When you cannot find a record in the expected location, ask yourself if you are really certain the event took place in that spot. Do you have good information to cause you to believe that or are you operating under a hunch? That hunch could be wrong. Did a couple go a distance from home to elope? Did your great-grandparents live in another state for a year and that’s where one child was born? Was great-grandma living with a daughter out of state when she died? The event may not have taken place where you think it did–especially if if happened one hundred years before you were born.
John Anton and John Willy appear on a list of delinquent tax payers for Scott County, Iowa, that was published in 1865. There are several genealogy reminders from this list and the image used to illustrate this post: Make certain you get everything. In this case, the headings for what the numbers represent is essential. This list, published in 1865, should be for 1864 taxes. John Anton Willy and John Willy could be the same person–or they could be different individuals. Notations on these lists, such as the “widow” notation after the name of Alex Wells, can be significant. Land records should be referenced. These individuals are probably listed as grantees on land deed–unless they inherited the property. They may or may not listed as grantors on subsequent […]
It’s important to take overview photographs at cemeteries to see the relative position of stones and not just get closeups of each stone. It’s important to take these photographs from several angles. The difficulty in some cemeteries can be keeping perspective and knowing just where you are at in each picture. Sometimes nearby stones can look very much alike. I was fortunate when I took pictures at the Dunkard Cemetery in Linn County, Iowa, that there were at least two stones that served as positional guides in most of my photographs. One was a ground-level round stone with a military flag next to it. Another was a large stone with a large shrub on the north side of it. At least one of these stones was in every […]
I’ll be giving a webinar on genealogy citation on 28 January–attend live or pre-order a recorded copy. Details are on our announcement page.
I’ve got all the buildings that were once there (I think), but my scale and positioning needs some work. Genealogists should always be looking for maps, but are there maps that we could create ourselves? Several of the buildings on my Grandma’s farm are no longer standing. The garage and the original house are gone–replaced with a shed and a larger home. The map I’ve made needs some work, but the essentials are there. It’s not just Grandma’s farm that could be drawn out or mapped. A map could be made of the rooms in the home you grew up in or what you remember of the interior of your Grandfather’s home. Digital images of actual pictures could be used to augment the map you have drawn. The […]
This image was used on the Genealogy Tip of the Day Facebook page as a reminder to not use “Grandpa” or similarly vague descriptions when identifying photographs. But when I looked at the footer I attached to the actual picture, I realized I could be more specific in the location than I was. I know exactly where the photograph was taken. Grandpa is standing on the west side of the barn that is in the northwest corner of their farmstead. The barn is still standing. I have the current address of the property and the legal description which I could put on the image as well (at least on my personal copies of it). Make certain to include as much geographic precision in a photo identification as you […]
In “Clearly State What It Is” we talked about citing a copy of a will that was found in my Grandmother’s personal papers. There are reasons to use it, even if an official copy is available at the records office. Sometimes it’s simply cheaper and more practical to use a copy of that type. But occasionally there are even better reasons. The copy my Grandmother had included her handwritten notes about the will (which I won’t reproduce here). The courthouse copy won’t include those notes. My citation for the complete image of the copy of the will my Grandmother had also includes a short bracketed comment: [handwritten commentary appears to be written by Ida (Trautvetter) Neill and was identified by Michael John Neill] That way someone later knows […]
My commentary on a digital copy of this 1983 will is not in proper citation form. That’s ok. The world will not end. However… It is important that my commentary or my own citation clearly indicate that the copy of the will that I have for my grandmother’s sister is the one that was in the collection of my Grandmother’s papers. I did not get it a copy of it directly (or indirectly) from the records of the court from where it was probated. I suspect the copy I have was sent to my Grandmother from the lawyer before it was admitted to probate as it does not contain information about when/where it was admitted to probate. If I cite this copy of the will in my records […]
It can be a pain and it can take time. But it can result in great discoveries–manually searching records. Indexes and finding aids fail. They are not perfect. Sometimes a person needs to go page by page in order to make certain that the record they want really is not there. Before you search page by page, there are some things to consider to increase the chance you actually find that person, you should determine: how the records were originally organized how the records are organized in the format you are using them (probably the same as when they were created, but it may be different) where your person should be in the records–probable residence for materials organized geographically, date of event for items organized chronologically) how complete […]
Copy the covering for any packet of loose papers from which you make copies. Citation will be much easier if you do and there may be clues on the cover you need later. The time to make the image/picture is when you have it.
Executors of an estate can be asked to post a bond. The value stated on the bond is related to the perceived inventoried value of the estate. Typically the bondsmen (or sureties) need to be of sufficient financial means to cover the value of the bond in case the executors mismanage the estate. If the executors execute their duties as they are supposed to, there is no problem for the bondsmen (or sureties). But if they do not, the court will come after them to cover the cost. Bondsmen (or sureties) for executors should trust the executors to do as instructed. If the executors do, the bondsmen are not out any cash or property. There were four bondsmen for the three executors of the John Ufkes estate in […]
From our Facebook page… Planning is fine, but there comes a point and you have to do. What was the last genealogy thing you preserved or shared? I’m not talking about sharing a “find” that was already preserved, but something you shared that wasn’t preserved…like a memory, a picture, or an image of a family heirloom. It’s great to share a census entry you’ve found with a relative. But those are already preserved in a variety of places. That picture you have of great-grandma weeding in the garden? That memory of great-uncle Herman driving the car through the back wall of the garage and crashing through to the neighbor’s kitchen? Those items might not be anywhere else but your box in the closet and the deeper recesses of […]
Today we’re told to store our files in the cloud as a means of backing up information in remote locations so that we always have a copy of it. Did newspapers function in the same way once upon a time? In some places, newspapers published summaries of land deeds…is it possible that the courthouse burned but there’s copies of those newspapers somewhere else? Was the birth of a child mentioned in the newspaper, but later adopted and those adoption records are now closed? Were the local court records destroyed but were some court details published in the local newspaper? Local gossip columns also seem to be a forerunner of social media.
Two babies one the award for “most recent baby” at the 1941 reunion of the fourth annual Trautvetter-Schlidmann reunion held in Hamilton, Illinois: Wayne Wells and Buddy Neil. Wayne Wells was determined to have been a Schildmann descendant. I already suspected who Buddy Neil was, but avoided jumping to conclusions. The only “Neil” family listed in the entire listing of attendees as “Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Neil[sic] and family.” Mrs. Neill was a Trautvetter descendant. It was consistent with the other double prizes that were apparently awarded one to a member of each family. Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Neill–actually Cecil Neill and the former Ida Trautvetter–did have a baby in April of 1941: Keith Neill. Keith is my father. I have never heard of him referred to as […]
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