So you’ve found your ancestor in a personal property tax list? What was required to be in the tax list? Did the person have to be a certain age, have a certain amount of personal property, etc.? If you don’t know the criteria for appearing on the list, you may be interpreting something incorrectly. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Not every location organizes records in the same way. A marriage index indicated my wife’s great-grandparents were married in Burlington, Iowa. I had the date, the location, and their names. I figured with the date it would not be difficult to find their actual marriage record. When viewing the records on microfilm, I assumed they were filmed in order of license number, or perhaps by date. I looked and they seemed to be in random order. Then I realized that the records had been sorted by the name of the groom! ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
In reading through Civil War pension applications, the one thing that amazes me is the number of people who really didn’t know when they were born. Some people did know their date of birth and gave their age consistently. Others apparently only knew their approximate age. Is that why Grandpa’s age varies from one census record to another? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Every so often, read an article, blog post, etc. about a family or location completely unrelated to your personal research. You likely won’t find information on your own family. But sometimes reading about something with which you are unfamiliar gets you thinking “outside the box” on your own family and causes inspiration to strike. And sometimes it just gets you out of that rut. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Every few weeks take a look at what is on FamilySearch http://www.familysearch.org. New information is being added on a regular basis. We are talking about indexes to actual records and images of actual records here, not compiled genealogies and submitted “trees.” ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is it possible that some of your ancestor’s children were sent to live with neighbors or strangers? That may explain why you cannot find them as children in a census. Your ancestors might not have been able to take care of all fifteen children, or an older relative without children of their own may have needed some extra help around the house or the farm. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Make certain when you get a copy of a deed or transcribe a land record that you look at where the deed was acknowledged. Those acknowledgements might have been done a distance from where the property was located (and where the deed was recorded). If the sellers have moved or are heirs who never lived in the area, those acknowledgements may give a clue as to where they were living at the time the deed was executed. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you are travelling a distance to do research, , do more than just make certain the records office will be open when you are planning to arrive. Find out if there are any days to “avoid” using the facility. Some small courthouses have court on certain days of the week only–these are days to avoid. If you arrive when offices are being remodeled, accessing things may be difficult. And you may be told to wait to come until “Gertrude comes back from vacation. She knows where everything is.” It’s not always possible to schedule a visit perfectly, but sometimes you can maximize the chances you have the best research experience possible. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
In answer to several questions, here is a summary of our freebies: Michael’s article “Brick Walls from A to Z”–email your request to brickwallsa2z@gmail.com 2 Free issues of Casefile Clues–,my weekly newsletter–email your request to samples@casefileclues.com 1 Free Issue of Casefile Clues for Beginners—our bi-monthly newsletter–email your request to beginner@casefileclues.com Thanks! Feel free to spread word of this offer–the direct link is:http://genealogytipoftheday.blogspot.com/2011/06/freebies-we-have.html ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Don’t assume your ancestor moved infrequently. Some people did move rarely and others moved every few years. It might have just been your ancestor’s wanderlust that kept him or her moving constantly. Or it could have been the local law, too. Seriously–a relative of mine whose Civil War pension file I have appears to have moved at least a dozen times between 1850 and 1890. And she very well could have moved a few more that simply were not documented in the file. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you’d like to receive a sample copy of Casefile Clues for Beginners–email me at beginner@casefileclues.com. Thanks. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I just assumed that a genealogist I had known for ages had correctly transcribed a date from a Virginia land record correctly. When I reviewed the record myself the date had been transcribed 10 years incorrectly. In this case, the year made a difference as it was used in part of an estimate of someone’s year of death. We can all easily make mistakes. It pays to check–your own work as well as someone else’s. Sometimes mistakes are minor and sometimes they are not. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Remember that the only parent who has to be present at the birth of a child is the mother. The dad had to be around earlier, but could easily have been dead or moved on by the time the child was born. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Never assume that your relative was too insignificant to have been effected by historical events. A step-ancestor who was a native of Canada, decided that the American Civil War was the prime time to leave the state of Missouri and return to his native country. He just went “poof” and the Civil War was the reason why. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is that “S” an “L” or is that “L” an “S?” These two uppercase letters are easy to confuse. And that’s why when looking for Sargents I always remember to look for Largents as well. There are others as well. Could your Feather family be hiding with some Leathers? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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