From a while back… There are other things one can do as well, including learning about the time period and location of the “lost person,” their religious affiliation, occupation, educational level, etc. Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here. Learn more about it and get your own copy. Your work may not be going as slowly as this turtle, but it may feel like it.
Due to a lack of vital records, I used a will from Virginia to estimate when the children of an ancestor were born. All of the details are too long for this tip, but essentially it hinged on the assumption that the children were listed from oldest to youngest in the will and the fifth child had to have been of the age of majority at the time the will was written (along with a few other assumptions). I wanted to put the estimated years of birth for these children in my genealogical database. A source needed to be included. But the will does not specifically say when any of the children are born. I’m making some assumptions about what is in the will to conclude approximately when […]
Do you document your ancestor’s church memberships? While there are people who are cradle to grave members of the same church, others are not. Moving may require an ancestor to change the church they attend even if the denomination remains the same. Philosophical differences with a pastor, staff member, or fellow church member may cause an ancestor to leave a congregation. The move may result in changing the denomination of which they are a member. And some ancestors get asked to leave their church for one reason or another. But documenting an ancestor’s church membership journey can be a worthwhile activity.
Subscribers to Casefile Clues should have their issue 5-19. It discusses a will from 1740s in Virginia. Learn more about Casefile Clues here.
From a while back.. For that missing (or not missing) ancestor, do you know where the nearest three of these buildings, geographic features, organizations, social groups, etc. were when your ancestor lived in the area. It could help you through those research road blocks. Things to think about include the nearest three: There are others besides these. In some cases. three may not be enough. In some cases it may be more than you need for effective research. Get your copy of Genealogy Tip of the Day–the book.
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 […]
Stuck with your own research? Instead of hiring someone for a week of research–which can get pricey–consider a consultation on your problem. Sometimes what you need is someone just giving you some ideas about your problem instead of doing the research for you. More details on our website.
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 […]
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