Jim Beidler’s The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide: How to Find Your Ancestors in Archived Newspapers arrived in my mail yesterday. While I have not had time to completely read it yet, there’s a great deal of good advice in the book, including a quote from Genealogy Tip of the Day about “near” relatives. The book contains search techniques for several sites, including: GenealogyBank–fee-based Newspapers.com—fee-based Ancestry.com—fee based Library of Congress–free and other free sites. There are lots of great anecdotes and research stories in the book as well. Hopefully it will give me some motivation to revisit some incomplete newspaper work on some of my own families.
This 3-part PDF document from the US Census Bureau contains blanks census forms and enumerator instructions from the 1790 through the 2000 census. introduction 1790-1990 2000 Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. They are offering our fans/followers/readers a subscription that is $4.67 a month (billed annually). Thanks for their support–and yours too!
Administrators are usually appointed when the person whose estate is being settled left no valid will. Sometimes the executor appointed will choose not to act or be unable to act. Sometimes the will will not name an executor. In those cases, the court may appoint an administrator “with the will annexed” indicating the person technically is an administrator, but that they will settle the estate according to the terms of the will. Normal administrators (without a will annexed) will settle the estate and make disbursements according to contemporary state statute.
When using probate records, make certain you have the entire file–especially final accountings and disbursements. Probates that took decades to settle may list “new heirs” if original heirs died before the estate was closed. This may include some grandchildren and other more distant heirs besides children who may have originally been listed. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. They are offering our fans/followers/readers a subscription that is $4.67 a month (billed annually). Thanks for their support–and yours too!
The newest and latest is not always the best. It also may not be the most accurate. A set of tombstone transcriptions done in the 1930s may be more reliable in some cases than those done more recently. More stones may have been extant and inscriptions may have been more legible. Even a set of transcriptions done in the 1980s may be preferable to ones done more recently. And if the first transcriber was more attentive to detail that helps as well. A more modern transcription may have been done using pictures of tombstones that were enhanced digitally. It’s hard to make a snap decision and immediately say which transcription is best or most accurate. The same is true for handwritten records as well. A transcription done in […]
Download images of genealogical records as you find them. Do not assume that they will always be there or that you will always have access. you may decide to cancel your subscription to that site the site may use the ability to host the images the image may get moved to where you can’t find it you may forget how you got it in the first place Once you download it, you have it. Back it up. File it in a way that you can find it again. Make certain the file name describes the image.
Join me for three days of research at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, this coming August. Details are on our announcement page.
The grantor on a deed is the person who has title to the property and is transferring that title to someone else. There may be more than one grantor on a deed–often it is the spouse, but not always. The grantee is the person to whom the title is being transferred. There may be more than one grantee. Land records are local records and usually have indexes created for them. There usually are separate grantor and grantee indexes and those indexes usually only include the name of the first grantor and first grantee. Indexes can differ slightly (or not so slightly) from one location to another. Familiarize yourself with an index when beginning work in a new location.
For those with US ancestors… Have you looked at the amount of schooling your relatives indicated they had in the 1940 census? Just to see if my thoughts were correct, I looked up the claimed educational level of all my living ancestors at the time of the 1940 census. Anna Habben’s 4th grade education coincides closely with the family’s immigration to the United States from Germany. The others were about where I thought they would be based upon family tradition. All of mine were living in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1940. Charles Neill (great-grandfather-St. Albans Twp.)–8th grade. Fannie Neill (great-grandmother-St. Albans Twp.)–8th grade. Fred Ufkes (great-grandfather-Bear Creek Twp.)-8th grade. Tena Ufkes (great-grandmother-Bear Creek Twp.)-6th grade. John Ufkes (grandfather-Bear Creek Twp.)-4 years of high school. Mimka Habben (great-grandfather, Prairie […]
It can be tempting to share everything you have with a newly discovered cousin. Sharing is not bad, but try and avoid overwhelming your recently discovered relative. Their level of interest may not be as high as yours and telling them that: your uncle got drunk, threatened his mother, and ended up in jail for thirty days another aunt went insane a cousin was killed after he passed out on the railroad tracks and a train ran over him your uncle’s body was exhumed three times to be autopsied may be a bit overwhelming. I’m not saying to keep stories from your cousin or to paint them a reality that did not happen. Just don’t overwhelm them. You might even want to wait to share ten generations of […]
Due to popular demand we are again offering live sessions of two of our most popular DNA webinars: Sifting Through Your AncestryDNA Matches–Followup to “Working with AncestryDNA Matches” Preparing for Your Autosomal DNA Results-Webinar Details are on our announcement page.
Many marriage records give no hint that one of the parties had been married before. This 1852 marriage certification gives nary a clue that the bride was a widow, over forty, and the mother of several children. Assume nothing. Lack of a “Mrs.” or “Miss” before the bride’s name usually means nothing.
Don’t forget to organize digital images you make of records as soon as you can. You will forget. Life will intervene. You’ll be glad you did. I just realized today that digital images of a court case I made in 2009 are lost. They may be on my back up storage, but they didn’t get organized and filed appropriately after I made them. Don’t delay. Don’t wait. Don’t put it off.
Some immigrants immigrated more than once. Immigrants went home for a variety of reasons–sometimes for a short trip and sometimes for an extended stay. Don’t assume that the one manifest they are on is the only one.
In some families the death of one parent may have left the surviving parent with more children than they could handle. Younger children may have gone to live with relatives; older ones may have gone to work nearby as a hired laborers, housekeepers, apprentices, etc.; others may have simply run off if there were too many mouths to feed. In families that lived hand-to-mouth, the death of one parent may have sent the family into a tailspin.
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