Your email subscription can be managed on this page. Email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com if that does not allow you to fix any issues you have with your subscription.
There are several reasons to contact the locals in the area whre your ancestor lived. Local genealogical or historical societies may have unique collections of material or customized finding aids to local items. They are also likely to be familiar with local families (especially in rural areas) and local research facilities. If there is no historical or genealogical society in your research area, contact the local library. They also are a good resource for specialized research clues in the immediate area.
About every week, I sent a brief email newsletter highlighting recent blog content and with a few extras not posted elsewhere. You can see the latest newsletter here. You can get the newsletter for $5 a year-which covers our email service costs. Thanks!
A quit claim deed is one where the grantor is giving up his interest in a piece of real estate. Technically the grantor is giving up his potential interest and may not have a deed specifically him ownership. These types of deeds are frequently drawn up in inheritances, divorces, and property line disputes. ———————————- Learn more about US land records in my upcoming class.
My personal research has reminded me that one always needs to remember that just because the same atypical name appears in different places does not mean it is they are the same person. There were two men named Christian Trautvetter who were German natives living in Illinois in the 1870s/1880s. They are different men. One is in Kansas in the late 1880s until his death and the one in this image remained in Peoria until he died. If you think you’ve found your guy–track down that “new person” in later records in that area. Thats a good way to reduce the chance you assume that people who are the same are not.
If land records in the United States have always confused you or if you have always wanted to learn more, read more about our upcoming 5-week class on these wonderful records.
Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, records of a birth or a court case may be closed. Remember that sometimes that birth may be listed in the newspaper or there may be a reference to the court action in the newspaper as well. It’s hard to restrict information once it appears in print.
When a digital image of a record appears on a website, do you try and find who created the original record, where that original is housed? There are several reasons for trying to make this discovery, one of which is so that you don’t pay another site or record office for a copy of a record you already have.
Never reach a conclusion from reading part of a record. A relative claimed in his initial homestead application that he was a citizen at the time his entry was filed. Additional documentation in the file indicated that he actually was not naturalized until shortly before his homestead paperwork was completed. Always read the entire item before concluding. And read it again just to be certain.
If researching the life of your ancestor seems like too large of a task, focus on one aspect of his life–perhaps his military career, all of his land records, all of his court records, the last twenty years of his life, etc. Sometimes it’s best to pick a narrow part of your puzzle on which to focus.
Have you searched local court records for your ancestor? More individuals appeared as either defendants or plaintiffs than people think. Court records can contain a wide variety of personal details in testimony and affidavits. Most of these records are kept at the county level in the United States.
US Revolutionary War pensions can contain names of individuals born well after the war, including: names of children of the patriot names of witnesses names of justices of the peace, county clerks, etc. names of descendants who inquired about the patriot, etc. This blog post contains a letter from the great-grandson of the man who supposedly married the veteran and his wife in Virginia shortly after the war.
It was a major revelation on one of my ancestral families when I discovered how the last name was actually pronounced by a native low-German speaker. Variant spellings made much more sense and I was better equipped to see other ways the name could have been rendered in records by someone who did not know how to spell the name. If the last name you are researching is not English, see if you can find someone who knows the language to help you out. Even native English speakers may say their name in a way that you don’t expect and that too can create unexpected spelling variants.
Sometimes it’s not easy coming up with “new” tips every day, so for today we’ll look at a few things I’ve been reminded of in the months since my Mother’s passing: Identify everyone on every picture you have. There are a few Mom and I never went through and now I’ll be hard-pressed to figure out who they are. Ask the minor questions. It’s not genealogically relevant, but now I’ll never know if it was Mom’s Grandma Ufkes or Grandma Habben who had the pink peppermints and gave Mom one every time she came to visit. Write down what you remember about your recently deceased relative. You may be surprised at how much you forget if you wait. Don’t learn this the hard way. Never assume you will […]
A reminder that our October 2015 session of “Organizing Genealogical Information” starts on 7 October–that’s when download links will be sent for the first presentation. More information here.
Recent Comments