For readers of Genealogy Tip of the Day, we’re offering a half-off sale on my webinars–on 7 July only. Details on our webinar page.
That name on a photograph may be the person for whom it was intended (or who had it) and not a means of identifying who was in the actually in the picture. I’ve got a photo of my great-grandparents and their oldest son (my grandfather) taken around 1920. The name on the cover of the folder in which the picture was placed is that of my grandfather’s first cousin. There is nothing else written on the photograph anywhere. I only know who it is because I have a duplicate copy of the photograph another relative had that was identified. The illustration for this post is the name on the cover of the photograph.
A relative was found dead in a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel room in July of 1921 and depending upon who was telling the story the relative was either murdered or committed suicide. There were numerous articles about the relative in the Kansas City newspapers and in newspapers in western Illinois where the relative was from. Many of newspaper references contained repetitive content and I almost stopped reading new ones as they generally contained the same material. Except one in Kansas City in Septemer of 1921. It mentioned a girlfriend of the relative who apparently had married someone else shortly before my relative’s death. Of course the newspaper only referred to the girlfriend as “girlfriend.’ Fortunately her husband was named. It pays to read everything.
If you think you have ancestors involved in the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have several databases that may be helpful to your searches. Not all of these databases are of patriots. Some are of descendants who were memebers of the DAR or were people through whom a lineage to a patriot could be traced.
Libraries, archives, and historical societies do acquire new materials, digitize items that “you never thought they would,” or create new indexes or finding aids. If it’s been years since you looked at their catalog, viewed their website, or inquired about their collection, it might be time to do so. There may be something there that was not when you originally checked.
Casefile Clues issue 5-20 has been sent to subscribers. It analyzes an 1893 widow’s declaration for a Civil War pension. Learn more about Casefile Clues on our website, subscribe, and increase your genealogical analysis skills.
From a while back… There are other things one can do as well, including learning about the time period and location of the “lost person,” their religious affiliation, occupation, educational level, etc. Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here. Learn more about it and get your own copy. Your work may not be going as slowly as this turtle, but it may feel like it.
Due to a lack of vital records, I used a will from Virginia to estimate when the children of an ancestor were born. All of the details are too long for this tip, but essentially it hinged on the assumption that the children were listed from oldest to youngest in the will and the fifth child had to have been of the age of majority at the time the will was written (along with a few other assumptions). I wanted to put the estimated years of birth for these children in my genealogical database. A source needed to be included. But the will does not specifically say when any of the children are born. I’m making some assumptions about what is in the will to conclude approximately when […]
Do you document your ancestor’s church memberships? While there are people who are cradle to grave members of the same church, others are not. Moving may require an ancestor to change the church they attend even if the denomination remains the same. Philosophical differences with a pastor, staff member, or fellow church member may cause an ancestor to leave a congregation. The move may result in changing the denomination of which they are a member. And some ancestors get asked to leave their church for one reason or another. But documenting an ancestor’s church membership journey can be a worthwhile activity.
Subscribers to Casefile Clues should have their issue 5-19. It discusses a will from 1740s in Virginia. Learn more about Casefile Clues here.
From a while back.. For that missing (or not missing) ancestor, do you know where the nearest three of these buildings, geographic features, organizations, social groups, etc. were when your ancestor lived in the area. It could help you through those research road blocks. Things to think about include the nearest three: There are others besides these. In some cases. three may not be enough. In some cases it may be more than you need for effective research. Get your copy of Genealogy Tip of the Day–the book.
There’s a handwritten record copy of a will from the 1740s in Virginia where the name Catherine is consistently written “Cathering.” While the spelling could have been based on how the name was pronounced, it’s important to remember that the handwritten record copy of the will I was looking at was made by looking at the original handwritten copy. I do not know what that document looked like and it is no longer extant. So that handwriting I’m seeing in that copy of the will in a record book is the clerk’s rendition of how the original looked (or how he thought it looked). It’s a variant on the telephone game where a story is passed around a group of people and the final person hearing it tells […]
If you are fortunate enough to have Grandma’s high school or college yearbook, it still may be to your advantage to look at digital images of that same yearbook. It could be that Grandma wrote in her friend’s yearbook and that friend’s yearbook was the one that was digitized and put online. When digital images of yearbooks are posted online, those signatures and notes of “best wishes” are usually not indexed. You will have to search for them by hand–if you are lucky enough to find a digital copy with personalized notes.
Not everyone made an “X” as their mark when acknowledging a document and not literally signing their name. That’s what three of the individuals who signed a 1743 bond in Frederick County, Virginia, did. Margaret Thompson appeared to have made an “M,” Thomas Mills appeared to have made an “O,” and John Demos appeared to have made some form of an “I.” Of course the marks as shown in this image are not their actual marks. They are the clerk’s attempt to reproduce their marks when transcribing the document so slight liberties may have been taken. Just because they made their marks does not mean that they were illiterate. But the unique marks are helpful as they can help to distinguish individuals with the same or similar names.
When I digitize photographs, I do the front and then the back–of each and every picture. I do that even if the back is blank. Consistency is important. Then I know I have not left out a back of a photograph. I can tell this because I see a photo and then a non-photograph as the next image when viewing the images quickly. I always do the front first and then the back so that I know which front goes with which back. That’s important on photos like this. I can’t always tell my Dad from his brother in photographs, particularly if the image is small and somewhat blurry. This 1957 image of my Dad and his Angus calf was in my set of images–and there was a […]
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