There’s a handwritten record copy of a will from the 1740s in Virginia where the name Catherine is consistently written “Cathering.” While the spelling could have been based on how the name was pronounced, it’s important to remember that the handwritten record copy of the will I was looking at was made by looking at the original handwritten copy. I do not know what that document looked like and it is no longer extant. So that handwriting I’m seeing in that copy of the will in a record book is the clerk’s rendition of how the original looked (or how he thought it looked). It’s a variant on the telephone game where a story is passed around a group of people and the final person hearing it tells […]
If you are fortunate enough to have Grandma’s high school or college yearbook, it still may be to your advantage to look at digital images of that same yearbook. It could be that Grandma wrote in her friend’s yearbook and that friend’s yearbook was the one that was digitized and put online. When digital images of yearbooks are posted online, those signatures and notes of “best wishes” are usually not indexed. You will have to search for them by hand–if you are lucky enough to find a digital copy with personalized notes.
Not everyone made an “X” as their mark when acknowledging a document and not literally signing their name. That’s what three of the individuals who signed a 1743 bond in Frederick County, Virginia, did. Margaret Thompson appeared to have made an “M,” Thomas Mills appeared to have made an “O,” and John Demos appeared to have made some form of an “I.” Of course the marks as shown in this image are not their actual marks. They are the clerk’s attempt to reproduce their marks when transcribing the document so slight liberties may have been taken. Just because they made their marks does not mean that they were illiterate. But the unique marks are helpful as they can help to distinguish individuals with the same or similar names.
When I digitize photographs, I do the front and then the back–of each and every picture. I do that even if the back is blank. Consistency is important. Then I know I have not left out a back of a photograph. I can tell this because I see a photo and then a non-photograph as the next image when viewing the images quickly. I always do the front first and then the back so that I know which front goes with which back. That’s important on photos like this. I can’t always tell my Dad from his brother in photographs, particularly if the image is small and somewhat blurry. This 1957 image of my Dad and his Angus calf was in my set of images–and there was a […]
Transcribing old ledgers, account books, and estate inventories can sometimes be difficult. Businesses that are no longer in existence may be mentioned, names be abbreviated in unique ways, farm implements or occupational tools may be ones that are no longer used, etc. One way to potentially determine the names is to perform searches in digital newspapers for what can be transcribed. Wild card searches (*oat, sho*t, etc.) can be helpful when items can only partially be read. Newspapers may contain more complete references to items that can only partially be read in the item being transcribed. Business names your relative partially abbreviated may be more completely spelled out. Advertisements for these businesses may provide more detail about what they sold for those times when your ancestor’s reference to […]
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Not all homestead applications in the United States were successful. Part of the process of completing the homestead application was to post a public notice that the claim was nearing completion–and often that notice was published in the newspaper. Homestead claims that were completed generated a land patent which transferred title to the claimant. Those patents are indexed on the Bureau of Land Management website (https://glorecords.blm.gov/ ). Claims that were not completed did not generate a patent and consequently do not appear in that website. Incomplete claims are generally not indexed. The incomplete files are at the National Archives and can contain significant information on your ancestor. One needs the location of where the property was located to obtain the incomplete claim records. If the incomplete claim got to […]
From a while back… Some records were created before an event took place, usually in preparation for the event itself. The issuance of a marriage license does not guarantee that the marriage ever took place. The announcement of marriage banns also is not evidence of the actual marriage. Even a church bulletin announcing my baptism that day in church does not guarantee it took place. It does indicate the event was planned and scheduled for that day. And, in all likelihood, it did take place. But if one document said something was going to happen and other reliable information indicated that event did not happen, remind yourself that not every event intended to be actually comes to pass.
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We are not in that era where every record of possible genealogical use can be accessed via the internet. No matter what your cousin in Oregon tells you and no matter what the Ancestry.com ads say, genealogical research simply cannot be done with the click of a mouse. One of my favorite records often found in the county recorder’s offices of federal land states are tract indexes to local land records. These indexes, created by the local records’ office staff, index land records by where the property is located–not by any name on the land record. They are a great finding aid, but rarely were they micofilmed (or later digitized) by the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch). They have to be accessed onsite. There are many records […]
I had eaten canned tuna for decades before I saw actual tuna in a fish market while visiting my daughter in Virginia. I grew up on a beef farm so I was well aware of where meat comes from–it was my experience with seafood that was lacking. That can be true in our research as well. We do not always know what we don’t know, but need to be aware that there can be gaps in our experience or knowledge that could hinder our research in one way or another. Even when we are partially familiar with a process, concept, lifestyle, historical era, etc. there can be differences of which we are not aware. The possibility of drawing incorrect conclusions can be even greater when we think we […]
A court case I located from Virginia in the 1820s contained numerous depositions and statements made by witnesses. This was common in some cases since it did not require witnesses to attend court on those few times a year when court was in session. The statements were taken at various locations–which was always stated in the initial portion of the document. Those locations are clues and are helpful clues in a time period and place where one does not always know where within a county an individual lived. Individuals who made out statements at the same time in the same place were probably relatively close neighbors to each other. Probably. One should always keep the likely method of transportation in mind as well. Check out our Genealogy Tip of […]
The photograph of my great-grandparents was mounted on a piece of heavy paperboard. My grandmother has written on the reverse side of it–writing that is on the paperboard and not on the picture. Today, approximately 100 years after the picture was mounted on the board, the glue gave up the ghost. The photo had been freed. It was freed from the paperboard and potentially from being identified. How many of your identifiers are not really attached to the picture?
Be careful “sorting” photographs that a deceased relative already had in separate envelopes or boxes. It can be tempting to organize them when you are beginning to identify them, but remember that re-sorting them may cause you to lose forever clues that were contained in that original sorting. If the original envelopes and boxes are not preservable, store them in the same way you found them. This old mailing envelope contained a whole cache of photos that were only partially identified. Fortunately most of them are individuals that I know. The envelope was one of several in my parents’ things. Every photo in the envelope was a relative of my paternal grandfather.
My daughter got me one of those “Tell me Your Story, Grandfather” type books and it got me to thinking. How many genealogists have lamented the fact that a relative did not leave one bit of self-written material about themselves? How many have actually left behind something they wrote about themselves? Now may be the time for you to do that.
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