Sometimes genealogists are tempted to “fix” documents when transcribing them. Don’t. Make comments about the accuracy of the document in your notes accompanying the transcription. Do not indicate the document says something that it does not. Documents can be wrong. But sometimes they are right when we think they are wrong and if we “correct” them, we won’t know what they originally said. This draft card should be transcribed as a birth in Hancock, [State of] Tioga. My notation indicates that the reference is to Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.
Guardianship records in some cases may give a precise date of birth, usually stated as the day the child turned a certain age. Not all guardianships give such precise information, but many do at least give an age or an approximate age. These records can be helpful in location where there are not good vital records.
The 1895 will of Tamme Tammen in Pike County, Illinois, refers to his wife as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen.” Franklen (actually most likely Franken given where the Tammens were from) could have been Elka’s maiden name, middle name, or married name with a previous husband. I should include in my notes on Elka that she is referred to as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen” in her husband’s 1895 will. I should not enter that as her maiden name. Using it for a clue to other relatives when searching is advised. But there’s not really good evidence in this will that it’s her maiden name. There are other possibilities.
United States military pensions may mention information contained in a family Bible as evidence in a pension claim. Often family register entries are used to document births or marriages. In some Revolutionary War pensions, the actual pages from the Bible may have been submitted. The illustration in this post is from 1915 and is typical of Union Civil War pensions where affidavits about the Bible’s content were used instead of having veterans submit the actual Bible pages. This affidavit was analyzed in issue 3-50 of Casefile Clues.
Familiarity with records is crucial to genealogical research. One can’t just take what they’ve found online and leave it at that. Researchers should always be asking if there is “more” to the record than what they have found or if the record they have found means that other separate records may have been created. This is the General Index Card to compiled military service records for Leander Butler who served in Companies I and B of the 10th Kansas Infantry in the Civil War. I’ve already got a copy of his pension (that’s a separate record), but his compiled military service record (which this card is just a part of an index to) may tell me more about his military career and may provide clues about his enlistment. And […]
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My uncle was married to his wife for ten days when he died of the flu in 1918. His widow never remarried and lived the rest of her life with her parents. In at least one federal census, she was enumerated with her maiden name. The listing is probably an error as later record use her married name. Everyone else in the household had the same name, except my aunt. It is very possible that the census taker simply got confused. Do you have a female relative who is inadvertently listed under their maiden name in a record created after their marriage?
Recently I was reviewing information in a pension application. There were two records in the application that felt like they were extra and not really needed. I read them over and kept trying to “figure them out” as if there was some arbitrary deadline for me to figure it out. There was not a deadline. I put the file away and worked on something totally unrelated. When I went back to the file a few days later, the reason became clear. Sometimes one simply needs to put it away and come back to it later.
To reduce confusion, we are posting a summary of my blogs and newsletters. The blogs are published on the following websites. Any of these blogs can be received daily in your email for free by subscribing using the links on the individual blogs. Genealogy Tip of the Day—http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com–every day Search Tip of the Day–http://searchtip.genealogytipoftheday.com–most days Rootdig—http://rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com–most days Daily Genealogy Transcriber—http://transcriber.genealogytipoftheday.com–usually daily Casefile Clues Update Blog—http://casefileclues.genealogytipoftheday.com–whenever it warrants My two fee-based newsletters (because we have to pay the bills): Michael’s Genealogy Blog Update–published weekly and delivered as an email–see a copy on our hosting service. This is a fee-based newsletter ($5 a year), and includes a summary of new blog postings along with some premium content. Take a look. Casefile Clues–a how-to newsletter delivered as a PDF file. This newsletter […]
Civil War service and other contemporary military records may not document your ancestor’s injuries as completely as you would like. After all, war time is focused on war. The military pension file may contain more documentation of your ancestor’s battle injuries. This 1905 medical report indicates where the veteran’s battle scars were. Military pension files for Union veterans of the Civil War are housed at the National Archives.
If you are having difficulty jumpstarting your relative’s memory, try using the names of neighbors from a census or city directory. The 1940 census is recent enough that names of neighbors may be familiar to someone even if they were not alive in 1940. Memories about a neighbor may help fill in a few blanks or it may even cause your relative to remember more about their relative.
A reader on our Facebook page had an excellent idea for helping to jog the memories of older family members. She made a scrapbook of old pictures with room for the person to write down what they remembered about the people in the picture, the location, etc. Generally the pictures were used as memory prompts. The relative could then write in the book at their leisure as things came to mind. Sometimes an interview simply isn’t long enough or memories come flooding back after it’s over.
Google won’t read sloppy cursive script (at least not yet), but searching for other key words near the mystery word can assist in transcribing that word. Use Google to give you suggestions, but don’t forget to use your common sense and contextual clues.
Every event in your ancestor’s life takes place in context. If your ancestor does something on a specific date, there may be other people doing that same thing on that same date: other couples marrying on the same date as your ancestor may be relatives or close friends other individuals naturalizing on the same day as your ancestor may be relatives, friends, or associates men who deserted the army on the same date as your ancestor may have had a connection to him people who died on the same date as your ancestor may have had the same contagious illness and so on. The commonality of the date may mean nothing. It may also be significant. Just don’t ignore it. Looking for “same day people” is an excellent way to […]
Statements and affidavits are not in a military pension for arbitrary reasons. Typically the veteran may have to show or document: his service his injury received or illness contracted during the war how he qualifies for a pension under a specific act need that he was the same guy who enlisted Widows need to provide additional documentation. There may be papers that appear extraneous, but there usually was a reason. A big thanks to GenealogyBank for being our sponsor! Please check out their August offer for Tip of the Day readers, fans, and followers.
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