Those names that were immediately before and after your ancestor on a census or a tax list probably lived relatively near your ancestor, but do not assume that they shared a property line or lived a ten minute walk from each other. My paternal grandparents who lived on a farm during the 1940 census enumeration are on the same page with people who lived in the same township, but were actually three or four miles away. The adjacent landowners are enumerated nearby, but are not the names before and after my grandparents.
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To celebrate the one-year anniversary of More Genealogy Tip of the Day, we’re offering it on sale for $25 through 11:59 pm central time on 9 June 2025. Don’t wait. There’s more details about the book on our website.
Tracking certain families in urban settings can be difficult–the names are often more common than you think. One way to help distinguish individuals is by their residence–every residence listed on a document. The key in connecting members of this Sullivan family from Pittsburgh was using the residences of the informants on death records, next of kin on draft registrations, etc. The individuals moved around, but the next of kin and informants were almost always living at the same address. Not every family has that “one person who never moves,” but it is always advised to track every address for anyone listed on your relative’s documents. Those locations can be the key to separating out families and making connections where appropriate. You also want to be aware of address […]
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Your relative may not have had a middle name. My uncle Chris Ehmen indicated that on his draft registration card–where it is indicated that he had no middle name. While middle names were common by the time Ehmen was born in 1902 not every one had one. It’s possible your relative did not as well.
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Some census takers were plain lazy, some couldn’t spell, and some didn’t care. After you have exhausted all the variations on your ancestor’s first and middle names, consider that they might have been enumerated with just their initials. Or perhaps their first initial and their middle name spelled out. I have seen entire townships where no one apparently had a first name and everyone was named with their initials. I have seen locations where census takers used initials for non-English names instead of trying to spell them correctly. Your ancestor may have been listed in any record with his initials. Don’t assume that because he usually appeared with his first name that some clerk, writer, or editor didn’t refer to him with his initials. Maybe your ancestor was […]
Perplexity.ai (really a cool AI site that’s different from other chats), Fold3, and the Bureau of Land Management websites will be the focus of three new webinars. Check out details on our announcement page.
I first worked on my children’s Belgian ancestors years ago. When using the vital records from the 19th century, I used them the way I had other European records from the same time span. I looked in the “book” for and read through the entries for the years I thought included the person’s birth date. Then, if I had the correct person and had the names of the parents, I scanned the years before and after the birth to locate siblings. Imagine my surprise when I found indexes interspersed in the records. I had never encountered those before. While indexes are not perfect, they would have saved me a great deal of time. Moral-the first time you use any “new” record, familiarize yourself with the whole thing first, […]
We’ve released our “More DeedMapper” webinar. Details on our announcement page.
A March 1960 issue of the Mt. Sterling Democrat published a list of burials in the Becam Cemetery in Brown County, Illinois. It included references to Henrich and Geske Miller, along with their dates of birth and death. If I’m using this as my source for their burial information and their dates of birth and death, then all my citations should be to this newspaper article–not to the tombstone or records of the cemetery. That’s because when we create genealogy citations we site what we use and in this case I used the newspaper. I do not want to indicate I saw the tombstone when I did not. I won’t know what is on the stone exactly until I see it. Note: It turns out the stone indicates […]
In July of 1945 an heir searcher was in Adams County, Illinois, looking for heirs of a Harm Jelden. This does not appear to be one of those estate scams that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. There really was a man named Harm Jelden who had the parents and brother listed. I’m working on finding the estate records. There’s a number of genealogy reminders in this item though. Newspaper articles may leave out key details. This article does not mention where Harm Jelden died and one may think he died in Missouri because the searcher was from there. That would be an incorrect assumption. This article has the maiden name of Harm’s mother wrong–it was Behrens, not Burns. People can appear in newspaper […]
Fortunately I only have one set of negatives where some of the images have been cut into individual pieces. I’m not certain why, but at least they were all in the same envelope. The cut apart negatives served to remind me not to jump to conclusions. There could have been a picture that someone didn’t want anyone else to see. There could have been a negative or two that someone wanted to give to someone else. Maybe the photos that didn’t turn out were removed. Maybe one or two strips of photos were cut apart for some reason but all the photos were retained. Note: I’m still digitizing negatives and am using this Kodak scanner for making digital scans of my negatives.
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