If you are unable to physically visit an archives that holds the only copy of something you need, consider other ways to potentially access that information: call them, email them, write them a letter. Many archives will communicate with patrons who are unable to visit onsite. Recently I’ve obtained digital copies of materials by email communication with archival staff in Colorado and Nebraska. A few reminders: Be polite. Try and be specific in your request. Do not send rambling emails with extraneous information–the archivist is there to help you find a document not a solution to your personal problems. View online inventories and finding aids, if available. Use online indexes and databases, if available. Be patient–you are not the only patron. Images or copies of records may not […]
Some documents clearly state who was the informant. Many though do not provide this information. When considering the accuracy of information on any document, consider the probable informant and how likely they were to know the information being provided. Genealogy Tip of the Day is sponsored by GenealogyBank. Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors. What to do while waiting for your DNA test and results.
Just because a record is “official” does not mean that every detail it contains is correct. A death certificate probably has the date of death and burial correct, but the date and place of birth could easily be incorrect. And there is always the chance that a death record has the wrong date of death or place of burial. An official record does not guarantee the information is accurate. Remember that in most records, the information is only as accurate as the informant and that in most records information submitted came from someone’s mind and was not verified with another source or official record. Genealogy Tip of the Day is sponsored by GenealogyBank. Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors.
If you had relatives who were college graduates, have you contacted the school’s archives to see if they have information on your relative? You might not find a textbook like I did, but you never know until you try. Genealogy Tip of the Day is sponsored by GenealogyBank. Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors.
Recent research reminded me of the importance of recognizing assumptions and validating what you “think you know.” I knew cousin William Ehmen was a Lutheran minister in Nebraska in the 1880s. I just assumed that he attended seminary as “a young men” before he was married. Wrong. He did not go to seminary until he was in his late twenties, had been married for seven years, and was already a father. He worked for the railroad for a time in Illinois and I learned he had lived in Mendota for a while–I assumed it was because he was working there for the railroad. No. He was attending seminary at what is now Wartburg College in Iowa. In the 1870s it was located in Mendota, Illinois. I didn’t know […]
Name spellings that interchange vowels with consonants (or the other way around), usually create spellings that have a different soundex code. A Soundex search for Chaney will not catch the Chaney spelling. The exceptions are for names that have more than three separate consonant sounds after the initial letter. Letters after the third consonant sound (after the first letter) are ignored in Soundex searches.
Review your conclusions. Take a second look at material you compiled early in your research. Be willing to question research your “finished” years ago. Admit mistakes when you make them. It’s not the end of the world. You should want your research to be correct. Genealogy is not a crusade to show your first conclusion was right no matter what. We all learn as we research and sometimes we learn that our first conclusion was not right.
Bondsmen should know the person for whom they are signing a bond. They probably trust them as well–or at least they should. The residences of bondsmen are potential clues as to the general area where the person for whom they signed the bond lived. Depending upon what you know–that could be helpful. In 1903, Herman Haase had two men serve as his bondsmen on his bond. Herman lived nearly twenty miles from where the estate’s property was located. His bondsmen lived near him–not near where the property was located–because they knew him.
County borders are important, but they are not the only ones that can change. Borders for smaller political jurisdictions, such as cities and townships, can change as well. My “Pennsylvania problem” required a knowledge of when the townships changed. In my case it was those borders that was the problem, not the county ones.
It’s rare to get pictures in newspaper clipping from this era, but there’s one for Philip Troutfetter in this 1902 account of his exploits. The newspaper also includes a few statements that have never been located in other records. It also somewhat incorrectly characterizes how he got the money from his mother-in-law and he was never completely prosecuted on the charges. To date, we have not located information on his supposed correspondent’s columns from Cuba either. This newspaper item was located on GenealogyBank. Search NewsBank’s GenealogyBank for your ancestors.
People do not live in alphabetical order. When viewing earlier records, determine if the records have been put in rough alphabetical order. That strips some of the geographic residential clues that some records provide. The names in this 1800 census all live in the same township, but are not necessarily “close” neighbors as the names have been grouped by initial letter of the last name.
Genealogy Tip of the Day is proudly sponsored by GenealogyBank. Please check out their current offer for Genealogy Tip of the Day fans. GenealogyBank has improved their search features and interface. One of the nicest features is the ability to perform keyword searches on specific sets of recent obituaries from selected newspapers.
Sometimes a census record is all we have to indicate that an ancestor lived until a certain point in time and that enumeration is often used as a “last alive on” date. Whenever I see an unsourced death date of 1800, 1810, etc. for an ancestor in an online tree or any reference, I wonder: did someone enter his death date as “after 1800” and did someone (or their software) strip the “after” from that date? Several genealogists indicate that a relative died in 1800–no source. The last census in which he is recorded is 1800. While I don’t use these unsourced dates of death in my own records, I still wonder if there is any credence to the year of death they have. Did they find something […]
Not everyone who owned land lived on it. Deeds of sale and acquisition may indicate where the property owner actually lived. Some property tax records (if still extant) may indicate properties that were owned by non-residents. Heirs may own property even after they have left an area and, in the early days of settlement, speculators may acquire larger amounts of property in hopes of turning a profit.
If your ancestor owned property, he somehow acquired it. If there is no apparent deed for him in the index of records, consider the following possibilities: your relative inherited the property and there was no actual deed of acquisition–the will served as the deed your ancestor’s name was spelled really incorrectly on the deed–minor spelling issues aside, this was usually not the case your ancestor acquired the property via a patent–which somehow never was recorded your ancestor’s deed simply did not get in the index the county boundary changed and the acquisition records are recorded in the county where the property was located at the time it was acquired the deed never was recorded you overlooked it in the index
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