Locations can create all kinds of problems for genealogists. For this reason it is necessary to be as precise as possible. Some locations are logical. For example, Knoxville, Illinois, is in Knox County, Illinois. But this is not always the case. Des Moines, Iowa, is in Polk County, not in Des Moines County, Iowa. Keokuk, Iowa, is not located in Keokuk County, Iowa. And remember there are townships as well which may or may not add to the confusion. Hancock County, Illinois, has a Webster Cemetery and a village of Webster. Webster cemetery is not located near the village of Webster. Provide as much detail as possible when listing locations in your genealogical database. Personally I always use the word “county” in a location. It reduces confusion. Check […]
Try and determine when your relative learned that story they are telling you. Would they have been a small child when they heard it? Memories that come from when the person was a child can be impacted by their immaturity and inexperience with life. Sometimes children draw interesting conclusions about family events only to pass them on as facts years later. Just because someone heard or experienced something when they were young does not mean they could not remember it correctly. But it’s worth remembering ourselves that what children may not get details straight or make incorrect inferences. Of course adults can as well.
My “Is Your Process the Problem” webinar has been released. If you ordered, you should have the link–email me if not. Details on our announcement page.
From a while back… Ira Sargent is enumerated in the 1850 and 1860 US Census under the last name of his step-father, Asa Landon. Ira was born in the 1840s and his father, Clark Sargent, died around 1848. By 1850 his mother had married Asa Landon. Ira’s 1870 marriage record is probably the first document where he actually provided his name to the records clerk. Chances are someone else gave his name to the 1850 and 1860 census enumerator. Your relative might have known his “name,” but might never have had a chance to give it to the clerk, enumerator, etc. until after he was “of age.” Is that why you can’t find your person in any record until they get married?
Never cite a source unless it was actually in your sight. It’s simple: If you saw a tombstone’s picture on FindAGrave, cite that website–do not indicate you were in the cemetery yourself or took the picture yourself. If you saw a transcription of a will in a published book, cite the book and that book’s transcription–do not cite the will itself. If your Mother told you something about her mother, cite your mother as the source-do not cite Grandma as you didn’t hear Grandma actually say that something. Whether the source is accurate is another story. We just want our citations to accurately reflect what used. To learn everything you ever wanted to know about citations, see Evidence Explained.
I have set the dates for my 2024 research trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Details are on our trip page.
I’m working through a family where four of a couple’s sons were in the US Civil War. My original source for documenting their service (and the deaths of three of them in the war) was a letter another son (their youngest brother) wrote in 1879. I wanted to immediately document all their service and pension using the information in the letter. I thought it would be easy to document the service details–after all, everything today is online. That was not the case. I documented the service of three of them using online databases. I documented the death of one during war time and found a pension card for the fourth. Instead of continuing to search for the additional information, I am going to obtain the compiled military service […]
We have set the dates for our 2024 trip. Details are on our announcement page–we’d love to have you join us.
The pension index card for Illinois Civil War veteran Charles Schrader indicated an application number but no certificate number. This usually means that the application was denied. This is what happened in Schrader’s case–he received no pension. Don’t neglect denied pension applications. They can contain just as much information as approved pensions and the denial does not mean the applicant did not serve. It simply means he was not qualified for a pension under the laws in effect at the time of the application. Schrader’s application indicated that he applied in 1866. This was shortly after the war when fewer applications were approved. Had he lived until the 1890s, he probably would have received a pension as the laws had relaxed by that point in time. Neither he […]
If there was a court case after a relative died, make certain you have looked up every name of every heir in the court indexes. The estate being settled might be the estate of John Smith, but it could easily be that son-in-law Gideon Johnson is the lead plaintiff in the court case and grandson Barton Hanson is the lead defendant. Because of this, Smith’s estate fight will probably be in the plaintiffs’ index under Gideon Johnson and in the defendants’ index under Barton Hanson.
I will be giving this webinar (attend live or order a copy) on 17 November 2023. Details are on our blog post.
From a while back… When encountering a family tradition, take each statement suggested by the tradition and put it in one of two categories: probably generated a record most likely didn’t generate a record “Grandma sold sandwiches to support herself after her first husband accidentally drowned in the 1850s. Then she married Grandpa Haase and they moved to the farm.” Probably generated a record: The drowning may be mentioned in a local paper There may be estate or probate records related to the first husband’s death There may be a death record of the drowning–although in some US states this is too early for a death record There should be a marriage record to Grandpa Haase The place to start looking for these records is where Grandma was believed to […]
Different family members who experienced the same event will have different memories of it. Siblings may recall different characteristics of their grandparents or other family members. Older family members may have more memories of deceased relatives. Younger members of the family may have heard their parents tell more stories. Just because you’ve interviewed one member of a family does not mean that you are done. If there are more, it means there’s more to do.
If you are fortunate enough to find a biography of an ancestor, consider creating a chronology from the events and dates it contains. This can be an excellent organizational tool as biographies do not always list events in chronological order and thinking about how every event in the biography fits into a larger timeline can be helpful. Be certain to include all events–ones stated directly and ones stated indirectly. The same approach can be used with obituaries.
For individuals that lived during a time of no vital records, genealogists often do not have dates of birth for their long-dead forebears. In some cases, it may be difficult to even estimate years of birth. Genealogists and software programs like to put children in order. In cases such as these, make certain that you indicate the birth order is either a guess or inferred from the order of children in a will or another document. If children married, years of birth could be estimated from the marriage dates (if available). If the ordering of children is done based on when they married, indicate that as well. And ask yourself, would any of my conclusions change if the order of birth for these children change? Most times they […]
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