If you are not certain how to spell the name of a location, do not know where it is actually located, and have never seen the place on a map, look them up. Knowing the actual spelling, knowing the actual location (township, county, etc.) and seeing it on a map can cut down on “brick walls.” ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When you find a deed for an ancestor in a record book, be certain that you look a few pages before and after the located record. People could not easily get to town to have legal documents recorded and materials might have been recorded in batches. There could be several of your ancestor’s documents filed and recorded together. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you have found what looks like a deed where heirs are settling up real estate after a death, try and access other records if at all possible. Deeds are notorious for not clearly delineating relationships–after all, the people in the deed know the relationship and the purpose of the deed is not to leave a complete and accurate genealogy. Sellers on a settlement deed may be children and grandchildren, or nieces and nephews/great-nieces and great-grandnephews, or all cousins of varying degrees of relationships. Try and access court and probate records along with other materials to refine relationships that are hinted at in what appears to be a deed settling up an estate. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Sometimes it pays to get that document or record when you “think you know everything.” One reason is that you might be incorrect in what you “think” you know. The other is that the record may contain an uncommon notation or comment providing information you never even thought about it providing. Sometimes the greatest discoveries are in those records where we think we “don’t need that record” because we already know what’s on it. You may be surprised. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Don’t get me wrong, I love the materials that the Family History Library has on microfilm and in digital format. But the individuals who enter in the catalog descriptions are human and sometimes are not intimately familiar with the materials they are cataloging. Once in a while years of items will be slightly off. I’ve seen records that indicated the materials ended in 1915, but the index was also filmed and it went through the 1930s. I’ve also seen church records where the first few pages of the communion registers contained a brief handwritten history of the church. Sometimes you’ll make unexpected finds in records that the LDS Family History has on microfilm. Use the catalog descriptions as a guide, not as script set in stone. ———————————— Check […]
Don’t forget that records regarding your ancestor might have been created at several government levels: local–such as town, city, or township records county level records state level records federal level records The importance of searching all jurisdictions is applicable anywhere, not just the United States. The names of the government levels may be different, but the layers still exist. And don’t forget church records, which also may have local records and records at a national level—usually records of former churches or parishes that have been transferred to an “archives” for preservation. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When searching local court records, remember that they typically appear in the plaintiffs’ index once and in the defendants’ index once. Cases involving several people will not usually be indexed under every name of every party. For this reason, it is imperative you search for all family members in court record indexes as the case will not necessarily be indexed under your direct ancestor’s name. The days of full-name indexes to court records are far away-if ever. Until then, these search techniques are still necessary. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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Even if you think your ancestors never lived anywhere else, consider the possibility they were somewhere else, even if for a short time. A young married couple may have left “home” for a few years, only to return and stay for the rest of their lives. A couple with young children may have homesteaded for two or three years, only to decide it “wasn’t for them.” Keep in mind these stories of being “gone” for a short time don’t always get passed down and sometimes even get forgotten by the time someone’s asking questions about family history. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I’ve been using the 1865 Illinois State Census at FamilySearch. Between the poor handwriting, the faded ink, and the non-English names, it has been easier to search page by page to find the people I am looking for. If you have people you cannot find in a specific record and you have a reasonably good idea of where they were living, go back and manually search the records if at all possible. I’ve found quite a few of my 1865 people in the Illinois State Census–most of them by searching one page at a time. Sometimes that’s what has to happen. And the guy in Chicago I may never find. We’ve mentioned this before, but the need to sometimes manually search is one that most of us need […]
Court cases and pension applications often contain affidavits and statements from witnesses. Sometimes these statements will indicate how long the person providing testimony had known the applicant or one of the parties involved in the case. Think about how long that was. Was it when the parties involved lived somewhere else? Maybe if you can’t trace the person of interest back in time and place, you can trace the witness to a previous residence and then may find the person of interest hanging out in the same location. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Remember that the date your ancestor “executed” a document is usually the date he signed it. It is different from a date when the document might have been proved in court by witnesses or recorded in a record book by a clerk. Depending upon the type of document “proof” dates or “recording” dates might be dates on which your ancestor was deceased. Dates of document execution are usually dates when your ancestor was alive. Dates of execution for criminal offenses may refer to a death date, however (grin!). ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Often it is necessary to estimate a date of an event. If you have to approximate a date of birth, marriage, or death, indicate your reason in your notes or sources. If you are estimating a marriage at twenty-one and using that and the year of marriage to arrive at an approximate year of marriage, indicate your reasoning as a part of your “source” for the birth year. Otherwise what was a “guess” can easily become a “fact.” If you are using the date of execution [MJN note: this should have been “proof or recording” see note below]of a will as a “dead by” date, you still need to indicate what made you think it was a “dead by” date–and don’t confuse a “dead by” date with an […]
I’m not going to make a 3,000 word long essay on starting your blog. Blogging is best done by learning. After you’ve made a few posts, messed around with a little bit, then you’ll be ready to get more out of detailed suggestions, guides, etc. Here’s my things to think about before putting anything in a blog post: Once you have put it online, you essentially have “lost control.” Someone else can use it, etc. You do have copyright to your paragraphs and pictures, but in some cases enforcing this will be difficult. If it is going to upset you that someone else took “your” birthdate for great-grandma and put it on their website without crediting you, don’t put it on your blog. Your blog posts: Should include […]
The informant on any record or document has their own perspective, their own agenda, and their own set of biases. Always be aware of this when analyzing information on any document. And if the informant is not specifically stated, and most are not, try to consider who the likely informant was. Remember that for most records, “proof” of information was not required and details were not cross-checked or referenced to other records. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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