling far for a baptism in 1756 and if the baptism is a day or two after the birth, […]
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