If your ancestor obtained a United States military warrant which was used to acquire property in the federal domain, consider obtaining a copy of the application for the warrant. These applications are housed at the National Archives and should contain documentation of a soldier’s service. If the widow applied for a warrant after the soldier’s death she would have needed to prove her marriage also. Copies of the warrant applications can be requested through the National Archives. They are not online.
It can be hard to get transcription and writing variants on a new family where you have not located records before. To get ideas of potential handwriting variants and transcription mistakes, consider writing the name in a sloppy fashion and having someone else who does not know what the name is read it. This may give you some variations you had not thought to look for.
Many Americans obtained federal land, either through military warrants, homesteading, outright purchase, or several less-popular options. Federal land patents can be searched at the Bureau of Land Management website. The records documenting the acquisition are at the National Archives. The amount of genealogical detail in those records can vary, but cash land sales generally yield little in the way of additional information. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
In areas where real property is described in deeds using the metes and bounds, make certain you read that legal description of the property. While it may be tempting to gloss over the angles and lengths, the names of adjacent property owners could be helpful.
Never assume that your ancestor wouldn’t have attended “that church” because it was the “wrong” denomination. It is possible that your knowledge of your ancestor’s religion is not as accurate as you think it is or that the lack of a preacher of the right denomination caused someone to be married by a preacher who was “close enough.” In frontier times, people sometimes had to attend services of whatever what close–as long as the beliefs were relatively similar.
In Ancestry.com‘s “1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta,” the age of William H. Sartorius is transcribed as “88” instead of “38.” That’s enough of a difference that using any age or year of birth for him relatively close to the right one won’t find him. Consider removing any age-related information from your search and using other search terms instead.
There is still time to sign up. Please let me know if you signed up and did not receive your registration information. We are again offering my popular “Organizing Genealogy Information” class this June–starting later in the month. Additional details are contained in our blog post.
The early-19th century will of John Tinsley in Amherst County, Virginia, clearly indicated which child was to receive which piece of property. This was located early in my research when I did not know too much about records. For years I only used the will in my research. Later I discovered there was an accounting of all the receipts and disbursements that provided more information on a few of the children and better glimpse into the family’s financial state. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
When making digital copies of original records, I take notes on paper instead of using some sort of note taking software. Those notes (what I found, what I didn’t find, what I noticed, etc. ) are important and need to be kept with the images made from the actual records. My last step after I’ve made record images is to take a picture of my notes and put it in the same digital folder as the record images. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
When using original local records, indexes created by clerks are often the gateway to locating material. When making digital copies of these records, make a copy of the index as well as the records utilized. That way you will know you got everything and looked up all the relevant entries. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
The key word here is “may.” Widows in pension cases sometimes had difficulty proving their marriage to the veteran. Sometimes the only witnesses to the wedding would be relatives who had lived near them for their entire lives. Sometimes the witnesses would be children of the marriage who could testify to their age and use that as an approximation of when the veteran and the widow married. Look at how long the witness has known the widow in a pension application. Does it suggest that there might be a relationship? Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
If the names in a tax list or pre-1850 US census record are in rough alphabetical order (usually by just the first letter of the last name), proximity of names does not necessarily indicate near geographic neighbors. A list that is not in alphabetical order likely is organized geography.
We are again offering my popular “Organizing Genealogy Information” class this June–starting later in the month. Additional details are contained in our blog post.
“…corn in the hands of Jesse Cheney….” That’s a clue to an associate I missed when I read the document thirty years ago. Now I realize that this reference could suggest an extended member of the signer or holder of the note from this 1837 mortgage in Ohio. When was the last time you reviewed something you located years ago? Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
Before making a trip to a courthouse (or any records facility), plan ahead and find out the following things: days/time of operation copy charges and policies can cameras and cell phones be used in the facility? what about laptops or other electronic devices? what can be taken in the facility (paper and pencil only, no personal items, etc.)? are any records closed? If all you “information” needed to look up things is in your phone and you cannot take it in, that’s something you need to know beforehand. Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Try their “GenealogyBank Search” and see what discoveries you make.
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