When reading a handwritten record copy of a will, deed, or other legal record in a volume of other such records, remember:
Your relative may have multiple tombstones, even if their physical remains are all in one place. My uncle has two tombstones. One in Illinois where he is listed with his first wife. One is in Florida where he is listed with his second wife. The Illinois stone only has his date of birth. The Florida stone has the dates of birth and death. He is actually buried in Florida. I need to indicate in my genealogy database on him where he is actually buried and what is listed on each stone. Some of our products:
Just because fifty online trees have the same parent-child relationship does not mean that the parent-child relationship is correct. Might does not make right. If the only sources are unsourced trees then those sources could easily be wrong. It is about the evidence and the analysis not about how many trees make the same statement. Some of our products:
It’s not a computer monitor in the foreground of this picture. That light tan box was used by the auction clerk to keep track of various tickets from items that had been purchased. But, as several have pointed out to me, it certainly does remind one of a computer monitor given its position on the desk and the angle at which the wooden box is positioned. That serves as a great reminder to researchers to be vigilant to avoid putting a modern interpretation on images and records that we view of the past. Times were different. And even while there were computers with screens during the time period in which this picture was taken, those contemproary devices certainly did not resemble the wooden box the auction clerk is […]
A person can easily appear in the records of a location long after they have left the area. Thomas Johnson Rampley left Maryland for Ohio in 1817. Throughout the 1820s he appears in court cases in Maryland because he was sued shortly after he left the state and the case drug on for years. James Tinsley left Virginia for Kentucky in the late 1790s and appeared in land deeds in Amherst County, Virginia, years afterwards settling up his father-in-law’s estate. He also appeared in a few court cases there as well through the 1810s. An ancestor sold property in the 1850s before he left the area. The deed was not recorded by the grantee until thirty years later. Numerous other relatives appear in references in their hometown newspapers […]
No matter how you arrived at a document, look at the pages before and after that document. When using actual bound books, the before and after pages often beg to be viewed. The researcher often views these pages when getting to the page that contains the item of interest. When using digital images, it’s helpful to look at the image appearing before and after the located item. In fact, it may be helpful to look at a few images before and after the item of interest. Full-text searches at FamilySearch and other sites often take the researcher right to the name of entry and those pages before may provide context and more information than the actual page that contains the name of interest. Before and after census pages […]
Sometimes you don’t need to spend $5K on a genealogist to work on your problem. Sometimes you don’t need someone to spend forty hours on your problem. Sometimes you just need someone to look over your material, discuss it with you, and tell you what to do next. That’s where our consultations come in. Learn more on our website.
When the word “administrator” is encountered in reference to the settlement of an estate, it typically means that the deceased individual left no valid will that could be admitted to probate. There’s one exception. That’s when an individual does leave a valid will which is admitted to probate and there’s no executor. Occasionally that’s because the testator fails to nominate an executor or the individual who is nominated to be the executor is unwilling to act, is unable to act, or refused the position by the court. In that case an administrator is appointed by the court to execute the will. It’s not the typical case, but it does happen. It’s also possible that the executor is approved, but asks to be removed from the position or dies […]
We’re getting ready to start volume 6 of Casefile Clues. In each issue we look at one document (sometimes more), transcribe it completely, analyze it in detail, and look at next research steps. Casefile Clues is a great supplement to Genealogy Tip of the Day. Our goal with Casefile Clues is to be informative, accurate, easy-to-read, easy-to-follow, practical, and methodologically accurate. There’s no advertising in Casefile Clues. A volume contains 24 issues. Casefile Clues is delivered as an attached PDF file to an email. You can get a sample copy on our website. A subscription is $24.95 for 24 issues.
How many times do you have to see a picture for it to click what it is? I don’t recognize anyone in this picture, but in reviewing scans of images I made of my parents’ old negatives, I realized where this was taken: the den of my grandparents’ home. I should have realized it sooner as it was in the same strip of images from my grandparents auction of farm and household goods in the 1980s. It might have been the angle at which it was taken and the fact that no one in the picture was someone I recognized. The unknown faces apparently made the location somewhat unfamiliar to me. There are two paintings on the wall. The still life of fruit on the left was done […]
Have you located a document that you think is for your ancestor, but aren’t certain if it really is you ancestor or not? Look at every date or event that is stated directly or indirectly in the document. Do not look at what you already think you know about your ancestor. Use only the document you just located. Create a chronology of those events. See if those dates are consistent with what you already know about your ancestor and the chronology you already have for him.
It can be difficult showing that a person you’ve just located in a new-to-you record is the same person as your already established ancestor. There are some ways to make it a little easier. Look for relative consistencies in the occupation and social status in the new record and what you already know–if given and if you know it. A day laborer in 1870 could easily be a tenant farmer or coal miner in 1880, but likely isn’t a lawyer or hotel owner. If you think the person’s life has changed that much in ten years, you need some evidence other than your gut to back it up. Make certain there are not more than one person with the same name of about the same age living in […]
A relative purchased property in Dawson County, Nebraska, in the 1880s. He died in the 1890s in Pike County, Illinois, still owning the property. He wrote a will that was probated in Illinois. In the mid-1940s, there was some legal action over the Nebraska property to clean up some title issues that were not apparently settled adequately when the relative died. Fifty years after he lived in Nebraska and fifty years after he died in Illinois, there was a land record in Nebraska that mentioned him, his estate, and his will in Illinois. Title issues to real estate are not always cleaned up immediately after a person dies. Usually they are, but occasionally a title searcher finds something that needs to be dealt with. And if that detail […]
We’re giving repeat presentations on Perplexity (part 1 and 2) and “Responsible Use of AI for Genealogists” this July–on the 27th. Recordings will also be available. Details on our announcement page.
The church’s funeral register indicated the first funeral at the church was in 1880. For a brief moment, I assumed that would be the first burial in the church’s cemetery as well. Not so. A physical search of the cemetery’s tombstones indicated a burial there in the mid-1870s. It could be that the cemetery was not originally associated with the church, that the church’s earlier records are missing, that the burials were conducted by a pastor from another church before the church in question was formed, or something else. But my assumption that I had the first records of the church and that there could be nothing before that was wrong. Check your assumptions before your own research gets buried by them. Learn more about research methods and […]
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