When was the last time you backed up your digital images and files? I realized today that I have a variety of photos taken around the time my mother passed away nearly five months ago that I have not saved anywhere other than my phone. When I charged my phone today it acted a little strange and I became concerned that something was wrong with it. Before I did anything else, I made certain I had moved those pictures to at least two other locations so that my pictures were safe. Don’t wait.
No matter how “odd” you think a name is, remember that there may be others with a very similar name. I have an uncle born in Germany in the 1850s whose name was Tamme Focken Tammen. He has first and second cousins named Tamme C. Tammen, Tamme Focken Tammen, Focke Tammen Tammen, etc. They were born at approximately the same time and in some cases settled in close proximity to each other and can be very easy to confuse. What you think is rare may not be.
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Whenever you find a minister associated with your family–be it on a marriage record or a funeral notice–determine with what church he was affiliated. Googling his name may be helpful in this regard, but don’t rely on it 100%. The church may have additional records on your ancestor, particularly if they were married in the church or buried from the church.
The best way to determine if the database works the way you think it does (and if you know how to use all the search features), is to search for someone you think is in there and see if you can find them. Here’s a couple of recent “problems” that I had: “An Estate With No Name“ “Are Focke, Fokke, and Fakke Similar?“
If your widowed ancestor was appointed the administrator of her deceased husband’s estate, who were her bondsmen? They could have been her sons, other relatives, or someone else who knew she could be trusted to handle the affairs appropriately. If you’ve never thought about those names on the bond, do so. There could be a relative hiding in that bond.
I’ve just finished up More on the Probate Materials on Ancestry.com (order here). I really enjoyed giving my first presentation on the probate materials on Ancestry.com and learned a lot doing it. Now that I’ve had time to get into the materials more deeply and have had questions from attendees, viewers, and blog readers, we continued our discussion and discovery with “US Probate Materials on Ancestry.com Part II.” Part 2 will cover: Searching the unindexed probate materials at Ancestry.com–remember that the index on Ancestry.com only scratches the surface of what is on the site Navigating the several search boxes and inventory interfaces Making certain you have gotten all the probate references for your person of interest that are on Ancestry.com Determining what additional may be on microfilm at FamilySearchand onsite at the courthouse Comparing Ancestry.com‘s coverage with that on FamilySearch. Ancestry.com does […]
When using foreign language records, make certain you know the gender of names with which you are unfamiliar. Ask someone who knows. Don’t just guess.
There is still time to join me for part two of my webinar series on the probate records on Ancestry.com. We are looking forward to continuing to see how to effectively and responsibly use the material in this collection–and to know what is not there as well as what is.
While it may seem odd that Grandma had to buy some of her deceased husband’s items at the estate sale, the law at the time may have required a sale. In some locations, state statute indicated the amount of household property and specific items to which the widow was entitled. If there were other things she wanted, she may have to pay for them outright or purchase them at auction.
My webinar on the probate materials on Ancestry.com was a great success. Now that I’ve had time to get into the materials more deeply and have had questions from attendees, viewers, and blog readers, I’m ready to continue our discussion and discovery with “US Probate Materials on Ancestry.com Part II.” This session will be held on 11 September at 11:00 am. central time. Those who do not attend live can pre-order a recorded copy of the presentation. Part 2 will cover: Searching the unindexed probate materials at Ancestry.com–remember that the index on Ancestry.com only scratches the surface of what is on the site Navigating the several search boxes and inventory interfaces Making certain you have gotten all the probate references for your person of interest that are on Ancestry.com Determining what additional may be […]
When I read the 1864 will of an immigrant relative I made some assumptions about his immigration and life. When I re-read the will, remembered how old he was at the time I realized that those assumptions were not really justified. Have you taken a second look at any hasty assumptions you may have made? Sometimes it can be difficult to get them out of our head.
We’ve just released recordings of our two new webinars: Original, Derivative, Primary, Secondary, Direct and Indirect, Evidence and Proof and More!: Troubles with Terms This session will look at just what is typically meant by these genealogical terms. Anyone’s research can benefit from an understanding of “proof” terminology, even if publishing in a journal is the furthest thing from your mind. Knowing the differences of these terms and when to use each one will improve your research skills and your ability to reach conclusions. Aimed for the advanced beginning or slightly more experienced researcher. Purchase for immediate download–handout and presentation included. US Problem-Solving Outside New England Before 1850 There are several challenges to researching families outside of New England before 1850. There simply are not the […]
Abstracts pick and choose key elements of a document, without transcribing anything word for word. Extracts pick out short sections of a document, transcribing those sections verbatim. Transcriptions of a document include the entire document copied verbatim. Abstracts, extracts, and transcriptions serve different purposes. Make certain you know which one you are using.
When downloading images from a website that hosts digital images of records, do you include information about where the image originally came from? Generally speaking, you should include: Book from which image came Page number Author of book or creator of original record book County/State of record office–if a local record database that had the image website that hosted the database date of download These items are a great start.
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