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 […]
Many genealogists use Google to help with transcribing old documents. That’s not a bad idea, but remember that Google does not “know” everything and that while the boilerplate text of some legal documents can easily be interpreted with some help from Google, other documents are unique enough that Google won’t find another document transcription that will help. Google won’t locate every term in an old document to help you understand it either. Search old newspapers and full texts of old books for terms you cannot understand or find on Google. Start with newspapers local to the area in which the document was created and close to the time period in which it was created–if possible. Also search old maps and gazetteers to help transcribe those place names. Just […]
In addition to searching newspapers for names and locations, consider searching for addresses and phone numbers. For my rural ancestors, street addresses are usually not helpful. But during the time period when most people had a phone, searching for their phone number has been helpful in locating “background” details. I even got lucky and found one newspaper issue where both my paternal grandmother and my father had advertisements. You might even want to keep a list of known phone numbers for your relatives–including where you got the knowledge of the phone number. Local libraries, genealogical societies, and the like may have copies of old phone books to help you locate numbers.
Are you certain you have all the marriages for your ancestor? There may be a short-term marriage for that relative of which you are unaware. Make certain you have completely searched appropriate local vital records, newspapers (for mention of a marriage or a divorce), and court records. Pay particular attention to any notations regarding previous marriages on any marriage records you have located for the person of interest. For men, these marriages are easier to locate because their last names do not change at marriage–that makes it easier for us to sometimes not even bother to look for these marriages since there are not name issues. For women perhaps the reason you cannot find that 1920 marriage is because there was a 1915 marriage (and subsequent divorce) and […]
Tombstones that are “relatively modern” may be modified after the original inscription has been made. Death dates of spouses who were the last member of a couple to die are perhaps the most common addition, but other details may be added. My mother’s maiden name was added to her stone five years after she passed when we had our father’s date of death added to the stone.
While it’s not typical, it’s possible that your relative’s maiden name is on their tombstone. It’s also possible if your female ancestor was married more than once and buried with a spouse other than their last one that a subsequent married name is inscribed on their stone with their first husband.
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