It can be easy to waste “research” time by mindlessly looking at online sites for one thing or another. Some ways to avoid these time wasting activities are: Chasing some research leads down those “rabbit holes” can be a good thing–sometimes. But it can be easy to waste an inordinate amount of time chasing after half-baked, uncooked leads on your computer, when you’ve got three perfectly good cookies sitting on the counter. The only problem is that you have to get off your chair to get them.
Corrected Links Presentations on farming ancestors tend to focus on those who owned real estate. It can be a challenge to research those farmers who rented their ground, worked as sharecroppers, or those who worked in agriculture as farm laborers. In this presentation we focus on these types of individuals. Farm renters, sharecroppers, and farm laborers tend to leave fewer records–we’ll focus on research strategies directed towards them. They can be challenging to research in a way that landowners are not.
From a while back. I’ve been searching local newspapers in Hancock County, Illinois, where I grew up and where most of my family has lived for generations–using telephone numbers to find classified ads placed by my parents and grandparents. I found the typical fare: eggs for sale, straw for sale (on the rack and bale your own), bulls for sale, etc. But I found several references to my parents phone number that I knew were errors including one for a Kiwanis breakfast and for inquiries on a home for sale. The references to my parents’ phone numbers in these cases were simply errors where likely two digits were switched (a transposition error) or a digit was keyed incorrectly. Before I get suggestions that these were actually references to […]
Presentations on farming ancestors tend to focus on those who owned real estate. It can be a challenge to research those farmers who rented their ground or those who worked in agriculture as farm laborers. In this presentation we focus on those two types of individuals. Farm renters and farm laborers tend to leave fewer records–we’ll focus on research strategies directed towards them. They can be challenging to research in a way that landowners are not.
If the ancestor is not in a set of records and you expected them to be in that set of records, then ask yourself: Join me for three days of research at the MidWest Genealogy Center. Download our Charts Webinar or our Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar.
Normally an ancestor has to be dead to have an estate settlement, has to be born to have a birth certificate, etc. Think about what really HAS to be when you research your ancestor. He didn’t have to get married to reproduce. He didn’t have to name his oldest son after his father. He didn’t have to get married near where his first child was born. He didn’t have to have a relative witness every document wrote. There are few “have tos” in genealogy. Make certain you aren’t using “have tos” to make brick walls for yourself.
Overwhelmed by common names like Smith or Jones in your family tree? This presentation offers advanced strategies and techniques to help you effectively use FamilySearch’s full-text search and find those elusive ancestors. Download immediately for $40. Save 30% if you use use code cyber2025 at checkout. Full-Texting the Smiths and Jones: Strategies for Common Names Using FamilySearch’s Full-Text search is easier when the name is relatively uncommon. It’s more of a challenge when the last name is Smith, Jones, Brown, or something similarly common. In this presentation, we will look at approaches to maximize the chance you find that common-named person. No approach is full-proof and we will not be so brazen to guarantee success. No genealogist should ever do that. What we will do is help give […]
It can be tempting to think that if one keeps looking and tries hard enough, that there’s “got to be” a document somewhere that answers all your questions. Sometimes. But most of the time there’s not. To be certain, I’ve found a page of court testimony that outlined the family relationships and military pension affidavits that answered many of my questions. But in most situations, determining the relationships required looking over all the snippets of information I had from a variety of records, analyzing those snippets, and trying to determine what they said in the aggregate. No clue is too small. There might be that one piece of paper in a courthouse that will answer all your questions, but likely there’s not. Chances are it’s quite a few […]
When using a record or source that is new to you, here are some things to think about to make the best use of it: There are other questions to ask about the record as you analyze the information it contains, but the answers to these questions will hopefully make your search easier. Download our Charts Webinar or our Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar.
I doubt if my second great-grandmother or her brother ever met their step-mother or the child she had with their father. Great-great-grandma and her brother were born in Germany in the 1840s and immigrated to the United States in the 1860s. In the 1870s, their father–who remained behind in Germany–married again and had a daughter. He died in the late 1870s and his widow and young daughter immigrated to America. The widow settled near her sons by a previous marriage and over a hundred miles from where the step-children she had never met lived. It’s unlikely they ever met and I’m doubtful they ever had any sort of relationship given the distance. The family of the brother and sister never knew what happened to their step-mother or their […]
Never change the order of any names in a document. Children could (but not necessarily) be listed in order of age in a will. If an older child is listed last in a census enumeration it may mean that they weren’t really living there or had moved back home (or it could just be an “error” on the part of the census taker). In a pre-1880 US census (with no relationships stated), those out-of-age-order children maybe married children and their spouses or other relatives. Heirs may be listed in order of age on a quit claim deed (or they may not). The order may be a clue, but try and use other documentation to back up any conclusions you make about the order. And remember that order, sometimes […]
Towns get renamed. Street names change. Some roads are moved. Some roads are closed entirely. Occasionally even rivers change their course. County lines get moved. Some geographic or physical political features that we think have always been a certain way have not. Use contemporary maps where possible. Determine if features or “landmarks” were always where they are now. Some location names may fade away over time–particularly if a location was known for a family that has moved from the area. My Grandma was born on what was known locally as the “Habben Corner” in 1924. I’ve even seen an occasional newspaper reference to the area by that name. Today that name has faded from use. Download our Charts Webinar or our Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Webinar.
Don’t let the fact that your genealogy isn’t “done” and isn’t “perfect” prevent you from publishing your compilation. Cite every source you have used, transcribe the documents accurately, report what they say (not what you wish they’d say), omit conjecture that has no basis, and summarize what you have found. No genealogy will ever be complete and there’s always the chance you miss something. Make certain you have used all sources that are available, not just the ones that are easy to access and not just the ones that are the easiest to understand. Realizing that it won’t be done and that it won’t be perfect doesn’t mean that you skim the surface of what is available and that you do a sloppy job. It’s just that perfection […]
This is not a tip about dating advice. It’s a reminder that in some locations and time periods, there simply are no records of specific dates of vital events. This can often be the case with births and deaths even when marriage records are available. While a marriage is considered a “vital event” by many, it technically is a contract between the two individuals getting married. For that reason, there may be records of marriages when birth and death records are not extant. The American South before the Civil War is one location and time period where it can be difficult to obtain precise dates of birth and death. The best that can be done is to have an estimate of when the person was born and when […]
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