I recently saw pictures of my grandparents’ former home. The exterior looked the same, but the inside had been significantly altered. It was fun to look inside the home, but the pictures generated no memories of my grandparents or the time I spent there. It was great to have a current picture of the home, but the pictures of the inside made it seem as if I was looking inside a home which I had never been in. It almost served as a metaphor for how genealogists have to look at information and people from the past. Certain things, like the exterior of my grandparents’ home, change little over time if they change at all. Other things, like the interior of my grandparents’ home, change quite a bit. […]
In genealogy, there are negative results and there is negative evidence. Negative results are when we search for someone in a record and fail to find them. Not finding a James Rampley in the Pike County, Illinois, 1870 census or in any land deeds in that county is a negative result. James was not found. Negative evidence is when the failure of someone to appear in a record tell us something about that person. Family history indicated that Jurgen Goldenstein was legally married to a woman named Jean upon his death in California in 1972. Jean was not named in Jurgen’s probate file as an heir. The failure of the probate case to list Jean as an heir suggests that she was not his wife at the time […]
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A few years ago, I digitized my photographic negatives. Some of the negatives were still in the envelopes they were returned in after processing with just one roll of film per envelope. In other cases, negatives from several rolls of film had been put in the same envelope to save space. In those situations it wasn’t always possible to tell which pictures were on the same original roll of film. What I wished I had done when I digitized my negatives was to create a number of folders in which to separate the images. Each negative strip could have its own folder so that I know which pictures were taken at approximately the same time. If I have an envelope with just a few negative strips in it […]
Even if you are not inclined to have a professional researcher help you with your genealogy problem, pretend that you were. What would you ask them? What would you share with them? Think about: Those pieces of information will help the professional to help you. Think of it as how you would prepare to get help from non-genealogy professionals. When I met a lawyer to do some estate planning, I thought about what I wanted done, had documentation of things I owned, had made a list of questions that were both general in nature and applied to my situation, When I had the plumber come to do some work in the kitchen I at the very least cleaned out the area where the work would be done so […]
We’re having a sale on More Genealogy Tip of the Day until 11:50 pm PST on 10 May 2025–$25 (US addresses only). This is $10 off our regular price and includes shipping. This is the best sale on the book we have and is less than the Amazon price! There’s more detail about the book on our announcement page, but come back here to make the purchase.
I had researched the late 19th and very early 20th century birth ledgers of my home county for several years before I realized what they were: transcriptions of the original birth certificates submitted by the attending physical, midwife, or occasionally parents. What was contained in those early ledgers was a handwritten copy of the certificate. I also discovered that in the early days of recording births in my county, the certificates were mailed or taken to the courthouse where they were retained and the information written in the ledger. This meant that technically during this time period, the ledger was a derivative source–because it was derived from the original certificate. That does not mean there were incorrect transcriptions in the ledger, but just the potential. In some cases, […]
Do you keep track of every address your ancestor had? Most genealogical software packages allow the tracking of residential addresses, but a spreadsheet or table in a word processing document can also be used to organize address details. Converting addresses to their modern equivalents (they do change over time) can give you a pictorial representation of their migration or lack thereof. Addresses can be particularly helpful for urban dwellers as moves may potentially mean the family attended a new church or school (even if for a short time). Changes in address can mean the family went from being a renter to a property owner or vice versa.
From a while back… Read all notations on case files, reverse sides of documents, etc. Sometimes what is penciled on the bottom or reverse side of a document can be significant and may explain aspects of the record that are confusing. And sometimes scribblings can simply be filing notes or doodles. This notation on this case file packet likely indicated that on 1 June 1900 the case was dismissed. That may explain why no judgement was located in the record.
Repeated names can be clues to an ancestral name in an earlier generation. A clue–which is not the same thing as a fact. I realized in researching one ancestor that they had several first cousins who had the same middle name that they had. It was not proof that there was a family connection to someone with that name. It’s not evidence that they had a connection to someone with that name. It’s a clue. The name’s use could be due to a family connection. The name’s use could be because it was popular to use during the time. It could be the name of a person popular during the time whose name has fallen from use. It could be a coincidence. It’s up to the researcher to […]
Sorting DNA matches is a science, but it is an inexact one and sometimes requires a little bit of creativity in order to see the best way. What worked for DNA matches that were connected to my grandfather was to put matches into one of four groups (if I knew how they were related to me): To help with match analysis, I broke my Neill only matches into those who stayed in the same geographic area as my family and those who left and settled in Montana. The Montana families married into completely different families which makes the analysis easier. I do have three additional groups not shown here: Sometimes just sorting is helpful.
A good reminder… Abbreviations for place names can change over time. What is used for a location today may not be what was used one hundred years ago. Sometimes old forms fall out of use or governmental or postal regulations change the “standard” abbreviation. Some census takers or other record officials make their own abbreviations when they tire of writing the same location over and over. Self-made abbreviations may be unique to the creator and are best analyzed with local geographic names in mind. Sometimes two location can have the same abbreviation. In some US census records Canada and California are both abbreviated “Ca.” Others chose to abbreviate it as “Can.” And sometimes Indiana was abbreviated as “Ia.” Today that’s the state of Iowa. But if you see […]
We are still taking registrants on my two remaining group genealogy research trips–to Salt Lake City and Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Find out more here.
A bondsman on an executor’s or administrator’s bond is guaranteeing that if the executor or administrator of the estate runs off with the estate’s property without paying the bills of the estate that the court can come after the individuals who signed the executor’s or administrator’s bond. Generally speaking, if someone signed the bond your ancestor posted as an estate administrator, that bondsman trusted your ancestor enough to know that he wouldn’t run off leaving unpaid bills of the estate. And the judge knew that the bondsmen were “worth enough” to cover the value of the estate if the administrator defrauded the estate. The value of the bond represented what the bondsmen “were worth” to cover the estate–usually a multiple of the value of the estate. It was […]
There might have been more to your ancestor’s migration on the frontier than heading to new opportunities, cheaper land, and fewer nearby neighbors. Is it possible that your ancestor was migrating along with other members of the same denomination? The connection might not have been biological kin but instead spiritual brothers and sisters. Of course some of those spiritual brothers and sisters could have been biological relatives, but don’t discount religion as a common connection among migrants. One of my ancestral families migrated from Kentucky to Indiana then to Illinois and Iowa along with biological relatives and members of the same faith community.
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