It was disappointing that the envelope was empty and I suspect it was saved for the stamp and the postmark. Upon posting it to the Facebook page for Genealogy Tip of the Day, a fan mentioned a Chilean earthquake that resulted in a tsunami that reached the Hawaiian Islands and she suggested that maybe the letter contained news of the impact on the islands. The details she provided made it easier for me to find online references to the earthquake and the damage. That was a history lesson for me. It was not even necessary to know about the incident to find out about it on a Google search. Entering “Hawaii May 1960” was all it took to discover websites that referenced the event. Do you Google dates […]
Despite lamentations to the contrary, the US Census is not taken to be a genealogical document. It is taken for a variety of governmental purposes and the data it contains is used by a host of governmental and private agencies. It is not meant to provide a genealogical record for future generations. No census was ever taken as a means of providing a genealogical record for the future. Public records may provide information of use to genealogists, but those records were created for other reasons. That information was asked for other reasons. Military records, land records, pension records, court records, probate materials, and other records generated by a government body were not created to leave a genealogical record. The census was not either. Instead of lamenting the details […]
Digital indexes to digitized records often take the searcher to the exact page where the searched for name is mentioned. Don’t assume that’s it. There could possibly be more. The “entry” for the person of interest could extend over multiple pages in the original ledger or record and those multiple pages could have been digitized separately. Information about the person of interest may be contained in subsequent images even though the person’s name was not on those images (and hence not indexed). When browsing actual records onsite or images online, make certain you keep going until you get to the next actual record. It may take several pages or images before that is done. Get your own copy of our book:Genealogy Tip of the Day
The name on the back of the photograph might not be of the individuals pictured on the reverse side. It could be the person to whom the photograph was to be given. My great-grandmother had several photographs of her son’s wedding that took place in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s. Every one of them had “Mom” written on the back. Some of them had “Mom U,” apparently indicated “Mother Ufkes.” A few of them did not. “Mom Ufkes” was in a few of the photographs, but not many. Since I had several of these pictures, the intent was easy to discern. But what if I had only had one of these pictures my great-grandmother had of her son’s wedding? I would have had no comparison and would have […]
You’ve seen the headlines or article titles online that are misleading or highly inaccurate. They tend to be similar to articles such as “Grandma Finds Shocking Surprise in Medical File Ten Years in Making” and it turns out she left a box of insurance claims in the closet where the ten-year old cat has started napping. While titles of genealogy databases are not quite that extreme, they can suggest that the database includes regions or time periods that it does not. Make certain that the database of Oklahoma marriages between 1900 and 1925 includes the county and time period that you need. Make certain that set of digital images of newspapers includes all issues during the time frame in which you are searching and not just images of […]
We never used the terms “Grandaunt” or “Granduncle” in my family. Uncles of my parents were almost always just referred to as “aunt” or “uncle” with “Great-aunt” or “Great-Uncle” being reserved as greetings on thank you notes or some sort of formal occasion. I knew many of my grandparents’ siblings and I never referred to them as anything other than aunt or uncle. We always knew to whom we were referring–with the exception of Aunt Ruth. There was my Auth Ruth Ufkes (my grandfather’s sister), my aunt Ruth Newman (my grandmother’s sister), and my Aunt Ruthie Ufkes (my grandfather’s sister-in-law). Of course there are technically correct uses of these terms: aunt/uncle for siblings of your parents, grandaunt/granduncle for siblings of your grandparents, and great-grand aunt/uncle for siblings of […]
I’m not exactly certain what name Grandma used to refer to her sister-in-law, but it always sounded to me like “See Dee Yuh” or something very close to that with the second syllable merged into the final one. There are some key concepts there: what Grandma actually said and what I actually heard. My interpretation of what she said may have been incorrect. The fact that Grandma only had a lower set of teeth might have made an impact as well. In hindsight I should have asked Grandma how to spell it. She would have known and she would have told me. I never did ask, but that would have answered the question then and there. In some families the answer might have been “I don’t know, I […]
Years ago, when I asked my great-aunt to identify some pictures for me, she indicated that she was surprised that two of the siblings were in the same picture with each other–let alone sitting next to each other. Documenting those things is a good idea. Even if you do not know the reason, the fact that there was a falling out between two individuals may be helpful to someone later. And if you are needing a reason to go through your old photographs, looking for pictures to see “who is in a picture together when I’m surprised they were in the same room” might get your genealogy gears turning. Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here and it’s not written to help you research your “famous ancestors.” It’s […]
When you have dates of birth for children of a couple, make certain they are listed in that order on all charts and reports where children are listed. That makes it easier to see gaps in the birth of children. Those gaps could be due generally to the fact that there was a time period where no pregnancies took place, children who died young, children who have been overlooked (because they lived with other families, moved away at a young age, etc.) or the mother having miscarriages. If you do not have dates of births or good estimates of the year of birth, determine if there are records that can allow you to determine anything about the order in which the children were born: year of first marriage, […]
Legally a last will and testament is to serve as a directive to transfer property (real and personal) that a person owns upon their death. Sometimes a testator may leave an item to a relative along with a mention of why. Sometimes a testator may indicate why a certain person was left no money or property in their will. The testator may mention a child and give them a token amount so that it is clear they were not left out. They may mention earlier amounts that were given or loaned to a specific heir and how those amounts are to be handled after the testator died. But a will is not a list of the heirs that the testator loved and the ones that the testator hated. […]
The title of the database is “YourFavoriteState Marriage Records 1820-1900.” Don’t assume the entire state or province is covered for the entire time period listed in the title. That range of years may start with the earliest record included and end with the last year of one record. There may be counties or areas whose records are extant and completely included in the database for the entire 1820-1900 time period. There may be counties whose records cover the entire 1820-1900 time period but where there are significant gaps. There may be counties whose records in the database only include 1830-1870. There may be counties that have no records included at all. It’s up to you to find out. That may be in the “more about” or Frequently Asked […]
We are offering a new section of our “US Land Records” class during April and May of 2020. Lectures are downloadable and can be viewed whenever. Discussions are online. Homework is optional. More details on our blog post.
When I’m stuck on a family, I ask myself: am I sure I have found all the easy ones? Sometimes I have and then the work is more difficult. But other times there are easier members of the family to find and sometimes finding those individuals can provide me with additional information to help find the others. These “easy pickings” include: Individuals whose name is less likely to be spelled wrong in a census. Children in a census whose ages are less likely to be off . A relative who was better set financially and left more records. A relative who received a military pension. A relative who was in a different social class and left better records. A relative who lived longer when perhaps better records were […]
Not all homestead applications in the United States were successful. Part of the process of completing the homestead application was to post a public notice that the claim was nearing completion–and often that notice was published in the newspaper. Homestead claims that were completed generated a land patent which transferred title to the claimant. Those patents are indexed on the Bureau of Land Management website (https://glorecords.blm.gov/ ). Claims that were not completed did not generate a patent and consequently do not appear in that website. Incomplete claims are generally not indexed. The incomplete files are at the National Archives and can contain significant information on your ancestor. One needs the location of where the property was located to obtain the incomplete claim records. If the incomplete claim got […]
Be careful “sorting” photographs that a deceased relative already had in separate envelopes or boxes. It can be tempting to organize them when you are beginning to identify them, but remember that re-sorting them may cause you to lose forever clues that were contained in that original sorting. If the original envelopes and boxes are not preservable, store them in the same way you found them. This old mailing envelope contained a whole cache of photos that were only partially identified. Fortunately most of them are individuals that I know. The envelope was one of several in my parents’ things. Every photo in the envelope was a relative of my paternal grandfather.
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