When considering newspapers to search for ancestral references, it is important to remember how far away the newspaper was instead of where the county line was at. Newspapers in the nearest “big town” may have published items from the outlying area, including obituaries, death notices, and the occasional “locals” or gossip column. In researching my own ancestors in southern Hancock County, Illinois, I’ve had success locating them in newspapers published in the Iowa town across the Mississippi River, the county seat paper in the county to the south, and a few weekly papers published in the county to the south as well. There’s no doubt that the closer the newspaper’s location to your ancestor’s location, the more items it could contain about them. But ignoring nearby papers “across […]
Once a last name gets transcribed and entered in your genealogical database, it can become official even when it might not be. For some people, we may only have one written reference to their name–perhaps on a death certificate for a child. We transcribe that name and enter it in our database only to discover that we can find no reference to that person. Time marches on and we go to other ancestors. Years later when we revisit that ancestor, we still cannot find them. Could it be because that transcription we did of the name all those years ago was correct? Sometimes it pays to go back and review the actual record that provided us with a name or place of birth. The transcription we did originally […]
A reminder from 2018: Sometimes we may be tempted to “start over” on a genealogical problem. It’s hard to do that. You can’t unlearn what you think you have discovered and you can’t just forget the information that’s confused you–or at least the conclusions you came to from that information. What you can do is go back and double-check each fact or piece of data to see if you made a mistake. You can determine the source of each piece of data (creating a citation while you do it). You can reanalyze something to see you made an incorrect conclusion or inference. You can make a list of your assumptions. You can learn more about the time period, location, culture, applicable laws, etc. Don’t stress out about going […]
If that relative won’t talk about the past, ask them to share any old recipes they have. They may find talking about food less “intense” than answering family history questions and be more opening to sharing. A discussion of recipes or food in your family’s past may cause them to reveal some details they were initially reluctant to. Sometimes talking about food can get people’s memories stirring–increasing the chance they remember things they might not otherwise have. Try a Genealogy Search on GenealogyBank.
The oldest male child was always named for the father’s father. This seems to have been the “naming law” in many cultures according to various “naming patterns” one sees posted in various online genealogy groups and forums. Don’t misunderstand. Children were often named for relatives and some ethnic groups practiced such traditions. But do not assume that the second son is always named for the mother’s father or any of the other “rules” that are sometimes quoted. There are always exceptions even in families with a strong sense of tradition and their heritage. Children are named for baptismal sponsors in some cases and not for a specific relative based on birth order. A certain relative may be disliked so vehemently that parents refuse to use the name for […]
If there is no divorce record of your ancestor and you think they got divorced, consider that they may have never legally gotten divorced. If that’s the case, make certain you have exhausted all records on the “divorcing” ancestor. If they owned real estate, check all the land records as the spouse may have had to waive various rights to the property before it could be sold if they were still married. A purchaser is going to want to have clear title. If they were divorced or single at the time of the sale, the deed may reference their marital status at the time of the transaction. Check for probate records on both members of the “divorcing” couple. If the couple were still legally married, a surviving spouse […]
Always pay close attention to the person who was appointed to be the administrator of the estate of a man who died with a wife and young children. If the person is not clearly a relative of the deceased individual, it very likely is a biological relative of the wife–or perhaps her second husband. And if there is a will and the wife is appointed executor, look carefully at who signed her bond. Those bondsmen were often relatives of the widow. Try a Genealogy Search on GenealogyBank.
From August of 2018: The edges of a document can often contain clues just as significant as those in the main body of a document. Clerks may squeeze in additional text for legal reasons, pastors may squeeze in parenthetical comments about a parishioner, etc. Sometimes the edges themselves can be a clue. Many times when documents are digitized or microfilmed, it may not be crystal clear which “front” goes with which “back.” That determination can be difficult when the documents are a variety of sizes, blank sides aren’t digitized, etc. And there are times when knowing which “front” goes with which “back” is essential to completely analyzing and interpreting the document. This relinquishment from a homestead application in Nebraska was one of those documents. Comparing the edges made […]
It’s unlikely your forebears considered themselves “stressed out.” That phrase is a relatively modern one. But what might be a good idea to get some perspective on your ancestor is to pick a year and think about what events might have happened in their life. Did a parent also die the year they married and had their first child? Did their husband, sister, and father both die within a few months of each other (from separate illnesses–which happened to my great-great-grandmother in 1913). Did their mother die from cancer three weeks before they lost their last child in childbirth (as happened to my grandmother)? Think about what else might have been going on in your ancestor’s life or what events might have happened in close proximity to each […]
Is there a word or a phrase that you think you know the meaning of but which you have not actually looked at a definition for in ages? Is it possible that the word does not mean exactly what you think it does? Having an incorrect definition in your head could be why there is a brick wall in your tree?
Sites that allow for “soundex searches” will return results that “sound like” the name that has been entered in the search box. A search for the last name of Neill with the soundex option included will return not only Neill, but also Neal, Neil, Nowell, Newell, and similar names. It will not return O’Neill, MacNeill, Netil or other names that “sound” different. The coding for how soundex works basically looks at the initial letter of the name, omits the letters a, e, i, o, u, y, w, and h, ignores double letters, and only is concerned with the three sounds past the first letter (if the name has three sounds past the first three letters). Those sounds are given codes based on 6 letter groups as shown: Number […]
A “hint” on a relative indicated they were potentially included in a 1940s era high school yearbook from New York State. The name was relatively uncommon, but I had no evidence to indicate my actual relative (who was born in Illinois in the 1920s and moved to California after the second World War) ever was in New York State. Instead of trying to see if my relative went to New York, I tried to see if I could find the New York match in other records. Sure enough, there was an entirely other person living in New York State with the same name as my relative and who was born about the same time as my relative. Instead of trying to see if that “hint” or “match” could […]
A relative purchased property in Dawson County, Nebraska, in the 1880s. He died in the 1890s in Pike County, Illinois, still owning the property. He wrote a will that was probated in Illinois. In the mid-1940s, there was some legal action over the Nebraska property to clean up some title issues that were not apparently settled adequately when the relative died. Fifty years after he lived in Nebraska and fifty years after he died in Illinois, there was a land record in Nebraska that mentioned him, his estate, and his will in Illinois. Title issues to real estate are not always cleaned up immediately after a person dies. Usually they are, but occasionally a title searcher finds something that needs to be dealt with. And if that detail […]
Whenever you write any genealogical statement or conclusion, always read it again to make certain your intention is clear. You may know what you mean, but make certain that your written words reflect that same meaning. Otherwise you may do what I did and accidentally suggest that your mother was born the year she gave birth to you. A second read after the text has had a chance to “cool off” is a great way to catch these errors. And in some cases waiting until you have cooled off is good as well! You can still pre-order recordings of our webinars.
Clerks making record copies of documents often encounter errors or inconsistencies in the original record they are recording. In the days when transcriptions were made by hand (or by using a typewriter), clerks would often annotate such things. In the illustration, the typist has underlined known errors or inconsistencies in the original document. These notations used by clerks can vary–lines may have been written above questionable text as well. The clerk’s job was to transcribe the document exactly as it was written–errors and all. Don’t forget our webinars, on 29 September 2022. Join live or pre-order.
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