Ancestors do not live in isolation–after all, that’s how they come to have descendants. But it never ceases to amaze me how often extended family members migrate to where others from their family have settled. Siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. In my own research it is rare for me to have an immigrant settle where absolutely no one from their family had already settled or eventually followed. The followers, particularly if they were the immigrants nieces or nephews may have arrived fifty years later, but the often eventually made their way across the pond. It was not just immigrants to a new country who tended to follow this pattern. Migrants across the United States often did the same thing. And if the other settlers were not […]
It is one thing to get your autosomal DNA results back and see a new first cousin, half-sibling, etc. That can be a surprise. But have you reached out to any of your siblings, first and second cousins, etc. to see if they have done an autosomal DNA test? If they have tested at the same company as you, then they should show up on your results list. Relatives that close, if they have an autosomal test at the same company as you, should show up on your results list. If they do not, there is a puzzle to be solved.
Transcribing wills, deeds, and other records is not done to create book work for genealogists. Even if records are obtained in digital image format, it is often easier to work with the text of a document. Transcription also helps the transcriber to notice more details contained in that document–particularly “little words” that can have significant meaning. Those small words can be easy to overlook when one just does a silent reading of a docuement. It is also easier to search the text of documents for key names, places, etc. when those documents have been typed. Take a look at what is on my genealogy bookshelf.
For your “brick wall” ancestor, do you know (or have any idea) how far they lived from: the county seat? the nearest church of their denomination? the nearest place they could get supplies or transact necessary business? the nearest “big city?” their nearest neighbor? the cemetery? the location where the nearest newspaper was published? a major river? The list here is not exclusive. If you’ve got no idea of the answers to these questions, determining those answers may help you solve your problem. Take a look at what is on my genealogy bookshelf.
The grantor on a deed is the person who is transferring their interest in the property to someone else. That person receiving the grantor’s title is the grantee. Deeds can have more than one grantor and more than one grantee. Deeds are usually local records–typically created at the county or town level (depending upon the location). There is usually a grantor’s index to the grantors and a grantee’s index to the grantees. Always make certain you are in the correct index–depending on whether you are looking for someone who is selling or someone who is buying (or receiving) property.
A 1792 deposition in an Amherst County, Virginia, court case refers to someone as acting as a “factor” for someone else. This usually means that they were authorized to sell goods for that person. In this case George Lambert had been authorized to sell goods for Peter McCarnon. This term has generally falled from usage.
If you are having difficulty transcribing place names in virtually any record used for your genealogy research, use maps of the location where the record was created (and surrounding areas) to help you determine those locations you cannot read. Sometimes letters or phrases are written so poorly that Google searches and other techiques do not help. Of course, this approach does not really help if the person moved around a great deal, but for those who stayed in the same general area, contemporary maps may assist you in transcribing those difficult to read place names.
Cataloging and titling things can be tricky, particularly when the items are unique manuscript items–diaries, letters, personal papers. Titles and descriptions of those things I always take with a grain of salt because I know that it can be difficult sometimes to categorize one-of-a-kind items. But titles can be wrong even with more standard records. Ancestry.com recently announced a database titled, “Iowa, U.S., Delayed Birth Records, 1856-1944.” Because of the title, I almost did not search it. My parents were born at the end of the year span covered, but I knew they did not have a delayed birth record. I went ahead and searched the database anyway. My parents were both in the database–with certificates recorded very promptly after their births and no “delayed” registration information included. […]
It can be tempting to transcribe a document one word at a time without moving on until each word or item has been transcribed. That can be a mistake a drain on your time. Sometimes things that are confusing on a first read will become clear when the entire document has been read or even when other pages in the same set of documents have been reviewed. Leave a space or [—] for those items that are seemingly illegible. Two or three hundred words later, it may make perfect sense.
I had a relative who wrote a memoir that extended from his childhood through his mid-thirties. It was a mixture of his personal experiences with some remembrances of family members thrown in. The problem was that, for one reason or another known only to himself, he ended up fictionalizing in several places. It is difficult to know where the truth ends and creative writing begins. It is like that with some family stories as well. Fiction gets added to make an ancestor sound a little more adventurous than she was. Your aunt thinks her life was dull so she adds a romantic adventure–complete with husband–that never took place. Your uncle’s memory begins to fade as he ages. Always write down the story as it was told to you–including […]
This is your periodic reminder: Do you have family history items where your copy is the only copy? Make digital images of the item. Write up the history of the item. Share those with people who are interested–or may be interested. Try and find a way to preserve the item long term, including who will have possession of it after you have left this existence. If you can’t think of someone who would be interested, it is all the more important that those digital images and written up history of the item be shared with those who have an interest in family history but may not be able to keep the physical item.
Do not assume that men listed as Senior and Junior had to be father and son. Sometimes the notation was used to separate out two men of the same name–whether they were related or not. The court deposition from Amherst County, Virginia, in the 1790s indicated that John Sledd, Junior, ,was in fact the son of John Sledd, Senior. But there are times when Junior and Senior are simply two guys in the same area with the same name and the neighbors want to distinguish them from each other–and use age as the way to do that.
Compiling the family tree of a DNA match to determine the relationship they have with you is necessary when the match is one in which you, for one reason of another, have an interest. Just make certain you are taking your time and compiling the tree as accurately as you can–especially in terms of the biological relationships. Relying too much on one type of source (particularly obituaries) can increase the probability that compiled tree you create has non-biological relationships in it. Obituaries and some other newspaper social announcements may indicate the relationship between two people is a parent-child relationship when it fact it is not. The most frequent relationships that falls into this category is a step-parent relationship. If you’ve got the child’s step-father in your tree as […]
There are any number of movies where a key scene involves someone “getting across the county line” so they will not be arrested. While genealogists are not usually worried about being arrested or directing movies, the fact that things change when you cross the line is one to remember. Crossing any political line, including whether it be one of county, state, province, territory, or nation, may mean that the laws and recordkeeping system may change. In some cases, the change can be significant. Even when crossing states/provincial lines, the laws regarding what is recorded and how it is recorded may change. Learn about the new area’s records before you assume that Virginia in 1760 is just like Nebraska in 1860. That’s something of an extreme example, but it […]
In frontier areas, when livestock roamed without fences, farmers often had their own peculiar notch they used to identify their hogs or cattle. Records of these notches may be found at the local courthouse, recorded with other public records. In areas where branding livestock was a common practice, one may find records of brands. At the very least the image makes for a nice illustration. In Fleming County, Kentucky, in the 1810s, a neighbor stole a hog belonging to one of my ancestors. It was taken to a neighbor’s home where it was butchered and the head was left in the barn. The identification of the hog was done because it had my ancestor’s notch in the ear.
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