If you are a subscriber to Casefile Clues, issue 5-23 is out. It analyzes an 1880 US census mortality schedule entry for a mother and son. Learn more about Casefile Clues on our website.
Did you know that in the 1880 US mortality census that the doctor of the deceased was supposed to confirm or correct the cause of death for everyone listed on the census? That form was on the back of the actual mortality schedule page. Just make certain to go to the next image to see it when viewing in online as most sites have put the back of the page on the next image.
Pre-1880 US census records do not indicate the relationship among and between various members of a household. Pre-1850 US census records do not even name everyone living in a household. It can be tempting to think that a household is husband/father and wife/mother with their children, but the reality is often different from that. The head of household may be a an unmarried person–widowed, never married, or occasionally divorced. They may have younger individuals who are in their household that are not their children, but perhaps step-children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, a foster/adopted child, another relative, or even hired help. Adult siblings, parents, in-laws, aunts/uncles, or grandparents may also be in the household. A household is a group of people who are living in the same house. Life circumstances, […]
This session will build on the concepts we saw in the initial Perplexity for Genealogy presentation. Topics include: · Automatically creating GedCom files from uploaded content including biographies, short family histories, and other records · More working with your own uploaded content in Spaces—this makes Perplexity use specific files or websites · Questions from attendees of our initial session Options: · Order immediate download for $21. · Order a download of the initial Preplexity for Genealogy presentation
If you’ve never read the instructions for the US federal census, they can be quite informative and helpful in interpreting answers your ancestor may have given. Census instructions can be viewd on the census.gov website:
This issue focused on an 1870 census enumeration. We took a look at the likely family structure, what it meant to be a farmer, and personal property. Learn more about the newsletter on our website.
If your ancestor owned real estate, make certain you have a record for how each piece of property left his ownership. Was it deeded in her will, sold for back taxes, sold before his death, quitclaimed by the heirs after her death? Each of these transactions has the potential to reveal significant information–particularly if the property was still owned by the ancestor at their demise.
All dogs bark. Things that bark grow on trees. Therefore, dogs grow on trees. Always read over your logic and reasoning used to reach a conclusion. Also make certain you understand definitions of words and the context in which they are used. Genealogical records are full of legal and esoteric words more nuanced than “bark” and it can be easy to confuse them. Avoid barking up the wrong genealogical tree–check your reasoning and your definitions.
For years, I struggled to find where a set of third great-grandparents ended up in Missouri after they left Illinois in the 1870s. The couple was in their early fifties, so it seemed to make sense to focus on locating their grown children. Tracking down their children who went to Missouri did not help as the parents could not be found in any of those locations. It ended up that they did follow relatives into a Missouri county where they had relatives. They ended up not living near one of their children, but near one my third great-grandmother’s sisters.
There are records that in addition to asking specific geographic or vital even details about a person inquire how long they have known someone or lived in a specific area. Always think about what this length of time means? For how long two individuals have been acquainted (which appear in pension applications and some court affidavits), think about where they were living when that acquaintainship started? How old were they when that acquaintainship started? The same thing goes for records that ask how long someone has lived in a specific area? Does that mean they lived there most of their life? Does that mean they lived there when they got married or when their children were born? “How long” can sometimes be a big clue.
An informant may provide several different bits of information on a death certificate. Keep in mind that their knowledge of the information provided may have varying levels of reliability. The informant may provide information about the deceased’s date and place of birth, parents, birth places of parents, and the deceased’s date and place of death. Their knowledge of some of those details may be more reliable than others. They may have actually met the parents of the deceased and knew them well or only heard about them once. What they thought was the place of birth of the parents of the deceased may have been where that person’s family was from or where the informant thought their family was from. And any informant can make a mistake.
Transcribing old estate inventories can be a challenge. The handwriting can be difficult to read. The spellings can be phonetic and sometimes based on a pronunciation that is foreign to a modern speaker of the same language. The items may be household or farm items that have not been used in centuries. Google searches will not resolve every difficult to transcribe item. While items can be listed in an estate inventory in any order, they are usually grouped–either by purpose of the item or where they were located on the property. This is more likely if you are using the estate inventory appraisal and not the list of estate items sold. The appraisal of the estate was more likely to be done by walking around the property. This […]
We’re offering a session of our US land records class starting on Sunday, 13 July. Details on our announcement page.
Federal land warrants (generally received by soldiers for pre-Civil War service) can be thought of as coupons that could be exhanged for a set acreage within the federal domain. The warrant was the payment for the property. Not all veterans actually used the warrant to recieve property in their own name. Many sold the warrants to others who then used the warrant to acquire property. The selling of that warrant would be evidenced by the assignment on the reverse of the warrant from the original recipient to the purchaser. That assignment would have to be acknowledged before a local official where the original warrantee lived. There could be a residential clue in that acknowledgement as the local official would indicate the county in which he was authorized to […]
Are you aware of the local geography where your ancestor lived? Having access to maps is a great help, but having a certain amount of information “in your head” can save time. For your city ancestors do you know the “name of the neighborhood” (if there was one)? Do you know names of nearby neighborhoods and towns? How close did your family live to the line that divided one city from another? For rural ancestors the same thing applies? What were the names of adjacent townships? How close were they to the county line? Did they live in a part of the county that had a nickname (perhaps based upon where most residents were originally from, a small post office, school, church, etc.)? These nicknames may not appear […]
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