A follower on social media responded to my post about drawing personal maps with an image of a map she had drawn. She was certain it was on her personal storage somewhere, but she ended having to search for a blog post she wrote about the map in order to find it. Are your images organized and named in a way that you can find them?
Varying civil jurisdictional levels can confuse the genealogist. One thing to remember is that a state or province may have different civil jurisdictions with the same name. In Illinois, the town Henderson is not in the county of Henderson. There are numerous other examples, particularly when smaller civil units, such as townships are considered. Always consider the possibility that someone may be confusing the town with the township or county of the same name. Keokuk, Iowa, is not in Keokuk County, Iowa. The list of examples is a very long one.
When encountering a family of parent(s) and children, always consider the possibility that the children are not full biological siblings. Some children could have been from previous relationships either parent had and others could be theirs together. Even if there were no divorces or separations, previous spouses could have either abandoned their family or died. Left with children to support, remarriage was relatively common especially if the remaining parent’s economic status made it necessary. There’s always the possibility as well that some of those “children” were children of relatives of one of the parents or a children of a neighbor that they took in. Household membership may be more fluid than you think–especially if there was room and child was old enough to help out with chores, farm […]
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For years, I assumed that my aunt Elizabeth (Trautvetter) Herzog, was buried in one of two cemeteries where she had relatives. It seemed reasonable that she was in a grave that was never marked or where the stone had worn away. Dying in her early thirties, she was not buried with her husband who had remarried after her death. Turned out she was buried in a cemetery where no other relatives are located. Most likely it was near where she and her husband were living at the time of her death. Not everyone’s buried in the same cemetery as their local kin. And…it also helps to have the name of a female relative’s last husband.
One can easily have many “dates of birth” for the one ancestor. A tombstone provides an exact year. A death certificate provides an exact date. A census record provides an age on a date. A marriage record provides an age on a date. Another record may provide the month and year, but not the exact date. How do I cite them in my database, how many dates of birth do I have for an ancestor? There’s the year of birth from the tombstone. That’s one year and the tombstone should only cite the year of birth because that is what it says. Then there is the exact date of birth from the death certificate. That’s specific date should have the death certificate as its source. The marriage record, […]
Sometimes the connection the adminstrator of an estate has to the deceased is obvious or easy to determine. Sometimes it’s not. It’s always worth finding out if there is a connection. For years, I assumed incorrectly that the administrator of the estate of Michael Trautvetter who died in Hancock County, Illinois, was a neighbor, friend, or interested creditor. I knew little about Trautvetter’s family and, after a while, gave up on determining what the relationship was. Years later, after learning more about the family it was discovered that the administrator of the estate was the husband of a daughter of Trautvetter’s sister. The sister had a marriage in Germany I was unaware of and that was the maiden name of the administrator’s wife–which meant nothing to me at the time. Always […]
For years, I have maintained a Facebook presence for Genealogy Tip of the Day. There I sometimes post the daily tip, but I always post other content–usually research frustrations, personal experiences, humor, and comments on things I’m working on. Now that Facebook content is being put on Substack as well and you can get that daily by subscribing on my Substack page (see the most recent posting here). There is no charge.
If a relative appears to have gotten married for the first time at a slightly older than normal age, look again. That first marriage might not have been the actual first marriage. For a female, this means that what you think is a maiden name may not really be a maiden name at all but could be the last name of a previous husband. Not all marriage records ask how many times the bride and groom have been married before and not all records use a “Miss” or “Mrs.” before the bride’s name. And since men’s last names don’t change upon marriage, it is even easier for a man to have a first marriage that’s unknown to the genealogist. Family stories about these marriages do not often get […]
Years ago after a presentation, a gentleman came up and told me that I should not suggest people rely on census records or other “secondary records” for information. While census records can be incorrect and information that’s secondary can be suspect, sometimes it is all that we have. My ancestor, Ellen Butler was born in Missouri in the 1850s. Her family moved frequently, did not attend any church that kept records, there is no family bible that I can find, and she died before there was vital registration of deaths as well. While I keep looking for a “better source” of information, there’s probably never going to be anything other than a few of census enumerations to estimate her year of birth. Of course census records can be […]
Are all cousins created equally? Do you think about how your cousins connect to your ancestors–not just how they connect to you? One set of my great-great-grandparents has an oldest great-great-grandchild born in 1944 (not me). The youngest great-great-grandchild (I think) was born in 2006. That’s sixty two years and the oldest great-great-grandchild is old enough to be the grandparent of the youngest one. But the one born in 1944 and the one born in 2006 both have the probability of having the same amount of DNA of the great-great-grandparents they share. The age difference does not matter. It is the generational difference that matters. If you’re thinking about having a cousin do a DNA test, think about one who is closer generationally to your common ancestor. It […]
When I’m stuck on a family, I ask myself: am I sure I have found all the easy ones? Sometimes I have and then the work is more difficult. But other times there are easier members of the family to find and sometimes finding those individuals can provide me with additional information to help find the others. These “easy pickings” include: These approaches won’t always work. No approach always works. But it’s always good to ask if there’s a close relative to your “problem person” who might have left better records. Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here and it’s not written to help you research your “famous ancestors.” It’s written to help with all of them. Learn more about it and get your own copy.
There is no date listed for the estate sale of Thomas J. Rampley in Coshocton County, Ohio. However, a review of other materials recorded with that estate sale suggested the date of the sale was August or September of 1823. The precise date was not crucial to my personal research, but if it had contained the last reference to Christianna Rampley, Thomas’ wife, then it would have been. Because I inferred the date of the sale from other records, I need to include that reasoning somewhere when I use it. That’s what was done on the image that is a part of this post. My citation is not perfect (it’s missing the date I downloaded the image), but other key elements are there even if the format and […]
Say you have a DNA match that you cannot figure out your connection with. You determine some of this match’s ancestry and some of their relatives. You just can’t see where it connects to you, but you put these people in your database. They are all connected to each other, but the genealogical connection to you (evidenced by DNA) has not yet been determined. That match and their relatives are called by some a “floating branch.” Basically it’s relatives in your database whose connection to you has not been yet determined even though they share DNA with you.
Do you have data or genealogical information on old floppy disks? Have you tried to get that information off those disks into a more modern media format? As time goes on, there is an increased chance of data deterioration or equipment failure. These diskettes of my mom are at least twelve years old and probably older. Convert them while you still can. Local libraries may have readers you can use and they can be purchased relatively inexpensively online as well. Don’t wait. We’ll have an update after my reader arrives. Hopefully these diskettes are still readable.
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