Have you located your ancestor’s residence on fire insurance maps? Available in the United States starting in the nineteenth century, these maps cover large cities and often fairly small towns as well. You can learn what your ancestor’s residence was constructed of, the relative size of the home compared to the lot, neighboring structures, etc. The Library of Congress has more information on these maps on their website at http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn/. Other locations may have them as well. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
No history books for the location in which you are researching? Are there daily or weekly newspapers? Try reading a week or a month of newspapers for the time period of your brick wall genealogy problem. You should get ideas of what might have been impacting your ancestor’s life during the time period. The newspaper probably won’t mention your ancestor, but the perspective you get will be invaluable. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Did your ancestor include several codicils to his or her will, making specific changes or additions, but not desiring to go to the expense of completely revising the entire document? Those codicils may tell a story. One ancestor had four codicils to his will. All relate only to the inheritance to his daughter. Originally she is given a cash amount from her father’s estate. Later it is stipulated that her inheritance is not to go to pay her husband’s debts. Later it is to be put in trust for her and money to be set aside for her children. Finally a trustee is appointed to oversee the inheritance which is to go to the daughter’s two daughters. What is unstated is significant. The son-in-law has serious financial troubles, […]
How many sources do you need to “prove” a statement? There’s not a hard and fast answer to this question. It actually depends upon what sources are being used and where those sources got their information. Ten different family histories that make the same statement based upon an earlier family history do not count as 11 sources, they count as one. Let’s say those sources indicate a Revolutionary War veteran died in 1831. His widow’s pension application indicates he died in 1837. While there are always exceptions, this case would likely be one where the one source outweighs all the others. The widow’s pension application is more likely to be correct than family histories published several lifetimes later. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day […]
Most adoptions before 1900 were informal. There were no official records of the adoption–a neighboring family simply took the child into their home. The child may have had some biological connection to the family or the child may not. The child, if “adopted” at an older age may even have known who his biological parents were, or what his or her last name was. Or he might have had no idea. There were few rules because the adoptions were not done through any legal process. The names a person used might have varied as well. I know of instances where the “adoptee” at various times used their birth mother’s last name, their father’s last name, and the last name of the adoptive parents. Of course, not all adoptees […]
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Look at that location you just entered into your database. Do you have it spelled correctly? Do you have it in the right jurisdictions? It is known by any other names? Has it been a part of more than one country or region? What languages are spoken in that place? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When your ancestor answered questions for that marriage application, birth certificate, census, social security application, etc, remember that they might not have realized that in one or two hundred years a descendant would be analyzing that one response in great detail. They might never have realized that giving a wrong answer would create so much frustration later on and the records clerk might not have thought that sloppy handwriting decades later would be an issue. All individuals involved might have thought the record would be filed away and never looked at again. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
A guardian ad litem is typically a guardian that is appointed for a person for a very specific purpose. In many cases, this type of guardian is appointed with the minor is being sued for some reason, typically because they are an heir to some property that is a part of the lawsuit. If there’s a title dispute to real owned by a deceased person, there may be minor heirs of that person who technically are part of the suit. They may never have had guardians appointed. The judge may appoint a guardian ad litem for the minor to make certain the minor’s interests are represented. The guardian’s only function usually involves the specific court case and the appointment is usually temporary. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for […]
Recently I’ve been using 1890 era city directories to fill in some gaps during that time period in my research. Directories can augment what is found in census records. While directories do not mention every person living in the household, they can list widows (and who their deceased husbands were) and may indicate adult children living in the household and where they work. Directories may also give more specific information regarding place of employment than the census. Census records frequent just list the type of work–a directory may name the employer specifically. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Your relative gave a records clerk the name of the village in Europe where he or she was born. The records clerk did not know how to spell the name of the village. Your ancestor might not even have been certain how to spell the name of the village. The records clerk was unfamiliar with where your ancestor was from. The clerk simply spelled the word your ancestor gave him as best the clerk could spell it. So your German ancestor’s village of birth got spelled the way an English speaker thought it should be spelled. If you are having trouble finding a village, you need to think about the way the word that was written was said. Then try and discover how that would have been spelled […]
Is it possible that your ancestor spent some time at the county poor farm, almshouse, or workhouse? If so, those records may shed some light on your ancestor. And if they died at the poor farm, they might have been buried there–frequently in an unmarked grave. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Sometimes records do not make the family structure obvious. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out which mother is the mother of what children when the father has had more than one wife. Sometimes it is not immediately known who are the children of which father. In cases such as these, before putting the relationships in your database, sketch them out on paper in an attempt to get things straight. Or, write up the information in a word processing document. There are families where putting the family structure in your database may simply have to wait. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Keep in mind that the census taker just wrote down what he was told. The person did not have to prove anything they were saying. The person providing the information could have been an older child or a neighbor who happened to be home when the residents at the specific dwelling were not. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you have a family heirloom or keepsake, try and determine who in the family first owned the item, how they obtained it, who made it, and how it has been passed down to the present day owner. Recording the history now is an excellent idea and searching for information about the heirloom may provide you with more genealogical information on your family. The item can be as commonplace as grandpa’s horse collar (I have one) or as unique as a fancy piece of jewelry. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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