Unless you are the only descendant of your great-great-grandparents, they are not just your set of ancestors. Most of our ancestors have other descendants besides us. We can’t stop others from publishing incorrect things about our relatives. While books and articles we may write about a relative can be protected from unauthorized distribution by others, facts that we discover or public records that we locate and then share can be distributed without our consent or permission. Ethics aside, it needs to be remembered that no matter how much emotional investment we have in an ancestor or a relative that they usually have other relatives who are related to them as closely as we are. We may feel that our ancestors are special to us, but it’s important to […]
A witness to a document typically is only indicating that they know who signed the document in question. A witness has to be of legal age and sound mind, but does not have to have any relationship to the person actually making out the document. Don’t draw too many conclusions about a person who only witnesses one of your ancestor’s documents. The witness just might have been another warm body in the office the same time as your ancestor. If there’s someone who regularly appears as a witness on your ancestor’s documents, that’s more suggestive of a potential relationship and someone you should take a closer look at.
I recently discovered a cousin who has an interest in family history. As we shared images of photographs, I was reminded of a few things when making digital images of photographs: scan/photograph the front and back of each photograph–even if they are blank (be consistent in doing this so that you always know you did it) identify any individuals whose identity you personally know–as soon as possible (you may forget) start work on identifying unknown individuals as soon as you can organize photographs as soon as possible back up the images you made–and not just on a flash drive–remote storage is key The important thing is not to just digitize and quit.
The 1870 US census asks for the month of marriage for individuals married within the last year and the month of birth for individuals born within the last year. It’s not the same as a vital record, but better than nothing–especially in places that did not record vital records during this time period.
It never hurts to be reminded that genealogists should not assume anything. A researcher assumed that the last name of a relative’s husband was spelled incorrectly in an obituary and “corrected” in their transcription and in their online postings regarding the family. The problem was that, in this case, the obituary was correct. Had the researcher looked for information other than the obituary, he would have seen numerous references to the husband (and the wife) with the last name written as it was in the obituary. There’s actually three reminders here: don’t assume, obituaries are not always wrong, and avoid relying on just one source.
It may seem tedious to go through all those entries for a relative in small-town newspaper. A weekly newspaper may regularly mention your relative or family members attending various functions. But sometimes all those references can help. A cousin of my grandmother’s was married several times. The difficulty was finding the actual first name of her last husband–who she married in the 1950s. He was listed only by his initials in her obituary and a marriage in the local area could not be located. So I started going through the social columns in the local weekly newspaper. After much looking, I found a mention of the cousin–with her husband’s first name–in a 1957 writeup of an anniversary celebration of an older family member. But it took a little […]
Genealogists often look for “free” genealogy sites–those with no membership fees and all sorts of data. There’s one place to get genealogy information at little or no charge that often doesn’t require membership and can give you information not available anywhere else: your relatives. Make certain you’ve asked them questions and gone back later when discoveries have you with more questions. Aside from travel, contacting relatives is low-cost and many times family stories are not located elsewhere.
We always want to see that record with our relative’s name and usually are not interested in other documents in the same series of records that contains the names of “other people.” We should be. Sometimes those documents on other people can help us to read, interpret, and understand the document we have on our ancestor. Recently I obtained copies of land evaluations of confiscated British property in Maryland during the American Revolution. Fortunately for me I needed copies of three separate records. The first one had some verbiage that was difficult to read and just as difficult to understand in the bottom left corner of the document. When I looked at the other two documents, it appeared that these documents were similar in form and structure. On […]
If your family had annual reunions, the local newspaper may have published more than just a list of who attended. Sometimes vital events within the family are also listed. A 1944 writeup of my Trautvetter’s annual reunion included names and dates of births, marriages, and deaths within the family. Given that World War II was still being waged, the reunion also noted which relatives were in the armed forces, their branch of service, and where they were stationed. It pays to search for every reunion announcement.
A relative’s 1944 death certificate indicated she was buried in Missouri. An obituary in her hometown newspaper–apparently written after her funeral–indicated she was buried in her hometown. The obituary is dated several days after the death certificate. I have not been to the cemetery to see if there is a stone and, as of this writing, funeral home records and cemetery records have not been accessed. FindAGrave has a memorial page for her in the hometown cemetery, but there’s no picture of her stone, no mention of a plot location. Because there’s no evidence or supporting documentation, I am not using the FindAGrave reference. Until further research is done, I will transcribe each document as written. If I’m unable to locate a stone or other records, I’m inclined […]
Never assume that once you’ve figured out one relationship between two individuals that there could not be another. A man named Rolf married the sister of my ancestor and that was the first relationship I learned about. Later I discovered that years before he married the ancestor’s sister, he had been married to that same ancestor’s aunt. So he was originally my ancestor’s uncle by marriage and then his brother-in-law. Sometimes there is more than one connection.
Any directory can contain errors or omissions. This 1918 directory of Hancock County, Illinois, farmers does not include my great-grandfather Charles Neill. His brothers are listed, but he is not. The illustration shows everyone with the last name of Neill in the directory. There are no “Neal” or other entries under the usual “incorrect” spellings. The directory includes farmers who owned their own farm and those farmers who were tenant farmers. I’m not certain why Charles was not included. What I need to do is read the preface to see if there is some other technicality that might have caused great-grandfather to not be listed. To the best of my knowledge, my great-grandfather had no occupation other than farming. While he did work as a hired man before […]
Until 1752 England and their colonies started the “new year” on 25 March. That can create confusion because during the time when the year started on 25 March, the year number would not “roll over” to the next year until 25 March. This article on the State of Massachusetts website goes into more detail. This post on our sister site shows a will dated 17 June 1743 and admitted to probate on 9 March 1743.
I have approximately fifteen years of calendars on which my Mother has written down various things that happened on most days. For 2003, I have a blank journal in which she made entries. I’ve realized I will probably never scan these items. Instead, I’m taking pictures of them, saving the images, and creating a guidebook. That guidebook will give the probable full name of various people to whom she is referring, what I think some of the abbreviations mean, where various pieces of farm ground are that she references, and other things that I think might help someone later understand the references (eg. “PlumTree” in the illustration refers to a local restaurant). I don’t foresee having the time to completely transcribe them and pictures that get organized and […]
Quick Google searches do not answer every question. Artificial Intelligence does not answer every question either. In June of 1936 my grandmother’s sister-in-law wrote her a letter and mentioned that grandma’s brother was “plowing corn.” I had a pretty good idea what it meant. Google searches and Artificial Intelligence prompts did not provide answers that came close. Grandma’s sister-in-law likely meant that her husband was tilling in between the recently sprouted rows of corn to turn up and kill weeds. In my memory of growing up on a grain farm, this process was referred to as cultivating. But this post isn’t about farm practices in the 1930s or the 1980s. It’s about realizing that Google searches and Artificial Intelligence prompts won’t answer every question. Reaching out to actual […]
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