When was the last time you visited the USGenWeb pages for your counties of interest? It has been at least several years since I visited the page for Chariton County, Missouri, where my wife has ancestors. Upon visiting it today, I realized they had quite a bit of new information from the last time I looked. Point your browser to http://www.usgenweb.org and take a look at your states and counties today. There may be something new there. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Do you know the Soundex codes for your last names?Visit http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/soundexconverter to get the codes. Knowing which variant spellings are soundex equivalents will save you search time. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Sometimes the brick wall is created when an ancestor’s mother marries after the death of her husband. The problem is that if you do not know the names of the parents, it can be difficult to locate a marriage record. If you do know the names and a family disappears, consider the possibility that the father died and the mother remarried and the family is “hidden” under this new last name–whether or not the father adopted the children officially. Many didn’t. I have several families in my own research where the remarriage of the mother complicated the research. Some will be featured in upcoming columns of “Casefile Clues.“ ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
A poster to a list indicated that her European ancestor’s first name was changed from Andreas to Andrew when he immigrated to the United States. Two things come to mind. His name really wasn’t “changed.” It was translated. Andreas is Latin and Andrew is English. The second is that if his name changed, it likely was when he naturalized, not when he landed. Changings at landings were rare–your paperwork had to match or there could be issues, especially in the mid-19th century and after. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
My second “Casefile Clues” column went out to subscribers this weekend. It discusses a passport application that was located on Ancestry.com (Footnote also has it as does the National Archives). The images can be seen on our site.If “Tip of the Day Readers” subscribe in the next 24 hours, I’ll send this past weekend’s article to them. Simply mention that you are a “tip of the day reader” when you subscribe or mention it in an email to me. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
We don’t normally include websites at “Genealogy tip of the Day,” but this one is free and really too good for the genealogist to pass up. The American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress (http://memory.loc.gov) has scans of maps, religious petitions, early eighteenth century books on immigration, and much much more. Take a look for yourself. And if you didn’t see any railroad maps on the site, there are here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
My grandma Neill told me she remembered her baptism. I was skeptical as the denomination of which her parents were members practiced infant baptism. Grandma had to be wrong. Actually she was correct. For reasons that are not clear, Grandma was baptized at the age of five along with several of her siblings. Sure enough she was right. I’ll think twice before assuming (without evidence) that she was wrong. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Does that ancestral signature on a document match the handwriting of the document itself? Don’t conclude your ancestor wrote the record. Most likely what you are looking at is a transcription of the record made by the clerk. The clerk likely copied your ancestor’s signature as well. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Are you working on the same family day after day after day? Consider taking a few days off and avoid making genealogy “your job.” Coming back later with a fresh perspective might be just what you need to get going again. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Keep in mind that a minor could have had several guardians in their life if one of more of their parents were deceased. Guardian of the person–watched over the child and the child typically lived with them.Guardian of the estate–watched over the child’s inheritance. Guardian ad litem–a guardian appointed who was usually a lawyer to represent a child who was somehow involved in court action. A guardian ad litem was actually serving as the child’s “lawyer” and was not a guardian of the child’s person or estate. The first two could be the persons or maybe not. Much depends upon the situation. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I’ve been working on my wife’s English ancestors the last few times I have been at the Family History Library. One frustration has been that the civil records have not been microfilmed–and yet the index of Civil Registrations is online at http://freebmd.rootsweb.com. Before I get too irritated, I have to remember that the church records generally have been microfilmed. I use the online index to give me an idea of dates of death and probable parishes where the information should be recorded. Of course, I should still search the parish records page by page for all family members but sometimes there just simply is not time. Remember there may be more than one way to get at the information you need. Keep your eyes and ears open and […]
I’ve been playing around with the free access to the 1930 census on Footnote.com and in experimenting with their interface, I remembered something: anyone can easily be listed twice in the census. My Grandma is listed twice in 1930–once with her parents and once in the household where she was “working out.” Her married brother is listed twice as well. Once with his wife in the town where he grew up and once in the town 30 miles away where he and his wife had moved for his job. Never hurts to look more than once. And if you think “working out” means exercise, well….it doesn’t. Note: the free access to the 1930 census on Footnote.com is only for the month of August 2009. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s […]
You can follow me on Twitter at:http://twitter.com/mjnrootdig I am on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/rootdig Michael ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
My grandmother Neill had a brother named Cecil. Her sister’s husband was named Cecil and her husband (my grandfather) was named Cecil. While I don’t know about the brother-in-law’s family, I do know that the name of Cecil had not previously appeared in either my grandmother or grandfather’s family. Apparently at the time of these births, between 1900 and 1915, the name was fairly popular. It wasn’t all that popular say fifty years earlier and fifty years later, its popularity was waning. There may be a reason a name “appears out of thin air” in one of your families. Just remember that the name may have no genealogical connection to any other family member. It just might have been in fashion. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip […]
My first Casefile Clues has gone out to the subscriber list. For those who are unaware my “Casefile Clues” column is no longer available to paid members of Eastman’s site and is available by subscription through my other site http://www.casefileclues.com. This column focused on an estate from the 1870s and included suggestions for using digital images and microfilm. We will be sending a new article every weekend to subscribers, including ones on a variety of genealogy how-to topics. Subscriptions can be made on an annual or quarterly basis. There are no advertisements and email addresses are not sold, shared, rented, etc. On of our goals is to include image illustrations with as many columns as possible. I am working to improve the newsletter and welcome any “Tip of […]
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