There are a variety of ways school could give you clues to your family. Old pictures of a school a relative attended could help jog their memory of school and other events and people. Knowing where someone attended school as a child could help find the family in a census or local church records, particularly for urban ancestors. And you could always document a chronology of school attendance as well.
An uncle of mine died in the 1860s leaving no descendants and his siblings or the children of his deceased siblings as his heirs. The administrator of his estate was someone whose name I did not recognize and someone whose name also did not appear among the list of heirs. After much research, I discovered that the administrator was married to one of the daughters of an heir of the estate–making him a nephew-in-law. I had initially thought he was a creditor of the deceased as those individuals sometimes get appointed to settle up the estate. That was not the case here as the administrator’s name did not appear on the list of individuals to whom my recently deceased uncle owed money. He was a relative by marriage […]
We are offering a 20% discount on my new “Errors in Records” webinar or the 1950 census webinar. Details are on our page–the coupon has been extended through today–despite what it says on the announcement page.
It is important somewhere to keep track of your research logic as you progress. Otherwise you might not remember “why” you are researching a certain person or why you concluded a specific reference was a match to your person of interest. It is especially helpful to track those reasons when the record you think is your person may not be so obvious later. I decided an 1850 census reference was to the person I was searching and who I had located in a 1870 census entry and other post-1870 records. The person could not be found in 1860 despite repeated, documented attempts. My research then continued with discoveries on the guy who was in the 1850 census, including details I had located on the wife of the 1850 […]
If you are unfamiliar with how wildcard and sound-based searches work on a website, then what you should do first is practice. Find an entry in the database and determine if you can find it using wildcards. It’s key that you know the entry is in the database before you practice. Wildcard information for some genealogy sites: FamilySearch Ancestry.com GenealogyBank
The recording of this presentation is now available. Additional details are on our announcement page.
I ran across a reference to a Hessian soldier whose last name was Trautvetter. He may or may not be connected to my family. But the moment I locate this and download the information to my own media, I also need to put this information in my genealogical database–even if I do not know how he is related. Otherwise I might forget I found it, not be able to locate it, etc. Johann Frederich Jacob Trautvetter can be entered in as an unrelated individual in my file. I can enter his biographical data, sourcing where I found it–and be certain to include his military service as a Hessian solder as that may make it easier to find him in my database later. Because he will be a sea […]
I’m looking for a woman named Wilhelmina Senf who immigrated to the United States between 1846 and 1852. Sometimes her first name is rendered as Mina and sometimes her last name is spelled Senf, Serf, Senft, Serft, Zenf, Zerf, Zenft, Zerft, etc. I need to make certain that my searches are covering all these possible variations of her name. To do that I made a chart with the name variants spelled out. The problem is that soundex and “sounds like” options for Senf may not catch all the variants that begin with an “S.” The same thing is true for the variants that start with a “Z.” The “n” being read as an “r” creates that problem. I also need to make certain that while she’s usually listed […]
I may never find the US passenger list entries for Wilhelmine (Trautvetter) Zenf and her children, but it will not be for lack of trying. It will also not be because I did not keep track of the entries that were eliminated from consideration. To keep myself from looking at the same entry over and over (easy to do if one is using several different websites to search passenger lists), I’ve made a chart that summarizes the entry and why I eliminated it as being Wilhelmine or her children. The reason is important. That way if I discover what I “know” about the family is wrong, I can easily review my previous conclusions and look again at those entries that may now match what I know. Additional columns […]
Files of loose court papers are frequently out of order. If you are having difficulty understanding the case being tried, organize the papers chronologically. After that, extract every date listed in the papers and create a chronology. That may help you to understand what lead up to the case and how it played out. Organization of the papers may also suggest there are some holes in your understanding. Either way, you have made progress in your understanding of the case. For court records it also can be helpful to begin your work by looking at the initial filing of plaintiff and defendant in addition to the conclusions that were reached. All of those items (if available) will help provide a broad overview. This is also a good idea […]
I will be presenting this online session on Monday, 1 November at 1 pm eastern time (download option available for those who can’t attend at that time). More details on our announcement page.
If a tombstone provides a date of death and an age at death, a date of birth can be calculated. When a date of birth is calculated in this fashion, make certain to indicate that the tombstone was the source and that the exact date of birth was calculated. That way if better records of the date of birth are obtained that slightly differ, you will know that the “stone date” came from a date of death and an age–it is always possible that the person who determined the precise age did their math incorrectly or that the inscription was incorrect. Always cite the source.
Ok, so it’s not just a genealogy tip. Our laptop is on the fritz and my daughter wanted to use the desktop. I was forced to read some homestead case files without the internet and email as a distraction. And guess what? I noticed three things I had not noticed the first time I read through the papers. The first time I had read them while I was “waiting” on webpages or search results to load. Is multitasking your problem? Would you notice more details in a record or a file if it had your complete attention?
A cousin graciously shared with me a copy of a relative’s pension file that another cousin had shared with her. I was very glad to get it. The relative of the cousin received the file from the National Archives years ago. I wondered if the National Archives had sent her the entire file as it looked like the original copies were made in the days when mail in requests were for “selected documents.” Turns out there was at least one page the relative was not sent. In this case, the missing document was not a “huge” discovery, but sometimes it can be.
If you’ve set up Ebay searches for your genealogy research, don’t just accept the results in your email if they are not meeting your needs. Refine the search if necessary. I noticed that my results for the name “Rampley” were giving me quite a few results for a medical forceps. I did not need these results. I still wanted to search all categories of items, but I chose to have any including the word “forceps” removed from my search. While there is always the chance that something I want has that word, I decided it was worth the risk to have it removed.
Recent Comments