“Near” relatives. That could be near in the geographic sense or near in the biological sense. Boston, Mass. and West Point, Illinois, are not geographically close. The obituary meant the sisters in Boston and the local niece were the only biologically close relatives the deceased had–not that they were the ones who lived nearby. Some words can have more than one meaning. Sometimes that is easy to forget.
We often use obituaries and biographies to create rough chronologies of our ancestors lives. This can help us search records. Keep in mind that obituaries and biographies may get details slightly out of order–enough to create confusion in the chronology. The father in a family may have died young before they moved out of state instead of after. The mother may have been the parent that died first instead of the father and the surviving spouse may have actually been the children’s step-mother instead of their mother. Keep yourself open to the possibility that there may be just one or two key statements in a biography or obituary that are slightly off. That can be all it takes to create a really different story from what actually took […]
I searched over and over for an Agnes Harper in various records. I could not find her in any United States record before 1900. I tried numerous reasonable spelling variations on the first and last name. Then I located Agnes’ stone on FindAGrave. The stone listed her name as Nancy Agnes Harper–not just Agnes. That was why I could not find her. Always consider the possibility that you have all the names a person used. That could be why you cannot find them.
Look through the list of bills paid out by your relative’s estate. Is there one for a funeral sermon? The name of the minister could be a clue as to what church they attended? Or it could have been the first minister they contacted who agreed to give the sermon.
Due to requests from some readers, we’ve put webinars on these topics on our January calendar. Join us! Due to other work commitments, we will not be offering as many webinars in 2017 as we have in the past. Following topics: Using Unindexed Records at FamilySearch Creating Effective Online Search Strategies Setting Research Goals and Organizing Your Research Process More details are available on our announcement page.
In the United States, there were three registrations for the World War I draft. Each used a slightly different registration card. First Registration. Conducted 5 June 1917. This registration was for men born between 6 June 1886 and 5 June 1896–who were between twenty-one and thirty-one years of age. Second Registration. Conducted 5 June 1918. Men born between 6 June 1896 and 5 June 1897 (those who had turned twenty-one years of age since the previous registration). Men who were supposed to register and had not were also included. On 24 August 1918 there was a supplemental registration for for men had turned twenty-one years of age since 5 June 1918. Third Registration. Conducted 12 Sept 1918 and was for men born between 11 Sept 1872 and 12 Sept 1900. This included men […]
There can be more to a probate record than what is in the packet of papers–if there’s even a packet of papers at all. Many reports and acts of the court were transcribed into various journals and ledgers. Sometimes they contain more details, sometimes they don’t. But sometimes they are extant when the case files are not or are more legible than the originals in the case file. Make certain you have looked at everything.
Photographic images can be a great way to jog the memories of family members. While pictures of family members are a great way to start, pictures of other items can stir memories as well. Pictures of schools, local landmarks, cars, homes, etc. can bring back memories in ways that questions or pictures of relatives sometimes can’t. Ebay is one place to locate such pictures (search for specific places) but there are websites, such as Google Images as well.
As problem-solving approach when you can’t find a family in census, write out what you think their census enumeration would look like and what information they would provide. Then you know for whom to search–and the creation of the likely entry may cause you to notice something you have overlooked.
If you are looking for an entire family in a record where the entire family is specifically named, consider searching for the “easiest” name first. Is there a child with a name that is more difficult to spell than other names? Searching for son John may be easier than daughter Evangeline.
A homestead can mean several things, but two of them are rather specific. Homestead claims were claims to federal property that were filed in the western states under the terms of the Homestead Act of 1862. The claim process (initially to 160 acres) was established by the 1862 Act. A right to homestead is generally speaking a right the surviving spouse has to remain on their “homestead” after the death of their spouse. The surviving spouse for whom this is an issue usually is the widow and the “homestead” may not include the entire farm–depending upon the amount of real estate involved. Homestead in this sense is generally determined by state statute and there may be additional references to homestead in other sections of state code (most often […]
For those who have a kindle, Genealogy Tip of the Day is available there for a small monthly charge. Amazon won’t let us give kindle download at no charge.
Stories told to you by relatives are not always completely true. Stories told to you by relatives are not always completely false. The reality is that the “truth” rests somewhere in between. Take any family story and break it into the parts that might have left a record and those arts that likely did not. Use those parts as clues. But…remember your goal is not to prove the story. Your goal is to try and find the truth-or at least the evidence that was left behind. The stories should be used to find some direction.
I maintain the following free genealogy blogs: Rootdig.com—Michael’s thoughts, research problems, suggestions, and whatever else crosses his desk Genealogy Tip of the Day—one genealogy research tip every day–short and to the point Genealogy Search Tip—websites I’ve discovered and the occasional online research tip–short and to the point Genealogy Transcriber—one piece of handwriting to read and transcribe You can subscribe/unsubscribe to any of these blogs using the links that appear in the upper part of each blog page. Feel free to let others know about our blogs. Thanks for your support!
If you are having difficulty transcribing document, consider: for words–perform a Google search on the words you can transcribe–at least a few before and after to get some context. You may find other transcribed documents with similar phrasing, especially with legal documents. Use this as a clue–not as a fact. search for the names you can partially read in a census or other record created around the same time period to see if you can get “match.” Again use this as a clue–not as a fact.
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