The provenance of an item can be thought of as its genealogy–how the item came to be, who created the item, and how it ended up in its current location.
Every week (usually on Sunday), I send a summary of my blog posts during the week to: Genealogy Tip of the Day Genealogy Search Tip Rootdig There are a few additional items in the update that are not posted to the blogs, including: citation of the week picture the week letter of the week This update is separate from the blogs and was created for those who didn’t want to get the blogs daily in their email. The email update is separate from the daily updates that go out. The most recent update can be seen here. There are no advertisements in the update. Subscription is nominal which covers our email service used to send the weekly blog update out.
If you are having difficulty locating “associates” of your ancestor, determine if his probate records include an inventory of any amounts owed to him or her at their demise. Those names were probably people with whom your ancestor associated. They may be relatives. Or maybe not–that would depend upon how much your deceased ancestor trusted his relatives to pay him back.
I am hesitant to abbreviate anything in my genealogical records. Just because I know what I mean by “Twp,” “Rev.” or “Sch.” doesn’t mean that everyone else does. And “Rev.” could always stand for reverend or revolution.
Our Casefile Clues sale (20% off) is still going on through the end of today (there’s still time if you missed it). If you ordered and have not heard from me, please email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com. More information is here.
Not all immigrants to the United States naturalized, especially before the early twentieth century. It is possible your ancestor never bothered to naturalize. If your ancestor had no interest in voting, he may have never seen a need to naturalize as that’s a key element of citizenship. In some locations and in some time periods, aliens (generally non-naturalized immigrants) were not able to own land. State statute would indicate when that changed. During the time period when only citizens could own land, that was for many a key reason to naturalize.
We’ve had unexpected response to our offer, so we are running it again this weekend. From now through 11:59 p.m. 3 August 2015, a subscription to 52 issues of Casefile Clues is only $17. Your subscription can be processed here. Easy to understand, well-written, and genealogically sound, see records discussed and “next steps” planned out. We have updated our list of back issue topics here.
Have you tried to locate voter’s registration lists for your ancestor? Typically kept at the local level (usually the county) they can provide detailed information on your ancestor. Some may provide citizenship details, residential information, and age. At the very least they would imply that the relative was eligible to vote.
Ebay isn’t just about photographs that are more than 100 years old. This 1963 photograph of Gloria Fecht was purchased through an auction on Ebay. Are you only looking for things that are really old? You might be surprised at what’s on Ebay.
Our sponsor, GenealogyBank has a special July offer for Genealogy Tip of the Day readers, fans, followers, etc. Give it a look! And a big Thanks! to GenealogyBank for sponsoring Genealogy TIp of the Day.
We are posting manually some of the old tips that didn’t migrate correctly to the new server. For a few days you will get quite a few tips instead just one. Hopefully this will be done within a week. Thanks for your support of Genealogy Tip of the Day and thanks to a reader for letting us know which tips were missing.
Did you know that the 1870 US census asked: father/mother of foreign birth month of birth for census year births month of marriage for census year marriages literacy male citizens over 21 male citizens over 21 who can’t vote Genealogy Tip of the Day book is here. Learn more about it.
An online tree indicates that an aunt of mine was married in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1869. The only source that tree has for this date are two other online trees. There is no additional information to indicate how the information was obtained–no minister or justice of the peace name, no church, address, etc. A search of extant Hamilton County marriage records did not locate the marriage. The only way I know that my aunt married is because her husband’s name is listed when she inherits from her brother’s estate a few years later. That estate record is my evidence for the marriage and I’m using the date they are mentioned in the court record as a “married by” date.
With any “new” database (such as the recently released “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″), the temptation can be to search as quickly as possible for as many individuals as one can. That makes it easy to overlook people, search inefficiently, and search the same way for the same people repeatedly. Make a list of the people for whom you wish to search. Think about the life details on those people that you need to search. If you try a variety of ways to search for the same person, keep track of the ways you search so that you don’t search the same way repeatedly and so that you can troubleshoot effectively. And make certain you “clear all” when you start searching on a new person.
How long has it been since you last read an actual book? Not a short blog post on a topic, not a “bunch” of Facebook comments to a post, but an actual book? That book could be genealogy how-to book, a historical reference, or something similar. But getting off the temptation of the internet and actually reading something and studying it may cause you to come back refreshed with new ideas for your research. That time spent reading a how-to book or reference isn’t time wasted.
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